I have never met a teacher who enjoys writing reports. If you have one or two small groups, it’s not too bad, but if you have ten different groups of thirty kids, crunching out 300 reports is a bind. And, often, a pressured bind at that, shoehorned between exam results and end of term. But with any luck, a new breed of software could spell the end of such drudgery.
ICT consultant or ICT interim manager?
What are the differences between a consultant and an interim manager?
It may be the case that you do not need to appoint a full-time employee for the post of educational technology manager.
Using an ICT consultant
Given that consultants as a species have a pretty dreadful reputation, why should a school even consider using one? There are several reasons you might want to hire an educational ICT consultant:
Read MoreComputer Science courses should be left to the experts: teachers
It’s astonishing how everyone is an expert on school education these days. Everyone, that is, except the people who actually work in and with schools. The latest half-baked idea appeared in the BETT opening speech by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary for England & Wales. Here’s what he said:
Universities, businesses and others will have the opportunity to devise new courses and exams. In particular, we want to see universities and businesses create new high quality Computer Science GCSEs, and develop curricula encouraging schools to make use of the brilliant Computer Science content available on the web.
This is a dreadful idea for several reasons.
Technology & Learning Editor Kevin Hogan Interviewed
I had the pleasure of meeting up with Kevin Hogan again at BETT this year. Kevin is the Editor of Technology and Learning, which is a good magazine, a great website, and a brilliant blog and a new international blog. In this short video he talks about BETT, and the differences between educational technology in the USA and the UK, as well as his plans for the magazine.
4 Reasons that the ICT Programme of Study “had” to go
The fate of the ICT Programme of Study could have been predicted accurately long before Judge Gove donned his black cap and passed the death sentence. After several years of what might be justly described as a “war of attrition”, the weight of the “evidence”, such as it is, made such an outcome unavoidable.
This article is not, to continue the analogy, meant to be the beginning of an appeal process
Education Technology and ICT at BETT 2012: 7 Things to do afterwards
There is always a danger that no matter how good an event is, it will turn out to have very little impact in the longer term, as you forget what you saw and more pressing concerns vie for your attention. Here are 7 suggestions for preventing that from happening.
Educational Technology: Unofficial BETT Guide, a reminder
Developments in Eduucation Technology: Reflections on the first day of BETT
For me, the day can best be characterised as one of mixed feelings and divided loyalties. To be sure, there was all the excitement and adrelain-inducing "buzz" for which BETT is noted, and why it ought to be prescribed on the National Health Service as a cure for "the blues", but the experience was not one of unadulterated pleasure.
Read More7 MORE mistakes made by ICT Co-ordinators
Having written about 7 mistakes made by ICT Co-ordinators (and if you haven’t read that, go and read it now; don’t worry, I’ll wait), I gave the topic a bit more thought and then realised I could have easily listed a few more. Well, here are a further seven to be thinking about! Have you made, or are you making, these mistakes?
ICT Posters: Credit Rating
Why do posters and notices in computer labs have to be so serious? Surely it just deters people from using the stuff?
I recall one school in which 10 seconds in the computer lab had you nervously looking around for the heavy mob: the walls were covered in posters telling you what was forbidden – forbidden! The general ambience was not improved by the bars on all the windows. Understandable, but even so….
7 Mistakes made by ICT Co-ordinators
So, you’ve landed a great new job, an important one at that, as an ICT Co-ordinator or Technology Co-ordinator. But in your eagerness to make an impact, are you making some fundamental mistakes? Here’s a quick guide about what not to do.
9 Reasons to attend BETT 2012
Well, here we are again. It will soon be Christmas, and just as we're all hoping to have started to recover from over-eating and over-imbibing (not me though: I'm being sensible!), it's the BETT show. Said to be the largest educational technology show in the world, it's gruelling but also exciting. IF you can get to it, do so -- and if you can't think of why you'd want to, you're in luck, because that's what this article is all about.
There are at least 9 good reasons to attend BETT, these being to:
Collabor8 4 Change at BETT 2012
We had a fantastic three hours at Collabor8 4 Change at Havering on the 17th November. Variety is the spice of life, so with 56 topics to choose from in total, everyone was catered for. To give you a flavour of the event, below is a selection of the talks and discussions featured. Now, if you are feeling really devastated that you were not able to be there, we have two bits of good news.Found on the web: 11/22/2011 (p.m.)
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Interesting approach to encouraging teachers to use technology in their teaching, specifically Web 2.0. It is similar to what some teachers told me about how they encourage their colleagues to use interactive whiteboards more effectively, whilst I was doing research for an article recently.
Why Schools Cannot Ignore Web 2.0
Here are 4 posts from about 18 months ago dealing with why schools cannot ignore Web 2.0.
Read More4 Reasons why doing IT on the cheap is an error of judgement
I’ve read about schools beating the budget blues by building their own visualisers, interactive whiteboards and computers. In my opinion these measures are a mistake, for the following reasons:
Increasing the decision-making capacity of your ICT team
If you lead an ICT team, the good news is that you don't have to do it all yourself!
Here are 10 ideas which I have found to be very helpful in creating a collaborative and co-operative team ethos.
Collaborate for Change: information and update
Collabor8 4 Change, a great new-style conference, is running again on 17th November. We've just made available 50 more tickets!
An opportunity for rich discussions: Collabor8 4 Change
Having recently written about discussions – why to contribute, and what not to do when you do contribute – I thought I’d write a quick update on a real live event taking place on 17th November 2011. This is a bit of an advert, but the event I’m writing about is free and should be good for professional development, so I hope you’ll forgive me.
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