Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom Revisited

April 28, 2023

In my opinion, the potential benefits of artificial intelligence make it a very attractive proposition for use in education.

Review of technicians exhibition

April 25, 2023

Should you ever find yourself in the unlikely circumstance of having to choose between me administering medication or waiting for a paramedic, my advice would be to wait.

Is your website contributing to AI bots?

April 21, 2023

I checked if my websites had been scraped, and this what I discovered…

DALL·E 2023-04-20 12.58.36 - A girl using a calculator in the style of Roy Litchtenstein

This doesn't add up: the Prime Minister's fretting about numeracy skills and people's attitudes towards them

April 20, 2023

Forgive me while I go off the subject of computing etc, but I feel I have to comment on the British Prime Minister’s recent headline-making pronouncement that kids need to be taught maths until they are 18 years old, and that they should ashamed of not being numerate.

What I Look For in a Conference (Updated)

March 21, 2023

I attend a lot of conferences, and over the years I've developed a useful set of criteria by which to evaluate them. Here, then, in no particular order, are my top 14 characteristics of a good conference.

Last chance to register online for Bett (for free)

March 3, 2023

I’ve just discovered that today (3rd March 2023) is the last day to register online for free for the edtech show known as Bett.

Updated! Supporting teachers through a challenging period

March 1, 2023

Updated! Discounts for Teachers is a free membership scheme which joins forces with retailers to help all staff, in any role working across the education sector to save money.

Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

More on our corrections policy

February 17, 2023

Just to let you know, this website is being reviewed by Newsguard.

Our corrections policy UPDATED

February 16, 2023

UPDATED My corrections policy wasn’t easy to find so I’ve created a dedicated page for it.

Robot writer, by Terry Freedman — My depiction of ChatGPT getting more and more frazzled by the number of assignments I throw at it — Drawing by Terry Freedman

Coming soon... Digital Education ezine, focusing on ChatGPT

February 6, 2023

Yes, it’s all over the internet, but ChatGPT is still worth looking at. I am compiling a list of useful (I trust) links, and have a few things to add to the plethora of comments already out there.

Good news regarding the Government's plans to make the Oak Academy an arms-length body

December 14, 2022

The Oak provided useful resources during the lockdowns, and continues to create them. But there are four things wrong with the DfE's plan…

Terry Freedman and bookcase, by Terry Freedman

Fake news?

November 24, 2022

I’ve compiled a number of reviews of non-fiction books that either deal with helping people detect untruths (such as in so-called scientific research) or presenting something as true when, in fact, it isn’t.

7 questions about blogging (Updated)

November 18, 2022

You can build up a body of work without having to try going through gatekeepers.

Someone suffering from FOMO, by Terry Freedman

7 incredibly useful links

November 10, 2022

These links were first highlighted in the Digital Education newsletter.

I don't write only about ed tech...

November 2, 2022

I have lots of thoughts about education in general too. Here’s some information about another newsletter I write, about education in general.

The factory of the future (what a load of tosh)

November 2, 2022

I have recently had a glimpse of techno-utopia. It is not pretty.

Let's keep the arms length body at arms length

October 24, 2022

Governments should not interfere in the education marketplace

What's the point of book reviews?

September 28, 2022

So many authors think they ought to be the recipient of the Nobel prize for literature.

National Coding Week: why? (Updated)

September 21, 2022

I’ve always been of the strong opinion that (a) people should talk about programming, not coding, and (b) people learn best on a kind of need to know basis.

No laughing matter

September 14, 2022

It seems that everyone is worried about causing offence, or maybe just concerned about being accused of wasting time.

Recent book reviews

Review: Social Media for Academics

This book is very readable, and if I sound surprised that is because it’s not always true of academics!

Quick looks: VIBE Coding by Example

For the time being, this book is free in Kindle format.

Review: The Game Changers: How Playing Games Changed the World and Can Change You Too

Despite the relative paucity of immediately obvious National Curriculum links, teachers will find several of sections of this book to be highly engaging.

Review: The Dictators: 64 Dictators, 64 Authors, 64 Warnings from History

In some respects one could view this book as a single warning repeated 64 times.

Review: The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker: A History of the High Street

Taking readers from the Middle Ages to (more or less) the present day, Gray charts how the places where we do our shopping and what we buy have changed over the centuries.

Review: Extraordinary Learning For All

As a source of potential ideas and inspiration, the book could be very useful indeed.

Review: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them

One has the impression that the main role of the university these days is to maximise profit, while that of the majority of teaching staff is to ensure the ‘correct’ views are passed on to students. All the while, students’ main concern seems to be to seek protection from anything that might make them feel unsafe.

Review: Next Practices - An Executive Guide for Education Decision Makers

Is a 2014 book on managing the computing provision in a school still worth buying?

Still relevant (sadly): How to lie with statistics, by Darrell Huff

Although this book is over 60 years old, it is remarkably apposite for our times -- and especially in the fields of educational research and assessing pupils' understanding and progress.

Quick looks: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them

It was a great source of pride to me, getting hundreds of students through their A levels and encouraging them to go to university. But for some time I have asked myself a question: would I recommend this route now?