Professor Sarah Younie and her colleagues are undertaking research about, er, research. Do you find educational research useful in your teaching? What would make it more useful? Please take part in a brief survey that is looking into questions like these.
Read MoreWhat did you see at Bett 2017?
If you went to Bett this year, what struck you as good, useless, interesting, quirky etc etc? I'm going to compile a round-up of impressions, so please complete a really brief survey to share your views. Thanks!
Read MoreICT & Computing Qualifications List Update
News about the updated ICT & Computing (etc) qualifications list, and how you can get it.
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A word cloud of the GCSE options that schools are offering in Computing and related subjects
Computing options at GCSE: interim survey results
What are schools going to be offering their students by way of Computing options at GCSE? Here are the initial results of a survey I'm conducting.
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It's ready at last! Oh joy!
New! Updated ICT and Qualifications List now available
The new, updated list of approved ICT and Computing qualifications is now available -- in return for just a few minutes of your time!
Read MoreA new front page for Digital Education
What do people think of the new Digital Education front page? Is it a case of "nice read, shame about the face"?
Read MoreThe challenges of implementing the Computing curriculum in England
What challenges have you faced in implementing the Computing Programme of Study? What alternatives to ICT at GCSE and A Level have you considered? Please take a moment or two to fill out this survey. Results are open for all to see.
Read MoreA brief update
Do you know, I hate those self-referntial blog posts in which bloggers talk about their own blogs. So I’m not going to do that; I’m going to talk about my newsletter and a survey instead!
Read MoreWhy Subscribe to Blogs? Survey Results
In my article Why subscribe to blogs? 8 Things to consider, I outlined the characteristics of a blog which would induce me to subscribe to it - or not. I invited readers to take part in a small survey asking the question "Why do you subscribe to blogs?".
I've analysed the results and placed them in rank order. Here they are:
|
Characteristic |
% |
Rank |
| Informative | 21% | 1 |
| Well-written | 19% | 2 |
| Consistent quality | 14% | 3 |
| Easy to subscribe to | 10% | 4 |
| Updated regularly | 9% | 5 |
| Provocative | 9% | 5 |
| Other | 8% | 7 |
| Humorous | 5% | 8 |
| Newsworthy | 3% | 9 |
Why subscribe to a blog?
I have to say that to some extent these results surprised me. Of course, most of us suffer from the delusion that everyone thinks like ourselves, but I should have thought 'Updated regularly' would have attracted a greater percentage of the 'vote', whilst whether a blog is easy to subscribe to seems not to worry too many people.
What really is strange though is the low ranking of 'Newsworthy', because several people said that they subscribe to blogs which they believe will help them keep up-to-date in technology and education. Perhaps the word 'Newsworthy' was ill-chosen when I framed the survey. Perhaps the word 'Informative' is sufficient in this context.
I was pleased to see that 'Well-written' and 'Consistent quality' came in at positions 2 and 3 respectively. However, I was disappointed to discover that 'humorous' ranks almost bottom.
Other reasons for subscribing to a blog, or for not unsubscribing, included supporting people who are friends or who are within one's personal learning network. One person said that the content of a blog should not be too personal or embarrassing.
Unfortunately, because I forgot to include a note on the blog stating that respondents may be quoted unless they requested otherwise, I don't feel able to credit individual people for their comments, but should like to thank everyone who took part.
This was hardly a scientific survey, but hopefully it has provided food for thought and a starting point for discussion. Perhaps a similar kind of survey could be undertaken by a school in relation to what its parents look for in a school website. It strikes me that we make all sorts of assumptions about what people like or dislike, and one way (not the only way) to find out if such assumptions are justified is to ask our target readership.
If you have any thoughts about this, or if you have run a similar survey yourself, please leave a comment about it below.
8 Reasons to Look at the Books Page
Some time ago I set up a book page on this website, because I thought it would be handy to have all the books I've reviewed in the same place. It would also make it easy for readers to purchase books too.
What I have now done, to give the page additional value, is put a brief extract from each review alongside each book. If you like what you read, you can click on a link to be taken to the complete review; otherwise, you can just skip it and go on to the next one.
I think in due course I will probably have to create more such pages because that page is already starting to look rather long -- the number of books has been set to 25, but I may start a new page before then. I suppose I'll also have to figure out how to put them into alphabetical order, although it may be easier to create an index, or even just to leave it altogether: I have tested the website's search engine for finding books, and it works very efficiently.
I'd be interested in your views on such matters. I've devised a survey that will take about 2 minutes to complete and is anonymous. I hope you will be kind enough to use it to have your say.
Oh, and the 8 reasons referred to in the title of this post? Eight of the books have been reviewed and published on the page so far; there are several more to come.
Who Ya Gonna Call? Results of My 'Experts' Poll
A while ago I conducted a survey to find out who or where people turn to for expert help. Here is a quick snapshot of the results:
Who you turn to for answersIn a forthcoming issue of Computers in Classrooms I'll be adding more detail, such as what people suggested in the 'Other' category. Thanks to everyone who took part in the survey.