Programming — Terry Freedman's ICT & Computing in Education blog — ICT & Computing in Education

Quick look: Strange Code

November 3, 2022

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

Introducing kids to programming via a spreadsheet sweet shop

September 15, 2021

Spreadsheets are dead, right? Wrong! Not only are they a great tool for teaching programming concepts, they can easily be addressed under the Computing programme of study.

Review of Scratch Programming in Easy Steps

December 31, 2020

The book starts with an introduction to the Scratch 3 environment, and in next to no time the reader is creating a program.

Coming soon in the Digital Education newsletter

September 6, 2019

The next edition of this esteemed newsletter has a cornucopia of links that will be of interest to teachers of computing and media literacy especially, and very little commentary! Read on to find out more.

Recent book reviews

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?

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.