There's only so much you can do to prevent things going wrong as far as technology is concerned.
Read More
You could put this up on the doors of your computer labs! Photo by Terry Freedman 2017
11 ways to deter colleagues from using education technology
Why should other teachers get their hands on all that lovely ed tech? You can't tell them not to use it, but here are 11 tried and tested ways to make them not really wish to.
Read More
The Heavy Mob: Terry Freedman, Steve Wheeler, Simon Finch. Photo taken by Simon, and modified by Amy Burvall.
Bett 2017 Photos
Bett 2017 photos. Happy memories!
Read More
Back to BASICs
Bett 2017 Bulletin #3
I know from past experience what next week at Bett will entail, so I've written a program to summarise it....
Read MoreBig data infographic
Here is a big data infographic I produced in 2014.
Read More
Shakespeare is alive and well!
Ode to Code
"I wonder if it's possible to write a poem about coding", I thought to myself. Well, it is, and here it is. First Chaucer, then Shakespeare, and now me. No doubt schoolchildren of the future will be studying this for their Eng Lit exams, but in the meantime you can read it here first! Enjoy.
Read More
A blast from the past.
ICT, Computing, Education Technology -- what's in a name?
Discussions about naming things like subjects and schools can seem slightly amusing in retrospect. And sometimes the present seems like a distant echo of the past.
Read More
"If you're not one up, you're one down" Photo by Valerie Everett
What I've been reading: The "Upmanship" books
The "upmanship" books of Stephen Potter took a tongue-in-cheek view of education, amongst other things. Although he was writing a generation ago, there is still much in what he wrote to make us smile today.
Read More
STEM and Governmental micromanagement
The Department of Education's recent "clarification" on the deployment of exclamation marks has taken micromanagement to a new level. They've issued edicts on textbooks and worksheets, now exclamation marks. Will they turn to the Computing curriculum next?
Read More
Philosophy and technical support
What if philosophers provided technical support...?
Read More
Suspicious enthusiasm? Picture from www.pixabay.com CC0
My best and worst IT lessons #6: Adorable spreadsheets
Why a lesson on spreadsheets became the highlight of the kids' day, and a nightmare to haunt me forever.
Read MoreBack to the future: a data security issue?
When it comes to travelling backwards and forwards in time, there are a few cyber security issues to be worked out!
Read MoreWhat everyone ought to know about school IT technicians
Please support your school IT technician. This video says it all.
Read MoreA message for posterity
I have decided to take up the #Blimage Challenge. See the end of this post for more information about it, but basically it’s to write a blog post based on or stimulated by an image someone sends you. Steve Wheeler has made the picture below available. The wiki train timetable
Imagine a train timetable catalogue created along the same lines as Wikipedia. This is how it might work.A too-robust approach to spam
I was reading recently that something like 47% of emails are spam. I can believe it. I get the whole range: offers of Russian brides, Viagra, genie bras, news that a previously unknown relative has left me tons of money and messages exhorting me to open the attached document or confirm my security details. All this would be quite funny on one level, but it makes downloading and then sifting through email that much more difficult.
So I decided to do something about it.
Everyone’s an educational expert, but it was ever thus
Have you noticed how everybody seems to be an expert on education these days? In fact, you only have to pick up a newspaper more or less any day of the week to find some minor celebrity saying something asinine like “Schools should teach kids how to stay safe online” (Really? What a great idea. How come we didn’t think of that?!). I don’t take much notice of these people, but it does annoy me when they somehow get on to conference programmes.Internet Safety
Being safe on the internet is vital. If you’re concerned about being safe on the internet or just want a few ideas of how to be safe you have come to the right place!
Health Warning: Can using the web damage your health?
Can using a computer be injurious to one's health? If you're trying to book a particular rail journey via a particular website in the UK, the answer is a resounding "Yes", according to this article I wrote in February 2008. The 3,000 Part Computing Lesson
Every so often there comes along a new daft idea (or a newly-packaged old idea that has been mangled out of recognition (and thereby rendered useless) so that its “inventor” can be designated as a guru. Me? Cynical? Never!) One of the more unfortunate manifestations of this phenomenon was the three part lesson. It sounds good and logical, but then the thing that usually happens happened: Ofsted started insisting on it, and Headteachers demanded to witness it in every lesson. Woe betide the brilliant but hapless teacher whose lesson plans failed to include the three parts.