CD Rom and DVD Software

The subject of today's ICT lesson was history and looking at the ways to use various forms of ICT. While working through the powerpoint presentation there was mention of Microsoft's Ancient Lands CD Rom. This is something I had at home when I was at Primary School and I do seem to remember enjoying using it. There were three sections on it: Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt - Ancient Greece was my favourite!! Each had pages on different aspects of life in that era. I suppose it was essentially like an encyclopedia but there were some sound effect buttons as well which were an exciting aspect.

I am pleased, yet surprised that these 'old' resources are still being recommended for use in schools today. I think that our copy of Ancient Lands is still in the study at home. I will have to have a look over Christmas. We also had Art Gallery, Dangerous Animals, a music one, and a few science related ones but I never really used those much (athough it didn't seem to stop me doing a chemistry degree!). What a feast of resources I may find at home! I'll have to look at them and have a play with them to decide how they might be used in today's classrooms. Stay tuned...

We also looked at some databases today. Pinpoint and viewpoint are both apparently common in schools, but neither are particularly user friendly. Monty recommends using InspireData instead. We used this for creating graphs in science and I found it excellent and very easy to use. Having used Excel and Origin for my science project last year which took a long time to learn, it was like a breath of fresh air to be able to use Inspire Data. The one-click ability to switch between graph types or data input, and the visual transformation between these was ideal.

The wealth of information that can be gathered from graveyards was highlighted today. I have been intrigued by graveyards for quite some time, loving the feast of info that can be found there. I was delighted to stumble across the Old Southampton Graveyard when walking through the common after starting uni here.