7 ways to make IT real: #0 Make IT unreal

KL-43 Off-line/On-line Digital Encryption (Adaptation of language translator technology) late 70s-80sOne way to make ICT interesting is to make sure it is relevant to young people’s lives, and has a genuine connection to the “real world”. Indeed, these are required of Ofsted in order to achieve an “Outstanding” grade in ICT. I have referred to this as “authentic learning”. So, in the next few articles I will be suggesting ways of approaching this.
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7 Criteria for evaluating a computing scheme of work

curriculum perspectivesNow that it’s certain that here in England we will have a computing curriculum to follow in September 2014, many people are going to be writing schemes of work. Whether you are a producer or a consumer in this regard, I think you will find the following evaluation criteria useful.
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Computing and ICT misinformation

IMAG0311I am continually astonished by people’s misconceptions or misinformation about education in general, and ICT in particular. To be more accurate, I am often shocked, but no longer surprised, at how poorly education tends to be reported on in the press – at least in my experience when it concerns stuff I know about.

Now, I understand this when it comes to a subject like science. I used to say to Elaine, over breakfast, things like:

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Criticism and self-criticism: some thoughts for ICT teachers and leaders

Feedback Festival, S.Casciano, June 2009I was looking in the archives this morning, to see what I wrote about on this date in the past. By some strange twist, my articles on 4th July in both 2010 and 2011 were about criticism. Not criticism aimed at anyone or anything in particular, but in terms of general principles.
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My biggest mistake as an ICT Co-ordinator

Act 1, Scene 1

Setting: an interview room.

Chair of Governors: So, Mr Freedman, do you have any questions you would like to ask US?

Terry Freedman: Yes. What are YOUR criteria of a successful ICT Co-ordinator?

Headteacher: I want to see teachers banging on the doors of the computer labs demanding to be let in.

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3D Printing

Over the past few years I've written several articles about 3D printing and its potential application in education. I first came across a 3D printer at a City Learning Centre in London. That was 15 years ago at the time of writing, ie 1998. What I had not realised back then was that 3D printing had already been around for ages -- since the mid-1980s in fact.
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Technology for an ageing population: competition

Technology UseHere is a competition which is aimed at secondary school students.  I quite like the idea of this: both the topic and the nature of what has to be submitted by entrants: a video of not more than 90 seconds answering the question:

In the future, how will technology help an ageing population?

This is an opportunity to get some really interesting discussions going. Perhaps you could get other colleagues involved, such the RE department.

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ICT Lessons and internet privacy

Privacy keyboardWhatever you think of the current debate over news that the US Government may have been monitoring the online activity of not only its own citizens but those of other countries too, you have to admit one thing. It provides a great opportunity for ICT teachers everywhere to bring some real-world issues into their lessons, in a very newsy (ie current) way.
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Cloud Services White Paper and Survey

CloudsCloud Education ICT Design (CEID), which is run by the South-west Grid for Learning Trust, has published a very useful White Paper on Cloud Computing. At only four pages long it explains what cloud computing is, and what the benefits and risks are from an education establishment’s point of view. CEID intends to expand on the list of risks and benefits once it has analysed the survey results.
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4 ways to make your educational technology facilities more inviting

T-Pain's Singing TeacherHow do you ensure that the ICT facilities at your school are attractive enough to be used by pupils and staff? Even if your school has a Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) scheme or a tablet-centred 1:1 scheme in place, you will want to ensure that the school’s own stuff is being used as fully and as effectively as possible. What can you, the ICT Co-ordinator/e-learning co-ordinator/senior leader in charge of ICT in the curriculum, do to help make that happen? Here are some suggestions.
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A matter of trust: 7 ways of finding the right ICT supplier for you

Mullah Nasrudin was in a village he was visiting for the first time. He rushed into a shop, and demanded of the shopkeeper:

“Have you ever seen me before?”

“No!” answered the owner.

“Well then,” asked Nasrudun. “How do you know it’s me then?”

You might think that an ancient Persian folk hero would have little to say a 21st century citizen, but I think you’d be wrong.

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Teens and social media

Texting in the ParkThere was an interesting article in the UK’s Daily Telegraph about the film The Bling Ring. Entitled “Is the Facebook generation anti-social?”, the article presents what I think is a fairly balanced view of how teens seem obsessed with recording every moment of their lives. Well, balanced in the sense that the writer, Tim Stanley, attempts to present it as something we have always done. He cites the example of people in years gone by insisting on showing their (boring) holiday snaps to their friends and family. Now they upload them to Facebook instead (thank goodness!).
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L is for lesson observation

I watched an episode of that seminal contribution to English culture, Waterloo Road last week, for the first time in ages. I wrote about Waterloo Road in What makes a good ICT role model? if you’re interested, but basically it’s a soap set in a school which has to be the most dysfunctional school anyone has ever come across. The kids are alright (as some pop song said once), on the whole – but the adults…..
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