Updated! It’s fine being a visionary, but somewhere along the line someone has to actually do something.
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On this day: 27 December 2019 and 2022
On the ICT & Computing in Education blog I had one of my peridodic digs at politicians. Over on my Eclecticism newsletter I wrote about my writing process.
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From a spreadsheet created by Terry Freedman
AI gave me a sense of bereavement
A few years ago at a conference, an erstwhile colleague who was giving the keynote presentation referred to “My ex-colleague Terry Freedman, the Excel guru.” While flattering, it was more the case that I made a great deal of use of, at the time, Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications.
Read More18 Essential Elements of a Digital Financial Literacy Course
Here are my 18 suggestions for inclusion on a digital financial literacy course. This is an update of an article first published in 2011.
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Click to see this on Amazon (affiliate link)
Review: From EdTech to PedTech (excerpt)
Those of us who have held responsibility for embedding digital technology across a school will all have tales of well-meaning management who, frankly, didn’t have a clue.
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History class. Photo by Terry Freedman
Banal projects
Boring projects are the worst kind of thing to give students. My way of thinking is simple: if you can’t think of anything exciting, get them to come up with something themselves.
Read MoreAh, those were the days -- not
Here at Freedman Towers I have been trawling through the archives, hoping to salvage something of my legacy to donate to the nation, or indeed the world. Anyways, all joking aside, I came upon this email I wrote…
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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Fun, in the most patronising way you can think of
It’s almost unheard of for me to read advertorials or sponsored posts, especially when the words “Advertisement” appears in small print somewhere other than the headline. But the title made me curious.
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A lesson, by Terry Freedman
50 features of excellent ICT and Computing lessons
What makes an excellent ICT or Computing lesson? In this document I've tried to encapsulate the answer to that question.
Read MoreAuthentic Learning and ICT (Update 2023)
To the casual listener, stride piano, boogie woogie piano and rock-n-roll piano all sound pretty much the same. Yet Fats Waller, perhaps the most famous stride pianist, detested boogie woogie.
Read MoreWhy Are ICT Lessons Boring? The Start of the Lesson (Update 2023)
If I had to choose just one causal factor to focus on, as to why students find ICT lessons boring, it would be the start of the lesson.
Read MoreWhy Is ICT Boring? (Update 2023)
Not all youngsters are bored in their ICT lessons, of course, but it’s a sufficiently common complaint to have made me do a mental double-take when Maddi, an Australian teenager, happened to mention that she actually enjoyed her ICT lessons.
Read MoreTechnicians – The David Sainsbury Gallery at the Science Museum: full review
Should you ever find yourself in the unlikely circumstance of having to choose between me administering medication or waiting for a paramedic, my advice would be to wait.
Read MoreReview: A Little History of Music by Robert Philip (YUP)
I asked the AI module built in to Squarespace to write a paragraph on why music is relevant to teachers of Computing. Here’s what it said…
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Come back! Drawing by Terry Freedman
Computing in Schools, UK
I've been reading the transcript of a conference called Computing in England's schools, from July 2022. Yes, I'm a bit behind the times on this, so I apologise. However, I think anyone who has been involved in educational computing for any length of time…
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Difference engine #2. Photo by Terry Freedman
Artificial Intelligence News November 2023
We need to know how an AI decision-making tool arrives at it's conclusions, which might be hard given that even the designers of these tools don't always know.
Read MoreNew issue of Digital Education
The next issue of my newsletter, Digital Education, will be available soon. It contains articles on AI, smartphones, Calvino and more.
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New online blogging course
I will be running another online course in blogging in the evenings of the 17th and 24th November 2023.
Read MoreQuick look: Parliament Buildings: The architecture of politics in Europe
I suspect that the use of space in parliament buildings will hold some lessons for schools as well.
Read MoreReview: The Liars of Nature and the nature of liars: Cheating and deception in the living world
The key question at the heart of this book is perhaps this – if honesty is the best policy, why is dishonesty so rife in nature?
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