Book review round-up to 22 September 2019

September 25, 2019

Here is a set of links to the educational computing books I’ve reviewed up till 22 September 2019.

New blogging course

September 15, 2019

If you’ve thought about starting your own blog, but are not sure what to write about or what keeping a blog entails, then a course I’m teaching in December 2019 might be of interest.

Coming soon in the Digital Education newsletter

September 6, 2019

The next edition of this esteemed newsletter has a cornucopia of links that will be of interest to teachers of computing and media literacy especially, and very little commentary! Read on to find out more.

It won’t be as bad as you think! Picture: Terrified, by Terry Freedman

8 Tips for NQTs

September 3, 2019

Your first day at school may seem terrifying, but hopefully it won’t be as bad as you think! Here are 8 tips you may find useful.

The Science of Learning: click on the cover to view the book on Amazon (affiliate link)

Review of The Science of Learning

September 1, 2019

This book aims to solve the difficulties teachers face in accessing educational research through the approach of presenting each research study as a double-page spread.

How should ed tech training be done?

August 22, 2019

If you are responsible for the ed tech/Computing/ICT training in your school, here are a few questions which you might like to consider.

16 pet hates about presentations and presenters

August 20, 2019

The season of training days and outside speakers is upon us. Here are 16 presentation and presenter quirks that drive me nuts.

My Best IT Training Days #6: It's like dating for the first time!

August 19, 2019

An interesting piece of feedback related to training in using education technology in lessons!

My Best IT Training Days #5: The girl with the website

August 12, 2019

Why knowing what the pupils in a class do digitally in their spare time can be a good idea.

My worst IT Training Days #5: Whiteboard not working

August 8, 2019

Worthy cogitations about what I might have done to avoid being faced with a non-working whiteboard — and why that situation arose in the first place.

My best IT Training Days #4: Using Year 7 kids

August 5, 2019

What were the benefits of using children to take a staff IT training session?

My worst IT training days #4: Too much admin on a course

August 2, 2019

How the admin involved in a course led to its being abandoned by one group of trainers.

The Press Association, by Terry Freedman

My Best IT Training Days #3: A visit to the Press Association

July 29, 2019

In this article I itemise the things which made a teacher visit to the Press Association in London so valuable. Perhaps it can serve as a checklist of “like-to-haves” for any teacher visit that you are organising.

My Best IT Training Days #2: Website development

July 25, 2019

How can you ensure that teachers who have signed up for your training day get the most out of it? The answer may prove unintuitive.

My worst IT training days #3: Large-scale training

July 25, 2019

Using an external IT trainer is risky. Here are a few things to insist on to reduce the likelihood of a ruined training day.

Technology Pedagogy and Education Association Conference news

June 14, 2019

Good news if you’re thinking about going to the TPEA conference in July.

Notes from the desktop: a prize draw, a damaged elbow and a conference -- oh, and posts about podcasts

June 3, 2019

Here are 4 useful bits of news. Topics covered: a forthcoming prize draw, podcast posts, a great-looking conference and my elbow.

8 podcasts for primary school teachers

May 30, 2019

The headline is a bit of a misnomer: in fact, there are 7 podcasts for teachers and one for kids. But that would have made for a pretty awkward title!

10 video channels for Computing teachers

May 29, 2019

UPDATED Here are ten video channels of potential interest to teachers of Computing.

10 podcasts for Computing teachers

May 29, 2019

UPDATED Here are ten podcasts that will help you understand more about computing or give you some ideas of things you can discuss in your lessons

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.