When it comes to communication, being restricted is definitely better, ie more conducive to effectiveness, than having no limits at all.
Read MoreThink outside the box, by Terry Freedman
Picture from Stencil. Licence: CC0
5 ways to develop critical thinking in ICT and Computing
How do you encourage pupils and students to think critically in the context of educational technology? Although we can devote a lot of time and energy to setting up the "right environment", I can't help thinking that really it all comes down to some pretty simple questions, and very straightforward approaches.
Education Technology Research Focus: Steve Wheeler
Steve publishes the Learning with E's blog. The articles are not only very thought-provoking, they often also include references so you can follow up the reading for yourself. At the moment, Steve is writing a great series on learning theories. I asked him to tell me about his current research.A brief update
Do you know, I hate those self-referntial blog posts in which bloggers talk about their own blogs. So I’m not going to do that; I’m going to talk about my newsletter and a survey instead!
Read MoreQ is for … Quiet time
How do you learn best? The reason I ask this question is that the conventional wisdom these days seems to be that people learn best through collaboration. Hence lessons are planned with as much time for collaboration built in as possible. But is this always useful?The trials and tribulations of blogging as a SWOT analysis
There are people like myself, Steve Wheeler and others who think that blogging is a good thing to do for a number of reasons. I won’t rehearse theme here because you can read them in the articles referenced at the end of this one. However, blogging is not necessarily easy. Even if writing itself is not a problem, there are several other factors that need to be taken into account.
Read MoreVideos on aspects of Computing and ICT
I thought you might be interested in two new sets of video resources which are, and are becoming, available. The big problem with video in general, in my opinion, is that it’s hard to find the time to sit down and watch something for any length of time because you can’t do much else while you’re doing so. And by “any length of time” I mean anything over about 5 minutes.
So it’s good that there are some 3 minute videos now and some micro-videos coming on stream.
BETT 2013 Interviews: Steve Wheeler
ICT thinker, lecturer and writer Steve Wheeler talks about being at the BETT Show for the first time this year, and the things people are discussing in the world of ICT.Recommended reading
Here is a selection of online articles that I think worth reading – some of them are my own (he says modestly), but others are others’! They cover a wide range of topics, including the flipped classroom, Bring Your Own Technology, what happens in an internet minute, up and coming conferences and others.
5 ways to develop critical thinking in ICT
How do you encourage pupils and students to think critically in the context of educational technology? Although we can devote a lot of time and energy to setting up the "right environment", I can't help thinking that really it all comes down to some pretty simple questions, and very straightforward approaches.
Blogs by Plymouth Students
I’m always looking for new blogs to read. It’s always good to have fresh talent, with a fresh viewpoint, otherwise it can all start to become a bit self-referential and echo chamberish. So I was delighted when Pete Yeomans recently drew my my attention to a website that collates the blogs written by students on the University of Plymouth’s B.Ed course.
Blog posts mentioned recently
Here are three blog posts I mentioned in a recent article:
Read MoreOpen Door Classrooms
Should classrooms be open to the world, in the sense that anyone might see what's going on, and perhaps even take part in them? Is this an inevitable development anyway, given today's technology?
Read MoreThese are the sorts of issues that Steve Wheeler raises in his reflections on Open Door Classrooms.