Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

I’m a fan of AlphaSmart kit, and whenever I go into a school where they want to improve writing and use ICT quickly and easily I recommend their products. AlphaSmart’s core idea is a machine you turn on, word-process and turn off. Later you transfer the text to a computer or printer. Their best selling [...]

Last week the BBC announced it’s plans for a Creative Future. It has received mixed response from media commentators, bloggers and educationists. Creative Future is intended to make the BBC appeal to the ‘MP3 Generation’, with more Web 2 type activity. In an attempt to appeal more to the 0 – 16 age group news [...]

Did you see the lights?
If you’ve been watching ‘Invasion’, the sci-fi series on Channel 4, you’ll know that it’s pretty weird. One of the characters, Dave, writes his own blog which is mentioned at various points in the story. ABC, the producers of the series, started Dave’s Diatribe in December and I suspect it gets [...]

Those interested in motor racing will know that my company, Advisory Matters has an office at Ketteringham Hall in Norfolk. This was the original home of Team Lotus, indeed the famous cars of the 1970s were all built here in the stables. Every-so-often, Lotus still have events and photo-shoots at the hall. This afternoon, Mario [...]

At the end of last week, and over the weekend, I attended the ECIS Administrators’ Conference. This year it was held in Barcelona, at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya. The administrators’ conference does not usually have a heavy ICT thread, but this year there were five sessions that covered a variety of aspects. The [...]

At Cebit a Chinese company lauched a computer for €123 (euros) claiming it is the cheapest computer in the world. Running all open source software it runs on “Thinix 3.0,” a Linux variant and it is available now but with a 3 month lead time. The Municator, as it is called, offers an S-video port, [...]

Yesterday Apple released a beta version of Boot Camp. Boot Camp allows your Intel based Mac to run Windows XP. I downloaded it last night and this afternoon my MacBook Pro was running Windows natively. Here’s a picture to prove it.
Commentators are surprised by this move, and can only assume that it’s to persuade potential [...]

Further to my posting on April 1st, the blooker prize had been awarded to Julie Powell for her book, Julie & Julia. More information can be found on the Blooker prize website. The media have certainly latched on to the concept of the prize. Here’s the report on the BBC’s Ten O’Clock News last night.
US [...]

This week’s Mike Baker column (BBC News Education correspondent) looks at two recently published books on teachers and teaching. Carry on Teachers! Representations of the teaching profession in screen culture by Susan Ellsmore was published last September. It looks interesting reading, and is based on her Ph.D research. According to Mike:
“She traces the evolution of [...]

Over the last five months I’ve been involved with this exciting project along with colleagues from Naace. This Friday will see the culmination of the first stage of our work. With a grant from Becta, we’ve been trying to get our heads around the concept of ‘transformed education’ and how ICT supports it. This is [...]