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ICT & Computing in Education

Articles on education technology and related topics
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  • Search
  • Newsletters
    • Digital Education
    • Terry Freedman's Books Bulletin
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cover of VIBE coding by example

Click the image to see this book on Amazon (affiliate link)

Quick looks: VIBE Coding by Example

June 1, 2025

For the time being, this book is free in Kindle format.

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In AI, Quick Looks, Reviews Tags reviews, VIBE, programming, Artificial Intelligence
Cover of Bad Eduction

Click the image to see this book on Amazon (affiliate link)

Quick looks: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them

May 4, 2025

It was a great source of pride to me, getting hundreds of students through their A levels and encouraging them to go to university. But for some time I have asked myself a question: would I recommend this route now?

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In Bookshelf, Quick Looks, Reviews Tags reviews, Bad Education, Goodwin, SchoolsWeek, quick looks

Quick look: Bad Education

March 18, 2025

Goodwin covers the reasons he left academia, scholars, students and the system. Then he proposes some solutions.

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In Quick Looks, News & views Tags quick look, universities, Goodwin, review

Quick look: AI For Educators

February 14, 2025

There are some good ideas here, especially for prompts.

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In Bookshelf, Reviews, Quick Looks Tags reviews, quick look

Click the image to see this book on Amazon (affiliate link)

Quick look: The Art of Uncertainty: How to navigate chance, ignorance, risk and luck

September 26, 2024

The first thing that struck me is that it is quite readable.

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In Quick Looks Tags Art of Uncertainty, Bayesian, quick look

Click the image to see this book on Amazon (affiliate link)

Quick look: Hitler's People

September 24, 2024

Yes, I know that this has nothing (ostensibly at least) to do with ICT or Computing, but I thought it might be an interesting book in general, and for history teachers in particular.

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In History, Quick Looks Tags Hitler's People, quick looks

Click the image to see this book on Amazon (affiliate link)

Quick look: Desirable difficulties in action

July 17, 2024

The idea of desirable difficulties has always appealed to me. In my teaching I’m partticularly in favour of applying Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development.

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In Books in Brief, Bookshelf, Discussion topic, Quick Looks, Reviews Tags reviews, Desirable difficulties, Vygotsky

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Quick look: The Language of Deception

February 28, 2024

I’m not convinced to any extent at all that not being able to tell the difference between a computer and a person means that the computer is intelligent. However, the original formulation of Turing’s ‘imitation game’ was whether a machine could be perceived as being intelligent.

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In Quick Looks Tags Deception, AI, artifical intelligence, reviews

Quick look: From EdTech to PedTech

October 3, 2023

Academics tend to write learned articles that, I suspect, are read mainly by other academics, so anything that can translate some of that research into practical advice is to be welcomed.

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In Reviews, Quick Looks Tags quick looks, review, edtech

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Quick look: Strange Code

November 3, 2022

Strange Code looks at esoteric languages and also atypical languages, which are those that are not mainstream.

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In Bookshelf, Quick Looks, Computing Tags esolangs, Programming, programming languages

Quick looks: Support Not Surveillance, by Dr Mary Bousted

May 14, 2022

As far as I’m aware no Education Secretary has had the ability or the courage to deal with the teacher recruitment and retention crisis.

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In Books in Brief, Bookshelf, Quick Looks, Reviews Tags Bousted, review, quick looks

Quick looks: Tools for Teachers, by Oliver Lovell

May 14, 2022

Overall the book is a good investment, although I did have some quibbles with it.

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In Books in Brief, Bookshelf, Quick Looks, Reviews Tags Oliver Lovell, quick looks, reviews

Quick looks: About Our Schools, by Tim Brighouse and Mick Waters

May 14, 2022

If you want to see the humble brag elevated to an art form, this is the book for you.

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In Bookshelf, Books in Brief, Quick Looks, Reviews Tags quick looks, Brighouse, Waters

Click the link to see this on Amazon (affiliate link)

Quick look: The self-taught computer scientist

February 13, 2022

It’s a bit of a tall order, I think, to teach yourself computer science, as opposed to computer programming, because of the need to understand particular concepts.

