Bob Harrison writes: “We have a computing curriculum and suite of qualifications which neither meet the needs of all pupils nor the needs of a rapidly evolving digital workplace and world.”
Read MoreClick the cover to see the book on Payhip.
Not So Fast (Updated)
I once worked out, around 10 years ago, that there was a new education initiative on average every two weeks.
Read MoreWhat’s the story? UPDATED
How I hate the word “narrative”! At least, I detest the way it has been usurped by smart-suited political advisers who say things like “We need a new narrative”.
But sometimes, like now, I get what they are talking about, though I prefer to use the word “story”. And my question is: what is the story, what is the whole experience, of Computing in your school?
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Pardon? By Terry Freedman
The usefulness of data
A technical support reporting system is only as good as the information you can extract from it.
Read More11 criteria for evaluating a school’s education technology UPDATED
Whether you are moving to a new school, or staying where you are, it’s good to stand back and try to gauge what the school’s education technology is like. Why you would want to do that if taking up a new post is obvious: you want to see how the land lies so that you can start to identify any improvements that could be made.
The UserID interface, by Terry Freedman
Useless utilities, pointless programs -- and why we should encourage kids to create them
We should encourage pupils to write useless bits of code. Here’s why.
Read More30 ideas for organising a team meeting with a difference
If you lead a team of ed tech or Computing teachers, you can do a lot with team meetings; in fact, you can turn (at least some of them) into opportunities for professional development. It's a very good idea to occasionally depart from the standard team meeting format and put on a "special". This helps to keep interest high, and enables various goals to be achieved, including staff professional development.
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A pictogram version of the next edition of the Digital Education newsletter
The forthcoming edition of the Digital Education newsletter features some great links and resources. See if you can figure out what topics are covered from these illustrations!
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MS Decoded, by Terry Freedman
Microsoft Decoded Conference
The 2018 Microsoft Decoded event was a good conference, especially in the area of artificial intelligence and its applications. This year’s conference promises to have some interesting sessions too.
Read MoreComputing and computing-related qualifications
Here in England the Government, in its quest to put Computing on the map, did its best to make sure the rest of the map was blank – by getting rid of qualifications that lots of students took (especially girls).
Read More10 ways to encourage reluctant teachers to use education technology
If part of your job is to encourage other teachers to use technology in their lessons, this article, based on my own experiences, may help.
Read MoreComing soon in the Digital Education newsletter
The next edition of this esteemed newsletter has a cornucopia of links that will be of interest to teachers of computing and media literacy especially, and very little commentary! Read on to find out more.
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Presentation on a mobile phone, by Terry Freedman
Actually, it IS about the technology (partly)
“It’s not about the technology” sounds logical, but in my experience it is certainly not the whole story.
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Training manual, by Terry Freedman
How should ed tech training be done?
If you are responsible for the ed tech/Computing/ICT training in your school, here are a few questions which you might like to consider.
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The Scream, by Terry Freedman (with apologies to Munch)
Viruses and other nasties are a leadership issue
How vulnerable are schools to viruses and so on? Here are the results of a survey, plus some comments on the role of the ed tech leader in the school.
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Whiteboard, by Terry Freedman
My worst IT Training Days #5: Whiteboard not working
Worthy cogitations about what I might have done to avoid being faced with a non-working whiteboard — and why that situation arose in the first place.
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admin burden, by Terry Freedman
My worst IT training days #4: Too much admin on a course
How the admin involved in a course led to its being abandoned by one group of trainers.
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What I've been reading: Offline
Why do many people seem to be addicted to their smartphones? This book explains how we get drawn in to constantly checking for updates, and suggests what we might do about it.
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Books for the classroom, by Terry Freedman
How to get the most from school author visits
As well as having an ed tech library, why not look into inviting an author of a computing book to speak to your pupils?
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Computing and Related Qualifications
Computing and related qualifications ebook: why?
Here’s a brief note about why I wrote this mini-guide, and a couple of screenshots from its pages.
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