Getting the Best out of Bett 2015: a reminder

Too late for Terry Freedman's Bett2015 GuideBett 2015 kicks off in a few hours' time, so this is just a reminder that my guide to Bett 2015 is now available. It contains over 200 hints, tips, suggestions and opinions. It even contains a detailed floor plan -- the first such guide to do so! It's in pdf format, but as it's quite hefty I suggest you download it onto your phone or tablet and read it on the screen.
Read More

To BETT or not to BETT? That is the question!

Karen PernyesAs Sherston Software makes its online digital world Planet Sherston, free for all primary schools, the company has decided not to take a stand at BETT for the first time in thirty years. Event Manager, Karen Pernyes breathes a sigh of relief on the one hand, whilst admitting she will miss the show. Here, she looks at what is so great about BETT, but takes you for a peek behind the scenes so you can see why Sherston is stepping away.
Read More

Bett, again!

Bett: 30 years forwardJanuary wouldn’t be the same without Bett, the mega education technology show/exhibition/conference. Come to that Bett wouldn’t be the same without January – freezing mornings, long queues to get on the Dockland Light Rail – but let’s not dwell on that!

The Bett website is becoming more and more populated with “stuff”, and you may be interested to learn that Bett-related tweets and other social media mentions are being collated on one website.

Read More

Ebook sales end today

control centreHere at the control centre of ICT in Education we’re preparing to wind down the selling of our ebooks. Unfortunately, the new EU ruling on VAT has meant that we need to spend time looking at whether it is cost-effective to continue selling ebooks, and if so how best to do so. In the meantime, the shop is being shut down from midnight GMT tonight, ie 30th December 2014.
Read More

Digital Education December 2014: Double issue, Free resources, 50% discount on ebooks, 75+ links and 10 guest contributors

blog readingThe Spectator does it. The Economist does it. Even children’s comics do it. So I thought: Let’s do it. Let’s make a Christmas double issue of the Digital Education newsletter.

I’d like to be able to say I’d planned it that way right from the start, but that would be something of (to use Winston Churchill’s wonderful expression) a terminological inexactitude. In truth, the November edition was delayed due to a family illness, so it made sense to bring out a bumper edition now so people who subscribe have plenty to keep them going until January! I’ve included articles on a wide variety of topics:

Read More

Big data: is small beautiful?

My Big Data InfographicAccording to the 2014 Horizon Report for K-12 education (ie Kindergarten to 18 years old), big data and analytics will be adopted by education within the next two to three years. Big data. It’s the current buzzword in education (one of several, at least), but what exactly is it? And is it really of any practical use? And should we be using it anyway?
Read More

The hidden dangers of doing digital business: what schools, teachers and students need to know

Diverted TrafficIn theory, setting yourself up to sell products on the internet is the easiest thing in the world. Once you’ve created the product, you upload it to a 3rd party platform that will handle all the sales and deliveries automatically, and you just sit back and watch the money roll in. If only it were as simple as that. But why would  a school want to do something like that anyway
Read More

Our ebooks may be discontinued

Paperless officeNew EU rules on VAT (value-added tax) come into force on 1st January 2015. At present, the tax applied is the rate prevailing in the country of supply. Thus my ebooks are taxed at the rate of 20%. From the beginning of next year, this will change, and the rate of tax applied will be according to the place of purchase.

There are technical difficulties associated with the administration of this approach.

Read More

Whiteboards: not dead yet

Getting Ready for OLED Technology - A Small Collage of Interactive Wall Applications on Our Smart Boards at the Interactive Interactive Show and Open Houses - Sheridan Interactive Multimedia One Year Post Grad College in OakvilleI heard an interesting snippet from Mike Cladingbowl, National Director at Ofsted, recently. He said that when interactive whiteboards were first introduced, Ofsted inspectors saw an increase in “chalk and talk”. Hardly surprising, because interactive whiteboards made chalk and talk, ie teaching from the front, easier.
Read More

Coming soon

I’m working on the next edition of Digital Education, and it contains some really great articles. For example, Mel Thompson asks whether philosophy should influence educational policy-making, which may seem a bit outré but, surprisingly enough, there is much that advocates of “computational thinking” would agree with I think.
Read More