Is there ever any justification for getting students to type in huge amounts of data? It’s a point I raise in my book, Go On, Bore ‘Em: How to make ICT lessons excruciatingly dull.
Read MoreCrowd-sourced reference books? No thanks
Language used to evolve slowly. Now it evolves much more quickly. Apart from the fact that new technology – of which there is more and more every week – spawns new terminology, trends are spread with lightning speed across the internet via social media. There is a temptation to rely on crowd-sourced reference works when trying to find out the correct word or correct usage, because they will be bang up-to-date. Unfortunately, in my own experience these are sometimes wrong or contain discussions by people whose expertise in the matter is not obvious.
Thoughts on ICT leadership
Being appointed to a leadership position gives you some power, but it does not automatically give you authority.
What is the difference between power and authority? I think it can be summarised fairly simply, as follows.
Read MoreA film competition, video judging and a consultation
Childnet International, a registered charity whose mission is to work in partnership with others around the world to “help make the Internet a great and safe place for children”, is running a film competition. Here are the details:
City Learning Centres: The end?
Becta. The Harnessing Technology grant. Building Schools for the Future. The once-familiar landmarks of the English educational technology landscape are disappearing or gone. The indications are that they are being followed by City Learning Centres. These CLCs, set up around a decade ago to both provide facilities for local businesses and serve as beacons of innovation and excellence to the schools in a locality, are being closed down, threatened with closure, or reduced in staffing and funding. The question is, though: should we mourn?
25 Ways to make yourself unpopular: #21 Use old technology
Everybody involved in ICT loves gleaming new technology. But in my opinion the guiding principle in decisions about purchasing or deployment should always be what is appropriate and cost-effective.
Read MoreWhy I still love paper
The last time I saw my desk was around 18 months ago, give or take. Until yesterday, that is. It hadn’t been stolen, lost or mislaid, just buried under a pile of paper. And books. And mugs, pens and stickies garnered from various conferences. As you may know, if you've been reading my blog recently, I've been doing a whole load of clearing out.
Read More25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #20 Be persistent
One of the most irritating things about children – but also one of the most endearing – is their tendency to ask lots of follow-up questions. They are never fully satisfied with the answer to their original question: each answer leads to a further enquiry. I think that ICT leaders can learn much from children in this respect.
There are two areas in which this sort of dogged persistence can pay off.
Open Door Classrooms
Should classrooms be open to the world, in the sense that anyone might see what's going on, and perhaps even take part in them? Is this an inevitable development anyway, given today's technology?
Read MoreThese are the sorts of issues that Steve Wheeler raises in his reflections on Open Door Classrooms.
The iPad and the train
I think that cartoonists often are among the most perspicacious of us when it comes to reflecting on the (side) effects of technology. I particularly liked today’s Alex cartoon in the Daily Telegraph about the effects of the iPad on people’s expectations whilst travelling on trains. Take a look, and bring a smile to your face.
How might you use this as a starting point for discussion with students about how technology changes our expectations in a whole variety of contexts?
Update on 2011-05-10 21:46 by Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant
The original link in the above post was changed by the Daily Telegraph -- good job I spotted it! All corrected now!
Two questions about ICT capability
Here are two questions you might like to use in order to get a discussion going with your colleagues.
They are both concerned with assessing ICT capability.
Read MoreConference: The Future of Education: Creating an Education System Fit for the 21st Century
This conference takes place on 24th May, and has a most timely agenda, with a focus on the Big Society, Free schools, and ICT.
Two slots in particular caught my eye, these being Teaching in a 21st Century School and ICT as a Driver of Educational Reform.
Read MoreConference: The future of education
This conference takes place in London on Tuesday 17th May. I’ve looked at the programme, and it looks pretty good, with some high profile speakers and some useful-sounding topics.
Read MoreLearning from the past
As I said recently, I’m currently clearing out tons of paperwork, books, reports, CDs -- anything, in fact, that I have had no need to bother with for the past several years. It is a process that has been as slow as I’d feared rather than as fast as I’d hoped, mainly because ordinary life always seems to intrude on even the best laid plans.
Read MoreA good use for YouTube
As well as clearing out a whole load of stuff, we have also acquired a couple of cats. They are currently breaking us in, and we are hoping that by tomorrow they will have trained us sufficiently to allow us all to watch the royal wedding together in the comfort of our lounge.
Saving Teachers TV
As you may know, the Teachers’ TV website will no longer be be available from tomorrow (29th April). Consultant Leon Cych has done a great job of organising a mass community download operation to ensure that these videos will not be lost.
Read MoreNormal service will be resumed
I'm taking advantage of the Easter vacation to clear out old files and paperwork. It's something I've been meaning to do for some time, and with so many bank holidays this month, this seemed as good a time as any!
There are quite a few articles on this site to read, and lots on the original ICT in Education website too.
I'll resume posting articles here as soon as possible, but please bear with me for a week or so! Thanks.
Preparing for the new term
What I’d really like to do right now is relax in the garden with a good book, or go swimming, or to enjoy the best of both worlds by taking myself to an outdoor pool somewhere. I could do a couple of lengths to convince myself I’ve had a work-out, and then reward myself by soaking up the sun. Instead, I’m surrounded by boxes of files, bags of files, and files. Yes, it’s the annual spring-clean, and this year I’m throwing out all the documents that last year I thought I should keep, and which I haven’t looked at since. I will also put all the new documents I think I should keep into a special box, to make it easier to throw them out this time next year.
Budgeting for educational technology
When the Principal chewed me out for having put in a purchase order for toner cartridges, I guessed that was probably not the best time to present to him my refurbishment plan which involved buying interactive whiteboards. The school was generous in its funding of ICT, but I had been given only a consumables budget, not a capital one. This made planning ahead almost impossible.
Read MoreConventional non-wisdom
Should you have an ICT leaflet or prospectus to give to potential students or their parents? Conventional wisdom dictates that you should. Conventional wisdom is wrong.
If you think about it, the only reason for doing anything, either in education or in business, is to solve a problem. What is the problem, then, that the ICT prospectus is intended to solve? It is this: