Using spreadsheets or Python to process words

October 4, 2023

A couple of people and I started to discuss how we might use technology to process a block of text.

Blast from the past: the homework excuse management system revisited -- now with comments!

May 3, 2023

I have republished this post, or a version of it, on my Substack newsletter. The comments are interesting!You can use a spreadsheet to solve even relatively trivial problems — but why should you do so?

Section of an artcile records spreadsheet, by Terry Freedman

Using ChatGPT as a search engine

December 20, 2022

Although I haven’t been overly impressed with ChatGPT as a creative force, I have to say that I am impressed with it as an alternative to Google.

On this day: a spreadsheet grade predictor

December 7, 2021

On December 7th, 2015, I wrote an article explaining how you could set up a spreadsheet in Excel to help you predict and analyse students’ grades.

The Homework Excuse Management System, by Terry Freedman

Blast from the past: the homework excuse management system revisited

November 25, 2021

You can use a spreadsheet to solve even relatively trivial problems — but why should you do so?

Learning together. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Creating a staff IT skills audit with Google forms

August 17, 2021

You would be forgiven for thinking that every teacher in the country has spent lockdowns being so immersed in technology that they have all become experts. There is no more need for staff training in IT skills — and so no need to conduct a staff audit.

If only!

Review: Portable Excel Genius

March 13, 2021

Although the book has not been written with teachers in mind, it contains information that many teachers would find useful.

How teachers can use the tick box in Google Sheets

June 10, 2020

Google sheets has a tick box feature. Here are some ways you can make use of it.

Make your own: where programming is relevant, useful and fun

April 25, 2019

To learn programming, it’s best to have some real problems which need solving. This article looks at several examples of the applications I’ve created, and why.

Blast from the past: the homework excuse management system

September 25, 2018

You can use a spreadsheet to solve even relatively trivial problems — but why should you do so?

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...