Terry Freedman's ICT & Computing in Education blog — ICT & Computing in Education

Fake news: a role for the Department for Education?

May 31, 2019

Here is a very brief report of a conference about fake news, and an article about what the Department for Education could do to help tackle it.

8 podcasts for primary school teachers

May 30, 2019

The headline is a bit of a misnomer: in fact, there are 7 podcasts for teachers and one for kids. But that would have made for a pretty awkward title!

10 video channels for Computing teachers

May 29, 2019

UPDATED Here are ten video channels of potential interest to teachers of Computing.

10 podcasts for Computing teachers

May 29, 2019

UPDATED Here are ten podcasts that will help you understand more about computing or give you some ideas of things you can discuss in your lessons

Podcasts and videos for Computing teachers: introduction

May 29, 2019

UPDATED This article introduces two further articles: 10 podcasts for Computing teachers, and 10 video channels for Computing teachers.

Book review: Excel 2019 Bible

May 20, 2019

I recently received this massive tome, the Excel 2019 Bible. Here’s what I thought of it.

Book review: Access 2019 Bible

May 20, 2019

I recently received this hefty volume, the Access 2019 Bible. Here’s what I thought of it.

Partners. This illustration is from www.pixabay.com and has a CC0 licence.

Can the International Society of Technology in Education's Standards in Computing be adapted for use in the UK?

May 9, 2019

This article details the steps that a few of us in ISTE, ITTE, TPEA and others have taken to investigate whether the ISTE Standards for Computer Science teachers, and their list of Computational Thinking Competencies, could be adapted for use in the UK. There’s also an opportunity for you to give us your opinions if you wish to.

Book review: How to think like a coder

May 9, 2019

This book aims to teach you how to think like a coder, rather then merely learning how to code. How far does it succeed?

Digital Exclusion and Digital Equality

May 8, 2019

Both young and old can suffer from digital exclusion.

assessment and the black swan problem by Terry Freedman

Assessing Computing and ICT: a selection of articles

May 4, 2019

Here’s a round-up of a few articles I’ve written about assessing Computing and ICT over the years. Although some of them were written a while ago, I believe they are still useful and relevant.

The new DfE education technology strategy: a textual analysis

May 2, 2019

The recent ed tech strategy from the Department for Education leaves much to be desired, not least because it’s so boring to read. I ran it through a word cloud and a textual analysis application. Here are my findings, along with recommendations and the introduction of my new SnoreMaster Awards.

Digital Education, by Terry Freedman.jpg

Coming up in Digital Education: introducing the new Snoremaster Awards

May 1, 2019

Here’s the list of articles in the next issue of Digital Education, my free newsletter.

Recent book reviews

Review: Social Media for Academics

This book is very readable, and if I sound surprised that is because it’s not always true of academics!

Quick looks: VIBE Coding by Example

For the time being, this book is free in Kindle format.

Review: The Game Changers: How Playing Games Changed the World and Can Change You Too

Despite the relative paucity of immediately obvious National Curriculum links, teachers will find several of sections of this book to be highly engaging.

Review: The Dictators: 64 Dictators, 64 Authors, 64 Warnings from History

In some respects one could view this book as a single warning repeated 64 times.

Review: The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker: A History of the High Street

Taking readers from the Middle Ages to (more or less) the present day, Gray charts how the places where we do our shopping and what we buy have changed over the centuries.

Review: Extraordinary Learning For All

As a source of potential ideas and inspiration, the book could be very useful indeed.

Review: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them

One has the impression that the main role of the university these days is to maximise profit, while that of the majority of teaching staff is to ensure the ‘correct’ views are passed on to students. All the while, students’ main concern seems to be to seek protection from anything that might make them feel unsafe.

Review: Next Practices - An Executive Guide for Education Decision Makers

Is a 2014 book on managing the computing provision in a school still worth buying?

Still relevant (sadly): How to lie with statistics, by Darrell Huff

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.

Quick looks: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them

It was a great source of pride to me, getting hundreds of students through their A levels and encouraging them to go to university. But for some time I have asked myself a question: would I recommend this route now?