A must-read for anyone who has taught in "challenging" schools!
Read MoreWhat I've been reading
Some educational research books are better written than others. "Making a difference in education" is one of them.
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Review of Thinking Allowed on Schooling
Thinking Allowed is a godsend to all those people in education who think that many of the policies and ways of doing things don't really work, but are not really in a position to say so.
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Books for teachers of Computing and ICT
News about the ever-expanding Books Recommendations page on the ICT & Computing in Education website. This complements the book reviews that I publish fairly regluarly.
Read MoreBook review: Don’t Change the Lightbulbs
This book collects together the thoughts and observations of over 71 people in education. These are each a little longer than the bite-sized comments typical of Twitter – I understand that they were curated from Google+ discussions. Being longer than 140 characters makes them "meaty" without being too long.
Read MoreIn total around 70 topics are covered, not all of them curricular.
Book Review: The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage
Ada Lovelace died young, at the age of 36, and Charles Babbage never built his Analytical Engine. Had Lovelace lived, and had Babbage actually built his invention, the computer would have been invented a hundred years before it was.
Isn't that an astonishing thought?!
Book Review: Exploring a world of Brown Dogs and Barbers
By Roger Davies
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Have you ever studied Computer Science? If not, teacher Roger Davies, who teaches at Queen Elizabeth School, Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria urges you to read a wonderful new book.
Lovelace, Babbage and Me
What’s the connection between Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, and me? Well, it’s a bit tenuous. Apart from the obvious, that we all liked computing (in effect), it is that they appear in a new graphic novel, and I love graphic novels.The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The Book
If, like me, you enjoy reading comics and graphic novels, and are interested in Computing, you may already be familiar with the blog called 2D Goggles Or The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage. This relates the story of the development of the Difference Engine and other aspects of the lives of Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage. Their adventures are based on (mostly) real events and episodes, with a lot of poetic licence thrown in! I thoroughly recommend reading the adventures, and I suggest encouraging your students to do so too. It will help them learn about the development of computing and computer programming in an enjoyable way.Review of Business for Authors
You might think that a book about making money from your writing other than from royalties has nothing much to do with teaching Computing, but it definitely has, for a number of reasons.Review of Computing Without Computers
This free book by Paul Curzon (yes, the one who wrote The Magic of Human-Computer Communication), attempts to explain programming in non-technical language. I’ve looked at similar books designed for students, and they were not as good as this one. So what makes this one so great?
Read MoreReview of The Thinking Teacher
When I first picked up this book I made an error of judgement. Noticing that it seemed quite slim, I thought I could finish reading it in just one or two sessions. However, what I had not counted on was the book’s living up to its title. In short, it made me think. It made me think about what the author was saying in its own right, that is whether or not I agreed with it. It also caused me to reflect on my own practice as a teacher and, now, as a consultant.Book review: Two girls, one on each knee (7)
You could argue that crossword solving is a very good example of computational thinking. That is certainly what the security services thought during WW2 when they asked The Times to send them the names of anyone who could solve a cryptic crossword they’d supplied in 12 minutes or less. Those that did were invited to work at Bletchley Park, cracking codes for the war effort.What are your top tips for ebook cover design?
I'm in the process of collating top tips and resources about this topic. I've compiled a list of useful links (see below), which I'm adding to continually, but if you have any advice based on experience it would be interesting to hear about it.
Read More3D 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.
Read MoreBring Your Own Technology Book Review
Here’s an interesting review of Mal Lee’s Bring Your Own Technology.
It’s good because, in my opinion, it’s pretty spot on. I also think the format is interesting.
Review of 30 Day Blogging Challenge
If you're looking for a handy, no frills book of suggestions for blogging, this book should meet your requirements. Having been designed as an email course, 30 Day Blogging Challenge, written by Nikki Pilkington, consists mainly of 30 very short articles on different aspects of blogging. Being able to buy the whole lot in the form of a book is excellent for those of us for whom deferred gratification is an alien concept.
Review of Problogger’s Guide To Blogging For Your Business
Before looking at the book, written by Mark Hayward, in detail, it’s worth pointing out what the book is, and is not. It is, as the title implies, concerned with blogging in order to promote your business. It is not about blogging as a business in itself. It’s an important distinction, not least because once we take money out of the equation then “business” can be used as shorthand for any type of enterprise, including a charity, a cause – and a school.
Review of Impact of New Technologies in English Maintained Schools
Published by the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA), this is a report on research undertaken to find out how schools use, and anticipate using, new technology. It covers funding, hardware used by teachers, hardware used by pupils, software used by teachers, communicating with parents through social networking and other means, and home access.
Read MoreReview of The Copywriting Scorecard for Bloggers
The aim of this book, written by Darren Rowse and Glenn Murray, is to help you write better blog posts. However, “better” in this context refers to generating more visitors to your blog rather than “just” improving your writing skills. The idea is a simple one: why not identify the key elements of successful blogging, and then provide a tool by which to measure how a particular blog post has done? That’s exactly what the book aims to do.
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