Category: School Resource

A very interesting New York Times article regarding the melting of the Arctic sea ice and the unexpected melting that occurred in 2007 compared to previous years. This is an excellent resource to use for school and enables students to learn more about our world and our impact on it.

This month Google have updated the satellite images for Ireland in Google Earth and now more of Ireland then ever is available in high resolution.

Visit Google Earth and download the latest version and don’t forget that the latest version of our software now include Google Earth link for each topic, great for exploring.

Interesting news piece on ITV News today regarding the rapidly changing world, which can now be tracked and viewed easily by anyone using Google Earth.

Mick Ashworth of Times Comprehensive Atlas Of The World said: “We can literally see environmental disasters unfolding before our eyes. We have a real fear that in the near future famous geographical features will disappear forever.

Interesting links:
http://earth.google.com/
http://www.esa.int/esaKIDSen/SEMP8FUXJUE_Earth_0.html

Today we have updated our free online puzzle game of Ireland called Counties of Ireland: Jigsaw Puzzle, which can be played online. The update is much quicker to download and play online and also includes a timer so users can try and better their own score.

You can also play our free online Counties of Ireland: Mini Quiz a great way to test your knowledge of Irish counties. Each county is asked and you must select the correct answer, keep track of your score and watch the clock.

Know Your Ireland is our extremely popular software title which incorporates both of these games and much more, try the 15 day free trial today.

Today Google have launched their Google for Educators website. This is a great new resource for teachers and schools and gives easy access to Google’s software and on-line content and some great lesson plans too. Their lesson plans are well laid out and easy to follow, great for all age groups. I especially like their new Book Search tool and its great for searching books which are no longer under copyright like all of Shakespeare’s volumes.

Here at EdWare we have been busy putting the finishing touches to Know Your World, which is now available. Know Your World is our latest title in our very popular and successful geography series for education. We have added some fantastic new features including Google Earth places (KML) for a 3D view of each feature and direct links to Answers.com for further information on each feature. Go to our website www.edware.ie for further information and pricing.

This blog was published in 2006 and the service Hosting365 is no longer available.

Setting up a school website is now inexpensive and quick to setup, and it’s now even cheaper since Hosting365 offer a free blog host option. A blog is the easiest method of setting up a website that all members of staff can update easily and post photos and events. Updating the site is as easy as writing an email.

So what’s the procedure, first go to Hosting365 and sign up for a free blog hosting, once that is done you’ll receive a username and password in your email from Hosting365.

You must now decide if you want a domain name and what you want this to be. A domain name is the name of your website, so if you school is St. Marys BNS you might want stmarysbns.com, or something similar or a .ie address. If you want a domain which will also come with a email address you need to got to purchase one. .com, .net are about €11 and .ie is more expensive and cost €70.

Once your domain is purchased log into your Hosting365 control panel and add the domain to your package. Support staff of Hosting365 will help you with this if you are experiencing difficulties, you must also install the Blog script and set that up. Hosting365 have guideline for this and will be happy to help.

Once all that is done you will have a WordPress blogging website, which can be easily updated.

The Irish Times reports today that the percentage of children in Ireland who frequently use computers at school is the second-lowest of all industrialised states, according to a new report. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that in 2003 — the last year for which data is available — only 24 percent of 15-year-olds in Ireland frequently used computers at school.

This is a worrying report for the Irish educational system and the hope for Ireland to move to a knowledge economy. The lack of technology funding to schools by the government is largely to blame. It’s been three years since money was made available to schools to purchase equipment. The recent broadband for schools investment was very welcome but many school computers are now over four years old so their use on broadband is limited. I hope that there will be a large injection of cash into technology for schools and most importantly training for teachers so they can get the most from technology.

Fáilte,

This week is of course Seachtain na Gaeilge (Irish Week) here in Ireland. I’ve noticed a lack of media coverage of Seachtain na Gaeilge this year, but now that the 2006 Oscars are over maybe it’ll kick-in.

As current users already know our two flagship products which are developed here in Ireland include both English and Irish versions, Know Your Ireland & Know Your Europe. This week is a very good oppertunity for schools who normally only use the English version to introduce the Irish version to their students. The Irish versions are installed as default and can be accessed via the start menu, Irish worksheets are also included.

I also want to inform Irish schools that there is an Irish version of Windows XP and Microsoft Office available from Microsoft Ireland.
Slán go fóill.