Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

Teachertube is starting to come of age. In the past, if you wanted to find out what teachers in other classrooms were doing, and how they succeeded, then you might have attended a conference, or read a case study in a journal, but now enthusiastic teachers willing to share what they’ve learnt from others, adapted, [...]

Apparently, Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, in his bid for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party believes that private schools should lend teachers to state schools. You can view the news report here. The BBC’s Have Your Say forum on the subject certainly has some interesting opinions on the subject, mostly supporting the quality [...]

The recent concerns over the safely of wi-fi, whether in schools or not, became more heated with tonight’s Panorama programme. It’s been rumbling around for a little while, and I’ve blogged on the issue before. Panorama came and measured signal strength in a Norwich school (I recognise the environment, but won’t reveal the school here), [...]

Evan Davis, the BBC’s Economics Correspondent, talks this week about ‘value engineering’. Apparently, Travelodge don’t have shampoo in the bathroom due to this concept. Their website states:
“Pay for things you don’t want? That’s crazy! Our research shows that most people staying in a hotel simply want a clean, comfortable place to get a good night’s [...]

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81. I purchased it in November 1980, but it did not arrive until January 1981. Here are just five things I learnt from using it back then (there are of course many more):
1. You can never have enough memory. The ZX81 has 1K, and within a week I realised [...]

Has your school got a VLE? Is it your starting point to a fully fledged Learning Platform? Probably … many Local Authorities are starting with this premise. No wonder really, with most framework recognised providers having a VLE at their core with additional features coming later. The Government’s target is for each child to have [...]

Scratch is the new programming and animation tool from MIT. Here’s the demo.

We’re soon be reaching the end of the line, just like those strange objects that used to appear on Animal, Vegetable, Mineral (now that shows your age), analogue devices will be curiosites of the past, that contestants will speculate on what they were used for. Among those objects will be the humble cassette tape, as [...]

My wife has one of these, the phone for the digital immigrant or the one your employer gives you to make sure you only use it to genuinely make phone calls (in her case it is the latter).
The Nokia 1100 was launched in 2003 and was dubbed “Penny” by its design team. It is a [...]

If you have not come across this yet, it provides some food for thought …