Back in the 1930s, radio was the cutting edge technology in the home.
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On this day: reasons to use education technology in lessons
Sometimes you need to convince colleagues to think about using educational technology in their lessons, or to identify where in their scheme of work they could incorporate it.
Read MoreWhen technology goes wrong (Updated)
Just a couple of cogitations – hopefully worthy -- about technology and our relationship with it.
Read MoreTechnology and Writing: Dealing With Ideas (Updated)
Did Samuel Pepys carry a quill and an inkwell around with him?
Read MoreThe trouble with technology
To the adage "Never work with children or animals", I would add, "or technology" -- which is somewhat worrying given that I have been involved in educational technology for over 20 years.
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Presentation on a mobile phone, by Terry Freedman
Actually, it IS about the technology (partly)
“It’s not about the technology” sounds logical, but in my experience it is certainly not the whole story.
Read MoreQuick look: Baking with Kafka, by Tom Gauld
A great sideways glance at modern life, including our relationships with technnology.
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Maybe you should have checked the tech first! Photo from pixabay.com CC0
A useful rule of technology
What do trainee teachers or colleagues who are new to education technology need to know?
Read MoreWhat comes first: education or technology?
Some people are adamant that educational practice, or pedagogy, must be the first consideration, before technology is even mentioned. But is this actually right?
Read MoreShould we welcome the nanocams?
I’m reading a short story by Ian Creasey called “The Edge of the Map”. In the world depicted by Creasey, automated cameras called “nanocams” take photos and newspapers (and other media, presumably) source their illustrations from the pool created by them. In other words, there is no need for specialist photographers.
This raises a number of interesting questions.
My grim and distant techie past: the uni years, part 1
It’s amazing how technology has changed over the years. I was thinking about this recently, in relation to my mother. She lived for 91 years, and during that time she witnessed cars becoming ubiquitous, the invention and expansion of television, the development of video and home video recording, cheap flights, fast trains… The list goes on and on.
I am not old enough to experienced quite as many dramatic changes as that, but as far as the world of education is concerned, there have been quite a few. I thought it might be interesting to try and document them from a personal point of view. Do feel free to join in by leaving a comment, or posting a response on your own blog.
Oh, and just for the record, I am not writing these “technobiographical” articles in a spirit of nostalgia. As I have said before, as far as I’m concerned, the best thing about the past is that it’s the past. The technology we have today is wonderful; who would want to return to an earlier era?
Report from the 3D print show
Richard Smith, of Igloo in Education and Amazing ICT, recently visited the 3D Print Show in London. What did he make of it?
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Hi, Richard Smith here from Igloo in Education. I am delighted to have been asked by Terry to do a guest blog post on the 3D print show that took place in London from 7-9th November.
The venue of the event, the Business Design Centre in Islington, sent out a clear message out to visitors: 3D printing should be about innovative design and the encouragement of original business ideas. Of
Technology-inspired words are definitely buzzworthy!
New words are always interesting, I think, and not just the ones that have been inspired by technology. But before I say any more about that, I feel the need to get something off my chest. Don’t worry, I won’t make this a long post: the last thing I want is people tweeting me to say TL;DR (too long; didn’t read).Technology for an ageing population: competition
Here is a competition which is aimed at secondary school students. I quite like the idea of this: both the topic and the nature of what has to be submitted by entrants: a video of not more than 90 seconds answering the question:
In the future, how will technology help an ageing population?
This is an opportunity to get some really interesting discussions going. Perhaps you could get other colleagues involved, such the RE department.
Stop Press! The machines have taken over!
Kevin Hodgson has written a make-believe article about technology taking over from humans. The theme is a well-known one in science fiction circles, of course, but what I especially like about Kevin’s article is that he has written in the form of a newspaper article. To do so he has used a fake headline generator, for which he provides a link in the story.The sound of being connected
When I first had email and an internet connection, it was made possible by using a dial-up modem. These modems were positively snail-like compared to today’s devices. For example, my first modem could transmit data over the telephone line at the blistering speed of 9 kilobytes per second (kbps).
Old technology
It’s always fun, as well as informative, to look at photos or videos to check out the technology used, especially if the photo or video is old. In this video of Jimmy Nail’s Ain’t No Doubt, I’ve spotted several examples of “retro” technology. Perhaps you or your students can spot more?
Here’s what struck me:
Read MoreDon’t blame the technology
Technology can help a good teacher do wondrous and wonderful things – but bad use of technology is worse than no use of technology, in my opinion. There is, possibly, one exception to this general rule, which I will get to in a moment. What has brought on this sudden dazzling insight (well, it isn’t really instant, and it probably isn’t dazzling, but this is my blog so I can say what I like). An anti-ICT dogma diatribe by the behaviour guru, aka Tom Bennett.
Read MoreWhen technology goes wrong
Just a couple of cogitations – hopefully worthy -- about technology and our relationship with it.
Analogue or digital?
Is there any advantage in having an analogue watch face to a digital one, or vice versa?
Why technology goes wrong
Join us for the final Vital Teachshare discussion of this school year, as Tony Sheppard, aka Grumbledook, talks to us about a topic that I am sure is dear to our hearts:
Why Technology Goes Wrong. The discussion begins at 7pm UK time Tuesday 26th July, and you can access it by clicking on the link just given. Use the timezone converter to find out what time it is where you are.
Tony is a key member of Edugeek, one of the most vibrant online forums I know of.
Please tweet about this event, using the hashtag #vitalcpd. Thanks!
See also:
Update on 2011-07-26 21:06 by Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant
We had a great session: brilliant talk by @grumbledook that covered just about everything, and a great follow-up discussion.
To view the recording, click the link below: