The Naace Annual Strategic Conference and Exhibition opened in Torquay in early March 2008. This is the definitive ICT Conference in the UK for all those involved in advancing education through the use of modern technologies in learning and teaching.

Naace has introduced a 'hot-seat' where invited colleagues field questions over a four week period. Our guest in the 'hot-seat' will either answer online at specific times, or at pre-arranged regular intervals. We look forward to hearing from you!

This short article aims to highlight the background, key features and current vision of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) project at Ranvilles Infant School. The full version of this research project is available through the University of Winchester library: Aubrey-Smith, F.S., (2007) 'How the implementation of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) can affect the strategic development of a whole school. MA(Ed) Dissertation. University of Winchester.'

In this issue, Mick Waters will be in our third 'hotseat'. I shall be giving Naace Members a sneak preview of the first of a series of ICT updates going into schools shortly. Also this month there is a focus on a brilliant day at St Paul's CoE Primary School Manchester as well as a summary of issues raised when Gareth Davies was the guest in last month's 'hot-seat'.

If you feel that you could make a contribution to Sharing Success please contact me at primaryeditor@naace.co.uk

In this month's Sharing Sucess Julie Cooper, Chair of Governors at Gloucester Road Primary steps into the Naace 'hot-seat'. Julie will be 'live' on Wednesday 9 and Wednesday 16 April between 7-8pm. Other features include Theo Kuechel's article originating from the Naace talklists regarding e-learning, a progress report on the Oracle funded 'Let's Play Project' and a summary of issues from last month's 'hot-seat'. Jim Fanning provides a fascinating two-day blog from The Tideway School.

Imagine a world where schoolchildren are contacting pupils in schools around the world through a totally safe, virtual environment, chatting about differences, sharing pictures, and posting opinions about stories they've read and written. Their teachers are making sure skills in literacy, numeracy, ICT and communication are being improved. The children are sharing ideas about how to live more healthy lifestyles. This Article illustrates how some of this is possible through the 101+ Club Project, supported by by the Oracle Education Foundation.

This Article is taken from a paper which suggests that the advantages of social networking may stimulate stronger and more influential collaborative knowledge building for professional communities of educators. It poses the question 'What is braided learning?' in the context of online communities of practice (C0P) with particular reference to the MirandaNet experience.

Kar2ouche is a commercially produced program that allows students to create imaginative animations with a full range of templates. Students can to add backgrounds, characters, voices and objects to support their multimedia projects.

In this Article, Christy outlines how ICT may be used to help teachers ensure that lessons on 'world writing' are successful. It provides a review of the range of resources available from BBC Active designed for use on a whiteboard, supporting whole-class teaching.

This paper is not about 'the Literacy Hour' - teachers have got this well sorted. If anything, it is a plea to move on. Many years ago, when working in Special Education carved upon every part of my psyche were the penetrating words of my Headteacher, "Every lesson is a speech and language lesson." So, too, Literacy Skills, in their broadest sense, should be an integral part of every lesson if not a mandatory part of every school's mission statement. The title, therefore, demands more than a cursory nod of approval.