I have just updated my article entitled What’s RSS and why is it useful?
Read More2 conferences about educational ICT
Here are a couple of conferences coming up which look pretty good, and which are taking place in England in the near future.L is for lesson observation
I watched an episode of that seminal contribution to English culture, Waterloo Road last week, for the first time in ages. I wrote about Waterloo Road in What makes a good ICT role model? if you’re interested, but basically it’s a soap set in a school which has to be the most dysfunctional school anyone has ever come across. The kids are alright (as some pop song said once), on the whole – but the adults…..
Read MoreShould websites have tip jars?
In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, a tip jar is a device whereby people can contribute a donation to a website – a bit like the jars in cafes in which customers can drop a few coins by way of a tip to staff. Indeed, the websites I’ve come across that have tip jars tend to ask visitors to help them buy their next coffee in Starbucks.
Before we can go any further, is this an educational issue? I believe it is, or could be, for the following reasons
When it comes to mobile learning, timing is everything
I was discussing with a colleague the fact that some of us were trying years ago to introduce mobile technology into education. I can’t speak for others, but certainly for me it was an insight into how Sisyphus must have felt. He, as you may know, was the hapless guy who was condemned to push a huge rock to the top of a hill, only to see it roll all the way down again within inches of reaching the top. Doing that once would have been bad enough, but he was sentenced to do it forever.Building schools for the past?
Bob Harrison, a well-known thinker and speaker on the UK’s educational technology scene, has warned against building schools that are fit for the past rather than the future. Apparently as a result of this, he has been removed from the programme of a forthcoming conference.
Read MoreICT and computing lessons should be organic
Stephen King, in his book ‘On Writing’, makes a very interesting point. Going against just about all the advice proffered in books and magazine articles, he says:
Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice.
You might be inclined to dismiss that as hogwash, but given King’s phenomenal success as a writer I’d suggest that would be unwise.
Perspectives on The Computing Programme of Study
I thought this graphical representation of a curriculum applies really well to the proposed Computing Programme of Study. (See My response to the ICT/Computing consultation for more information about that.)My response to the ICT/Computing consultation
Here is the comment I made near the end of the online form. I decided to take the opportunity to speak my mind about the whole process of consultation, right from the beginning. Unfortunately, I referred to the Royal Society of Engineers by mistake rather than the Royal Academy of Engineering. It was a simple mistake which I hope won’t undermine the legitimacy of my statement.
I also took the opportunity to say what I think about the constant messages from ‘on high’ about ICT being ‘boring’. I think it undermines teachers, and from that point of view is unforgivable.
We need ICT teachers, not facilitators
When did ICT teachers stop becoming teachers and become ‘facilitators’ instead? I’ve largely managed to ignore this sort of nonsense but now it’s getting out of hand. The other day someone said on Twitter or Facebook that he is an ‘active facilitator’, while someone else shared a sign which read “I am not a teacher; I am an activator.”An Interview with Naace ICT Impact Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Dr Christina Preston
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.
Naace ICT Impact Awards - A Profile of Penny Patterson
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.”
The Naace ICT Impact Awards
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!”
An Interview with Charles Clarke
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.
Lessons from Reviewing the new Computing Curriculum
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.Are acceptable use policies acceptable or of any use?
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
Discussions about the curriculum
I suppose this isn't quite fair, but I couldn't resist it anyway! Is this how discussions about the curriculum must seem to people outside education?
Read MoreIt doesn’t have to be pink
I turned my collar up against the wind. A useless gesture, because the wind contemptuously insinuated itself under my skin regardless, but it made me look hard. And hardness was needed in this job. I walked around the playground, glaring at kids who even just looked like they might be thinking of doing something wrong. Crowds of them parted as I approached. One looked shifty.
“You got a problem, son?” I gritted.
I was a teenage geek
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.
BETT 2013 Interviews: Steve Wheeler
ICT thinker, lecturer and writer Steve Wheeler talks about being at the BETT Show for the first time this year, and the things people are discussing in the world of ICT.