I worked with trainee teachers and tutors from six European countries this week, as part of an Erasmus Intensive Programme on intercultural awareness. We used Glogster and Comic Life to explore ways in which they might communicate their ideas and reflections digitally as alternative to a sketchbook approach. I am looking forward to seeing the results ...

The bizarrely-named Ookaboo website is a project aiming to gather together images of 'everything on earth'! All pictures on Ookaboo are in the public domain or are under Creative Commons, which means that they can be used freely, without copyright worries. Given its extensive nature, the site isn't entirely e-safe for children's unsupervised use, but it is an excellent, growing resource for teachers.

This week B.Ed Primary Yr 2 students made resources for use with interactive whiteboards, bearing in mind the key quote from Higgins, Wall & Smith's research - 'The visual helps me understand the complicated things'. Some examples in Smart Notebook 10 format (unless otherwise indicated) below - made as visual resources to support teacher explanation and questioning. The task was time-limited and all the resources below were produced in less than 1.5 hours.

An interactive resource for ordering numbers up to 1000 in key stage two.

This uses features built into Smart Notebook to make a structured resource for teaching protractor use in key stage two.

This uses the familiar Barnaby Bear character and a letter writing context to practice use of some high frequency words in key stage one.

A resource to help in sorting fiction and non-fiction texts in key stage one.

Using clip art from the Notebook Gallery, this resource supports the teaching of circuit symbols and the features of series circuits in key stage two.

A resource to help in teaching the concept of old and new in key stage one history.

A Notebook file which uses audio to teach about musical instruments in key stage two.

A PowerPoint file to help in teaching estimation in key stage one.

A stand-alone application (made with Opus Creator) for teaching about 2D and 3D shapes in key stage two.

New stop motion animations are now available @ www.youtube.com/user/tonypickford. Created by Yr 2 B.Ed students, I have added some sound effects and music using iMovie. Visit Oscar Stringer's Animation for Education website for examples and practical advice on creating animations with children. The Film Education website is also a useful starting point, giving an overview of different types and approaches to animation. There is also a useful video on Teacher's TV which shows a stop motion animation project with key stage 2 children.

Yr 2 B.Eds worked on images today - making images that showed progression in tools and techniques, followed by image manipulation and making inspired by the work of Andy Warhol. A web gallery was used to make the point that on-screen images can be seen as finished products, obviating the need to print out. Images were manipulated using PhotoFiltre (a free download) and the Picnik website.