Bett2020: Python in Pieces

February 10, 2020

Python in Pieces is a visual interface for the Python programming language.

Bett2020: A Virtual School

February 9, 2020

Is a virtual school a way of enabling schools (and school districts) to provide a full curriculum given the teacher shortages in key subjects?

Bett2020: Safeguarding and Wellbeing

February 9, 2020

Developed in conjunction with the police, this product for primary (elementary) school children addresses both safeguarding and wellbeing.

Bett2020: Story-telling with Dipongo

February 6, 2020

An interesting variation on the story-telling app.

Bett2020: Robotics

February 6, 2020

I have my doubts about whether building a 3d model is helpful beyond a certain age, but it has a certain appeal.

Bett2020: Safeguarding

February 6, 2020

Some time ago I compiled a list of ways in which pupils could be unsafe online. The list was extremely long….

Innovation fund cover, by Terry Freedman

Constraints can be good for innovation - Updated!

February 4, 2020

UPDATED! Constraints may not always be a bad thing, and sometimes can even be positively advantageous.

Bett2020 Reader Pen

January 31, 2020

A device that could help students with reading difficulties.

Bett2020: Eye Gaze UPDATED!

January 25, 2020

A short account of a talk about Eye Gaze, which helps teachers to know what pupils with PMLD are looking at, and what they are ignoring.

Virtual Reality Headset, by Terry Freedman

A good application of Virtual Reality (I think)

January 23, 2020

Using the MEL VR headset and software at Bett2020, I entered the molecule of a diamond, followed by that of a pencil.

8 questions to ask educational technology suppliers

January 20, 2020

If you’re in the market to buy a product or service to enhance the educational technology in your school, what are the questions you should be asking potential suppliers? Definitely not “What is your response time?”. Here are 8 suggestions for questions you should ask instead, and why the response time one is not very useful.

Free illustrations for your blog or website

January 10, 2020

11 websites where you can find free illustrations.

6 articles and 13 resources about fake news

January 9, 2020

Here are some interesting articles, plus guides on how to check news on the internet, including photos and videos. Plus classroom activities.

Bett 2020 Dates for your diary

December 10, 2019

Bett 2020 is coming…

Teaching Computing: What the research says

November 7, 2019

What do we know about the pedagogy of teaching Computing? Do teachers spot students’ misconceptions? Can general principles of instruction be applied to the teaching of Computing? Plus other interesting questions.

A Self-referential blog post

October 17, 2019

An apparently pointless article but one that has a point if you think about it.

Review: Trust me, I'm lying

October 14, 2019

In TMIL, Holiday demonstrates how easy it is to manipulate the news. A must-read for teachers of media or digital literacy.

Useless utilities, pointless programs -- and why we should encourage kids to create them

October 11, 2019

We should encourage pupils to write useless bits of code. Here’s why.

A spreadsheet moment

October 11, 2019

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?”

newsguard toolbar shield, screenshot by Terry Freedman

Review of Newsguard

October 7, 2019

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.

Recent book reviews

Review: Teach Fast

The book contains some interesting ideas.

A question of leadership

I have somewhat dichotomous views of this question of whether leaders make a difference, or much of a difference. I think my views can be classified as macro and micro.

Review: Making Good Progress?

Daisy Christodoulou carefully picks apart the pitfalls of various kinds of assessment, drawing on different subject areas to do so.

principles and practice of assessment.jpg

Review: Principles and Practices of Assessment

There is plenty in this book to like.

Review: Effective Teaching: Evidence and Practice

Although this is a few years old now (2018), it has stood the test of time.

Review: One for maths teachers

This wide-ranging book takes in probability, fractals, astronomy, Babbage, Lovelace and a host of other areas and people.

Reviews: Two for History teachers

Two books on the Nazi era.

Review: One for English teachers

No book about the craft of writing seems complete without a stern chapter on the importance of eschewing adverbs and adjectives - but what to put in their place?

Review: The Great Formal Machinery Works: Theories of Deduction and Computation at the Origins of the Digital Age

If you’re of a mathematical bent this could be just the book to delve into.

Review: How to lie with statistics

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.