Everyone, it seems, is getting in on the tablet act. As you’d expect, Microsoft has not been sitting on its laurels. The Microsoft Surface has been developed, and from what I’ve read it sounds pretty good.
You must be joking, right?
I don’t know if many people ever look at the categories that blog posts have been assigned to. I know I do sometimes, especially if I’m looking for a particular article or type of article. But, in the interests of making people’s lives as easy as possible as far as finding articles on the ICT in Education website is concerned, I not only assign articles to categories but sometimes make up new categories in order to be even more specific. Thus it was that I recently created a new category called Really?
Recommended reading
Here is a selection of online articles that I think worth reading – some of them are my own (he says modestly), but others are others’! They cover a wide range of topics, including the flipped classroom, Bring Your Own Technology, what happens in an internet minute, up and coming conferences and others.
Collabor8 4 Change in Inclusive Technologies
I’ve just received the schedule for this free conference, which I wrote about in Learning about inclusive technologies through collaboration, and it looks pretty good. It takes place this evening, so here is a quick heads-up about it.
Read MoreBYOD: What’s in a name?
When I started to look at the whole Bring our Own Device phenomenon, I thought it was all pretty simple. Mal Lee and EdFutures have drawn a distinction between BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and BYOT (Bring our Own Technology). These are helpful, but unfortunately things ain’t that simple.
Motivating Educators and Inspiring Learners
That’s the title of a great-looking conference on 3rd October – which is only next Wednesday. Russell Prue, one of the organisers and speakers, told me about it, so I had a look…
What I like about it is that there are only 4 sessions, and each looks worthwhile attending. The four speakers are at the top of their game. You can see the details on the conference website. There’s a link to the full programme there too.
Hidden treasures
We’ve probably all heard the statistic that 80% of people use only 20% of a program’s features – but that doesn’t mean to say that the unused features are no good. It could be that people haven’t discovered them, or could not find an obvious use for them, or that they have simply forgotten about them.
5 Characteristics of an Ideal Programme of Study for ICT
Many people in the educational ICT field in England are busy working on a new ICT Programme of Study to replace the current (disapplied) one. Here are my thoughts on what the ideal Programme of Study would be.
Read MoreGames Addiction
Are boys addicted to games, and does it matter if they are? (And what is addiction anyway?) Online Graduates has sent me an infographic on the subject. Have a look at it,and maybe discuss it with your students. I’ve decided to be a bit of a devil’s advocate in my response to it!
Learning about inclusive technologies through collaboration
There are all different ways of running a training day. One approach is to beat delegates into submission by talking at them all day long. Another is to get them to do something. Learning by doing is a well-known approach, having been perfected, I believe, in the Neanderthal era. In short, it has a good track record, and was the method of choice adopted by Load2Learn for their Technologies for Print Disabilities Training Day.
Mystery solved?
Here in London there are so-called ‘Olympic Lanes’ on the road network, which may be used only by members of the ‘Olympic Family’, ie contestants and others directly connected with the Games (see this Alberta Games website for information about it). So, the lanes are in place, and motorists are allowed to use some of them at the moment. However, despite big electronic displays telling drivers they can use the lanes, lots of them didn’t realise that. Why not?
Read MoreReflections on being off the grid
Last week I went “off the grid”. I thought I would benefit from a complete break. People rave about the 24/7 society, and anytime anywhere learning, but I actually think it’s healthy to cut off every so often. I also think we should encourage young people to as well. Anyway, here are my reflections on being unavailable for a week.
Off the Grid
I’ve gone offline for a week. No internet, no email, no mobile phone, no nothing. Just before I “disappeared”, I made a supreme effort to catch up with responding to comments. So I thought
News: searching, mobile learning
E-learning consultant Rob Ellis made a bit of a mistake a few days ago. He (somewhat flippantly I think), suggested that an article I wrote about using the right search engine might have been rewritten under the title ‘using the search engine right’. Bad move, because I replied, “Great idea! Would you like to do it?” That’s because I always think that if someone has a particular bee in their bonnet they are likely to write about it much more eloquently and passionately than I will.
Read More3 ways of maintaining privacy
Her Majesty The Queen of England serves as an inspirational role model in terms of personal privacy. Despite being in the public eye for 60 years, she has managed to keep her personal opinions to herself. Almost nobody knows, for example, what her favourite tea is (although Smokey Earl Grey has been hinted at). Yet there are many people who seem to announce to the world each time they blow their nose!
The balance between public and private is, of course, a personal choice, and one made more difficult by other people openly talking about one’s activities or tagging one’s photos, and much standard business advice. But if you do want to be fairly private while maintaining a strong online presence, here are some suggestions. You may like to share and discuss these with students, who are also striving to get this balance correct.
Comments
Sorry about my lack of response to comments recently. I will rectify that sson. Thanks for being patient.
Update on 2012-06-29 11:48 by Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant
For some reason, I actually can't respond to comments. I've asked the tech support people to sort it out.
12 ways of disconnecting in a connected world
How can one disconnect in today’s world, and why would one want to anyway?
Read MoreAre links in blogs always a good thing?
I know it’s de rigeur to always include links in blog posts: it’s polite, gets you Brownie points with other people, provides a rich and rewarding reading experience, and generally helps make the blogging world go round.
But is always right?
An example of how technology changes things
I have found the Never Seconds debacle quite interesting. Story in a nutshell, in case you missed it: nine-year-old Martha Payne writes a daily blog in which she uploads a picture of her school lunch and reviews it. Argylle and Bute Council has some sort of nervous breakdown and issues an edict telling Martha that she isn’t allowed to take photos of her lunch, because catering staff are now in fear of their jobs. As a consequence, Martha’s blog gets over 5 million page views in just a few days, the number of comments on her posts soars from around 30 to over 2,300 in two days, and Argyll and Bute rescind the ban.
“I’m on the tube!”
People travelling on the London Underground (known as ‘the tube’) will soon be able to obtain a wi-fi signal on their phone or other electronic device.
What might be the benefits and costs of this?