EFTRE seminars

You are here: EFTRE >> Seminars >> Paul Hopkins' Seminar

This page gives links to the things I talked about or asked you to look at during the session, there are links to a number of things and please do contact me if you have any further questions.
There is no doubt that technology has revolutionised the way in which we live our lives over the last 100 years, and as we face oil crises these changes and both their advantages and disadvantages are brought into sharp relief. But what about our schools? In the UK Tony Blair [then the Prime Minister] famously said that if you walked into a classroom in 1998 it would look very similar to walking into one in 1898. Is this still the case for your classroom? Do you now have an electronic whiteboard, or at least a video-projector onto a whiteboard? Are you utilising the incredible resources that the technology gives you in your teaching and learning? I have seen an incredible range of practice over the last few years in schools across the UK and I would like to suggest that it is now essential that you are doing the following things:
Evaluating on-line materials: Making decisions about what is good and what is not can be very difficult. This sheet gives you some key questions you should be asking about on-line resources.
You Tube: This is a wonderful resources for the RE teacher from serious to mocking, to personal viewpoints to support materials, almost anything can be found on YouTube.
Webquests: These are ways of effectively using web based materials to solve a problem or develop an idea without letting students wander all over the internet.
Sounds, Images and Video: There are wonderful collections of sounds / images and video clips on line we've looked at YouTube but there are many more source these can then be used in imaginative and creative ways
Shap Glossary of Terms: Pronunciation of key religions terms and ideas can be difficult. This is a resource which helps you to pronounce the key RE words. A specific search engine: RE Online is a great place to start for looking for RE focused websites in the UK and wider. All these sites have been looked at by a teacher and so have some validity.
Teachers' TV: Teachers TV is a UK wide Professional Development Programme for teachers. There are many hundreds of programmes that have been made and quite a few that are relevant to RE.
 A few of my favourite sites: Here are some links to just a few of the websites that I have found that are fun / different or useful. You should be building a similar 'webographry'
Web 2.0 : This is the new web where USG (user generated content) is becoming very important. What kinds of tools should we be thinking about using in teaching RE over the next 5 years? Using film in the classroom: I am more and more excited about making children film-makers this website is set up to explore some of these possibilities.
Page last updated November 11th, 2009
This website designed and managed by MMI educational consultancy