Summer reading #1: OuLiPo and the Mathematics of Literature

July 24, 2022

I’ve started to compile a list of books you might wish to explore over the holidays. They’re not all to do with edtech — we all need a break!

Books to be reviewed #3: Climate Change for Dummies

May 25, 2022

This is another book to be reviewed for Teach Secondary magazine.

Books To Be Reviewed #2: Futureproof

May 16, 2022

There are some interesting-looking books at the top of the to-be-reviewed pile. This is one of them.

Books to be reviewed #1: No Excuses

May 16, 2022

There are some interesting-looking books at the top of the to-be-reviewed pile. This is one of them.

Click the cover to see this on Amazon (affiliate link)

An interesting-looking book about AI

May 25, 2021

I haven’t read this book yet, but it looks like it might help teachers address some aspects of the Computing Programme of Study.

Online education: books just in

January 17, 2021

In the last two days I’ve received two books for review. One is almost hot off the press — Online Learning for Dummies was published in December 2020 — the other one is slightly warm — published in September 2020.

Click the cover to see the book on Amazon UK (affiliate link)

How reliable is neuroscience?

July 20, 2020

If 10% of studies in neuroscience are flawed, how can you know which ones are OK?

A world run by artificial intelligence: Zed

July 30, 2019

Technology has always provided a rich seam of possibilities to be mined by authors. In this book Joanna Kavenna imagines a dystopian future in which an AI company is running things.

Recent book reviews

Review: How I review books on edtech

My views on what constitutes a book on edtech are fairly catholic. Indeed, it would me more accurate to denote the books I review as books for teachers of ICT, Computing, digital literacy etc etc,, rather than books on edtech. The latter tend to have titles like “How to teach Computing”, or “How to use Excel in the classroom”.

Review: Nuts and Bolts: How Tiny Inventions Make Our World Work

It's rather disconcerting when one considers that buildings like The Shard are essentially held together by nuts, bolts and washers.

Review: Love Triangle: The Life-changing Magic of Trigonometry

Like, I suspect, many people, I have never knowingly come across an isosceles triangle in my life, and wouldn’t know what to do with it if I did. However...

Review: Making Sense Of Chaos – A Better Economics for a Better World

Before you rush off on the grounds that this book has nothing to do with Computing, let me reassure you that it does.

Bjork & Bjork’s Desirable Difficulties in Action

The original work on which this volume is based has perhaps been honoured more in the breach than in the observance.

Review: Coderspeak – The language of computer programmers

This book won’t necessarily help a student pass a computing exam, but it will almost certainly make them a more aware, and thus better, programmer.

Review: Quiet Power, by Susan Cain

Introverts thrive by being allowed to be quiet, having time for reflection and not being required to 'perform' all the time.

Quick look: Desirable difficulties in action

The idea of desirable difficulties has always appealed to me. In my teaching I’m partticularly in favour of applying Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development.

Review: The Collaboration Book – 41 Ideas for Working Better

Most people would agree that collaboration is a good thing – so how can we collaborate more effectively in school settings?

Review: Listen: On Music, Sound and Us

This book might not directly address obvious aspects of the music curriculum, but it can certainly give teachers access to a rich seam of facts and anecdotes with which to embellish their lessons.