One of the well-known tropes in science fiction — especially the sort of sci-fi you see in comics and superhero films — is the mad scientist.
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Dystopian visions: The Snowball Effect
In The Snowball Effect, by Katherine Maclean, the focus is on mathematics, or an innovation called “social mathematics” to be accurate. This probably sounds rather dry, but it was really quite prescient.
Read MoreProduct placement technology: a step too far
There’s something a bit “iffy” about inserting an advert into a programme that wasn’t there originally.
Read MoreDystopian visions: My Object All Sublime
What if an amazing technology like time travel were used purely and simply as a form of punishment?
Read MoreThe blog is dead. Long live the blog
From an educational point of view, we should encourage students to work out which form of writing is most appropriate for the job in hand, not encouraging them to drop one type of writing all together.
Read MoreDystopian visions: Disappearing Act (Updated)
<UPDATED> I especially worry about the displacement of subjects like art, drama, music, history and geography, all of which are vitally important but which seem to be treated as the poor cousins in the curriculum. Yes, STEAM is better than STEM, but it’s not enough.
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Dystopian visions
Coming soon…
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Discussing, by Terry Freedman.png
Trump, Twitter and all that
If you are willing and able to engage your class in discussions about the ed tech issues of the day, recent events in the USA provide rich pickings.
Read MoreAutomatic Writing part 2
What might it be like to be able to write an article straight from your head?
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Robot Reporter, by Terry Freedman
Automated writing part 1
The Guardian newspaper has published an article “written” almost entirely by AI. How worried should writers be?
Read MoreBook review: The Meritocracy Trap
I’ve gone slightly off-topic with this book review, but I thought it provided an interesting thesis which may be useful to consider as part of bigger picture than only technology.
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An unintended consequence of driverless cars
Will the advent of fully autonomous cars herald the end of the road movie? Is that another way in which technology could affect culture?
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Reflections
Reflections from a teacher training course 1
My reflections on a first session I taught on a teacher training course are still apposite today.
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Think outside the box, by Terry Freedman
Fiction and computational thinking (Updated)
How might you use fiction as a vehicle for teaching computational thinking? Here are some ideas.
Read MoreAI-generated content: does it matter how articles are written?
Does it matter if articles are written by an algorithm?
Read MoreAlexa, don't do as you're told
Should we be polite to virtual assistants?
Read MoreSolving the driverless car problem Part 3
The problem referred to in the title may be summarised as: who ya gonna kill? The car is hurtling along the road when a child steps out in front of it. The car is faced with a dilemma: kill the child, or the pedestrian waiting to cross the road, who would be in the car's path should it swerve to avoid the child. Terry Freedman explains why this whole thing is a red herring.
Read MoreSolving the driverless car problem part 2
The problem referred to in the title may be summarised as: who ya gonna kill? The car is hurtling along the road when a child steps out in front of it. The car is faced with a dilemma: kill the child, or the pedestrian waiting to cross the road, who would be in the car's path should it swerve to avoid the child. Terry Freedman explains why Lance Sharpe’s analysis was wrong.
Read MoreSolving the driverless car problem Part 1
The problem referred to in the title may be summarised as: who ya gonna kill? The car is hurtling along the road when a child steps out in front of it. The car is faced with a dilemma: kill the child, or the pedestrian waiting to cross the road, who would be in the car's path should it swerve to avoid the child. Guest contributor Lance Sharpe considers the problem from an Economist’s perspective.
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parking, by Terry Freedman
Digital Exclusion and Digital Equality
Both young and old can suffer from digital exclusion.
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