ictopus

It's here and I think it is pronounced ict o pus not ICT Octopuss as I have gone round saying for the last 5 weeks. I am very excited about thsi publication as it is simple, readable and above all very useful. Ictopus is made up of members of MAPE, a well established voluntary group of advisory types who seem to have a lot of very creative, but achievable ideas for and projects about ICT across the primary curriculum.

By subscribing to Ictopus, you will receive the weekly newsletter, which is actually intended to be printed off and displayed, not just linked to or blogged about. The magazine editor and website supremo, Heather Govier explains:

As you may have gathered, ictopus is aiming particularly at the more hesitant teachers who have not yet fully embraced the potential of ICT in their teaching and may still need a little hand holding. That is why SGP (Sharing Good Practice) is a printable pdf rather than something more whizzy. I am hoping it will get printed off and put on staffroom coffee tables. We do hope to include some stuff for the leading edge too in due course but we feel that they already have lots of alternative resources -such as your blog;-) so they are not our priority.

At a time when many of us are blogging ourselves silly and desperate to discover the new online tool that will 'work' in the classroom, it is great that this resource is out there for those who still feel daunted by ICT!! ( and there are many)

Not only do you receive the weekly Good Practice magazine, you also get mailed Direct2u lessons, which is a resurrection of the old ICT across the primary curriculum lessons that many of us used to receive from BECTA. These come as complete ICT across the curriculum lessons for the primary age range, these are both accessible and contain relevant web links.

Slight confession here, I have already started printing these off and now store them in a folder, complete with an Octopuss on the spine