We don’t say, “Nice factory you’ve built up there, but it’s unfair that you get to keep it for more than a few years, and even if you do, you can’t pass it on in your will.” Who would bother investing their own time and money in the enterprise if they thought that would be the outcome?
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Aching feet, by Terry Freedman
BettFest 2021
One positive outcome of coronavirus and lockdown is that we can attend Bett, or part of it, this year without moving from the comfort of our own homes. No more being crammed on the Dockland Light Rail along with hundreds of others, no more spending the day breathing lots of stale air, and no more aching feet!
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Shopping mall, by Terry Freedman
11 edtech-related marketing trends in 2021
It’s difficult to predict the future, so please regard this article as a reflection of what may happen and probably should happen in the area of marketing in the coming year.
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books pile, by Terry Freedman
Online education: books just in
In the last two days I’ve received two books for review. One is almost hot off the press — Online Learning for Dummies was published in December 2020 — the other one is slightly warm — published in September 2020.
Read MoreOfsted's guidance on "remote learning"
I think that this guidance is useful in making the idea of online teaching sound doable, but there are too few details or links to details that would make it truly useful.
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Questions, by Terry Freedman
10 tips for launching your new year strategy
Before considering any ideas, we ought, perhaps, to consider the question: why bother? After all, the situation is so fluid that any strategy you prepare now could be rendered out of date by next week. If one thing has proven to be certain about the pandemic, it’s that nothing is certain. It’s almost like trying to build a house on sand.
Read MoreTwitter detoxified
But do they offer any constructive suggestions? Of course not…
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Signpost to 2021, by Terry Freedman
Happy new year
Happy new year.
Read MoreComing soon: the last Digital Education newsletter of 2020
Fancy a Christmas puzzle, a cat video, and loads of useful ed tech links? I don’t blame you! Read on…
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Exclamation mark, Terry Freedman
The latest department for education update
Not like the DfE to make announcements before 5pm on the last day of term.
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Target, by Terry Freedman
Hitting the target but missing the mark?
In my opinion, not implementing such changes is at best thoughtless, and at worst indicative of a lack of understanding of the pressures schools are under at the best of times, let alone now.
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Terry: dreading the bombardment of ill-informed views!
Twitter toxicity: Beware the ultracrepidarians
It all started with Brexit. At least, that’s when I first became aware of the preponderance of people who are more than happy to pontificate about, and lecture the rest of us on, a subject of which they have no expertise.
Read MoreReflections on Technology in Schools in the time of Covid: Part 2
The potential for the education of blockchain technology is huge. It’s largely associated with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but it has far wider implications.
Read MoreTech training then and now: spot the difference
It would be great if the DfE could organise laptop schemes that work properly, and identify the schools and teachers who have managed to achieve great things in online learning and disseminate information about how they did it.
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Reflecting, by Elaine Freedman
Reflections on Technology in Schools in the time of Covid: Part 1
A major thing that the Covid-19 pandemic has done is to give us all a huge kick up the backside. We’ve had the technology to enable working from home for years, but there was not much incentive to implement it very widely. It’s a testament to the commitment and flexibility of companies and educational institutions that the educational system didn’t simply collapse.
Read MoreOn this day #9: Web 2.0
An old article about Web 2.0
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Who?
Does anyone know Adam from Adam?
I have to say I think it is really insulting to have someone who looks like he has just finished studying for ‘A’ Levels himself telling us why exams are best.
Read MoreExams and Covid-19: a solution
Now that we must do all we can to save our students from having to ever face up to the cruel vicissitudes of life, or at least to put off the evil day for as long as possible, several suggestions have been made.
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Thinking Aloud. Graphic by Terry Freedman
A downside of new technology
If a colleague using some technology in innovative and effective ways, and getting more out of it that they would from newer technology, and with more certain results, why on earth would they change?
Read MoreThank goodness for the wayback machine
I always find it mildly depressing when I click on a link in an old blog post and discover that it no longer “works”.
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