The Digital Education newsletter, by Terry
A couple of years ago someone said to me that they like my newsletter, Digital Education, although it looks a bit old-fashioned. I thought about that, and whether I wanted to update the look of it, but decided not to, for two main reasons.
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I daresay there are schools in which teachers are expected to divide all their lessons into manageable chunks in accordance with Cognitive Load Theory (CLT). The fact that CLT is light on the specifics and is a load of rubbish is seemingly no deterrent.
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Just a section of the Freedman archive collection (artist’s impression)
Here’s a rum thing. While trawling through the Freedman archives looking for something exciting to read (actually, an excuse for not getting on with the work I’m meant to be doing), I came across this old newsletter.
Read More“It seems to me that the folks at the Teacher Training Agency have not so much *lost* the plot as are still looking for it.” Another delve into the edtech issues of the day in the year 2000!
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Archives, by Terry Freedman
“There are people around now who are 17 years old. They started formal schooling when they were 5 years old -- in 1988. And some of them have come out of school not knowing one end of a computer from the other!” I hope this still isn’t the case today, but then I tend to be an optimist.
Read MoreThere are a couple of interesting things in the newsletter below. One is the findings from a study at Reading University about the most effective approach to training teachers. I’d be very surprised if a study carried out today didn’t yield similar results.
Read MoreIn the following archived issue of my newsletter, you might find the following articles in particular interesting:
Why do it? (This reports the results of a survey enquiring into why some teachers shy away from using technology).
Responses to a problem posed in the form of a scenario, about teachers using technology as a reward or a time-filler rather than for serious work.
It was when my wireless router told me that there was no printer on the network that I finally flipped.
I’ve been trawling through the archives again (I don’t get out much). The following appeared in the very first edition of my newsletter, which was originally called Computers in Classrooms (but is now called Digital Education), on 3rd April 2000:
Every so often there comes along a new daft idea (or a newly-packaged old idea that has been mangled out of recognition (and thereby rendered useless) so that its “inventor” can be designated as a guru. Me? Cynical? Never!) One of the more unfortunate manifestations of this phenomenon was the three part lesson. It sounds good and logical, but then the thing that usually happens happened: Ofsted started insisting on it, and Headteachers demanded to witness it in every lesson. Woe betide the brilliant but hapless teacher whose lesson plans failed to include the three parts.
Our newsletter Computers in Classrooms has been folded up, put away in a drawer and replaced by another one. Welcome to Digital Education!It was when my wireless router told me that there was no printer on the network that I finally flipped.Eleven years ago I wrote an 8-point guide to BETT, in my newsletter, and have reproduced it below. I think the points still stack up, especially the one about having a good breakfast! I hope you enjoy reading this blast from the past (9th January 2001 to be exact). And when you have done so, why not download the up-to-date bumper edition – 125 stupendous tips, and completely free? The URL is at the end of the article.
At the time this was written, the web was still relatively new to a lot of teachers, and Google had been on the scene for about three years. At that time it was still only a search engine. The newsletter was sent in text format from my own email address using my personal email client, which at that time was Eudora. Ah, such days of innocence!
In a couple of hours’ time I will be distributing the latest version of Getting the Best out if BETT, which includes the views of over 30 people who attended last year’s BETT. Here’s a Wordle of what products they thought worth pursuing, the trends they spotted, and the advice they offer to schools in these straitened times.
The latest edition of Computers in Classrooms, the e-newsletter for those with a professional interest in educational ICT, has just gone out. It’s a special conference edition. And one of the conferences is offering subscribers a 50% reduction in the entry fee!
Today I have been working on the new issue of Computers in Classrooms, the free e-newsletter for those with a professional interest in educational ICT. Here’s a summary of what it contains. It will be published later today.
Unless you’ve been walking around with a bucket over your head for the past year or three, you must have noticed that 3D is definitely the “in” thing. It’s almost de rigueur for new movies to be in 3D, and there is even at least one smartphone which has a 3D display. But what about educational applications?
(c) Terry Freedman All Rights Reserved