Sometimes you need to convince colleagues to think about using educational technology in their lessons, or to identify where in their scheme of work they could incorporate it.
Read MoreOn this day: websites to stimulate computing project ideas
Enjoy exploring these websites for ideas for projects for Computing.
Read MoreOn this day: a spreadsheet grade predictor
On December 7th, 2015, I wrote an article explaining how you could set up a spreadsheet in Excel to help you predict and analyse students’ grades.
Read MoreOn this day: Thoughts about Alexa
I can’t get used to just barking orders at someone. Whatever happened to courtesy?
Read MoreOn this day: what the mind sees
Here’s a link to an article about the mind playing tricks.
Read More9 criteria for evaluating a school’s education technology and 8 criteria regarding Computing provision
Whether you are moving to a new school, or staying where you are, it’s good to stand back and try to gauge what the school’s education technology and Computing are like. Why you would want to do that if taking up a new post is obvious: you want to see how the land lies so that you can start to identify any improvements that could be made.
Read MoreThe problems with rubrics
Rubrics look like an easy way to tackle assessment. But they can be deceptive in that respect, and can cause the unwary to slip up.
Read MoreOn this day: 5 reasons to join Computing communities
On this day: Presentation: 10 stimulating ideas for the Computing curriculum
This is an article I originally published on 2 October 2017. The conference it refers to has been and gone, but I’ve added a few annotations relating to my methodology.
Read MoreOn this day: my blogging course contingency plan
Like many other people, last year I was in the position of having to run my introductory course about blogging online. Just in case things went pear-shaped, I came up with a contingency plan.
Read MoreOn this day: words have precise meanings (or should have)
On 25 June 2020 I wrote about words and their connotations. That was in the middle of lockdown, and was prompted by a specific news story. But the general principle still applies.
Read MoreOn this day #22: When to be over-cautious
I’ve seen a lot of half-baked initiatives emanating from schools. As for governments, well it’s almost what we’ve come to expect.
Read MoreOn this day #21: An interesting meeting at Bett
Gosh! It’s ten years since I wrote about meeting at Bett someone who had approached me for advice from the other side of the world. How far off those days seem right now.
Read MoreOn this day #20: Digital literacy and "coding"
Is being digitally literate synonymous with being able to code?
Read MoreHappy birthday, Digital Education!
Six years ago today I announced the launch of free newsletter, Digital Education. Back in 2000 I had started a newsletter called Computers in Classrooms. That name was pretty cutting edge at the time, but after 14 years how quaint it seemed!
Read MoreOn this day #19: Who's in charge
On this day #18: Don't focus on the goal
As an education technology leader you need to have a vision, you need to have goals. But once you have established the vision and goals, it’s a good idea to forget about them.
Read MoreOn this day #17: A really bad question
These days, students can find out things like the rate of interest in real time without even leaving their seats. That doesn't make the question ["What's the interest rate?"] itself any better.
Read MoreOn this day #16: The trouble with women
When I was reading about Ada Lovelace I found it quite appalling that in her days men thought women were too mentally fragile to cope with mathematics or science.
Read MoreOn this day #15: Technical support
I would say that these days an efficient and effective technical support function is more important than ever. I have been at the sharp end of technical glitches in Zoom and so on, and although I was able to figure them out for myself, it was a very frustrating experience.
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