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

5 mistakes I made when teaching Computing, by William Lau

October 7, 2016

In this very incisive article, teacher William Lau discusses 5 mistakes he has made when teaching Computing, in the light of experience, research and reading.

Articles on Ed Tech: Retrospective #4

September 15, 2016

Here's a collection of articles you may have missed, on a variety of subjects including Brexit, Master teachers and ebooks.

10 questions arising from lazy thinking in ICT and computing in schools

July 11, 2016

There's plenty of lazy thinking in the world of education technology, ICT and computing. Here are 10 useful questions to ask when you come across it.

Education technology research, and how it's reported

October 15, 2015

Journalists often seem to get it wrong when it comes to reporting educational research, and they seem to love it when they can go with a headline like “Schools wasting money on useless technology”. I made that up, but the reporting of the recent OECD research, the Decoding Learning research from Nesta in 2012 and other work is quite often presented in those sort of terms.

Everything is not all that it seems but, importantly, what can we do about it?

Recent book reviews

Backlist: The Written World

Writing was invented ‘only’ a few thousand years ago. It’s a fascinating story.

Backlist: What I'm reading: Bounce

What does it take to become an expert? And what can the Computing teacher do about it?

Backlist: The Fourth Education Revolution

The title of this book invites curiosity: what were the other three ‘revolutions?

A book review for your English department colleagues perhaps

Some of these stories are so richly told, it can almost seem as though you’re right there with him.

Review: Pen Names

OK, so this has nothing to do with education technology, but we all read (I hope!). A very interesting examination of the pen names some authors have adopted, and why.

Review: The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History

There's a really interesting section in this book about how ceramic storage of data and information is probably the most likely medium to stand the test of time.

A book review for your biology colleagues perhaps

The subject under discussion here is how human physiology has developed in different ways, in response to different conditions around the world.

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.