Here’s a cartoon you may find amusing in these rather austere times!
Read MoreWhen technology goes wrong
Just a couple of cogitations – hopefully worthy -- about technology and our relationship with it.
Analogue or digital?
Is there any advantage in having an analogue watch face to a digital one, or vice versa?
The 100 worst blogs
I keep coming across blogs with titles like “Top 50 Blogs in [genre or category]. Perhaps it would be much more of a service for someone to produce a list of the worst blogs in a particular category.
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 MoreWould you have sex with a robot?
Can you envisage a time when human beings will have relationships with robots? You could argue that to some extent we already have a relationship with electronic things (in my case, a love-hate relationship!), but can you imagine a time when we might marry robots, or have sex with them?
Unintended consequences of social networking
I thought I’d start an occasional series of posts concerned solely with the unintended consequences of technology. To start it off, here’s a comic strip from The Daily Telegraph in the UK.
Read MoreSystem 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:
My blackberry isn’t working: technology and language
I attended an interesting event yesterday, which I’ll write about shortly, but I thought I’d share this video with you. It was shown at the event, and is a nice, humorous illustration of how technology has influenced our language.
The iPad and the train
I think that cartoonists often are among the most perspicacious of us when it comes to reflecting on the (side) effects of technology. I particularly liked today’s Alex cartoon in the Daily Telegraph about the effects of the iPad on people’s expectations whilst travelling on trains. Take a look, and bring a smile to your face.
How might you use this as a starting point for discussion with students about how technology changes our expectations in a whole variety of contexts?
Update on 2011-05-10 21:46 by Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant
The original link in the above post was changed by the Daily Telegraph -- good job I spotted it! All corrected now!
Yes / No - Ummm.....!
"If you have a position that requires an opinion to be made then you have to give one. It may not tie in with the rest of the team but it may actually be the opinion that makes the difference."
Read MoreJulia Skinner gives her opinion on the importance of having -- and expressing -- an opinion.
Two-tier email system
Teachers looking for material with which to furnish their lessons on how technology affects society need look no further than email. This form of communication has affected in at least three ways what might be called “disposable time” – the time one has left after the essentials like eating and sleeping have been taken care of.
Digital Invisible Ink
I love the Livescribe Pulse Pen, which allows me to take notes in the traditional way but still have them digitized, and therefore easily searchable. However, it has two “features” which really do need to be addressed...
In 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!
The Micawber Principle (digital version)
Monthly data allowance 100 mb, demand for apps 95mb; result: happiness.
Monthly data allowance 100mb, demand for apps 105 mb; result: misery.
Adapted from The Micawber Principle.
Christmas Greetings
I’d just like to wish readers of this blog and the Computers in Classrooms newsletter a happy and peaceful break over the next couple of weeks.
This is not (hopefully) the last post this side of the new year, but I wanted to make sure I caught people before they all disappeared! I still intend to write for this blog, as well as Writers’ Know-how and Technology & Learning. In fact, the weather is such (worst winter since 1962 apparently) that I may have no other choice: it’s hard to get out and do shopping and stuff in this weather. (I’m heartbroken).
But my most pressing piece of writing right now is my e-Christmas cards!
Linked-in
I’ve been encouraging subscribers to my newsletter, Computers in Classrooms, to join me on Linked-in, so I was quite amused with this cartoon in the Daily Telegraph today:
Read MoreThe Oldest Blogger?
So you thought that blogging started circa 2002, did you? I have incontrovertible proof that it has been going a lot longer than that.
Read MoreIn Praise of Tedium
Why does everything have to be so interesting all the time? Here is my attempt to balance the scales by producing something incredibly boring.
Automatic Writing?
The technology I crave has yet to be invented. A fairly frequent conversation in our household runs thus:
Me: I wrote an article on the way home today.
Mrs F: Ooh. Let’s read it.
Me: It’s all in my head at the moment.
Mrs F. It’s a pity we can’t print your head.
Discreet ICT?
The BT Tower in London is being opened again for the first time in thirty years.