Newly Qualified Teachers (NQT's) can now join Naace for one year at the special price of £20.

A wide range of Primary classroom activities, reviews and resources has been developed and published over the years originally by MAPE and, more recently since the merger in 2004, by Naace.

In the first programme of Naace Connect we are treated to five episodes:

Mobile Phones supporting English

Rachel Johnson, an English teacher at Sandon High School in Stoke-on-Trent, shows how she harnesses students' mobile phones to improve learning outcomes in English.

Web 2.0 Applications in Modern Foreign Languages

Jose Picardo, Head of Modern Languages at Nottingham High School for Boys, describes how he harnesses web applications to improve learning outcomes for his students.

Barriers to adoption in Secondary Schools compared to Primaries

Professor Angela McFarlane outlines why it is often more difficult to develop innovative ICT-enabled approaches in secondary schools.

Bridging the Digital Divide: 1

Becta's Niel McLean describes the Home Access Project.

Bridging the Digital Divide: 2

Becta's Vanessa Pittard reports on early findings from the Home Access Project.

The Direct2U service was a weekly email service produced by Becta in partnership with Naace. The service was for primary teachers and offered lesson plans featuring ICT in activities based on six subject strands. The service is discontinued but you can view the lesson plans in this archive.

ICT Year 6: Creating Electronic Big Books

The Direct2U service was a weekly email subscription service for primary teachers from Becta, which ran during 2005/6. The scheme offered lesson plans featuring ICT in activities based on six subject strands. The service has now been discontinued but Becta have given us permission to use a selection from the plans in this magazine. A full archive of all the Direct2U activities can be found at http://forum.ngfl.gov.uk/direct2u

Introduction

In this activity, children work in small groups to design and create an electronic Big Book for the younger children in the school. They will take into account the reading age and interests of younger children and the format of Big Books, and test out their books and modify them if necessary. There is not room here to give full details of how to use Big Book Maker but it is well supported with manuals and guides http://primary.naace.co.uk/activities/BigBookMaker/

Richard describes the role of ICT in helping students with complex learning difficulties access literacy.

This article addresses the differences from the point of view of learning between social networking, online knowledge construction and the dissemination of new knowledge. Christina Preston has focused on a number of examples from work carried out in my two Oracle Education funded projects to highlight ways in which teachers can reflect on the way children are engaged.

Crossley Heath have used their Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in so many ways to improve teaching, the delivery of the curriculum as well as the enjoyment of learning taking place. The following description highlights the way the schools secure email system is being used to help students make dramatic improvements in the quantity and quality of assignments set.

Paul Williamson has spent a great deal of time empowering teachers in different subjects to use their Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) effectively. The successes have become increasingly apparent with every area of the school moving forward rapidly.