In case you missed them, here are a few posts I’ve written listing rules. They’re a little light-hearted – but they are serious too!
Enjoy!
What young people can do, and why it's relevant to ICT
In case you missed it...
Nearly two years ago now I wrote an article here called What young people can do, and 7 implications of that.
I think its central points are still relevant, and I hope you agree and find the article useful and interesting.
Increasing the decision-making capacity of your ICT team
If you lead an ICT team, the good news is that you don't have to do it all yourself!
Here are 10 ideas which I have found to be very helpful in creating a collaborative and co-operative team ethos.
11 predictions concerning technology in education
Here is a list of predictions I made in 2001 about the classroom of the future. I’m pleasantly surprised about how accurate it has turned out to be – but I think it will be even more challenging to predict the next ten years because there are so many options opening up. What are your predictions for the next ten years? And is it worth bothering to make such predictions anyway?
If ICT co-ordinators were politicians…
I was watching a debate in the House of Lords the other day, and I was very struck (I hesitate to use the word 'impressed') by how easily a particular government representative managed to fend off a whole variety of questions without saying anything of any value whatsoever.
Read MoreE-safety: whose responsibility is it?
A year ago today I put forward some ideas for teaching youngsters how to take responsibility for their digital footprint. A year on, the article is still relevant in my opinion.
Read MoreAre you an insufferable bore?
When I walk into a shop and immediately get pounced on by a sales assistant, I usually beat a hasty retreat. If they’d have just left me alone, I might have bought something.
Read MoreBecoming an inspirational teacher
Here's just a quick heads-up. I discovered that one of the most popular articles on this website is one I wrote back in November 2009, so at the risk of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy, I thought I'd let you know about it in case you weren't aware of it.
Read MoreWhat don't people know?
Like many others, I suppose, I sometimes forget that just because I am familiar with something (a piece 
Hmm. Seems kinda obvious to me...of software, a workaround, a report -- whatever) doesn't mean that everyone else is. And they're not going to tell you that they don't know something for one very simple reason -- people don't know what they don't know!
About a year ago I explored this issue, and suggested ways to deal with it, in an article entitled The art of stating the obvious. Click the link to read the article now.
System failure: a true story
Last week I had to go to my mother's bank to sort something out. Thus it was that I entered into a sort of Escheresque landscape...
I used to bank there myself, but it is so dreadful I thought, in the end, I could do without the stress.
Anyway, before I went I ascertained what I would need by way of documentation. Of course, when I arrived, I was told that I needed something else. Here's how the conversation (well, some of it), went:
Thoughts on ICT leadership
Being appointed to a leadership position gives you some power, but it does not automatically give you authority.
What is the difference between power and authority? I think it can be summarised fairly simply, as follows.
Read MoreTwo questions about ICT capability
Here are two questions you might like to use in order to get a discussion going with your colleagues.
They are both concerned with assessing ICT capability.
Read MoreConventional non-wisdom
Should you have an ICT leaflet or prospectus to give to potential students or their parents? Conventional wisdom dictates that you should. Conventional wisdom is wrong.
If you think about it, the only reason for doing anything, either in education or in business, is to solve a problem. What is the problem, then, that the ICT prospectus is intended to solve? It is this:
The end of Becta et al? Or, Should the Centre for Policy Studies be abolished?
"It seems to me that one of the key issues is not whether organisations provide value for money according to some narrow criteria, but whether they do so when the wider social costs and benefits are taken into account."
Read MoreThis article was originally published on 1st September 2009. I thought it might be interesting to re-read it in the current UK context.
What does a broken clock signify?
This sounds like an odd kind of question to pose on an educational technology website, but bear with me. A couple of days ago I went to my local swimming pool and the clock on the wall was tilted at an angle, and stuck at ten to six (it was three in the afternoon).
So that got me thinking: does a broken clock indicate that the management really doesn't care that much about such details because they are regarded as unimportant in comparison to customer service issues?
The Transparency Initiative
I recently attended a Westminster eForum seminar about PR and journalism, where I met Dr Martin Moore, of the Media Standards Trust. In his 4 minute talk, Martin mentioned the Trust’s involvement in something called The Transparency Initiative. The Trust has teamed up with the Web Science Research Initiative for this grant-funded work. I caught up with Martin a few days ago and we discussed it.
Here’s the situation which, as either a citizen, a teacher or a blogger you will understand only too well. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between commercial and, for want of a better word, factual, content in the news.
Read MoreIn case you missed it... Rules
We do take things too seriously sometimes. Occasionally it can be good to relax a bit, especially in these austere times.
There's a rule for everything in life, and technology has spawned quite a few "laws" in its own right. Here are some to start reflecting on, in 21 rules for computer users.
Enjoy!
Integrity, journalism and PR
Having integrity is not simply a luxury, it is an economic necessity.
Read MoreThe power of blogs and the perils of email
I originally wrote this article on 13th April 2009. Although the story that inspired it is no longer news (although the problem it relates to, about losing data, hasn’t gone away), I think that the interplay and rivalry between “mainstream media” and blogging is still interesting. This has been brought into sharp focus by the withdrawing from blogging by two political bloggers.I think when investigative journalism is done well, such as Watergate, the Expenses Scandal, it is second to none. But increasingly I find myself frustrated by “flimsy” reporting in the press.
Read More5 Tips for recording pupils’ progress in ICT
As well as assessing students' understanding at any given time, you will also need to record their progress over time. Here are five suggested ways of doing this.
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