As you know, Christchurch in New Zealand has been beset recently by a terrible earthquake, which was then followed by aftershocks – which are still occurring. People have lost their homes and, worst, their lives.
For those who are fortunate enough to have survived the disaster, what has it been like without internet connectivity, or with only intermittent internet access? Why did Diane Brooks, an ICT consultant who runs an ICT in Education blog, recently advise schools to take up blogging?
In just four hours’ time, Professor Margaret Cox will be giving a short talk on haptics, ie touch technology. This will be followed by a discussion. Do join us!
28th June at 7pm UK time, join by clicking here. If you’re not in the UK, find out what time it is in your neck of the woods by using this timezone converter.
There is more information on this topic in this article: ICT gets all touchy-feely
To view the recording, click the link below:
View the Elluminate Live! recording
If you're interested in joining a small group to explore these ideas further, please email me to register your interest, for me to pass on to Margaret. If you can say a bit about who you are that would probably be helpful.
Is educational technology only about keyboards and other familiar input devices? Actually, no! There’s a lot of cutting-edge work going on in the realm of haptics.
Professor Margaret Cox explains what haptics is:
#edusum11 Mike Searson is the President of The School for Global Education & Innovation at Kean University in the USA. I met him in Paris the day before the EDUsummit 2011 conference which took place there. He headed up our small, intrepid band of social media folk.
Something Mike related really made me think.
OK, I admit it: I was being a bit of a devil’s advocate when I suggested that the role of ICT Co-ordinator is redundant, but consider this. In these hard times, how will you respond if your Headteacher calls you into her office one morning and says:
I need to make some serious budget cuts. What exactly do you do, why does it need to be done anyway, and why can’t I get an admin person on half your salary to do it instead?
Here are three options for you to consider in order to give a boost to your professional development:
All this was published last week in Computers in Classrooms, the free e-newsletter for educational ICT professionals. Subscribe now (literally: right now) and you’ll stand a chance of winning a premium version of Xobni, a pretty good email management tool. I’m running the draw for that at 10 pm UK time today.
Read on for the details of those three resources.
The number of responses to consultations tends to be low. For example, the Royal Society in England has received 125 responses to its consultation on computing in schools. Admittedly this is a niche area, but it still seems pretty low to me, given the fact that there are over 17,000 primary schools in England and, especially, over 3,000 secondary schools which, one would assume, have a vested interest. I believe that the number of responses to Government consultations is higher, but still relatively small.
I think people are mistaken not to have their say in this type of situation, even though I can understand why they might not wish to do so.
Julia Skinner gives her opinion on the importance of having -- and expressing -- an opinion.
What can we learn from a band about the characteristics of the expert ICT teacher?
You’d think that giving people in your team the freedom to teach ICT how they like would be met, by them a least, with unbridled enthusiasm. You’d think that the best way to get on with your boss would be to offer no resistance to his latest idea, even if you secretly believe it is completely nuts. You’d think that not challenging your students when they proudly show you the results of their programming or desktop publishing efforts would be much better than the opposite, lest their (supposedly) fragile self-esteem be damaged.
You’d be wrong.
(c) Terry Freedman All Rights Reserved