I am continually astonished by people’s misconceptions or misinformation about education in general, and ICT in particular. To be more accurate, I am often shocked, but no longer surprised, at how poorly education tends to be reported on in the press – at least in my experience when it concerns stuff I know about.
Now, I understand this when it comes to a subject like science. I used to say to Elaine, over breakfast, things like:
I was looking in the archives this morning, to see what I wrote about on this date in the past. By some strange twist, my articles on 4th July in both 2010 and 2011 were about criticism. Not criticism aimed at anyone or anything in particular, but in terms of general principles.Setting: an interview room.
Chair of Governors: So, Mr Freedman, do you have any questions you would like to ask US?
Terry Freedman: Yes. What are YOUR criteria of a successful ICT Co-ordinator?
Headteacher: I want to see teachers banging on the doors of the computer labs demanding to be let in.
How do you ensure that the ICT facilities at your school are attractive enough to be used by pupils and staff? Even if your school has a Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) scheme or a tablet-centred 1:1 scheme in place, you will want to ensure that the school’s own stuff is being used as fully and as effectively as possible. What can you, the ICT Co-ordinator/e-learning co-ordinator/senior leader in charge of ICT in the curriculum, do to help make that happen? Here are some suggestions.Mullah Nasrudin was in a village he was visiting for the first time. He rushed into a shop, and demanded of the shopkeeper:
“Have you ever seen me before?”
“No!” answered the owner.
“Well then,” asked Nasrudun. “How do you know it’s me then?”
You might think that an ancient Persian folk hero would have little to say a 21st century citizen, but I think you’d be wrong.
Here are a couple of interesting cartoon strips about the (possible) effects of new technology. Yesterday’s one is more about unintended consequences, while today’s is really about how apparently intelligent software and monitoring systems might be fooled.
In this interview, Dominic Savage OBE discusses, amongst other things, the purpose of the Education World Forum, the effect of increasing access to devices, and what schools need to do as far as investing in ICT is concerned. Mr Savage has been the Director General of BESA since 1984. The following is not a verbatim account, but has been checked by Mr Savage before being published.
Christina Preston was one of two people given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2013 Conference of Naace, the subject association for ICT. I interviewed her to find out about her and her work.
Penny Patterson is on Twitter, but prefers to listen rather than talk, unless she has something of value to add to the conversation. She is active in ICT circles, though doesn’t have her own blog. And if you visit a conference she’s speaking at, you’re likely to chat to her while she serves the tea. She prefers, to use her own words, to be “one of the backroom team”.
Indirect evidence of this was seen in this year’s Naace ICT Impact Awards. When Penny was selected as one of the two people to be given a Lifetime Achievement Award, the look on her face was one of surprise, bordering on shock, and tinged with bewilderment. Typically, she told me that “other people deserve this award far more than I do.”
Terry Freedman considers why the Naace ICT Impact Awards are such a valuable feature of the educational ICT landscape in the UK.
Some years ago I was driving in America, and I passed a school with a massive sign which read: “Chuck Evans*: Teacher of the semester!”
When I was young I used to love reading Superman, Batman and Spider-Man comics. Oh, ok, I admit it: I still do! Anyway, I always thought their costumes looked really good: colourful, good for showing everyone your biceps and, well, different.
The trouble is, of course, is that in reality these costumes would be awful
Charles Clarke was Secretary of State for Education and Skills in 2002. I interviewed him at the Education World Forum, 2013.The following is not a verbatim account, but has been checked by Mr Clarke before being published.
This is not so much a review or even a summary of the recent Westminster Forum Conference called ‘Reviewing the new Computing Curriculum’ as a series of observations arising from it and related articles. The reason for that approach is that I’d like to make this article useful and interesting to as wide a range of people as possible, not only those concerned with the ICT or Computing Programme of Study in the National Curriculum in England and Wales.
Should schools have Acceptable Use Policies? The following article was originally published in April 2008. Apart from the references to the ‘recent’ Byron Review and to Becta, it still seems very apposite to me. If I were writing the article today, I’d bring in Responsible Use Policies, but otherwise I believe it still stands. What do you think?
One of the things recommended by the recent Byron Review into keeping children safe in a digital world was for schools to have acceptable use policies
This article is a bit autobiographical, but there is an objective point to it. Actually, it’s completely autobiographical, but there is still a point to it.
One day when I was 15, I was milling around in this youth club trying to look cool, when someone came up to me and asked me if I’d be interested in joining a cinematography club he wanted to get started. He explained to me that I’d learn how to use a cine camera to shoot films, edit the films,learning about lighting and all that other technical stuff, so I said “Yes!”.
I’d never touched a cine camera in my life.
For as long as I can recall, people have been hankering after that happy state of affairs where paper is notable only by its absence. Have we reached that stage yet, or is it, at least, in sight?
The reason I ask is that a couple of schools I visited recently have made a good attempt to go paperless.
Quadblogging founder David Mitchell talks about what he saw at the BETT Show this year, and quadblogging.(c) Terry Freedman All Rights Reserved