2008 January « Moovl – just add imagination

Lego 50th Anniversary

January 31, 2008 at 9:21 pm | In Art, Events, Fun | Leave a Comment

You may not have realised that the Lego brick is 50 years old this year (Google themselves changed their logo for a day). Around here we think the only thing cooler than Lego is Moovl, so here is the Moovl logo rendered in the beautiful little bricks.

Curriculart

January 18, 2008 at 9:59 am | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

The folks behind the Curriculart website, which I’ve blogged before, have been in touch to say the site is fully up and running now, including four free projects to test out the service.

Physics Simulator

January 17, 2008 at 8:31 am | In Uncategorized | 1 Comment

My friends at Best Science Lesson Ever have pointed me in the direction of this amazing physics simulator, from MIT. The science animations illustrated here are of more interest to Secondary schools, whereas Moovl takes a simpler approach more appropriate for Primary schools, but many of the underlying principles (the ability to quickly draw objects, assign physical properties and then make them interact) are the same.

The program is called “Assist Sketch Understanding System and Operation”. Unfortunately, according to the notes, you can’t buy or download the software. The demo, however is enticing!

BETT Show, Olympia

January 8, 2008 at 8:06 am | In Events | Leave a Comment

The annual BETT Show is taking place in London Olympia this week – “the world’s largest educational technology event”. The show is now a massive event, with 700 exhibitors and nearly 30,000 visitors. There are also 100 seminars, with titles like:

Captivate students and enhance learning with a learning platform

Personalising learning – what’s in it for me?

ICT and the Primary Framework for literacy

Moovl will be available for demo on the Heinemann stand (B40). In addition here are a few other ‘picks’ that are worth a visit, some of them friends to Moovl:

Futurelab, Stand J6 – “Futurelab is a not-for-profit organisation, passionate about transforming the way people learn. Tapping into the huge potential offered by digital and other technologies, it is developing innovative learning resources and practices that support new approaches to education for the 21st century.” Futurelab helped in the early stages of Moovl development.

Training Zone, supported by Schoolzone - The Training Zone features practitioner-led workshops and a self-help area where you can gain access to online training.

Ode, Little Bits of Learning, Stand N30 – Ode is a BETT first-timer with high ambitions. “Ode is a next generation digital content store for educators. In odeworld you will be able to buy or rent ‘little bits of learning’ from across the curriculum. The ode platform provides a flexible, personalised teaching space that you can use to buy, organise and display elearning objects.”