There are many courses being offered to help you plan for, and implement, the new Computing Programme of Study. Here is a short selection of providers to get you started.
Read MoreThe Amazing Computing Education Projects Book
Lots of people are preparing for teaching Computing in the next school year. I thought it would be interesting and useful to collate some ideas, concerns and resources into a free ebook. Read on to find out how you can get involved — and why you should.
Read MoreUseful ICT and Computing Conferences coming up
With the new Computing Programme of Study looming on the horizon, there are a number of conferences and other events coming up in the near future. Here’s a list of some of them. The Education Show isn’t specifically about ICT or Computing, but there are seminars in those areas so it’s definitely worth looking at.15 reasons to read the latest issue of Digital Education. I really like #13 myself!
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Bett 2014 Review
Is it really a week since I came trudging home from Bett 2014? I'm still in catch-up mode, which is why I haven't yet published my thoughts about the experience yet. But, I'd love to hear yours.
Please take just a few minutes to complete the Google Form below. My intention is to collate and share the findings.
Being strategic after the Bett show
If you look at the list of suggestions in my “Getting the Best out of Bett” guide, some of which I reproduced in 5 Things to do after attending Bett, nothing leaps out as being “strategic”. But there are a couple of things, as I’ll explain in a moment. And that is tremendously important.
It would be very easy indeed to spend a day or two after an event, especially a long one like Bett, just dealing with the backlog of emails and work, but not actually doing anything that will help future growth. I suppose it’s a bit like clearing a financial debt: very important to do, but it’s putting some money into an interest-bearing account that will reap benefits in the longer term.
5 Things to do after attending Bett
There is always a danger that no matter how good an event is, it will turn out to have very little impact in the longer term, as you forget what you saw and more pressing concerns vie for your attention. Here are 5 suggestions for preventing that from happening. There are more suggestions in the free guide, Getting the Best out of Bett.Quick looks at Bett 2014
Digital Education Issue 1 is out tomorrow!
Our newsletter Computers in Classrooms has been folded up, put away in a drawer and replaced by another one. Welcome to Digital Education!5 Things to consider regarding seminars at Bett
With the vast amount of choice at the forthcoming Bett show (15 different events, hundreds of seminars, loads of exhibitors, plus networking), we need some criteria by which to judge whether or not something is worth going to or not – or worth staying for if you already have gone. Here are my suggestions. And remember: your time is precious, so if it becomes apparent that a seminar you thought would be relevant to your needs turns out not to be so, then get up and leave.
Read MoreGetting the best out of Bett now available
Over 170 hints and tips from a Bett veteran! Yes, this is my UNOFFICIAL guide. Feel free to download it or share it, via an embed code.
Now includes a floor plan!
If you have already downloaded it, you may wish to download it again, as this is a revised edition containing extra information.
Getting the best out of Bett
Assessing “soft” skills
Do you have anything you’d like to add to the discussion, Terry?
The scene was a meeting at the Edusummit conference at UNESCO in Paris in 2011. The question came from the Chair.
Thank you, but no: everything I was going to say has already been said.
That was my response, because I didn’t see any purpose in repeating points that had not only been made, but also generally agreed upon. In fact, my contributions to many meetings are based on Salvator Rosa’s, dictum:
Be silent, unless what you have to say is better than silence.
The question is: does that make me a good collaborator, or not so good? How do we measure such things? And does any of it matter anyway?
Crafting the perfect eTextbook
Starting very soon is a 5 week online course called Crafting the perfect eTextbook. I’m slightly biased, because I’m involved in it, but it is shaping up to be really great.
The syllabus consists of, in brief:
5 tips for BETT
My annual guide to Getting the Best out of BETT is pretty much complete. I’m just waiting for one more item to be sent to me, and then it’s all systems go. I’ll be making it available to subscribers to our newsletter first, and then more widely. In the meantime, I thought I’d publish a few extracts from it. These extracts are just a small sample: there are over 150 suggestions altogetherTablets for Schools Conference
5 reasons schools need computing teachers with expertise in the subject
Some Principals and Headteachers think that a good way around the problem of teaching computing is to not worry about whether teachers have subject knowledge at all. “All we need are facilitators”, they say, “while the kids can teach themselves and each other.” This is, as any teacher knows (or should know), easy to say, less easy to do, and not altogether the most desirable thing to do even if you can do it. However, just in case your school happens to be “led” by one of the aforementioned Headteachers, here are some arguments you may want to use. I think that any one of them should suffice, and all of them together make for a cast-iron case.
Read MoreGetting permission to go on an ICT or Computing course
On this date 4 years ago I published an article that I think is still relevant today.
It strikes me that, what with a new Computing Programme of Study coming into effect in September 2014, ie under a year’s time, Getting permission to go on an ICT course or to a conference is rather timely. Teachers of ICT having to become
The Barefoot Ed Tech Expert: TeachMeet Takeover 2014
One of the features of BETT over the last few years has been TeachMeet Takeover. This is where teachers and other people involved in ed tech “take over” a company’s exhibition stand for between 15 and 30 minutes to give a talk, presentation or demonstration to anyone who happens to be interested in what the topic happens to be.