An ed tech slap on the forehead moment: Something I didn't think of but wish I had

September 20, 2020

Dang! Why didn’t I think of this great idea for inspiring confidence in technophobic colleagues?

7 mistakes I made as an ed tech co-ordinator Index

April 28, 2019

We’ve all made mistakes, such as being a bit too excited about the thought of our colleagues using education technology more. I’ve written about seven of mine that I’m almost too embarrassed to think about. Here’s an index to all of the articles in this series.

7 Mistakes I Made As An Ed Tech Co-Ordinator #7: Not inventing jargon

April 21, 2019

Want to get ahead, possibly get awards, and get away with not informing anyone of anything remotely useful? This post will tell you how!

7 Mistakes I Made As An Ed Tech Co-Ordinator #6: Not making more use of the parents' association

April 20, 2019

If you need more computing equipment (and what school doesn’t?), why not ask the parents?

7 Mistakes I Made As An Ed Tech Co-Ordinator #5: Being honest

April 20, 2019

Is honesty always the best policy? I like to think it is.

7 Mistakes I Made As An Ed Tech Co-Ordinator #4: Allowing unrestricted advance booking

April 20, 2019

When it comes to allowing staff to book computer rooms and other facilities, it doesn’t always pay to be accommodating.

When it comes to ed tech, trust is better than control

October 5, 2018

Checklists are often really good — but sometimes they are worse than useless. In my experience, one of those times is when it comes to ensuring that colleagues teach information technology in their own subject lessons.

Yes, OK, I’ll try out the computers, but please leave me alone! Photo by Anh Nguyen on Unsplash

Bombarding colleagues with research results regarding ed tech doesn't work

September 21, 2018

Gathering research findings into how beneficial education technology could be, er, beneficial. But there are caveats.

This is what all ed tech co-ordinators should do if possible

September 20, 2018

In this new series, I look at 7 mistakes I made as an ICT-Co-ordinator. This first article is more of an omission, with the benefit of 20:20 hindsight!

Recent book reviews

Quick look: AI For Educators

There are some good ideas here, especially for prompts.

Hitler's People: The Faces of the Third Reich -- Extended review

Nearly a hundred years after the Nazi phenomenon people are still asking the question: how could apparently ordinary or, in some cases, highly cultured, people commit such terrible crimes.

Education book reviews of 2024

This pdf contains the reviews of mine that were published in Teach Secondary magazine in 2024.

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...