At the weekend we opened up to public view our internal Multi-Academy Trust database on our site here. A number of people have asked why we did this, and a number have asked how. So here goes. We provide online tools to MATs so we need to know who our customers are likely to be.… Read More WYSIWYG
Earlier today I tweeted an article which described EduTech as the new FinTech. For those of you not in the know FinTech has nothing to do with fish, it is the name given to technology development in the world of finance. To give you a sense of the scale of what is happening in FinTech… Read More Flippin’ heck, how much?
You will not have been able to miss the news over the past week or so that tablets are on their way out. The most quotable quote was “Even Apple is acknowledging that the “iPads in education” fad is coming to an end.” which manages to diss the two tech bête noirs of the edu-twitterati,… Read More Lies, damned lies, and the debunking of edtech fads
About six or seven years ago I was introduced to Atul Gawande and his Checklist Manifesto. To me it presented a compelling case for the benefit of using checklists. Don’t just trust me on that, read it. Since then I have endeavoured to use the approach whenever I can. Particularly in the past few years… Read More Check this out!
I won’t insult your intelligence by telling you what a fantastic breakthrough for education the Apple Watch is going to be. Not only would it insult you it would show me up to be a bit of an idiot. The truth is that we don’t know what impact the device will have yet, in any… Read More Watch this space
I’m fortunate enough to be a governor at a great school, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to briefly share how they are addressing the issue of individual student devices. The first step was the development of an industrial strength wi-fi network to cover the multiple buildings across the campus. This was done over… Read More A teacher-led 1-to-1 device development model
The concept of National Curriculum Levels has been with us for nearly 30 years, borne out of the 1987 Task Group on Assessment and Testing (TGAT) chaired by Paul Black. I mention this not with any intention of persuading anyone of their merits but simply to place them in time. And in school terms the time… Read More Assessment: Throw away the pen and paper
One of the many issues that get raised in any discussion about the use of technology in education, particularly mobile technology is that of the impact of devices on student behaviour. I have discussed before my view on the likely trajectory of technology in education and the inexorable rise of the mobile device. This recent… Read More And so castles made of sand, fall in the sea, eventually
When I went to secondary school I had an electronic device. It could: add subtract divide multiply square root store one number (until it was turned off) It made some of my maths and science easier to do. It cost around half the average weekly wage at the time. Despite the behaviour issues created (children… Read More And such an instrument I was to use
Here’s the thing about marking. In truth, very little work is planned to be marked. By that I mean planned well. Usually there will be a mark scheme. I say usually, I mean often. Or sometimes. And by mark scheme I mean another sheet with the answers on it. Too often, little (or no) thought… Read More If Hollerith marked homework
Distant Ramblings on the Horizon 