Illustration: Death by PowerPoint, by Terry Freedman

Problems in the ed tech classroom #4

April 16, 2019

PowerPoint can be a very useful tool — if used with care.

How will you keep your recordings safe? Illustration: Edirol recorder by Terry Freedman

How to keep your school's videos, photos and data media safe

April 15, 2019

Over the course of a year, a school could amass hundreds of photos, videos and audio recordings. How can you store them?

Spending checker, by Terry Freedman

How to introduce primary school pupils to the basics of programming -- using spreadsheets

April 14, 2019

Spreadsheets have been dismissed by some people as boring, old hat, and about “only” office skills. Those people are wrong! In this article I look at how you can use spreadsheets to start teaching children about some programming concepts.

Assessing Computing and ICT in a post-Levels world

April 12, 2019

Several years on from the removal of levels, assessment — especially in Computing and ICT — is still a hot topic.

ed tech problems: no paper, by Terry Freedman

Problems in the ed tech classroom #3: printer paper

April 4, 2019

Something as simple as the printer’s paper tray being empty can cause mayhem. Here are a few suggestions for dealing with it.

Forward to the past? Becta’s startegy challenges. Photo by Terry Freedman

The Department for Education's Ed Tech Strategy: better late than never?

April 3, 2019

My initial reflections on the Department for Education’s education technology strategy which was launched today. A bit like the curate’s egg, parts of it are excellent.

Photo by Nik MacMillan on Unsplash

Ofsted consultation on its proposed new Framework: my comments

April 3, 2019

There are only a few days to go before the consultation on the proposed new Ofsted framework closes. Here are my comments.

Research, by Terry Freedman

Engaging with evidence: a free guide

April 2, 2019

A new guide on engaging with evidence has appeared. Here is a quick evaluation of it.

Newspaper, by Terry Freedman

Coming up in Digital Education

April 1, 2019

Here is a brief listing of some of the topics covered in the forthcoming edition of my ezine, Digital Education.

Flipchart, by Terry Freedman

Problems in the ed tech classroom #2

March 31, 2019

What kind of problems might you experience with an ordinary flipchart? And are flipcharts preferable to interactive whiteboards? Plus details of how to get hold of a free guide to getting the most out of your interactive whiteboard.

Computing books received, by Terry Freedman

Computing books received in March 2019

March 29, 2019

These books, which I received recently, look interesting, and I’m looking forward to reading and reviewing them. All book links are Amazon affiliate links.

How to think like a coder was shortlisted for an educational writers’ award, which you can read about here: The 2018 Educational Writers Award. I didn’t receive this in March, but have only now started to look at it in depth. I’ve already penned a few notes about it here: Books in Brief: How to think like a coder.

Monitored, which I’ve just started reading, is an examination of big data and surveillance from a Marxist perspective. I haven’t looked at any Marxist literature for a very long time — not since I tried to read Das Kapital when I was 17 (I got as far as page 23, which was 8 pages further than one of my teachers!) — so it’s a completely new perspective for me, which makes this an interesting, if difficult, read.

It covers similar ground to other books on the same subject matter that I have to review — indeed it references some of them — but with a clearly different take on the whole thing. I have to say that from the little I’ve read so far I remain unconvinced, and happily so.

Mission Python has been sent to me by Teach Secondary magazine. As the title suggests, it’s a book that teaches you how to program in Python. All I can say about it so far is that it looks colourful, and that I’m looking forward to reading it.

Photo by Nicole Honeywill on Unsplash

Creating multiple signatures in Gmail

March 26, 2019

If you wear several different hats, but don’t want several different email addresses, you can use different email signatures instead. But how do you do that in Gmail?

Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash

How to run a consultation

March 24, 2019

If you don’t want a consultation to give you answers you won’t like, here’s what to do. And if you’re a respondent to that kind of disingenuous process, here’s how to have your say anyway.

IWB marker pen by Terry Freedman

Problems in the ed tech classroom #1

March 19, 2019

In this the first article in this series, I look at the problem of permanent markers being used on the whiteboard. Believe it or not, there is a more useful response than “Aaaaaargh!”