There has been much discussion about the curriculum in general in England recently, and the ICT curriculum in particular. I wrote about the latter a few months ago, in an article entitled 5 Characteristics of an Ideal Programme of Study for ICT. Now, three months and two draft versions of a new ICT Programme of Study later, I should like to put forward a few comments, both about the area of “ICT curriculum” in general, and about recent developments in the UK in particular.
7 Reasons educators should blog
Like many others, I find blogging a useful activity. So useful, in fact, that I think everyone involved in education should do it! Here, in no particular order, are my reasons.
Review of Learn for Life News
I recently discovered a fairly new educational technology and ICT news service. Published daily by UK ICT veteran Leon Cych, Learn for Life News is a welcome – and different – addition to the plethora of information sources currently available.
Why “different”? Because it is not just another source of news but, as Leon himself describes it, filtered news. Leon is acting as a human filter of what is currently being discussed on the UK ICT grapevine.
Adobe Helps Nurture Young Creative Talent with New Online Courses for UK Students
Adobe has rolled out an exciting series of online courses called Adobe Generation, which are designed to help students between the age of 14 and 19 develop new skills that will put them in a better position when exploring career options in the creative industry.
Responsible Use
The general thrust of education these days is on student-centred learning. This is often expressed by depicting on the teacher’s role as being the guide on the side rather than the sage on the stage. Regardless of whether you agree that that’s how things should be (and as it happens I don’t: see Please! No More Mantras!), the often-stated philosophy these days is that students know best.
But does stating that philosophy mean that it is observed in practice?
What’s the story?
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 ICT in your school?
Further developments in the tablet market: the Microsoft Surface
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.
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