http://milesberry.net A personal perspective on education, technology and culture Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:05:36 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Originally published on Open Source Schools. It's interesting how open source approaches are gradually tipping the balance in favour of open platforms when it comes to developing for smart phones. Whilst Apple's highly locked down iOS4 platform continues to command a large slice of market share, things are gradually tipping the ... http://milesberry.net/2010/07/programming-for-androids-with-app-inventor/ Oringinally posted at MerlinJohnOnline, but comments welcome below... So far, things have not gone particularly well for ICT in schools under the new government. We've seen Becta's funding withdrawn, the Rose curriculum thrown away, £100 Million removed from the 'low priority' Harnessing Technology grants and now BSF 'frozen'. Mike Baker's piece ... http://milesberry.net/2010/07/on-saving-money/ My piece from today's Naace newsletter. My move from teaching to teacher training has brought many interesting opportunities and experiences: the freedoms to write our own courses and set our own exams are great, as is access to the university library’s online journal subscriptions, but so is the chance to attend ... http://milesberry.net/2010/07/technology-and-the-rights-of-the-child/ We live in interesting times. I have no privileged information, but have been following the primary curriculum developments with some interest. My (personal) reading is that we'll see something close to the Lib Dem manifesto commitment to 'CurriculumLite', ie a minimum core entitlement, with a degree of autonomy devolved to all ... http://milesberry.net/2010/05/primary-curriculum-reform/ Originally posted at Open Source Schools. Declaration of interest: the Open Source Schools project, for which I have the honour to act as community manager, is funded by Becta, although I've written the following in a purely personal capacity. The Treasury announced this morning that Becta is to close as part ... http://milesberry.net/2010/05/596/ My 'provocation paper' for the recent Open Source Schools think tank. Open source or software freedom isn’t simply another way of procuring software, it’s more a state of mind, a particular attitude to technology. Of course, you can just treat it as a cheap way of getting high quality, robust code, ... http://milesberry.net/2010/04/open-source-education/ Last November, I had the rather strage experience of having one of my lectures filmed, the resulting programme now having been broadcast on Teachers' TV. Whilst the BBC haven't yet been in touch about my taking over from Jonathan Ross, folks here might be interested in a 45' peek into ... http://milesberry.net/2010/03/social-constructivism-and-open-source/ A personal reflection on my 'learning journey', written as an exercise for Roehampton's PG Certificate in Learning and Teaching in HE. Education is something I care passionately about.  I love to learn new things, I love to share the things I learn with others; I feel fortunate to follow a career ... http://milesberry.net/2009/10/a-learning-journey/ It was a great pleasure to attend last Tuesday's Mirandamod to hear Etienne Wenger discussing communities of practice (CoP), with particular relation to education, both in schools and, particularly, in relation to teachers' continuing professional development. I'm sure that the CoP approach to CPD is both more fulfilling for the ... http://milesberry.net/2009/09/open-source-projects-as-communities-of-practice/ Moving between Windows computers in my new office and teaching rooms, my Ubuntu netbook and my MacBook Pro, I find myself relying more and more on web-based tools, particularly google mail, calendar and docs. I also find myself valuing ever more highly Mozilla Firefox’s rich armoury of extensions, which are ... http://milesberry.net/2009/09/firefox-is-my-ple/