Digital Literacy — Terry Freedman's ICT & Computing in Education blog — ICT & Computing in Education

On this day #20: Digital literacy and "coding"

January 19, 2021

Is being digitally literate synonymous with being able to code?

What I've been writing: articles around education technology: innovation, parental engagement, teaching programming and digital illiteracy

April 21, 2017

Here are links to a few articles I've written recently. They cover parental engagement, innovation, how to teach computer programming and, finally, "digitally illiterate and proud of it".

We should expect people in education be technologically literate.

7 suggestions for how to treat willful digital illiteracy in education

April 20, 2017

Why does digital illiteracy seem acceptable in education? I think we should have higher expectations, which I have expressed in these seven suggestions.

So what makes you think I love reading? Photo by Glen Noble.

What I'm reading: books on digital literacy and Raspberry Pi

March 2, 2017

Three more books coming up for review -- on the subjects of the Raspberri Pi and digital literacy.

What I've been reading: Digital Literacy Skills for FE Teachers

September 27, 2016

Although this book is aimed squarely at teachers in Further Education, I think it would be a useful resource for school teachers too, and even university lecturers.

Recent book reviews

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!

Quick looks: VIBE Coding by Example

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

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?