Review of the Google Chromebook

DSC06547I’ve been looking at the Google Chromebook, and I have to say I am seriously impressed. There’s a lot of talk about tablets these days. I myself have promoted the idea of Bring Your Own Technology, which usually means a phone or a tablet. But the Google Chromebook is worthy of consideration, whether for yourself, or whether you’re considering taking your school into the mobile future.

In order to thoroughly evaluate the Chromebook from a school perspective, I not only used the device myself, but interviewed Bruno Reddy, Head of Maths at the King Solomon Academy in London, and Jaime Casap, Global Education Evangelist at Google.

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Making the Most of ICT – what the research tells us

Steve Moss looks at what the educational research says about how to maximise the impact of ICT on learning.

FPEX researchIn 1981 the then Conservative government announced that the Department of Trade and Industry would provide funding for one microcomputer in every school. Throughout the ensuing three decades there has hardly ever been a year when there has not been some earmarked or ring-fenced funding for ICT in schools in England. But in 2014 we are in new territory. The Harnessing Technology Grant, which for several years was the main source of devolved funding to support ICT in schools, is no more and many schools will have to make do with the ICT equipment they already have rather than spending on the latest technology. Yet teachers should still aim to make the very best use of the resources available to them and aspire to excellent teaching with ICT.

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Being strategic after the Bett show

Bett: 30 years forwardIf you look at the list of suggestions in my “Getting the Best out of Bett” guide, some of which I reproduced in 5 Things to do after attending Bett, nothing leaps out as being “strategic”. But there are a couple of things, as I’ll explain in a moment. And that is tremendously important.

It would be very easy indeed to spend a day or two after an event, especially a long one like Bett, just dealing with the backlog of emails and work, but not actually doing anything that will help future growth. I suppose it’s a bit like clearing a financial debt: very important to do, but it’s putting some money into an interest-bearing account that will reap benefits in the longer term.

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5 Things to do after attending Bett

Bett with kidsThere is always a danger that no matter how good an event is, it will turn out to have very little impact in the longer term, as you forget what you saw and more pressing concerns vie for your attention. Here are 5 suggestions for preventing that from happening. There are more suggestions in the free guide, Getting the Best out of Bett.
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Business emails to inspire confidence (not)

Double CheckThere must be a whole generation of people who know the mechanics of using technology, but have no idea of how to take charge of it. I am thinking in particular of the ridiculous marketing messages I receive, that advertise targeted marketing services. I mention this because, despite all the lambasting of “Office skills”, it is demonstrably clear that people need them. I could even make a case for this being related to digital safety. How? Reputation is important, and marketing messages that have “schoolboy errors” do nothing to enhance one’s credibility. Consider the following examples:
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5 Things to consider regarding seminars at Bett

With the vast amount of choice at the forthcoming Bett show (15 different events, hundreds of seminars, loads of exhibitors, plus networking), we need some criteria by which to judge whether or not something is worth going to or not – or worth staying for if you already have gone. Here are my suggestions. And remember: your time is precious, so if it becomes apparent that a seminar you thought would be relevant to your needs turns out not to be so, then get up and leave.
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Being connected without being connected

SPARK LONDON AT THE HACKNEY ATTICI have finally – finally! – realised what all the Facebook status updates I find so tedious have in common. That is, apart from the fact that they ostensibly have nothing in common, and that I find them tedious. I talked about the things I find irritating in How much should we share online?, so there's no need to rehearse it all over again.
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Getting the best out of Bett now available

Bett Guide cover 2Over 170 hints and tips from a Bett veteran! Yes, this is my UNOFFICIAL guide. Feel free to download it or share it, via an embed code.

Now includes a floor plan!

If you have already downloaded it, you may wish to download it again, as this is a revised edition containing extra information.

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8 sample questions to ask educational technology suppliers

If you’re in the market to buy a product or service to enhance the educational technology in your school, what are the questions you should be asking potential suppliers? Definitely not “What is your response time?”. Here are 8 suggestions for questions you should ask instead, and why the response time one is not very useful.
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Assessing “soft” skills

Do you have anything you’d like to add to the discussion, Terry?

The scene was a meeting at the Edusummit conference at UNESCO in Paris in 2011. The question came from the Chair.

Thank you, but no: everything I was going to say has already been said.

That was my response, because I didn’t see any purpose in repeating points that had not only been made, but also generally agreed upon. In fact, my contributions to many meetings are based on Salvator Rosa’s, dictum:

Be silent, unless what you have to say is better than silence.

The question is: does that make me a good collaborator, or not so good? How do we measure such things? And does any of it matter anyway?

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5 tips for BETT

Bett guide coverMy annual guide to Getting the Best out of BETT is pretty much complete. I’m just waiting for one more item to be sent to me, and then it’s all systems go. I’ll be making it available to subscribers to our newsletter first, and then more widely. In the meantime, I thought I’d publish a few extracts from it. These extracts are just a small sample: there are over 150 suggestions altogether
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Plagiarism in education

It’s often said that if you steal from one person’s work, it’s plagiarism, but if you steal from lots of people it’s “research”. Very droll, but plagiarism is a serious business. As well as being potentially economically damaging to the victim, it is demeaning for the perpetrator – although, like all thieves, they probably don’t realise it.
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Applying computational thinking in the “real world”

... analog computer!One of the justifications for teaching computing and coding is that “computational thinking” is a useful skill for pupils to have, in order to apply it in wide variety of situations. A worthy aim, but I’ve heard very few convincing examples given. Actually, I don’t think I’ve come across any examples of how pupils might use computational thinking in a broader context, or how it applies beyond the relatively narrow confines of computer science.

However, Anna Shipman, a software developer, currently working for the Government Digital Service, believes that a software development approach can and should be taken in other areas of life. In particular, she relates how it proved useful in the context of fixing a leaky roof.

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Competing with World of Warcraft

World Of Warcraft DVD + ManualI’ve just started reading Focus, by Daniel Coleman. If a book may be judged by the degree and speed with which it raises one’s blood pressure, I have to say this is pretty good value. I’m only 3% in, according to my Kindle status bar, and already I’ve found three things to disagree with. And let’s not forget that that 3% includes all the “prelims”, i.e. title and copyright pages, table of contents, and so on. 
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