Evidence-based education tends to be regarded in much the same way as Oscar Wilde viewed advice: useful for other people.
Read MoreReview: The power of professional learning networks: full review
The idea of professional learning networks, or PLNs, has been around a long time. So what is there to say about them with regard to teachers’ professional development and wellbeing?
Read MoreReview: 20 Things to do with a computer (full review)
Back in 1971, when computers in schools were barely conceivable, Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon produced a revolutionary paper. Reproduced in this book, their Twenty Things to Do with a Computer introduced teachers to the idea that programming could be used to engage children, release their creativity and still learn stuff.
Read MoreSeason's greetings!
Season’s greetings from Freedman Towers.
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Section of an artcile records spreadsheet, by Terry Freedman
Using ChatGPT as a search engine
Although I haven’t been overly impressed with ChatGPT as a creative force, I have to say that I am impressed with it as an alternative to Google.
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On This Day, by Terry Freedman
On This Day: Why I Dread The Thought Of Benign Algorithms (Updated)
What if intelligent computers decide to look after us, and protect us from ourselves?
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Review: The turning point for the teaching profession -- full review
Given that the government has laid down what must be taught, periodically pontificates on the ‘best’ teaching methods, goes so far as to indicate a preference for particular resources and has appointed an external organisation to oversee quality control, can teaching be truly thought of as a profession?
Read MoreAI-generated content: does it matter how articles are written? Revisited
As ChatGPT is on everybody’s lips at the moment, I thought I’d revisit an article I wrote several years ago.
Read MoreBack to the future: a data security issue? Updated
An interesting and lighthearted look at some of the problems arising from the Back to the Future movies.
Read MoreFirewall Foibles, And How I Survived Them Revisited
It was when my wireless router told me that there was no printer on the network that I finally flipped.
Read MoreReview: My secret #edtech diary (full review)
It is a sad confirmation that the trope that education lacks any sort of collective memory is in fact well observed.
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Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
What? You mean...
This is a blast from the past. But kids are kids.
Read MoreReview: Teaching Machines: The history of personlized learning
Here is a very strange paradox. On the one hand, everyone agrees that a key ingredient for success in life is having great teachers. On the other, there’s a relentless narrative that education is somehow broken and that fixing it entails replacing teachers or transforming some or all of what they do.
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Snow on tracks by Terry Freedman
A brief interlude
Here in England it’s cold, though not quite as cold as it has been, and walking and cycling are treacherous.
Read MoreReview: Breaking the news -- exhibtion
It is easy to believe that ‘fake news’ is a modern phenomenon, brought about by social media and promulgated by politicians. Yet as the British Library’s event, ‘Breaking the News’ exhibition demonstrated, fake news – or that unforgettable phrase ‘alternative facts’ – have been features of news reporting for at least 500 years.
Read MoreGood news regarding the Government's plans to make the Oak Academy an arms-length body
The Oak provided useful resources during the lockdowns, and continues to create them. But there are four things wrong with the DfE's plan…
Read MoreReview: The Complete Learner's Toolkit (Full review)
I was underwhelmed by a book with lofty ambitions that delivers little more than a compendium of interesting lesson ideas.
Read MoreReview: YEAR ONE: Lighting the path on your first year in teaching
I reviewed this book for Teach Secondary magazine. I’ve included both the review I sent in, and the lightly edited version that was published in the magazine.
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Review: The Fundraising Handbook by Lindsey Marsh
One of the chief banes of my life as a head of computing in a comprehensive school was acquiring enough money to develop the subject and to improve the experience of using education technology for everyone across the school.
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