Prodigy launches the Be the World Champ Competition

Does your school have any students that are really strong users of Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel? If so, then you should make a point of getting them entered into the “Be the World Champ” competition being run by Prodigy, our Ireland IT Academy Partner.

The Grand Prize is a trip to Hawaii.

Last year’s competition representing Ireland were Rachel Gaul from St Paul’s Secondary School, in Dublin and Kevin O’Brien from Colaiste Choilm, in Tullamore. Both Students did brilliantly and came in the Top ten in their specialist fields of Word and Excel out of the 33,000 entrants worldwide.

So don’t put it off. Get your students to register and let’s see how schools in Northern Ireland can do.

IT Academy Information Sessions

Microsoft Ireland IT Academy Partner Prodigy will be running a series of “Information Sessions” about the IT Academy Programme and its benefits. Make sure your school gets the opportunity to book their spot.

You’ll have the opportunity to find out how IT Academy courses can benefit Teachers and Students alike. They will also cover the IC3 (Digital Literacy) piece and IT Pro Academy offering.

The schedule is:

·         Dublin – 7^th of February

·         Derry /Londonderry – 19^th of February- site to be confirmed)

·         Belfast – 20^th of February (here at the School Technology Innovation Centre)

·         Athlone – 21^st of February

·         Kilkenny – 26^th of February

·         Cork – 5^th March

·         Limerick – 6^th of March

·         Galway – 7^th of March

For times and venues contact:

Gareth Scahill (gareth.scahill@prodigy.ie) or Kevin Ryan (kevin.ryan@prodigy.ie)

Or call: 00353 1 236 0424

I hope I see you in either Derry/Londonderry or Belfast

Blake Handler’s site

If you ever wanted to have just one site to know the latest offerings from Microsoft and how to get free copies, just bookmark Blake Handler’s “Road To Know Where” website. You’ll never have to search again because Blake has done all of the hard work for you.

He also has a load of links to take you to demos, tools, training and much more.

So you need to bookmark and/or get his RSS feed. You’ll be glad you did.

Thanks Blake for a great resource!

Catching up

A belated Happy New Year. I’ve been very lax in updating the site and I apologise for that. I intend to rectify that. It’s been a very busy time since the beginning of the New Year and I’ll want to bring you up to speed with what’s been happening. I will be posting about the individual projects in the coming days and weeks but I wanted to give an overview of the things I’m currently working on.

·         Cross Border OneNote Curriculum Sharing Project with Wallace High School in Northern Ireland and Dunshaughlin Community College in Co. Meath, Ireland with Intel

·         Launch of the Northern Ireland Innovative Teachers Network (ITN) portal in early February (site not yet live)

·         Whiteboard training for NI Student Teachers in partnership with the University of Ulster and Glengormley HS

·         School of the Future (SoF), ITN and Leadership initiatives with the Regional Training Unit of Northern Ireland

·         Office Communication Server pilot project in partnership with HP for Classroom 2000 (C2k)

·         Lots of IT Academy activity with our Ireland partner Prodigy

·         Much more to come around the Schools Technology Innovation Centre (STIC) and the European Education Research and Innovation Centre (EERIC)(site coming soon)

So bookmark me and set up your RSS feeds to keep abreast. Talk to you soon.

Tom