I know that to most folks in England, “back to school” seems a long way off. But pity our colleagues in Scotland, the USA and other parts of the world for whom this has already become a reality. Here are two resources you might find useful.
The importance of branding for ICT in schools
One of the things you have to acknowledge, whether you like it or not, is that to some extent people do judge by appearances. So, how does your ICT provision appear to others?
There is a potential paradox
Are you an insufferable bore?
When I walk into a shop and immediately get pounced on by a sales assistant, I usually beat a hasty retreat. If they’d have just left me alone, I might have bought something.
Read MoreCrossing the street
In 1993 the DJ Norman Jay told Sheryl Garratt, writing for The Face:
If you believe in what you’re doing, sooner or later those who rejected you will cross the street to see what you’re doing.
Crossing the street isn't always so easyI love that quote. I think it applies to any situation in which someone is trying to change the way things are done – or at least trying to make a few relatively minor changes – in an environment where most people feel they have no compelling reason to change anything. Many ICT leaders will certainly know that feeling!
So, what could that quote mean in your situation?
Synchronicity, mobile phones and a great upcoming conference
It’s strange, is it not, how certain linkages occur, what some would call coincidence , and others synchronicity ? Yesterday, the mobile phone was the common factor for me, and continued to play a part: I became so engrossed in responding to an email that I missed my station by two stops, and had to backtrack!
Tools for ICT Managers
Tomorrow morning (09:30 UK time) I will be giving a talk entitled 20+ tools in 40+ minutes. So what’s that all about?
I have used the word “tools” to encompass useful applications, websites, blogs and societies. They are all ones I have found to be useful, or think would be useful to others.
What don't people know?
Like many others, I suppose, I sometimes forget that just because I am familiar with something (a piece 
Hmm. Seems kinda obvious to me...of software, a workaround, a report -- whatever) doesn't mean that everyone else is. And they're not going to tell you that they don't know something for one very simple reason -- people don't know what they don't know!
About a year ago I explored this issue, and suggested ways to deal with it, in an article entitled The art of stating the obvious. Click the link to read the article now.
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:
Managing ICT on a budget
Tomorrow evening, at 7 pm UK time, I’ll be hosting a discussion on managing ICT on a budget. If you have any top tips you’d like to share, or are looking for some ideas on how to make your budget go further, why not pop along?
Read MoreThe effective use of ICT
One laptop per child: a worthy goal, but does it lead to the most effective learning? Research published over the years has challenged the assumption that youngsters do better working on their own than sharing a computer.
Read More25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #22 Don’t tell it how it is
I’ve always thought that it’s the expert’s duty to inform the non-expert when they have not got it right. If you’re not prepared to do that, what good are you actually doing?
Read MoreTranquility
I’ve decided that I spend so much time at my computer that my desktop background needs to be calming. Here’s the photo I chose.
7 Outlandish ideas for ICT
Yesterday I was faced with a grim journey into central London. Now, we Brits like nothing better than to complain about the weather, but this time our moaning was justified. The dreadful heat made it difficult not only for us to work, but also the signals on a part of the rail service into London. The part that I use. Rather than face delays of up to 40 minutes (nearly 50% of the normal journey time), I “asked” Transport for London to find an alternative route for me, one which didn’t involve going by rail.
I'm glad I did.
Where can you get advice that is both free and good?
I don’t think it’s necessarily true that you get what you pay for. Some of the best advice available has been free. But where can you go now for good advice which is also free? I’ve started a new discussion on this topic in one of the Vital forums:
Read MoreEDUsummIT 2011 Report: The Digital Divide
Did you know that there are now more mobile subscriptions in the developing countries than in the (so-called) developed countries? I didn’t either. That was a fact pointed out to us by Dr Paul Resta, of the University of Texas at Austin, USA. Yet our appreciation of how such technologies can be used to support learning (both formal and informal) is still in its infancy.
Read MoreReview of Building Parental Engagement in Schools
Are parents a necessary evil from a school's point of view,or can they be an essential part of the work of the school? And if so, how? This book provides some (though not all) of the answers.
Read MoreDiscussion about the role of the ICT Co-ordinator
I recently posted a couple of articles that questioned whether the role of the ICT Co-ordinator was necessary. (See the links below if you missed those masterpieces.) Well, we had an online discussion (I’m not daft enough to make an appearance in real life on that sort of platform!), escaped relatively unscathed, and here is the result...
Read MoreThe role of ICT Co-ordinator is unnecessary: discuss
OK, I admit it: I was being a bit of a devil’s advocate when I suggested that the role of ICT Co-ordinator is redundant, but consider this. In these hard times, how will you respond if your Headteacher calls you into her office one morning and says:
I need to make some serious budget cuts. What exactly do you do, why does it need to be done anyway, and why can’t I get an admin person on half your salary to do it instead?
A conference, summer CPD and a UNESCO report
Here are three options for you to consider in order to give a boost to your professional development:
- The forthcoming ISTE conference in Philadelphia.
- A cornucopia of ideas for professional development over the summer break, in case all that relaxing gets you down.
- A report from UNESCO on Learning, Innovation and ICT.
All this was published last week in Computers in Classrooms, the free e-newsletter for educational ICT professionals. Subscribe now (literally: right now) and you’ll stand a chance of winning a premium version of Xobni, a pretty good email management tool. I’m running the draw for that at 10 pm UK time today.
Read on for the details of those three resources.
Do we really need ICT Co-ordinators?
The role of ICT Co-ordinator has been around for decades – ever since, in fact, someone decided that ICT activities ought to be co-ordinated across the curriculum. But why should it be, and what does it even mean to co-ordinate it anyway?