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In Books in Brief, Bookshelf, Quick Looks Tags computer science, Cory Allthoff, review, quick looks

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Quick look: Organise Ideas (follow-up)

November 12, 2021

[When I was a teacher,] as with many of my blog posts these days, my own handouts and lesson summaries were festooned with drawings, diagrams and arrows.

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In Quick Looks, Reviews, Books in Brief, Bookshelf Tags review, quick looks, Organise Ideas

Quick look: Science Fictions

December 5, 2020

It’s really rather annoying when a non-fiction book received for review is not only useful, but readable. And not merely readable, but enjoyable, even entertaining.

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In Bookshelf, Quick Looks, Reviews Tags Science Fictions, Stuart Ritchie, review, science

Quick look: A Beginner's Guide to Learning HTML5 (and Smacking Zombies Upside the Web Development) (Undead Institute)

October 7, 2020

A quick look at this guide, which at the time of writing was free.

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In Quick Looks, Reviews, Bookshelf Tags HTML5, HTML, book
The Meritocracy Trap.jpg

Quick look: The Meritocracy Trap

December 11, 2019

We like to believe that meritocracy is a good thing, in that it rewards effort, and acts as a great leveller. Is that actually the case?

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In Books in Brief, Bookshelf, Quick Looks, Reviews Tags Meritocracy, Markovits, inequality
A page from Cool Coding.

A page from Cool Coding.

What I'm reading: Cool Coding

August 6, 2019

A few initial thoughts on a book about programming and how computers work.

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In Quick Looks, Bookshelf Tags Cool Coding, Pavilion Books
Trust Me, I’m Lying

Trust Me, I’m Lying

Quick look: Trust Me, I'm Lying

June 11, 2019

This book lifts the lid on the practices that various media use to promulgate fake news even while appearing to be squeaky clean.

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In Books in Brief, Quick Looks, Using and Teaching Computing & ICT, Digital Education Tags fake news, quick looks, review
Older Posts →
Recent book reviews
Review: Social Media for Academics
Review: Social Media for Academics

This book is very readable, and if I sound surprised that is because it’s not always true of academics!

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Quick looks: VIBE Coding by Example
Quick looks: VIBE Coding by Example

For the time being, this book is free in Kindle format.

Read More →
Review: The Game Changers: How Playing Games Changed the World and Can Change You Too
Review: The Game Changers: How Playing Games Changed the World and Can Change You Too

Despite the relative paucity of immediately obvious National Curriculum links, teachers will find several of sections of this book to be highly engaging.

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Review: The Dictators: 64 Dictators, 64 Authors, 64 Warnings from History
Review: The Dictators: 64 Dictators, 64 Authors, 64 Warnings from History

In some respects one could view this book as a single warning repeated 64 times.

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Review: The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker: A History of the High Street 
Review: The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker: A History of the High Street 

Taking readers from the Middle Ages to (more or less) the present day, Gray charts how the places where we do our shopping and what we buy have changed over the centuries.

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Review: Extraordinary Learning For All
Review: Extraordinary Learning For All

As a source of potential ideas and inspiration, the book could be very useful indeed.

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Review: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them
Review: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them

One has the impression that the main role of the university these days is to maximise profit, while that of the majority of teaching staff is to ensure the ‘correct’ views are passed on to students. All the while, students’ main concern seems to be to seek protection from anything that might make them feel unsafe.

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Review: Next Practices - An Executive Guide for Education Decision Makers
Review: Next Practices - An Executive Guide for Education Decision Makers

Is a 2014 book on managing the computing provision in a school still worth buying?

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Still relevant (sadly): How to lie with statistics, by Darrell Huff
Still relevant (sadly): How to lie with statistics, by Darrell Huff

Although this book is over 60 years old, it is remarkably apposite for our times -- and especially in the fields of educational research and assessing pupils' understanding and progress.

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Quick looks: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them
Quick looks: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them

It was a great source of pride to me, getting hundreds of students through their A levels and encouraging them to go to university. But for some time I have asked myself a question: would I recommend this route now?

Read More →
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