PowerPoint without tears

March 15, 2021

The slides should be a starting point for more material, or a summary of something you have said. If all you're going to do is read out the slides, why not just give them a set of notes and head for the nearest café?

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.

Recent book reviews

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Review: The Learning Rainforest: Great Teaching in Real Classrooms

This is a great book for dipping into in order to read about different teaching and assessment strategies, backed up by research.

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Review: Outstanding Formative Assessment: Culture and Practice

This book contains numerous assessment for learning techniques.

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Review: New Media in the Classroom: Rethinking Primary Literacy

This provides a great deal of information about the different aspects of "literacy” and how digital tools can be brought into the service of literacy in the primary school.

Review: Designing the internet of things

This book takes you through the process of designing connected devices from prototyping to launching.

Quick look: (Un)educated: My Life as a Teacher, and Why You Should Never Become One

“Some of it is laugh-out loud funny, but some of it, about his reference being spiked, made me angry …”

A Heads-up: Hot Type: The Magnificent Machine that Gave Birth to Mass Media and Drove Mark Twain Mad

This is about the invention of linotype, and its consequences.

Are we in, or entering, a post-literate society?

I know that there are people who think that Tik-Tok videos and other (very) short-form content is a kind of literacy that’s on a par with reading, but I have my doubts.

Review: Amazing Worlds

A very good showcase for what can be achieved from a partnership between imagination and AI.

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Review: The Batsford Book of Chess for Children New Edition: Beginner’s chess for kids

This book doesn’t have any education technology, but I think the game of chess is a worthwhile activity for kids for developing strategic thinking skills.

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Review: Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time (Pearson Resources for 21st Century Learning)

The authors of this book, ran several projects which entailed collaboration between students in classrooms in different countries.