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Why outside help can be useful in educational ICT or Computing

June 11, 2019

This article summarises what I’ve learnt about the benefits of hiring outside help like an agency or a consultant, from my experience of doing so and also as (now) an ed tech consultant myself. I hope you find it useful.

Using an ICT consultant

February 15, 2012

Given that consultants as a species have a pretty dreadful reputation, why should a school even consider using one? There are several reasons you might want to hire an educational ICT consultant:

Bloggers and consultants: ever feel we’re being got at?

January 17, 2012

A couple of things made me smile today.

Recent book reviews

Review: Teach Fast

The book contains some interesting ideas.

A question of leadership

I have somewhat dichotomous views of this question of whether leaders make a difference, or much of a difference. I think my views can be classified as macro and micro.

Review: Making Good Progress?

Daisy Christodoulou carefully picks apart the pitfalls of various kinds of assessment, drawing on different subject areas to do so.

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Review: Principles and Practices of Assessment

There is plenty in this book to like.

Review: Effective Teaching: Evidence and Practice

Although this is a few years old now (2018), it has stood the test of time.

Review: One for maths teachers

This wide-ranging book takes in probability, fractals, astronomy, Babbage, Lovelace and a host of other areas and people.

Reviews: Two for History teachers

Two books on the Nazi era.

Review: One for English teachers

No book about the craft of writing seems complete without a stern chapter on the importance of eschewing adverbs and adjectives - but what to put in their place?

Review: The Great Formal Machinery Works: Theories of Deduction and Computation at the Origins of the Digital Age

If you’re of a mathematical bent this could be just the book to delve into.

Review: How to lie with statistics

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.