I recently wrote about Collaborate for Change. Here’s a very brief video about it, and an interview with Lord Jim Knight, the Schools Minister in the previous government in Britain, and Dave Smith, organiser-in-chief. The interviewer in each case is Russell Prue, of Anderton Tiger Radio.
My personal BETT–Day 1
It’s coming up to that time of year, when companies unveil their new ed tech goodies, old friends and colleagues meet up, people give and attend talks and demonstrations, and we all go away either inspired or cynical, and completely shattered, in equal measure. Yes, it’s the BETT show, a 4 day conference-stroke-exhibition-stroke-meet-fest which attracts people from all over the world. This year it starts on the 12th January, ie next week, and I thought it might be useful to make my own suggestions about what you might like to see. These suggestions are all based on my knowledge of the people involved or past personal experience, so I don’t pretend to cover all possibilities: check out the BETT website for the full programme, and register for free in advance. Today, I’m looking at Day 1, Wednesday 12th January.
Free Leadership Event
Here’s an interesting conundrum: why is it that, given the trend towards distributed leadership and collaborative change, a lot of conferences targetted at leaders seem to consist of a succession of people lecturing to the audience?
Assessment and learning
I was very privileged to be able to chair, and listen to, an online talk by Ashley Allain today, and I’d like to pick out just a few of the many incisive points Ashley made.
Read MoreAssessment in a home school setting
Assessment is difficult. Whatever “solutions” you might come across, unless you can open up someone’s brain and work out what’s been going on, assessment will always be a “best estimate” situation.
And “21st century learning and teaching” has, arguably, made matters worse.
Back to work: 3 must-read posts
If you’re thinking that you really ought to do some work before returning to the grindstone, but would rather loaf around instead, how about compromising by reading these great posts? They will get you raring to go, I’m sure!
Read MoreUsing technology in the curriculum
The big challenge facing ICT leaders in schools is often not to do with providing the facilities, but in encouraging teachers to use those facilities – and to do so in a meaningful way. We’ve all seen examples of where students are allowed to play on the computer if they’ve finished their “real” work, or where students whose regular teacher is not in school, and for whom no work has been set, get to do the same.
A new start
There is something heroic about working away on a computer while the rest of the world sleeps, with only a cup of tea and a distant street lamp to keep one company. But the health benefits of caffeine-fuelled nights are yet to be discovered. Thus it was that around four weeks ago I decided that a radical change in my lifestyle was in order.
10 tips for planning the use of technology in lessons
Using educational technology effectively usually requires some planning. Here are ten suggestions.
Managing a technical support team
You don't have to be a "techie" in order to be able to manage a technical support team effectively. These guidelines explain how.
Read MoreTwitter: An evaluation
Back in August 2007 I wrote the following article about Twitter:
When Twitter first appeared on the scene, I thought it sounded like a complete waste of time.
But as more and people I respect started singing its praises, I thought I ought to give it a whirl.
That was a couple of months ago, and here are my conclusions.
25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #6 Manage, but don’t lead
There’s a reason that the strapline of this website is “The site for leaders and managers of educational ICT”: leading and managing are different things. That isn’t to say that someone cannot be both a good leader and a good manager, but they may have to work a little harder on one aspect than on the other.Christmas Greetings
I’d just like to wish readers of this blog and the Computers in Classrooms newsletter a happy and peaceful break over the next couple of weeks.
This is not (hopefully) the last post this side of the new year, but I wanted to make sure I caught people before they all disappeared! I still intend to write for this blog, as well as Writers’ Know-how and Technology & Learning. In fact, the weather is such (worst winter since 1962 apparently) that I may have no other choice: it’s hard to get out and do shopping and stuff in this weather. (I’m heartbroken).
But my most pressing piece of writing right now is my e-Christmas cards!
Time to grow up?
Here’s a thought. I like to think of myself as a glass half full type of person. So why all the doom and gloom about the apparent lack of Governmental support, in the UK, for technology in the classroom?
25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #4 Provide too much information
Too much information is such a ubiquitous problem that it even has its own three letter abbreviation: TMI – although that is usually applied in the context of someone online telling you something that you really didn’t want to know. However, it’s also a problem experienced by anyone who runs a team, or who requires information in order to take a decision.
25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #3 Provide too little information
If you really want to make yourself unpopular, then not providing enough information is a sure-fire way of going about it. Whether you’re a teacher, say, advising your Principal, or a consultant advising your client, you need to provide sufficient information – whether you’ve been asked for it or not.
Read MoreMy blogging toolkit
People often regard me as something of a prolific writer (which I think is another way of saying I need to get a life!). Anyway, in case you’re wondering what I use to write my blogs, here is the lowdown.
Join the discussion!
This evening, for the last time this term, Drew Buddie and I will be discussing matters ICT, from 7pm till 8pm, UK time (though as always we will leave the room open until 9pm). We will see what comes up, but one thing we may be chatting about is why I’ve decided to exclude links to Wikipedia in my articles, as far as I can, for now. Also, why I think it’s a good idea to close down the ICT facilities for the last week or so of term.
Read More25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #2 Provide timely information
You would think that providing timely information would be just the thing to get you applauded. However, as the song from Porgy and Bess tells us, it ain’t necessarily so. It really all depends on what the information is, and to whom you’re making it available.
Is this the newspaper I’ve been looking for?
A short while ago I expressed the view that paper.li, the Twitter-based newspaper, was no longer for me. I don’t like the lack of control over what is published, and it started to look a lot like spam. I experimented with a couple of other similar services, and they did nothing much for me.
But Microsoft's Montage looks promising. Although you still don’t have control over what appears in particular streams, you do have a say in what types of stream are featured, and (to an extent), the layout.