Bett2020 100 — Terry Freedman's ICT & Computing in Education blog — ICT & Computing in Education

Bett2020: Lexplore reading analytics solution --Updated

February 14, 2020

Updated — Explore helps teachers to analyse how children are reading.

Bett2020: Kaligo handwriting software

February 13, 2020

Software which helps teachers teach handwriting to children.

Bett2020: Python in Pieces

February 10, 2020

Python in Pieces is a visual interface for the Python programming language.

Bett2020: A Virtual School

February 9, 2020

Is a virtual school a way of enabling schools (and school districts) to provide a full curriculum given the teacher shortages in key subjects?

Bett2020: Safeguarding and Wellbeing

February 9, 2020

Developed in conjunction with the police, this product for primary (elementary) school children addresses both safeguarding and wellbeing.

Bett2020: Robotics

February 6, 2020

I have my doubts about whether building a 3d model is helpful beyond a certain age, but it has a certain appeal.

Bett2020: Safeguarding

February 6, 2020

Some time ago I compiled a list of ways in which pupils could be unsafe online. The list was extremely long….

Bett2020 Reader Pen

January 31, 2020

A device that could help students with reading difficulties.

Bett2020 The scalability problem (part 2)

January 26, 2020

The issue of scalability is not confined to cost considerations, but time as well.

Bett2020: The scalability problem (part 1)

January 26, 2020

Walking around the Bett Show and looking at products and services, I was reminded (as ever) of the need to keep scalability in mind.

Bett2020: The aggregation problem

January 26, 2020

The scalability problem is rendered more acute when you discover several products you like the look of, all priced in a similar way.

Bett2020: Eye Gaze UPDATED!

January 25, 2020

A short account of a talk about Eye Gaze, which helps teachers to know what pupils with PMLD are looking at, and what they are ignoring.

Recent book reviews

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.

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.

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.

Review: Extraordinary Learning For All

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

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.

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?

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.

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?

Review: The Bright Side: Why Optimists Have the Power to Change the World

At first glance, you might take this to be one of those books full of affirmations and anecdotes designed to lift your mood.

Review: Small Habits Create Big Change: Strategies to Avoid Burnout and Thrive in Your Education Career

My review of this for Teach Secondary magazine has just come out. Here is the published version, followed by the copy I submitted, which is slightly longer because it has a little more detail.