Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

Melvyn Bragg’s new book (published on April 10th together with an ITV series starting on April 16th) started me thinking. The book, entitled, “Twelve Books that Changed the World” contain his unashamedly personal choices. In his introduction he states:
” What I wanted the books on my list to have in common was that they changed [...]

It just so happens that I’m facilitating on a teamSLICT course today and tomorrow. These very worthwhile learning experiences are designed to get schools, and leadership teams thinking and acting on embedding ICT in their schools. A major part of the experience is to visit a school that is on the journey. But crisis loomed, [...]

I’ve been listening to the last edition of the BBC World Service – Go Digital podcast, available via the World Service website.
This edition explores the progress of the UN’s plan to connect every village in the world to the internet by 2015, and in particular, revisits the concept of ‘a laptop for every child’ starting [...]

In a recent Teacher’s TV programme, Steve O’Hear called himself a ‘digital evangelist’, which set me thinking at to what ‘tag’ I could give myself that would adequately describe the life of an independent educational ICT consultant. I was pretty sure that ‘evangelist’ was not the word to use. While enthusiastic and committed, I hope [...]

Is blogging a killer application? Some would think so, and the way in which blogging has become a grass roots phenomenon might suggest so. In education, there needs to be clear pedagogical reasons that educators can both understand and use for the benefit of learners. In order to become ubiquitous any application needs to work [...]

The last few days I’ve been in Switzerland, home of cheese, cuckoo clocks and watches, or at least that’s what you might believe if you accepted the stereotype. I had been invited to speak at the Swiss Group of International Schools (SGIS) Annual Conference, on the topic, “Blogging: taking student-adopted technology and using it in [...]

Following John Clare’s keynote at the recent Naace Conference, in the post this morning came news of just the tool to gladden his heart. The introductory letter with the product sheet, states:
“Please take a moment to consider a new product that is the perfect accompaniment to every new Promethean or Smartboard sold into school. With [...]

This blog is not about the technology, but I couldn’t help myself tonight. I opened my brand new MacBook Pro this afternoon. The box had arrived a week ago, but was delivered after I had left to go to the Naace conference. A colleague had offered to bring it with him, but I declined. How [...]

Phew, what a week in Torquay at the Naace conference - stimulating sessions and debate! The ‘talk of the conference’ was the keynote address by John Clare, Education correspondent for the Telegraph and a fierce critic of the educational value of ICT in schools and the expenditure that has taken place in the UK over [...]