Maintaining Standards in digital literacy courses

So, you're responsible for the use of educational technology in the school, but its use and principles are taught across the curriculum rather than as a discrete subject. In other words, by non-specialists in all likelihood. How can you maintain high standards in the subject and the use of educational technology in such a situation? In this article I look at 14 suggestions.

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Government money for ed tech? Yes, with caveats

There are too many instances of government schemes being ill thought out, or where the system could be gamed.In my opinion, the government has a duty to ensure a minimal viable product, so to speak, but then step back. I’m not so naive as to believe that the free market is perfect, but I think government decrees are even less perfect.

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What next for ed tech in 2018?

What's on the horizon for education technology in 2018? And what are the challenges that schools are likely to face? I invited 43 organisations to share their views. Read on for more information, and a link to the free resource that resulted from this exercise.

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14 things to check when using education technology

This article was originally published in 2008. Apart from a few obvious points, such as the references to CDs, large monitors and, in some schools these days, computer rules, very little requires changing in terms of the advice. But the interesting aspect of the article is, I think, what is implicit. Having two computers out of commission would have been an issue in those days. Bring Your Own Technology had yet to be a possibility for most pupils. Laptops were still expensive enough to make class sets of them something to dream about. There were tablet computers, but the iPad was still two years in the future. The reference to planning to use the internet: nowadays it's virtually unavoidable because so much is online. When you think about all that, it is hard to remember that the article was written less than a decade ago!

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