-
GCSE Computing
IntroductionA single, holistic GCSE in computing should be developed to address the full breadth of the subject: its ...
-
Curiosity in Computing
My own primary education took place in an environment that was heavily influenced by the 1967 Plowden Report. Plowden...
-
Diversity in Computing
We are nearing the 10th anniversary of computing becoming part of the national curriculum, which meant coding and com...
-
How important is the human touch in the age of AI learning?
Technologies in education have historically opened up access, making what was once the preserve of a few available to...
-
AI in initial teacher training
As new technologies are developed, there’s often a feeling that the nature of education changes: Plato famously had S...
-
Adaptive Teaching
Once upon a time, software was developed using a ‘waterfall’ method, where the requirements were gathered, the softwa...
-
Engagement in computing
Some teachers are addressing this well, but by and large there does seem to be an engagement problem in too many comp...
-
Large language models in pre-university education
Chat GPT and Bard are examples of large language models, in which thecomputer responds through text to prompts provid...
-
ChatGPT for pupils
Have you ever watched your pupils writing on an iPad? For their generation though, this seems almost natural, with ma...
-
Op Art with p5.js
The national curriculum requirements for Key Stage 3 computing include that pupils are taught two programming languag...
-
Intent, implementation and impact for our PGCE in computing
IntentSecondary teacher training in computing takes place within an overarching regulatory framework. The subject tha...
-
Ofsted's research review for computing
Ofsted’s research review for computing is part of a series looking at what some of academic research into teaching an...
-
What good programming work looks like
In primary and lower secondary, a rich experience of practical programming requires time and support from teachers an...
-
Creating the next generation of coders
My remarks at today’s meeting of the APPG for Education TechnologyThe rationales for teaching programming to allThere...
-
Practical cryptography
Cryptography and the school curriculumCryptography (encoding information so that it can be stored or communicated in ...
-
Practical programming in computing education
Executive summaryThis white paper argues for the fundamental importance of practical programming as a central element...
-
Education technology and mathematics education
Digital technology has much potential to support, extend, enhance andenrich school mathematics education. At present,...
-
Five (out of twenty) things to do with a computer
2021 is the 50th anniversary of Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon’s inspiration paper, “Twenty things to do with a c...
-
Make a Turtle!
The first thing on Papert and Solomon’s (1971) list of twenty thingsis make a turtle. Over the intervening fifty year...
-
Principles of practical programming
The suggestions here are offered as pragmatic advice on what good practical programming work for a secondary class mi...
-
Python Image Manipulation
I have fond memories of getting primary school pupils to explore the image filters in Photoshop substitutes such as G...
-
Games in Scratch
The examples in the three previous posts (patterns, composition and storytelling) use sequence, repetition and output...
-
Storytelling in Scratch
There are many ways in which pupils might use digital media to tell a story: they could simply type their story into ...
-
Composition in Scratch
Scratch sprites can be given sounds to play according to instructions in their scripts. As with costumes, there are a...
-
Patterns in Scratch
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Logo’s ‘turtle’ graphics was many children’s introduction to computer programming in sch...
-
An Introduction to Scratch
The example programs in my previous post were built using Scratch. Launched publicly in 2007 by the Lifelong Kinderga...
-
Programming
Programming is the process of taking an algorithm (a sequence of steps or set of rules that solves a given problem) a...
-
Computational thinking
Computational thinking owes its origins to a paper by Jeanette Wing (2006), which explored how some of the ideas and ...
-
Some examples of using computing in maths
Over the years, I’ve created a number of different examples for how computing might be better integrated into maths e...
-
What's New in Switched on Computing 3rd Edition
The new edition of Switched On Computing includes some significant new content. The Teachers’ Guides have been substa...
-
Intent, Implementation and Impact in Switched on Computing
IntroductionThis summer saw the publication of the third edition of Switched On Computing, a comprehensive scheme of ...
-
Switched On Computing and a catch-up curriculum
Whilst many primary pupils may have been spending quite some time using technology during the lockdown period when sc...
-
Teaching primary programming - some research insights
The national curriculum computing programmes of study expect that pupils “have repeated practical experience of writi...
-
Preparing for a PGCE in secondary computing
You’ve a couple of months over the summer to prepare for the course. I’ve made some suggestions below, but please don...
-
Safeguarding when teaching remotely
Your pupils come first. Helping them to stay positive, engaged and healthy is important. Providing some stability and...
-
Female performance and participation in computer science - a national picture
The change in the English computing curriculum and the shift towards computer science (CS) has been closely observed ...
-
Computational thinking and mathematical reasoning
For me personally, mathematics and computer science have always been closely linked. I was first taught BASIC during ...
-
Time for change?
Somewhere close to the start of the English maths curriculum, pupils learn to work with coins, initially as physical ...
