Stephen King, in his book ‘On Writing’, makes a very interesting point. Going against just about all the advice proffered in books and magazine articles, he says:
Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice.
You might be inclined to dismiss that as hogwash, but given King’s phenomenal success as a writer I’d suggest that would be unwise.
I thought this graphical representation of a curriculum applies really well to the proposed Computing Programme of Study. (See My response to the ICT/Computing consultation for more information about that.)
It’s very tempting to try to make life as easy as possible for end users by being proactive, ie anticipating what is likely to be useful to them, and then implementing that as a default option (or possibly not even an option, but compulsory).
Perhaps some of your students will be tempted, when designing a computer program for use by non-technical people, to make it as ‘proactively helpful’ as possible. If so, they should beware. A good idea would be to undertake some market research, if only of a rudimentary nature, to avoid the pitfall of merely annoying people.
Here is an infographic that depicts what happens in an internet day. It goes through what happens in one second, one minute, one hour and then calculates the statistics for a day.
It’s interesting, though not – in my opinion – for the statistics in themselves. If big numbers impress you, then you will be impressed. Indeed, those whose mission it is to promote so-called 21st century skills and to prove that the current education system cannot cope with the new reality tend to use statistics like this to prove their point.
Here’s an interesting infographic which looks at how educational technology has changed over the centuries. I think it’s always interesting to provide students with some history of the subject it didn’t all start with iPads!Here is the comment I made near the end of the online form. I decided to take the opportunity to speak my mind about the whole process of consultation, right from the beginning. Unfortunately, I referred to the Royal Society of Engineers by mistake rather than the Royal Academy of Engineering. It was a simple mistake which I hope won’t undermine the legitimacy of my statement.
I also took the opportunity to say what I think about the constant messages from ‘on high’ about ICT being ‘boring’. I think it undermines teachers, and from that point of view is unforgivable.
Here’s an interesting infographic which looks at how the technology used in the classroom has changed over the years (or remained pretty much the same!). The only one of the “outdated instruments” I never used was a slide rule! How many of these do you remember? And please don’t send me messages along the lines of “Before my time, Terry.” I feel ancient enough when I look at things like this already! The infographic includes the history of Computer Science.(c) Terry Freedman All Rights Reserved