This is what the latest version of Digital Education contains, with guest articles by Professor Paul Curzon, Sal McKeown, Geoff Jones and Crispin Weston
Stanhope Primary School in South Shields has been using TrilbyTV as much more than a teaching aid in their school. It has been used as a tool to inspire their children to believe in themselves and the goals they want to achieve throughout life.
Set in a deprived part of the UK, Stanhope School has to work exceptionally hard to ensure each of their pupils
Magicians demonstrate that some kinds of human mistake are not down to stupidity or negligence but about how our brains are wired. Computer Scientists have to understand this too but instead engineer systems so no one makes mistakes – especially in critical situations like a hospital. The machines need to help not hinder. Professor Paul Curzon explains...
Go on, admit it: you still create worksheets, right? If you do, and you use Microsoft Word or OpenOffice to do so, you’ll find Teacher’s Pet very handy. It’s basically a set of macros that can transform lists of words into several different types of puzzle or test item.
Digital Revolution explores and celebrates the transformation of the arts through digital technology since the 1970s. The exhibition brings together for the first time a range of artists, filmmakers, architects, designers, musicians and game developers pushing the boundaries of their fields using digital media. It also looks to the future considering the impact of creative coding, DIY culture, digital communities and the creative possibilities offered by technologies including augmented reality, artificial intelligence, wearable technologies, robotics and 3D printing.
The latest edition of Digital Education is bursting at the seems. There is, I hope, something for everybody. As well as news and commentary, there are lists of resources, evaluated. Plus, guest articles: Professor Paul Curzon considers what programmers can learn from magicians, Sal McKeown asks whether we really need teachers, Crispin Weston suggests what is wrong with the Education Technology Action Group, Geoff Jones points out the dangers of some forms of data collection from parents, and Derek Blunt has a (mild) rant about the demise of the term “teaching”.
There are other articles too, plus a chance to win a Labquest datalogger, and a chance to win a break in Germany, an iPad and other goodies, free entry to an event called Digital Summer Trip, access to a growing list of very useful resources, including the collated articles about the recently-announced Department for Education assessment innovations.
The full list of contents is given below.
In each case I have kept the text of the DfE’s announcement, and then added my thoughts under the heading “Applying this to Computing and ICT”.
Today: Cognitive Development.
A couple of months ago I invited people to contribute to a survey about what they were doing to prepare for the new Computing curriculum. About 75% of my motivation for doing so was to help to spread ideas. I believe in the grass roots sort of approach to such things, as opposed to the ‘great and the good’ declaring what the rest of should be doing. Actually, to clarify, I don’t mind if the great and the good are doing it or have done it themselves. I find it tedious when people who have never been a teacher and/or had little contact with schools start issuing advice. OK, rant over!
The DfE recently announced the winners of its Assessment Innovation Fund.Over the next week or so I will report on the winners and the descriptions of their approach. These descriptions are more like thumbnail sketches at the moment. I have used them to suggest ways in which they might be adapted for use in assessing ICT and Computing. I hope you find these suggestions useful, or at least a good starting point for your own further work.
In each case I have kept the text of the DfE’s announcement, and then added my thoughts under the heading “Applying this to Computing and ICT”.
Today: Progression planners.
The forthcoming edition of Digital Education contains articles about magic, monsters and music. See? Computing is not all about coding!(c) Terry Freedman All Rights Reserved