-
Data Science in Schools
I’ve no doubt that good CS education involves finding some motivating contexts for getting the ideas across, and for ...
-
We need a GCSE in computing
England’s education inspectorate, Ofsted, are turning their attention to the curriculum, recognising (at last) the im...
-
The Roehampton Annual Computing Education Report 2018
This report brings together government data on computing provision in English schools, including the schoolperformanc...
-
What I'm thinking about computational thinking
Computational thinking is the golden thread running through England’s computing curriculum, and has been a profoundly...
-
Revisiting computational thinking
‘Computational thinking’ is seen as the golden thread running through England’s computing curriculum and its developm...
-
Supporting academic integrity in Georgian HEIs
After a previous EU Erasmus + collaboration, Roehampton’s LTEU was approached by Ilia State University (ISU), Tblisi,...
-
Video essays as a mode of assessment for BA Primary Education
I have incorporated video essays into a number of the the modules I have convened at Roehampton, in varying ways. I r...
-
Welcome to Scratch 3!
What’s changed with Scratch 3 - lower floor, wider walls, same high ceiling.Over the years it’s been with us, Scratch...
-
Learning languages with Scratch
Lots of educational software follows essentially the same algorithm, which might not be that different from what teac...
-
In praise of blocks
Scratch may not have been the first block-based programming language, nor is it the most flexible, but it’s undoubted...
-
Teaching pupils about AI
There are plenty of ways in which machine learning is already being used in schools, but how might we best teach our ...
-
Visual Programming
Coding is the process of taking the ideas of an algorithm and translating these into a precise, formal language that’...
-
Implementing the computing national curriculum in England
IntroductionIn September 2014, England introduced a new curriculum subject, computing. This included programming and ...
-
GCSE and A Level CS
August saw GCSE and A Level results days in England: as a co-author of the TRACER analysis of pupils’ and schools’ pe...
-
Computational thinking and problem solving
Computational thinking is something that everybody can do, and that you can integrate into your classroom.Programmers...
-
Ethics in the computing curriculum
When we talk about online safety with our trainee teachers at Roehampton, I start by asking my students what sort of ...
-
A framework for developing and reviewing academic writing curricula
RationaleAcademic writing curricula should begin with a clear rationale. This should indicate the broad scope of the ...
-
Where are all the students?
England introduced computer science to its national curriculum back in 2014, ensuring that all pupils from age 5 to 1...
-
Mathematics and computer science
As attention in England turns to the World Cup, I’ve been reading a couple of books about the mathematical modelling ...
-
The Roehampton Annual Computing Education Report
Increasing numbers of schools are offering computer science at GCSE (52.5%) and A level (36.2%), and so now there’s a...
-
Teaching as Engineering
We talk of the ‘art of teaching’: that teaching is akin to performance, an inherently creative process, and that enga...
-
Assessing Computing
When assessing students’ learning in computing, I think we’ve a couple of approaches. One would be to look at the pro...
-
Around the World with CS Ed
It’s been my privilege to serve the CS education community as the international rep on CSTA’s board for the last coup...
-
ICT to Computing - a timeline
The framework for English education at school level is largely determined by three inter-related but largely independ...
-
SEND and Computing
As computing is a national curriculum subject, pupils with SEND have the same entitlement to be taught the curriculum...
-
AI and SEND
There are a number of ways in which limited AI can help pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)...
-
Hello World - readership survey
Hello World was launched just over a year ago, as a joint project of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and BCS / CAS, with ...
-
What probably works when teaching computing
Computing is a relatively new subject on the English national curriculum and at GCSE, so there’s not yet the body of ...
-
Teachers' Knowledge
It’s undoubtedly true that the quality of any education system is dependent on the quality of its teachers, and that ...
-
AI and CS Teaching
Last week, I had the interesting experience of giving evidence at a hearing of our House of Lords Artificial Intellig...
-
One Language at a Time
Most of us working in computer science education seem to be agreed that coding is not the end in itself, but is the m...
-
A Scratch Story
I started playing with Scratch when I was a head teacher, back in 2009. I did my bit in the school’s extracurricular ...
-
Observing Computing
Roehampton has been looking at what it can do to better support our school experience tutors in observing and feeding...
-
Interview for Vives
I was recently interviewed by Aad van der Drift for the Netherland’s Vives ICT education magazine, in advance of a vi...
-
Project Work: Does it Work?
I’m a firm believer that computing is a practical subject, having at least as much in common with art, design and tec...
-
Assessing Computing
When Ofsted reported on the state of ICT education in 2011, they observed that assessment was ‘no better than satisfa...
-
A Computing Glossary
abstraction (process) – managing complexity through selecting and capturing relevant information about a thing, a sys...
