The next best thing to being at the ISTE conference is following it online. So I was delighted to come across this video, in which Kevin Hogan of Technology & Learning interviews Alan November.

Alan makes some interesting and excellent points about the kind of problems that teachers set students, and where technology comes into the equation.

In the course of the conversation, Alan discusses Jamie McKenzie’s Questioning Toolkit. This was devised 20 years ago, in 1997, and it has never aged. Well, it wouldn't, would it, seeing as it’s a classification of all the different sorts of questions you can ask? In fact, I’ve been recommending it to delegates on the courses I run in assessing Computing. It really is an excellent resource, and you should check it out.

Funnily enough, I have included Alan’s conference details in the next issue of my newsletter, Digital Education. It’s called Building Learning Communities. I attended in 2005, and I can honestly say it was one of the best conferences I’ve been to, partly because of the quality of the speakers and the workshops, but mainly because of the myriad opportunities for networking.

I also like the way Alan thinks. When I had the privilege of introducing his talk at a Naace conference, in 2006 I think, I told the audience that Alan didn't so much think outside the box, as not recognise the existence of the box in the first place! My views haven't changed.

And while I’m in “the giving vein”, to borrow from Richard III, Technology & Learning is a good magazine and website too — and I’d think that even if I didn’t write for them!

Enough of this persiflage! Enjoy the video!