This is what the latest version of Digital Education contains, with guest articles by Professor Paul Curzon, Sal McKeown, Geoff Jones and Crispin Weston
Digital Revolution explores and celebrates the transformation of the arts through digital technology since the 1970s. The exhibition brings together for the first time a range of artists, filmmakers, architects, designers, musicians and game developers pushing the boundaries of their fields using digital media. It also looks to the future considering the impact of creative coding, DIY culture, digital communities and the creative possibilities offered by technologies including augmented reality, artificial intelligence, wearable technologies, robotics and 3D printing.
The latest edition of Digital Education is bursting at the seems. There is, I hope, something for everybody. As well as news and commentary, there are lists of resources, evaluated. Plus, guest articles: Professor Paul Curzon considers what programmers can learn from magicians, Sal McKeown asks whether we really need teachers, Crispin Weston suggests what is wrong with the Education Technology Action Group, Geoff Jones points out the dangers of some forms of data collection from parents, and Derek Blunt has a (mild) rant about the demise of the term “teaching”.
There are other articles too, plus a chance to win a Labquest datalogger, and a chance to win a break in Germany, an iPad and other goodies, free entry to an event called Digital Summer Trip, access to a growing list of very useful resources, including the collated articles about the recently-announced Department for Education assessment innovations.
The full list of contents is given below.
A couple of months ago I invited people to contribute to a survey about what they were doing to prepare for the new Computing curriculum. About 75% of my motivation for doing so was to help to spread ideas. I believe in the grass roots sort of approach to such things, as opposed to the ‘great and the good’ declaring what the rest of should be doing. Actually, to clarify, I don’t mind if the great and the good are doing it or have done it themselves. I find it tedious when people who have never been a teacher and/or had little contact with schools start issuing advice. OK, rant over!
The forthcoming edition of Digital Education contains articles about magic, monsters and music. See? Computing is not all about coding!
The latest edition of this wonderful publication is out now!
How are teachers preparing for the new Computing curriculum, which is due to start being taught in September 2014? Some time ago I created an online survey in order to ascertain the answer to this question. Although there have been fewer respondents than I’d hoped for (though probably more than I’d expected), the results are quite interesting. Here is a very brief summary.I am always suspicious of things that everyone agrees about – mainly because I usually find myself disagreeing. I would not be so arrogant as to believe that everyone else is wrong and I’m right, but I do often think that it would be good to evaluate what is taken as read in light of our personal experience and pedagogical expertise.
Here are just three examples of what I’m talking about.
Professor Diana Laurillard has informed me of a new course that is going to be run for teachers and others with an interest in how ICT is being used in primary education in various countries. I think it sounds very interesting. Here’s the official blurb:
This is to announce a new course on ICT in Primary Education, to run as a MOOC (a massive open online course), hosted by the University of London.
Lots of schools with computer suites are getting rid of them by turning them into ordinary classrooms. The reason is that with mobile technology such as tablets, and initiatives like Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), there is no longer any need for a computer suite.
But getting rid of a computer suite is just one option: there are several others.
In case you missed it, the latest issue of Digital Education, the free newsletter for those with a professional interest in educational ICT and Computing, contains some great articles. Here’s a list of the main ones.For colleagues who like pondering data, here are some statistics about the latest issue of Digital Education, the free newsletter for those with a professional interest in educational ICT and Computing…
The latest issue contains:
“Where are the girls?” is one of the articles in the latest issue of Digital Education, the free newsletter for those with a professional interest in educational ICT and Computing. This article looks at what the issues are and, crucially, offers practical solutions and suggests several resources that you may find useful in this context.
Other articles include:
The new Computing Programme of Study has been criticised not only for its content, but also for the terminology it uses. In particular, it speaks about “computational thinking”, “algorithms” and “decomposition”. “Surely”, the argument goes, “they could have used ordinary everyday language?”
Had “they” decided to do that, there would no doubt have had so many people panicking about it all. So, it’s a compelling suggestion. It just happens to be wrong.
Zaneta Stepien explains what the Internet of Things is, and why we should be excited about it.
Technology never fails to bring us exciting developments and always promises to make our lives better. In recent years, there has been an explosion of technological creativity and innovation, with bold projects being undertaken in all corners of the Earth: from wireless power, 3D printing, gamification, autonomous vehicles and Automatic Content Recognition, to mobile robots and -- the topic of this post -- The Internet of Things, or, as some call it, The Internet of Everything. Sounds grand? Well, it's probably because it is. The promise of this enterprise is nothing short of game-changing,
Yew Tree Primary School in Sandwell is always on the lookout for opportunities to help improve the learning environments of its pupils. As an Apple Regional Training Centre, the school is very keen on utilising technology to enhance the curriculum with all its KS2 pupils having their own iPad 24/7 365 days a year.
(c) Terry Freedman All Rights Reserved
