My review of this for Teach Secondary magazine has just come out. Here is the published version, followed by the copy I submitted, which is slightly longer because it is a little more detailed.
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Review: AI Snake Oil: AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference
My review of this for Teach Secondary magazine has just come out. Here is the published version, followed by the copy I submitted, which is slightly longer because it has a little more detail.
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A Town Without Time
We all need a break from work, so why not curl up with a good book?
This is a great boook, full of interesting and wonderfully-written stories, and the publisher has made a copy available to win as a prize.
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Review: The Shortest History of Music -- two reviews in one!
The music programme of study requires students to possess an understanding of the music they perform and that which they listen to, as well as a grasp of music history, and an appreciation of different musical styles.
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Review: The Art of Uncertainty (two reviews in one)
The Computing department would find the section on facial recognition interesting, because apart from possible ethical concerns, the fact is that even if the system has high accuracy, most of its identifications will be wrong.
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Review: The Newsmongers: A History of Tabloid Journalism (two reviews in one!)
I was intrigued to discover that a popular news magazine of the sixties had been anticipated by Defoe.
Read MoreQuick look: AI For Educators
There are some good ideas here, especially for prompts.
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Hitler's People: The Faces of the Third Reich -- Extended review
Nearly a hundred years after the Nazi phenomenon people are still asking the question: how could apparently ordinary or, in some cases, highly cultured, people commit such terrible crimes.
Read MoreEducation book reviews of 2024
This pdf contains the reviews of mine that were published in Teach Secondary magazine in 2024.
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Review: Nuts and Bolts: How Tiny Inventions Make Our World Work
It's rather disconcerting when one considers that buildings like The Shard are essentially held together by nuts, bolts and washers.
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Review: Love Triangle: The Life-changing Magic of Trigonometry
Like, I suspect, many people, I have never knowingly come across an isosceles triangle in my life, and wouldn’t know what to do with it if I did. However...
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Review: Making Sense Of Chaos – A Better Economics for a Better World
Before you rush off on the grounds that this book has nothing to do with Computing, let me reassure you that it does.
Read MoreBjork & Bjork’s Desirable Difficulties in Action
The original work on which this volume is based has perhaps been honoured more in the breach than in the observance.
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Review: Coderspeak – The language of computer programmers
This book won’t necessarily help a student pass a computing exam, but it will almost certainly make them a more aware, and thus better, programmer.
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Review: Quiet Power, by Susan Cain
Introverts thrive by being allowed to be quiet, having time for reflection and not being required to 'perform' all the time.
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Quick look: Desirable difficulties in action
The idea of desirable difficulties has always appealed to me. In my teaching I’m partticularly in favour of applying Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development.
Read MoreReview: The Collaboration Book – 41 Ideas for Working Better
Most people would agree that collaboration is a good thing – so how can we collaborate more effectively in school settings?
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Review: Listen: On Music, Sound and Us
This book might not directly address obvious aspects of the music curriculum, but it can certainly give teachers access to a rich seam of facts and anecdotes with which to embellish their lessons.
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Review of Destination Time Travel, by Steve Nallon
A book on temporal adventures may seem like an odd inclusion here, but it can actually be used in many ways.
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Review: The Language of Deception: Weaponizing Next Generation AI, by Justin Hutchens
AI might not be ‘intelligent’ in the strictest sense – but it can certainly appear to be, which is almost as worrying.
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