As a companion to the list of online games for early years here, below is a selection of online games for older primary children. This is not an exhaustive list, but an indication of what is available.  Note that many of these games use Adobe Flash, a technology that is being rapidly phased out, so they may not work in all browsers.

These videos show the results of a task, undertaken by PGCE Primary associate teachers, to create a 'dance' performed by a pair of Bee-bots. The aim was to familiarise the group with Bee-bots and their simple controls as well as cover key programming ideas, such as debugging. Enjoy!

Note that the music for the first is a free download from freeplaymusic.com to avoid infringing copyright on YouTube. The videos below use MIDI files for the same reason.

This Prezi on online audience response systems and participatory online tools was my contribution to a staff conference on techology enhanced learning on Friday 30th May. Not intended as an exhaustive list, the presentation highlighted some tools that have worked well for me in various contexts.

The tools featured were:

• Poll Everywhere - online feedback and voting via text messaging and other options;
  
• GoSoapbox - quizzes, polls, discussion plus a confusion barometer for large classes.
  

Other featured tools giving scope for online collaboration included:

• Primary Wall - a Flash-based online corkboard for sticky notes.
• Padlet - a more sophisticated online noticeboard allowing the user to add URLs, files and images to notes. This Padlet wall shows that it can be used for quite extended notes and reflections by a number of users. Lino also has similar functions.
  
• Popplet - a graphical organiser for online notes using a mind map format to link ideas; as with Padlet, URLs and images can be included in the notes or 'Popples' (also available as an iPad app).
• Google Docs - online documents that can be edited collaboratively and simultaneously (now available as an iPad app).

Honourable mentions also for Nearpod (discussed by other conference contributors), Mural.ly (a web platform allowing users to collect content and display it in a bulletin board-like space) and MindMeister (online and iPad collaborative mind mapping).

The next Primary TeachMeet organised by the #teachmeetchester team will be on Thursday 13th March 2014 5.00 - 6.30pm at the University of Chester Warrington Campus, Crab Lane WA2 0DB.  The venue is near Junction 21 of the M6 and easily accessible from all parts of the north west.

Further information and a sign-up form is available here: http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/w/page/70319015/TMWarrington

Download and print out the poster for your staff room notice board here: https://www.box.com/s/tbmawurego6re5ubcm7b

It's been a busy few weeks, so this is my first opportunity to jot down a few thoughts on #TeachMeetEP on 26th September at the University Church of England Academy (UCEA) in Ellesmere Port - many thanks to UCAT and the staff at UCEA who welcomed us and supported the event. Firstly, the lessons learned:

• Like #teachmeetchester, several people who signed up for the event were not able to attend. The 4.30pm start was undoubtedly too early for some people who were intending to travel to Ellesmere Port from Chester or North Wirral. A 5.00pm start may have been better and we will look at that as a possibility for our next TM (read on for details of that). Twilight sessions are always going to be subject to the unpredictabilities of the end of the school day and an obvious solution would be to move to an evening slot or, maybe, Saturday morning? Or is that pushing expectations of professional commitment? I never cease to be amazed at the willingness of teachers to give their time and energy to unpaid professional development in their own time, but giving up an evening or precious time at the weekend maybe a 'bridge too far'? Only one way to find out, I suppose ....
• Second lesson learned was admin-related, I suppose, and a bit trivial, but ended up being quite important, I think. The #TeachMeetEP sign-up form collected necessary information on presentations, names and organisations. For contact details, it asked only for a Twitter handle, if available. The assumption was that most who signed up would be on Twitter - mistake! In the end, only about a quarter of those who signed up gave Twitter contact, so it was not possible to contact them directly again (to give reminders or joining info). In future, the sign-up form will also ask for a contact email address.
• Third lesson was also about making contact. #TeachMeetEP was aimed primarily at staff in local Ellesmere Port schools (with others very welcome, of course). Staff from three local schools came along, but despite many Tweets and several direct emails, we had no response from other schools. Email does not seem to be a very effective way of spreading the word about an event like this. Why do emails to some schools appear to disappear down a black hole? Not sure about a way forward for this one, though anecdotal evidence suggests that some schools and teachers have the impression that everyone attending a TM has to present. Maybe the whole concept of TM attendance - present if you want, 'lurk' if you want - has to be spread more widely?
• Final lesson learned was technical and just a bit frustrating! At #teachmeetchester, the Gosoapbox website was used to collect questions, ideas and comments during and after the event. Despite a few glitches in subsequent attempts to use the site, we once more asked a people to share their views in this way for #TeachMeetEP. Result - Nothing! Either the site completely failed to work or nobody commented. I can't believe the latter is true, so the former seems the likeliest scenario. We won't be using Gosoapbox again!

On to the positives! There were six very different and thought-provoking presentations at #TeachMeetEP which fitted just about perfectly into the 1.5 hour time slot. My highlights were Si Poole's XBox presentation on the the big screen in UCEA's theatre, Dean Paton's engaging and entertaining tour of place names and Martin Little's fresh angle on fractions - apologies for not mentioning everyone; your contributions were much appreciated, but these three are the ones which spring straight to mind a month after the event. Resources and images from the evening are on http://chesterictproject.weebly.com/teachmeet.html as well as three extra presentations from contributors who could not attend in person. And Finally - the next #teachmeetchester TeachMeet will be  at the University of Chester campus in Warrington on 13th March 2014 - details here ....

I have just created a new page on this site devoted to programming in primary schools. It includes links to general resources, software, online tools and apps. Hopefully, it will be a useful source of ideas and information in preparation for the Computing curriculum in 2014. Please let me know if there are obvious resources I have missed!

Can't say the NSA/PRISM security services surveillance controversy has got me very hot under the collar. Maybe its just that I struggle to get excited about Big Brother-esque snooping, when privacy is something of a redundant concept these days  - CCTV is everywhere in the UK, even in Welsh forests!

Though phone tapping is another issue, I have always taken it for granted that electronic communication is a public forum. Though I must admit I have broken my own rule a few times in the heat of the moment,  I would never send an email or put a post on Twitter or Facebook that I wouldn't be happy for the whole world to see (including MI5 and Mr Gove). Which is why I am taken aback by those who very obviously perceive that these are private means of communication - they are not! 

Only the other day, I had a very reputable company requesting that I send financial details via email (I didn't).  Last night's BBC Question Time audience (made up entirely of 16 and 17 year old 'digital natives') were getting very exercised by the idea that the security services might take a look at their Facebook accounts! If they genuinely think that social media is a secure means of communication, then our e-safety education is seriously flawed. And maybe it is? Perhaps the emphasis on caution, secure passwords and restrained profiles gives the impression that social media and digital communication can be private and safe if we do the right things. Yes, being e-safe is important in terms of avoiding contact by undesirables or those outside your social circle, but it doesn't mean that posts and images are private. Whether it be for the greater good or not, the state has the potential to see everything posted online, so we need to get over it ...

Some news for teachers in the Cheshire/Wirral area and beyond: the next Primary TeachMeet, organised by the #teachmeetchester team, will be on Thursday 26th September at the University Church of England Academy (UCEA) in Ellesmere Port. TeachMeetEP is aimed at primary teachers (though all teachers and trainees are very welcome), but we have the opportunity to use the state-of-the-art facilities at UCEA - also, a great chance to look around this innovative new building!

If you are new to the TeachMeet idea, then this short video explains what they are all about. We already have some really interesting presentations set up, but are on the look out for more. Although TeachMeets are usually about technology for learning, you don't have to show and tell about ICT - come along and share any good idea for enhancing learning in primary schools!

TeachMeetEP will run from 4.30 - 6.00pm (with registration and refreshments available from 4.00pm) and there is plenty of free parking.

You can sign up and find more information here: http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/w/page/66917919/TeachMeetEP

Please email info@ucat.chester.ac.uk if you have any questions or comments. For news and views about TeachMeet Ellesmere Port, follow @TeachMeetEP on Twitter.

Bil Gates recalls his last conversations with Steve Jobs - follow the links here from Macworld.