Language used to evolve slowly. Now it evolves much more quickly. Apart from the fact that new technology – of which there is more and more every week – spawns new terminology, trends are spread with lightning speed across the internet via social media. There is a temptation to rely on crowd-sourced reference works when trying to find out the correct word or correct usage, because they will be bang up-to-date. Unfortunately, in my own experience these are sometimes wrong or contain discussions by people whose expertise in the matter is not obvious.
A film competition, video judging and a consultation
Childnet International, a registered charity whose mission is to work in partnership with others around the world to “help make the Internet a great and safe place for children”, is running a film competition. Here are the details:
City Learning Centres: The end?
Becta. The Harnessing Technology grant. Building Schools for the Future. The once-familiar landmarks of the English educational technology landscape are disappearing or gone. The indications are that they are being followed by City Learning Centres. These CLCs, set up around a decade ago to both provide facilities for local businesses and serve as beacons of innovation and excellence to the schools in a locality, are being closed down, threatened with closure, or reduced in staffing and funding. The question is, though: should we mourn?
Why I still love paper
The last time I saw my desk was around 18 months ago, give or take. Until yesterday, that is. It hadn’t been stolen, lost or mislaid, just buried under a pile of paper. And books. And mugs, pens and stickies garnered from various conferences. As you may know, if you've been reading my blog recently, I've been doing a whole load of clearing out.
Read MoreOpen Door Classrooms
Should classrooms be open to the world, in the sense that anyone might see what's going on, and perhaps even take part in them? Is this an inevitable development anyway, given today's technology?
Read MoreThese are the sorts of issues that Steve Wheeler raises in his reflections on Open Door Classrooms.
Conference: The Future of Education: Creating an Education System Fit for the 21st Century
This conference takes place on 24th May, and has a most timely agenda, with a focus on the Big Society, Free schools, and ICT.
Two slots in particular caught my eye, these being Teaching in a 21st Century School and ICT as a Driver of Educational Reform.
Read MoreConference: The future of education
This conference takes place in London on Tuesday 17th May. I’ve looked at the programme, and it looks pretty good, with some high profile speakers and some useful-sounding topics.
Read MoreLearning from the past
As I said recently, I’m currently clearing out tons of paperwork, books, reports, CDs -- anything, in fact, that I have had no need to bother with for the past several years. It is a process that has been as slow as I’d feared rather than as fast as I’d hoped, mainly because ordinary life always seems to intrude on even the best laid plans.
Read MoreA good use for YouTube
As well as clearing out a whole load of stuff, we have also acquired a couple of cats. They are currently breaking us in, and we are hoping that by tomorrow they will have trained us sufficiently to allow us all to watch the royal wedding together in the comfort of our lounge.
Saving Teachers TV
As you may know, the Teachers’ TV website will no longer be be available from tomorrow (29th April). Consultant Leon Cych has done a great job of organising a mass community download operation to ensure that these videos will not be lost.
Read MoreNormal service will be resumed
I'm taking advantage of the Easter vacation to clear out old files and paperwork. It's something I've been meaning to do for some time, and with so many bank holidays this month, this seemed as good a time as any!
There are quite a few articles on this site to read, and lots on the original ICT in Education website too.
I'll resume posting articles here as soon as possible, but please bear with me for a week or so! Thanks.
Preparing for the new term
What I’d really like to do right now is relax in the garden with a good book, or go swimming, or to enjoy the best of both worlds by taking myself to an outdoor pool somewhere. I could do a couple of lengths to convince myself I’ve had a work-out, and then reward myself by soaking up the sun. Instead, I’m surrounded by boxes of files, bags of files, and files. Yes, it’s the annual spring-clean, and this year I’m throwing out all the documents that last year I thought I should keep, and which I haven’t looked at since. I will also put all the new documents I think I should keep into a special box, to make it easier to throw them out this time next year.
Conventional non-wisdom
Should you have an ICT leaflet or prospectus to give to potential students or their parents? Conventional wisdom dictates that you should. Conventional wisdom is wrong.
If you think about it, the only reason for doing anything, either in education or in business, is to solve a problem. What is the problem, then, that the ICT prospectus is intended to solve? It is this:
5 Reasons to contribute to consultations
The number of responses to consultations tends to be low. For example, the Royal Society in England has received 125 responses to its consultation on computing in schools. Admittedly this is a niche area, but it still seems pretty low to me, given the fact that there are over 17,000 primary schools in England and, especially, over 3,000 secondary schools which, one would assume, have a vested interest. I believe that the number of responses to Government consultations is higher, but still relatively small.
I think people are mistaken not to have their say in this type of situation, even though I can understand why they might not wish to do so.
The end of Becta et al? Or, Should the Centre for Policy Studies be abolished?
"It seems to me that one of the key issues is not whether organisations provide value for money according to some narrow criteria, but whether they do so when the wider social costs and benefits are taken into account."
Read MoreThis article was originally published on 1st September 2009. I thought it might be interesting to re-read it in the current UK context.
An unexpected delight in an ICT lesson
It's often in the least likely circumstances that we discover astonishing things about others, and possibly ourselves.
One day while teaching I saw Maryanne, a 14 year-old pupil, walk past my room. I asked her what she was doing out of her lesson.
Read MoreICT Briefing Evenings
When the Headteacher told me that he would like me to run an ICT briefing evening for parents, I thought it was a great idea, although I didn’t agree with his suggested approach. He thought the parents should be given a talk for about 20 minutes, and then be allowed to wander around. I thought, let’s cut the talk part: the kids can do that, on a one-to-one basis. Who wants to sit and listen where ICT is concerned?
Read MoreIs there an ICT way of thinking?
Is there a way of thinking that has a quality of “ICT-ness”, in the same way as, say, there is an economics way of thinking? To put this another way, are there particular concepts whose understanding are fundamental to what we might call “digital literacy”? In the field of economics, for example, you have to understand the concepts of opportunity cost, scarcity an marginality – all of which words are technical terms in economics, regardless of how they are used in everyday speech.
Read MoreWhat does the Government really think about ICT?
I am by no means an apologist for the Government, but it seems to me that colleagues who have seized on the absence of ICT in the recent White Paper on the future of teaching as indicative of the Government's lack of interest in, or commitment to, ICT may have been premature. As an ex-Ofsted inspector I would say that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The White Paper failed to mention electricity as well, but I'm sure the Government would be surprised if anyone took that mean the Government thought schools should be run on gas!
Read MoreTwo-tier email system
Teachers looking for material with which to furnish their lessons on how technology affects society need look no further than email. This form of communication has affected in at least three ways what might be called “disposable time” – the time one has left after the essentials like eating and sleeping have been taken care of.