ICT & Computing in Education

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Articles update

Terry catching up -- or trying to! By Terry Freedman

So many articles (to write), so little time! I’m in the process of writing up my experience of the Bett Show this year: products and reflections. It’s going to take me a while to do, even after setting myself a limit of 100 words per article. So, in the meantime, are a few pieces to be getting on with:

  • Eye Gaze article Updated I’ve updated this article with additional information about the researchers. I wasn’t aware when I wrote the original article that Rajvir Gill had prepared the slides and written the report about the research. I’ve updated the article to reflect that, which of course puts me over my self-imposed word limit of 100 words. Aaaarghh!

  • Review of Trust Me, I’m Lying. This is a fascinating and disturbing account by a media insider of how the mainstream media can be manipulated into publishing and propagating fake news. The worst aspect of it for me is that I wish I could bring myself to try out some of the techniques the author doesn’t recommend. As Alex Portnoy, the protagonist of Portnoy’s Complaint bemoans to his psychiatrist:
    ”Dr, I have desires that are repugnant to my conscience, and a conscience which is repugnant to my desires.”
    (I should perhaps point out that he was talking about something other than propagating fake news.) On a more serious note, the author does say that his book could be used, and indeed has been used, to game the system so to speak. So, a dangerous book in its way, and one that has plenty of material to discuss with students under the umbrellas of digital literacy and online safety. Incidentally, the link to Portnoy’s Complaint above is an Amazon associate link.

  • It should be said that the articles i’m writing under the banner of “Bett2020” apply all the rest of the year as well. A case in point is 11 Criteria For Evaluating A School’s Education Technology.