During these challenging times, supports have been put in place to assist teachers and schools engaged in distance learning.  Be sure to visit our own specific online learning section, and also the dedicated distance learning webpage.  Further detail  were highlighted in our special newsletter that was sent on March 23rd.

Online primary summer course descriptions, dates and enrolment details are now available via TeacherCPD.ie. As courses are free of charge for teachers, participants may not enrol in more than one course, in order to enable access by as many teachers as possible. Note that enrolment takes place at specified times on a given day.

Teachers who have never participated in a PDST Technology in Education online summer course before are particularly encouraged to enrol. Places go quickly, so please be prepared (i.e. with your Scoilnet account details to hand, having first read the course description and enrolment instructions).

• Digital Video in the Primary Classroom (July 1-17): Enrol April 28th
• Digital Technologies in the Primary Classroom (July 1-17): Enrol April 30th
• Digital Video in the Primary Classroom (August 4-20): Enrol May 6th

Our recently released short online course, Teaching Online for Primary and Post Primary Teachers, is now available in a slightly different format, incorporating a discussion forum specific to each sector and a certificate on course completion. The post primary teachers' discussion forum may help those facing particular challenges with exam classes, who were very much in mind when designing this course.

For the alternative format, please first login to TeacherCPD.ie and then access the link to enrol. Links for both the new access (for enrolees only) and the original ‘guest access‘ courses are available at the Read More link below. Please spread the word!

Politics & Society teacher, Gráinne McKeever, has shared her series of podcasts with an accompanying resource pack.

Gráinne hopes the pack will inspire some future philosophers, whether in the fields of law, politics, sociology, economics, anthropology, or at the very least give you some interesting food for thought.

The PDST Post-Primary Maths team has been working on developing a Padlet for different areas of Senior Cycle maths.

A new Padlet is released each day around lunchtime on a different topic during the school closures.

• Gramadach Scoilnet - Learn the basics of the grammar of Irish verbs in the past, present and future tense with these simple step by step guides.
• Kitchen Chemistry - Capture novel and engaging aspects of science in the kitchen using the NUIG Kitchen Chemistry resource pack. Available in Irish and English.
• Have you got Maths Eyes? - Get pupils to see the world around them through Maths Eyes.
• World Book Online - A guide on the distance learning resources available through World Book Online.

Designed for 3rd and 4th class pupils, HTML Heroes is a free interactive programme addressing a series of topics including online safety, privacy, respectful communication and false information.

This cross curricular programme can be accessed by both pupils and teachers from home. Teachers can direct pupils to specific interactive activities within each lesson.

Designed to support the Junior Cycle Digital Media literacy Short Course, Connected provides students with an introduction to digital media literacy.

Topics addressed include big data, false information, online wellbeing and privacy online. Teachers can direct students to specific activities within each module.

As children and young people spend more time at home and online in the coming weeks, it is a good idea to make time for conversations about online safety.

The Webwise Parents Hub offers expert advice, helpful explainer guides to popular apps, talking points and how to guides. Topics include image-sharing, using social media, accessing inappropriate content, managing online wellbeing and lots more!

With the closure of schools, we have reviewed our Good Practice videos and selected some which contain activities that could be adapted for use in an online teaching and learning scenario. Mapped to the DLF on www.dlplanning.ie, and listed here, we have highlighted two such videos below.

A first year Maths teacher creates instructional videos using Explain Everything, which he posts on Youtube and shares with students via the Schoology system for students to access from home.

Example of how students can use their own smartphones in a German language class to record themselves speaking. They send the recordings to the teacher via the Office 365 platform and the teacher assesses the recordings and provides audio and written feedback. (As Gaeilge with English subtitles)

For schools at an early stage of engaging with online learning tools, making decisions on suitable options for your situation can be challenging.

Seeking advice from a similar type of school that is already successfully using these tools is an excellent way of getting relevant up to date information and feedback.  However, also please feel free to contact us.