8 Ways to make physical computing work in a NORMAL classroom

June 9, 2025

If you insist on getting the kids to make or use physical computing kits/robots in the classroom, here arte 8 suggestions for making sure it’s all useful.

Robotics is STILL a waste of time

June 6, 2025

I’d rather teach pupils to program without going through the intermediary process of building a robot or anything else. Despite all the hype, I regard it as a massive waste of time.

Bett2020: Robotics

February 6, 2020

I have my doubts about whether building a 3d model is helpful beyond a certain age, but it has a certain appeal.

8 Ways to make physical computing work in the classroom

June 9, 2019

If you insist on getting the kids to make or use physical computing kits/robots in the classroom, here arte 8 suggestions for making sure it’s all useful.

Is robotics a waste of time?

June 6, 2019

I’d rather teach pupils to program without going through the intermediary process of building a robot or anything else. Despite all the hype, I regard it as a massive waste of time.

Recent book reviews

Two reviews in one: Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals -- art and history

One for your colleagues, perhaps: art, art history, ploitics with a small ‘p’.

Two reviews in one: State of Ridicule: A History of Satire in English Literature -- politics, history, English

One for your colleagues, perhaps. Sperrin has provided a wealth of information that can be used to provide a rich experience for students of politics, history and English literature.

Two reviews in one: A Little History of Mathematics

I submitted my review of this book to Teach Secondary magazine, an educational magazine in the UK. The first review below is what the magazine published. The second one is what I actually wrote! In substantive terms there is little difference between the two, but you may find it interesting to see what the editor altered.

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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.