January wouldn’t be the same without Bett, the mega education technology show/exhibition/conference. Come to that Bett wouldn’t be the same without January – freezing mornings, long queues to get on the Dockland Light Rail – but let’s not dwell on that!
The Bett website is becoming more and more populated with “stuff”, and you may be interested to learn that Bett-related tweets and other social media mentions are being collated on one website.
The Government has laid down what must be taught in the National Curriculum. Should they now start telling teachers how to do their job?
Here at the control centre of ICT in Education we’re preparing to wind down the selling of our ebooks. Unfortunately, the new EU ruling on VAT has meant that we need to spend time looking at whether it is cost-effective to continue selling ebooks, and if so how best to do so. In the meantime, the shop is being shut down from midnight GMT tonight, ie 30th December 2014.
Willow and his family would like to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I received a very nice review from Jacqui Wilson, a classroom teacher in Tasmania. Is a book about what made ICT boring still relevant if the focus is on Computing? Well I think so, because the issues I highlighted with respect to ICT are in danger of arising again with respect to Computing. Anyway, read what Jacqui says about the book.
The Spectator does it. The Economist does it. Even children’s comics do it. So I thought: Let’s do it. Let’s make a Christmas double issue of the Digital Education newsletter.
I’d like to be able to say I’d planned it that way right from the start, but that would be something of (to use Winston Churchill’s wonderful expression) a terminological inexactitude. In truth, the November edition was delayed due to a family illness, so it made sense to bring out a bumper edition now so people who subscribe have plenty to keep them going until January! I’ve included articles on a wide variety of topics:
The more students read, the higher their reading scores, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Unfortunately, with iPads, cell phones and computers, it’s harder than ever for them to sit down with a book—so old fashioned, right?—and take a few minutes to read.
According to the 2014 Horizon Report for K-12 education (ie Kindergarten to 18 years old), big data and analytics will be adopted by education within the next two to three years. Big data. It’s the current buzzword in education (one of several, at least), but what exactly is it? And is it really of any practical use? And should we be using it anyway?
It is taking me ages to edit this bumper double edition, but I think it will be worth the wait! It should be out soon – possibly even later today. Here’s just some of what it contains:
In theory, setting yourself up to sell products on the internet is the easiest thing in the world. Once you’ve created the product, you upload it to a 3rd party platform that will handle all the sales and deliveries automatically, and you just sit back and watch the money roll in. If only it were as simple as that. But why would a school want to do something like that anyway
New EU rules on VAT (value-added tax) come into force on 1st January 2015. At present, the tax applied is the rate prevailing in the country of supply. Thus my ebooks are taxed at the rate of 20%. From the beginning of next year, this will change, and the rate of tax applied will be according to the place of purchase.
There are technical difficulties associated with the administration of this approach.
The Hour of Code allows anyone to try out coding for the first time by teaching the basics of computer programming in just sixty minutes.
With a new Computing curriculum that focuses on students learning to code and writing simple programs it’s important for school ICT and Computing heads, teachers or those responsible for ICT/Computing to make sure their school network is secure and able to handle the new requirements without compromising the rest of the system.
Here are a few considerations to help with that and make sure your data is safe and the students can enjoy exploring new learning securely.
You may not always think so after a long and gruelling parents' evening, but parents are your friends! By keeping them well-informed of their child's progress, you not only keep them happy but also may be able to enlist their assistance.I’ve been working on a long-ish article about big data for my newsletter, Digital Education. To give you a hint of some of my misgivings, here is a diagram I prepared to illustrate some of my points.
Can eBay teach us anything about assessment? At the Naace 2009 conference, John Davitt made an interesting point. As I recall, he said that when he started selling stuff on eBay he received more feedback on his performance than he’d ever seen in a school.
Are your students yawning, checking their email, launching paper aeroplanes in your lessons? Perhaps you’re making one of these mistakes.
I heard an interesting snippet from Mike Cladingbowl, National Director at Ofsted, recently. He said that when interactive whiteboards were first introduced, Ofsted inspectors saw an increase in “chalk and talk”. Hardly surprising, because interactive whiteboards made chalk and talk, ie teaching from the front, easier.(c) Terry Freedman All Rights Reserved