MK Teachers’ ICT Software Blog

Children enjoy controlling the bee as it moves about a simple garden or honeycomb to feed embryo bees. The moves include choices from left, right, forwards and backwards and the children need to estimate how far they have to sent the bee. Three different levels of difficulty can be set according to the childrens ability. This can be linked with using beebot or a roamer to move to targets on a grid. Suitable for Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. 

On screen turtle. As with all the 2simple software it really is simple to use. Great for directional language, commands to make things happen. Links with QCA ICT Units 1F and 2D. Very easy to use - children love it and it gets them talking about what they are doing and where they want the turtle to go. Hugely popular. Comes highly recomended!

Incredibly useful! Ideal for infant schools as it combines everything you need for children to practise their skills from a basic graphics package to data handling to a publishing package etc. etc. on a variety of levels, so it can be used to differentiate or used for different age ranges across the school. I have found it to be very good value for money.

Audacity is an easy to use, free download and very accessible for Key Stage 2.  Here are its key features -

Recording

Audacity can record live audio through a microphone or mixer, or digitize recordings from cassette tapes, vinyl records, or minidiscs. With some sound cards, it can also capture streaming audio.

• Record from microphone, line input, or other sources.
• Dub over existing tracks to create multi-track recordings.
• Record up to 16 channels at once (requires multi-channel hardware).
• Level meters can monitor volume levels before, during, and after recording.

Import and Export

Import sound files, edit them, and combine them with other files or new recordings. Export your recordings in several common file formats.

• Import and export WAV, AIFF and  AU files
• Import MPEG audio (including MP2 and MP3 files) with libmad.
• Export MP3s.
• Create WAV or AIFF files suitable for burning to CD.
• Open raw (headerless) audio files using the “Import Raw” command.
• Note: Audacity does not currently support WMA, AAC, or most other proprietary or restricted file formats.

Editing

• Easy editing with Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete.
• Use unlimited Undo (and Redo) to go back any number of steps.
• Very fast editing of large files.
• Edit and mix an unlimited number of tracks.
• Use the Drawing tool to alter individual sample points.
• Fade the volume up or down smoothly with the Envelope tool.

Effects

• Change the pitch without altering the tempo, or vice-versa.
• Remove static, hiss, hum, or other constant background noises.
• Alter frequencies with Equalization, FFT Filter, and Bass Boost effects.
• Adjust volumes with Compressor, Amplify, and Normalize effects.
• Other built-in effects include:
  • Echo
  • Phaser
  • Wahwah
  • Reverse

‘Flowol2′ is a program which will work on PC (Windows 95,98, ME and NT, 2000, XP), Apple Mac and provides computer control for students at all levels. Mimics are controlled by selecting flowchart symbols from a toolbar and placing them on the main screen, a ‘prompt box’ appears, which only allows appropriate instructions to be chosen for that symbol.

A variety of mimics provide a progression of challenges for each pupil. Beginners can control one light and explore the use of sensors while more experienced users can introduce sub-routines and variables.

The solutions can be ‘modelled’ by testing them in a simulation mode on the ‘mimics’. These pictures are animated to show the effect of the outputs, and you can ‘click’ on sensitive areas on the mimic to trigger the inputs. A wide selection of mimics are available.

Real models can be controlled when a suitable interface is connected.
This software is easy for non-specialist teachers to use and provides good coverage of the control elements of the National Curriculum