Join a group of grade four students from The Academy at King Edward and grade tens from Jasper Place High School as they explore the world of Simple Machines at ../:: The Simple Machine Blog ::\.. The fours are studying simple machines as part of their science curriculum and have drawn (on the computer) their favourite machines. The tens communicated with the fours using this blog to discuss how the drawings would be animated. The animations have then been displayed here beside the drawings along with the blog comments The URL is../http://www.resco.ca/machineblog/"

For a nice little article on blogging in education, have a look at this offerin from one of the guru's Stephen Downes in the EDUCAUSE REVIEW | September/October 2004, Volume 39, Number 5. The URL is http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0450.asp?bhcp=1.

Education/Technology - Tim Lauer: is a great blog maintained by Tim, the principal at Lewis Elementary School in Portland, Oregon. He uses this site mainly to make notes to himself about technology and how it can be used by teachers and students to gain a greater understanding of their world, and as a means to tell their stories... The URL is http://tim.lauer.name/:

If you want to check up on the sort of questions that have been asked in the TIMMS, (Trends in International Maths and Science Study then have a look in at Explore Your Knowledge in the Students' Classroom at the US National Centre For Educational Statistics for an online test you or your students can take. The URL is http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/eyk/

We have just installed a SmartBoard interactive whiteboard in my classroom, the first of four we will have in the school. So far it looks an impressive tool and the kids and I are looking forward to the opportunities it will bring. More soon.

As to the Manila Blogging software things are still going slowly. Not having the technical knowledge or access to the server is a big problem :)

HandySnap is a great little screen capture tool that is free at the moment. The URL is http://www.wisepixel.com/