What new teachers need to know -- Personal ICT Skills

This article was originally published on 7th March 2006. Surprisingly perhaps, much of it is still relevant today, given its focus on the importance of having an understanding of computer programming concepts and other aspects of computing.

Making assumptions is a dangerous game! It's commonly assumed that new teachers will automatically know all about information technology because they are young (which is in itself an assumption: what about mature students, housewives returning to work, retired bankers looking for a new challenge, and so on?).

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Criticism and self-criticism: some thoughts for ICT teachers and leaders

Feedback Festival, S.Casciano, June 2009I was looking in the archives this morning, to see what I wrote about on this date in the past. By some strange twist, my articles on 4th July in both 2010 and 2011 were about criticism. Not criticism aimed at anyone or anything in particular, but in terms of general principles.
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Are acceptable use policies acceptable or of any use?

P1030702.JPGShould schools have Acceptable Use Policies? The following article was originally published in April 2008. Apart from the references to the ‘recent’ Byron Review and to Becta, it still seems very apposite to me. If I were writing the article today, I’d bring in Responsible Use Policies, but otherwise I believe it still stands. What do you think?

One of the things recommended by the recent Byron Review into keeping children safe in a digital world was for schools to have acceptable use policies

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Maintaining Standards

Evening Standard Get London Reading appealSo, you're responsible for the use of educational technology in the school, but its use and principles are taught across the curriculum rather than as a discrete subject. In other words, by non-specialists in all likelihood. How can you maintain high standards in ICT and the use of educational technology in such a situation?

In this article I look at 14 suggestions.

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Getting the most from the BETT show

Eleven years ago I wrote an 8-point guide to BETT, in my newsletter, and have reproduced it below. I think the points still stack up, especially the one about having a good breakfast! I hope you enjoy reading this blast from the past (9th January 2001 to be exact). And when you have done so, why not download the up-to-date bumper edition – 125 stupendous tips, and completely free? The URL is at the end of the article.

At the time this was written, the web was still relatively new to a lot of teachers, and Google had been on the scene for about three years. At that time it was still only a search engine. The newsletter was sent in text format from my own email address using my personal email client, which at that time was Eudora. Ah, such days of innocence!

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A Teen's View of "Their Space" and Internet Safety

In 2007, the British think tank, Demos, published its report entitled “Their Space”. According to the authors,

This report is the result of nine months of work that focused specifically on understanding how children and young people use new technologies.

The review below was written soon after its publication, by Sarah Hillier, who was at that time a teenager. I’ve just re-read her article, and I think its observations and incisiveness – not to mention the beauty of her writing – have stood the test of time. The article which follows has only been modified slightly from the original. I hope you enjoy it.

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11 predictions concerning technology in education

road2julian003Here is a list of predictions I made in 2001 about the classroom of the future. I’m pleasantly surprised about how accurate it has turned out to be – but I think it will be even more challenging to predict the next ten years because there are so many options opening up. What are your predictions for the next ten years? And is it worth bothering to make such predictions anyway?

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What don't people know?

Like many others, I suppose, I sometimes forget that just because I am familiar with something (a piece Hmm. Seems kinda obvious to me...of software, a workaround, a report -- whatever) doesn't mean that everyone else is. And they're not going to tell you that they don't know something for one very simple reason -- people don't know what they don't know!

About a year ago I explored this issue, and suggested ways to deal with it, in an article entitled The art of stating the obvious. Click the link to read the article now.

System failure: a true story

Last week I had to go to my mother's bank to sort something out. Thus it was that I entered into a sort of Escheresque landscape...

I used to bank there myself, but it is so dreadful I thought, in the end, I could do without the stress.

Anyway, before I went I ascertained what I would need by way of documentation. Of course, when I arrived, I was told that I needed something else. Here's how the conversation (well, some of it), went:

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