We should encourage pupils to write useless bits of code. Here’s why.
Read MoreThe UserID interface, by Terry Freedman
What?! by Terry Freedman
A spreadsheet moment
A girl had been made to leave her lesson, and wanted to help me teach spreadsheets. My mind said “No way”, my intuition said “Why not?”
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newsguard toolbar shield, screenshot by Terry Freedman
Review of Newsguard
Newsguard is a service that rates websites for honesty, transparency and trustworthiness. It evaluates websites against several criteria, such as whether information is gathered and presented responsibly. A browser extension will enable you to see at a glance whether or a not a site they have evaluated is trustworthy.
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A pictogram version of the next edition of the Digital Education newsletter
The forthcoming edition of the Digital Education newsletter features some great links and resources. See if you can figure out what topics are covered from these illustrations!
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Goal-setting. Screenshot by Terry Freedman
How to automatically allocate time for an activity in your Google calendar
If you use Google Calendar then you can use the goal-setting function to whiz through your diary on your phone and find suitable times for an activity to wish to pursue.
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Proof of time travel? Photo by Terry Freedman
More fake news
Since mentioning that I am working on a special fake news edition of Digital Education, I have come across a few more brilliant resources.
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fake news, by Terry Freedman
Digital Education Newsletter: Fake News Special
How can you tell if a video on a website is faked? How can you tell if a news outlet is being economical with the truth via misleading headlines? With around 20 links to useful resources, the next issue of the Digital Education newsletter has the answers.
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Reading and research, by Terry Freedman
Book review round-up to 22 September 2019
Here is a set of links to the educational computing books I’ve reviewed up till 22 September 2019.
Read MoreComputing and computing-related qualifications
Here in England the Government, in its quest to put Computing on the map, did its best to make sure the rest of the map was blank – by getting rid of qualifications that lots of students took (especially girls).
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Exclamation mark, by Terry Freedman
Was it something I said? When an elevator speech falls on deaf ears
In one of my teaching jobs, I had to listen to a parent while he went on and on about how kids should taught how to take computers apart in their Computing lessons. When I pointed out that the course was about being literate in the uses of computers and also how to program them, rather than how they're made, he insisted that digital literacy could only be taught by taking computers apart.
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Robot made of Lego, at John Lewis, Photo by Terry Freedman
AI: It was a very active and engaging and free way of learning, in some ways
Be Aware!, by Terry Freedman
Never underestimate new pupils' computing skills
It’s an unfortunate fact of life that secondary school teachers underestimate how much their primary school colleagues have taught when it comes to computing and education technology. It’s true that in some cases it’s justified, but by and large in my experience it isn’t.
Read MoreComing soon in the Digital Education newsletter
The next edition of this esteemed newsletter has a cornucopia of links that will be of interest to teachers of computing and media literacy especially, and very little commentary! Read on to find out more.
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An awful shock, by Terry Freedman
My worst IT training days #6: The day my website was shut down
I wonder if there is anything more discombobulating than announcing, with great fanfare, a brilliant resource to a class full of teacher trainees, only to be greeted by a dreadful error message instead?
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Relax, by Terry Freedman. I’m trying to, I’m trying!
A call to Technical Support
A call to technical support that was only successful once I’d stretched the facts a bit.
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Presentation on a mobile phone, by Terry Freedman
Actually, it IS about the technology (partly)
“It’s not about the technology” sounds logical, but in my experience it is certainly not the whole story.
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Holo app, by Terry Freedman. This was drawn using Comic Strip Creator.
Articles from the ed tech archives
Here are three articles from the ICT & Computing website which you may find useful, inspiring or both.
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The Scream, by Terry Freedman (with apologies to Munch)
Viruses and other nasties are a leadership issue
How vulnerable are schools to viruses and so on? Here are the results of a survey, plus some comments on the role of the ed tech leader in the school.
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Frustration, by Terry Freedman
How to fix a paper jam that doesn't exist
If your printer keeps telling you there’s a paper jam when there isn’t, you aren’t necessarily going insane. This suggestion worked for me.
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Whiteboard, by Terry Freedman
My worst IT Training Days #5: Whiteboard not working
Worthy cogitations about what I might have done to avoid being faced with a non-working whiteboard — and why that situation arose in the first place.
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