World Book and Copyright Day

March 3, 2022

World Book Day is with us again today, March 3rd, when it is celebrating its 25th birthday! Here are some activities and resources to make it a day to remember.

Book review bulletin 1

May 13, 2020

I’ve recently reviewed four ed tech-related books. Here are links to them. They are: Teachers vs Tech? * How charts lie * Little quick fix: finding the theme in your data * Hello world: how to be human in the age of the machine

Photo by Andras Vas on Unsplash — Photo by Andras Vas on Unsplash

What do kids get up to online?

February 4, 2019

Here are several research reports on kids’ behaviour online.

This is an image I created using pulpomizer.com. Thanks to Julian Wood for drawing my attention to this application in one of his talks. — This is an image I created using pulpomizer.com. Thanks to Julian Wood for drawing my attention to this application in one of his talks.

A cornucopia of comic-making applications

October 10, 2017

If you like to use comics and cartoons in your teaching, and encourage students to do so too, you'll like this collection of comic-making utilities.

Handy hints and tips for writers

October 21, 2016

This is a round-up of four articles consisting of useful tips and tools for writers who use modern technology.

Quick looks at Bett 2014

January 24, 2014

If you’re heading to Bett today or tomorrow, here are a few things you might like to look at.

Education Technology and ICT article round-up

January 27, 2012

Here are a few good reads you may have missed in the last week or so, including an invitation to enter an article for a blog carnival, the deadline for which is this Sunday!

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.