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

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.