I suppose this isn't quite fair, but I couldn't resist it anyway! Is this how discussions about the curriculum must seem to people outside education?
Read MoreUnreliable information is worse than no information
I will never understand why so many people think that Wikipedia is OK to use for serious research on the grounds that it is mostly reliable. Mostly? Some years ago I posited the idea of a wiki timetable, in which people get to edit train timetables how they like. Some of the information displayed on the electronic noticeboards would probably be accurate some of the time. Useful, eh?
Video-conferencing as a means of one-upmanship
I quite like this cartoon. It depicts a less obvious reason that some people might find video-conferencing appealing!
Read MoreA Map of the Internet
I recently discovered this map of the internet through Stephen Downes’ newsletter, OLDaily. Downes says, “It’s mostly eye-candy, but it’s good eye-candy”. I prefer to think of it as “interesting” eye-candy. It’s visually attractive, but what I find interesting is the fact that the descriptions are not necessarily value-free.
What the mind sees
It is interesting, isn’t it, how the mind can play tricks on you? A couple of days ago I had proof of either working too hard or of working too hard on one particular thing.
“I’m on the tube!”
People travelling on the London Underground (known as ‘the tube’) will soon be able to obtain a wi-fi signal on their phone or other electronic device.
What might be the benefits and costs of this?
Tweet-up in Oxford
I had the pleasure of meeting up with Shelly Terrell and Clive Elsmore (Clivesir on Twitter) recently in Oxford. But look at the text messages we exchanged in order to finalise the arrangements….
Internet addiction: another flawed study
You’d think people would have better things to do than do pointless surveys from which they then draw unlikely conclusions. Still, it keeps them out of mischief I suppose.
ICT: something to be ashamed of?
I saw an advertisement
Read MoreBloggers and consultants: ever feel we’re being got at?
A couple of things made me smile today.
Season’s Greetings from ICT in Education
I’m not sure how frequently I’m going to be writing here over the next couple of weeks. I hope to post some articles here, and possibly on My Writes and Writers’ Know-how. Anyway, I just wished to say thanks for reading this blog and I hope you all have a nice, restful, break.
I leave you with this Laurel and Hardy clip which made me smile. In itself, it has nothing at all to do with the current holidays
ICT Posters: Credit Rating
Why do posters and notices in computer labs have to be so serious? Surely it just deters people from using the stuff?
I recall one school in which 10 seconds in the computer lab had you nervously looking around for the heavy mob: the walls were covered in posters telling you what was forbidden – forbidden! The general ambience was not improved by the bars on all the windows. Understandable, but even so….
Are there benefits in having an unread blog?
Most people who blog about their profession (as opposed to, say, people who are keeping a journal for their own records or for their family and friends) like the idea of lots of people reading their blogs. But are there any advantages to having a blog that nobody reads?
Read MoreThe value of email in a recession
Here’s a cartoon you may find amusing in these rather austere times!
Read MoreWhen technology goes wrong
Just a couple of cogitations – hopefully worthy -- about technology and our relationship with it.
Analogue or digital?
Is there any advantage in having an analogue watch face to a digital one, or vice versa?
The 100 worst blogs
I keep coming across blogs with titles like “Top 50 Blogs in [genre or category]. Perhaps it would be much more of a service for someone to produce a list of the worst blogs in a particular category.
If ICT co-ordinators were politicians…
I was watching a debate in the House of Lords the other day, and I was very struck (I hesitate to use the word 'impressed') by how easily a particular government representative managed to fend off a whole variety of questions without saying anything of any value whatsoever.
Read MoreWould you have sex with a robot?
Can you envisage a time when human beings will have relationships with robots? You could argue that to some extent we already have a relationship with electronic things (in my case, a love-hate relationship!), but can you imagine a time when we might marry robots, or have sex with them?
Unintended consequences of social networking
I thought I’d start an occasional series of posts concerned solely with the unintended consequences of technology. To start it off, here’s a comic strip from The Daily Telegraph in the UK.
Read MoreSystem 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: