Enhance your learning environment with software that is appropriate and has been recommended by other New Zealand teachers. Browse through the brand new, very friendly Software for Learning collection, and check out all the new software and related resources there now. Software includes social software, freeware and non-freeware.

Find a rich and diverse range of courses, programmes and activities, from early childhood through to tertiary, offered by New Zealand-based educators. The VLN brokers connections between teachers and learners; joining clusters, schools, groups and individuals who are learning through online programmes and/or using video conferencing for curriculum support. It is freely available for all New Zealand schools.

Highlight this new initiative in your next school newsletter – the Helping at Home website aims to assist parents of upper primary and lower secondary students to help with their children's maths homework, using fun and engaging digital curriculum content. Available free for all parents of students in Australia and New Zealand, this pilot asks parents to give feedback about content usefulness and relevance.

CoreED has created this free database of short video interviews with leading New Zealand and international educators and thinkers. This growing collection of videos provides an innovative and effective professional learning environment for New Zealand teachers.

The New Zealand general election will be held on Saturday 8th November 2008. This Hot Topic is a collection of resources and information about the elections. It also takes a look at the change from First Past the Post (FPP) to Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting.

This annual study analyses the trends and themes of blogging, surveying bloggers directly about the role of blogging in their lives, the tools, time, and resources used to produce their blogs, and how blogging has impacted them personally, professionally, and financially.

Read this section of the new Digital Technology Guidelines to find some examples of how digital technologies can support the key competencies.

The purpose of this position paper for discussion is to suggest a way forward for Computing in secondary schools. Written by three practising teachers, it will be used to inform a digital technologies expert panel who will provide independent advice to the Ministry of Education. Issues around the topics of content and curriculum, assessments and computer teachers are highlighted and recommendations made.

Spend some time looking through the new Digital Technology Guidelines (DTG) website. The DTG focus on years 11–13 and provide a flexible planning environment for teachers to design appropriate and coherent courses in the field of digital technology. This collaborative website has been created to help schools with the process of implementing the DTG – this is the initial stage and it is designed to grow as the project develops.

Download and read this critical report for use in New Zealand Secondary School Computing Education by the NZ Computer Society (PDF 1.17mb)

Developed by the United States Department of Education, this guide provides examples, resources and practical suggestions to help teachers use the Internet to ’reach out‘ globally.

Looking at the impact that ICT in schools has on learning and learners, and teachers and teaching, EUN draws on the evidence from 17 recent impact studies across Europe, and identifies barriers and makes suggestions to policy-makers, educators and researchers.

Read this discussion about using software and digital media for learning in primary and secondary classrooms. The blog is the creation of Sarah Jones from the New Zealand’s Ministry of Education’s e-learning team – she is interested in how young people use technology and how this use can be applied in the classroom.

Check out the new additions to the Software for Learning collection. On the search page, choose ‘social’ on the ‘Type of software’ field to find the 19 newly listed, free social software sites and their descriptions.

Keep an eye on the New Zealand ICT pulse – read this Ministry of Education report outlining the proposals for the development of a framework for the resourcing of ICT across the schooling sector.

Shed some light on social, collaborative tagging practices and read about terms such as tags, tag cloud, and folksonomies. This report (PDF 1.95MB) also offers concrete examples on the educational use of social tagging and bookmarking.

Discover why screencasts are useful, how to create them, and find software tools that can help.

Teach your students effective search techniques by using Boolean terms (and, or, and not). This website makes it easier for students to understand their web search by illustrating the logic of their search. Although it has a safe-search filter, teachers are still advised to supervise student use.

Learn how New Zealand teacher, Lenva Shearing, enhances her blogs with audio, video and other media. An excellent resource written for teachers.

Search for resources or add your own – the UK Times Educational Supplement has created a shared area for teachers to upload and download resources. Free registration is required.

Browse through the resources on this website created by a group of UK teachers that highlights the creative use of information technology in the educational setting.

All Y7–10 Otago students are invited to contribute to the 1909 blog to commemorate the Dunedin Heritage Festival. Good quality submissions, accepted from now on, written in the style of the era, will be hosted on the Blog Otago site and displayed in the Skeggs Gallery, Dunedin during the Heritage Festival in March 2009. monika@megabright.co.nz

Focusing on digital technology teaching and learning and exploring other opportunities in this ever-evolving area, this symposium will be held in Auckland 20─21 November. It offers an outstanding opportunity for secondary teachers to learn and network with representatives from schools, the digital technologies industries, and tertiary institutions.

To support their belief that location based applications (LBS) on mobile phones and converged devices will be commonplace in 4─5 years time, Geosmart has created a challenge to develop a location-based application concept (not build it!). Open to all New Zealanders, there will be 4 Category Prizes (including a student category) and a huge array of great prizes. Entries must be in by 16 February 2009.

Digital Conversations is a free videoconference program, which enables teachers and students to meet and speak with local and international experts across the curriculum. To join the mailing list, receive email notification of upcoming videoconferences, and make suggestions for conversations between your students and a particular expert, contact digitalconversations@cwa.co.nz

Teacher Talk enables teachers and educators to ask questions, share knowledge, and offer insights on a range of subjects on a public forum. Please feel free to begin a new topic, or contribute to an existing conversation thread. You can locate Teacher Talk from the Interact page of TKI. Check out the current ICT forum discussions.