Term by term, the UK schools sector is edging closer to a significant teacher supply cliff-edge. A large segment of the teacher population is approaching retirement, historically low numbers of new entrants are opting for a teaching career, and every year many great teachers give up teaching or leave the UK to practise elsewhere. The… Read More »
The pursuit of evidence that demonstrates the effectiveness of technology for learning has been going on for as long as I can remember using technology as a teacher*. I’ve written in detail in the past about what we do and do not know about this if you’d like some background, but a number of recent… Read More »
We all watched with interest, I’m sure, this weekend’s meltdown over the state of NHS IT and its vulnerability to ransomware. Many a school leader will have woken up in the middle of Sunday night wondering if the morning would bring an unwelcome and hugely disruptive exam-season crisis… Why is this happening? Over the… Read More »
I was recently lucky enough to spend a day at Surbiton High School observing several lessons and talking to staff and students about their perceptions of the impact technology is having on marking and feedback. I shot a lot of video for an internal case study, and at the end of the day had an… Read More »
I wrote this article for the TES. They asked for 1300 polished and considered words. I added some jokes too, for free. They let a subeditor loose on it and, well, you can read the bloodied stump on their site if you want to see the damage that can be wrought by someone in possession… Read More »
I am often asked by schools to help in the appointment of someone to lead their technology strategy and often the most difficult part is drawing up a job description that is both ambitious and, well, fill-able. The first challenge is what to call it. Director/ Head/ Leader of… eLearning? Digital Strategy? Technology? I prefer… Read More »
First things first – abject apologies for the hackneyed Star Trek-inspired title. My explanation has two parts: 1) this post is about SPOCs (tenuous, I know) and 2) I’ve been getting into The Big Bang Theory recently, having missed it first time around. Those guys love a Star Trek reference. In my last post I considered whether… Read More »
Massive Open Online Courses are pretty mainstream now (hey, even I’ve done one!) and give access on an unprecedented scale to hundreds of University level courses offered by institutions from around the world. Done well, a MOOC can be a very successful way of learning. Trust me, I’ve tried and failed to learn various things… Read More »
This might not seem of immediate relevance, but stick with me on this one, all will become clear hopefully. There are plenty of historical examples of people who have stood out in their time for their genius. I could cite hundreds, but as Leonardo Da Vinci seems to be current shorthand for this, I’ll use… Read More »
This blog’s title is a truism which is fairly uncontroversial, but one worth stating & thinking through if your job involves educational technology. It’s a little depressing that debate is often this polarised (with some seeing technology as a threat, not an enhancement). It’s rare that technology evangelists believe that ‘their’ methods are always, irrefutably… Read More »
This morning I have been attending the above event at London Bridge. Its pitch is 'the inside track' on government thinking and direction, reflected by the selection of speakers (including those from DfE and the House of Lords). Here's what I learned. Tom Goldman, Deputy Director, Standards Division, DfE, 'Technology in England's Schools' Tom… Read More »
I’m using this post to try and flesh out my own thinking about the role of MIS in schools; apologies for the dull-ness, you are welcome to slip quietly out of the back now while I look the other way. Firstly, in case you don’t know, MIS is derived from ‘Management Information System’, the commonly… Read More »