-
Computational thinking and technology
If students are to see the impact of technology, their portfolio of technology skills matters. Students need to devel...
-
QuickStart Computing Key Stage 3
At BETT last week we launched the Key Stage 3 edition of QuickStart Computing. The PDF of this is now available onlin...
-
Computing values
What’s the place of ethics in our work as computing or digital making educators? How can we help our students to help...
-
Computing in English schools
2014 saw some radical changes to the content of England’s national curriculum. Perhaps one of the most significant ch...
-
The Roehampton Annual Computing Education Report 2015
This report aims to analyse the uptake of computing / computer science qualifications at GCSE and A-level by lookin...
-
Making Change
It’s a seemingly easy problem: how to make a certain amount of money using the smallest number of coins possible. For...
-
Computational thinking and mathematical reasoning
Andrew Csizmadia and I presented on Computing: the silent C in STEM at a CIDREE expert group of STEM curriculum dev...
-
Compuitng in English Schools
In September 2014 England replaced its old ICT curriculum, which had a focus on building skills using a range of soft...
-
Compuitng in English Schools
It has been two years since England introduced computer science (CS) into its national curriculum. Now seems a good t...
-
Coding across the primary curriculum
Quite recently, we thought the future of ICT education would be one in which technology was embedded seamlessly throu...
-
This is CS50.
CS50 is an introductory computer science course offered at Harvard. Lots of US universities are offering ‘CS101’ intr...
-
Lessons from abroad
There’s a global movement to teach children to code, and through this to give them the tools for solving problems and...
-
Revisiting agile pedagogy
Back in 2012 I wrote and presented a bit about ‘agile pedagogy’ – the notion of applying some of ...
-
Gender and Computing
Our latest CAS TV programme explore some of the issues around gender and computing with Carrie Anne Philbin (Raspbe...
-
Computers and brains
An interesting interview with Prof Steve Furber for this week’s #CASTV programme:The focus of the discussion is on th...
-
Snap!
Our latest CAS TV programme features John Stout, discussing programming in Snap! (a close relation to Scratch), inc...
-
The only way is ethics
We need to pay more attention to ethics when we teach computing. You’d be forgiven for thinking computing in the nati...
-
Laying the foundations for computing in the early years
Computing co-ordinators often wonder what to encourage in the nursery or reception class. The easy answer is, ‘not co...
-
Making the links between computing and mathematics
There are some great ways to link computing and all the other subjects on the school curriculum, but there’s a partic...
-
Some thoughts on pupils ‘bringing their own device’ (BYOD)
This is prompted in part by the TES citing some data from HMI David Brown which appeared to show that 30% of secondar...
-
#mytechstory
Originally published as part of a series by The Tech Partnership I’m principal lecturer in computing educati...
-
‘This House believes 21st Century skills aren’t being taught – and they should be’
I found myself invited to Online Educa Berlin to speak with Allan Päll against the above motion. Which we defeated!...
-
Coding and digital skills
Remarks for eSkills at Schools event, European Parliament, BrusselsJust over a year ago, England replaced its old ‘...
-
That OECD computers in schools report
There was much media fuss on Tuesday this week around the publication of the OECD’s report, Students, Computers a...
-
Computing: one year on
Responses to questions for a round table, reviewing the first year of the English computing curriculum for Educatio...
-
Debugging and the growth mindset
How good are your pupils at rising to a challenge? When they encounter something difficult, do they show grit in pers...
-
From data to wisdom
The text of my presentation at the Mirandanet / IFIP / IBO / ITTE policy thinktank on ‘Towards tomorrow’...
-
Teaching computing
The new computing programmes of study are in place and initiatives such Computing At School’s Network of Excellence, ...
-
Integrating technology and creating the best computing curriculum
Opening remarks on the above for a BETT Futures panel.Hmm… ‘integrating technology and creating the best computing ...
-
Papert, turtles and creativity
Computer science as an entitlement for all as part of the national curriculum is undoubtedly an achievement of which ...
-
Computing: Supporting effective teaching
Now that the new computing curriculum is in place and we’ve a fairly clear idea about what we should be teach...
-
The new computing curriculum – a global perspective
Nick Gibb, the minister for school reform, describes the new curriculum as one that will make England’s education sys...
-
Computing and social mobility
My remarks at a Teach First dinner hosted by Google, 25 November 2014I don’t normally do much by way of autobiograp...
-
Software engineering in schools
There’s much more to software development than coding: the process of developing software has much in common with oth...
-
Making computing more inclusive
This September saw the introduction of a new National Curriculum for local authority supported schools. Perhaps one o...
-
Open Badges and Primary Computing
Rising Stars have been working with Makewav.es to develop a set of digital badges to support assessment for the prima...
-
Creativity in the new computing curriculum
Whilst it’s easy to focus on the ‘core knowledge’ aspects of the new National Curriculum, creativity is an important ...
-
Ofsted and Switched on Computing
At the launch event for the BCS Barefoot Computing project, HMI David Brown, Ofsted’s national lead for computing, ga...
-
Resourcing primary computing
Most folk involved in English schools will already be well aware that there are some significant changes planned fo...
-
Advice for parents…
With the launch of the new national curriculum, one of the big changes is the replacement of ICT (information and c...
-
Computational thinking and creativity
The first sentence of the new computing programme of study sets out our ambition: “A high quality computing educatio...
-
This is for everyone
This is for everyone - CC by Nick WebbCan anyone learn to program? I think so, and I think it’s important that those ...
-
Assessing Computing
When they reported on the state of ICT in 2004, 2009 and again in 2011, Ofsted were unimpressed by how assessment was...
-
Quad Blogging - reflections from children and teachers
In our ever-changing digital world, most children and young people are regularly in touch with each other through soc...
-
Assessing attainment in computing
Taking our inspiration from the work of the National Curriculum expert panel in relation to assessment, that “...
-
There is more to the new computing curriculum than just coding
It will have been hard to miss the changes afoot in the move from ICT in the old national curriculum to computing in ...
-
Computer Science in the National Curriculum
I’ve written an ebook, aimed at introducing a few aspects of computer science to a general education audience for Mic...
-
Computational Thinking in Primary Schools
The change in the primary national curriculum from ICT to Computing, which takes effect this September, is undoubtedl...
-
Switched on Computing
At the Education Show today I finally got my hands on printed copies of Switched on Computing, the scheme of work I’v...
-
Text based programming in primary schools?
Logo, Small Basic and Python are all accessible languages for the top end of primary. Good folk like Phil Bagge and D...
-
More to computing than coding…
My contribution to the Friday afternoon Mirandamod at BETT 2014 Learning Coding is now deemed a very important life ...
-
Computing in the national curriculum: A guide for primary teachers
Bearing in mind that much of the new computing programme of study expects non-specialists (and I suspect a few specia...
-
The last few tweaks
So here we are at last. Almost a year ago, a small group of us met in London to brainstorm ideas and consider rough ‘...
-
Froebel and the pedagogy of computing
Now that we’ve got the programme of study for computing sorted, and thus have at least a framework for thinking about...
-
Changes to the computing programme of study – some thoughts
Originally blogged for Switched on ICT (Rising Stars) As expected, the new Computing programme of stud...
-
The Computing PoS
Originally published in Teach PrimaryAlthough we’ve only seen a draft of the computing programme of study at the mo...
-
Naace Conference Introduction
The text of my welcome from the programme for the 2013 Naace Conference.It has been an interesting year for those c...
-
Webmaking with trainee teachers
We’ve had some content on web-development on our primary teacher training programmes at Roehampton since before my ti...
-
The new computing curriculum – some thoughts
I wrote recently about the new draft National Curriculum in general, which shows a quite distinct shift from skills t...
-
Switched on Computing…
A short summary of the change from ICT to computing at KS1-3, written for Rising Stars’ news blog, and posted...
-
My first reactions to the new national curriculum
Thursday saw Mr Gove publish the draft of a new National Curriculum for English schools. Not all English schools, of ...
-
CPD through making
I don’t think many would doubt that learning through making things, ideally for an audience of other people, is a hig...
-
Making things in ICT at Roehampton
So many of the conversations I’ve had with really interesting people at and around BETT have focussed on learning thr...
-
Computer Science makes it to the EBacc
I think there are many of us delighted by the announcement, timed to coincide with the start of BETT 2013, that compu...
-
Adaptive Learning and Interactive Fiction
A post prompted by a discussion on the Mirandanet discussion list asking for software suggestions for developing adap...
-
Some thoughts on CS CPD
I’ve been in a couple of interesting meetings this week, both with teachers’ CPD high up the agenda. This certainly s...
-
Apps
My article for the October edition of Teach Secondary Magazine.For as long as computers have been used in schools, ...
-
Social networking in schools
My article from Issue 1.3 of Teach Secondary Magazine.Teaching for learning is about meeting our students where they ...
-
The PLN and informal CPD
From the September edition of Teach Primary.Professional development is changing. Once upon a time, when this was c...
-
Scratch – across the curriculum
Despite the Coalition’s rejections of Sir Jim Rose’s proposals for the primary curriculum, an embedded approach to IC...
-
Gamification
From Ictopus SGP 138:The enthusiastic advocates of computer gaming in school make a number of claims for what games...
-
Coders and CompScis
The relationship between coding and computer scienceThe two are not, of course, unrelated. Our new found focus on the...
-
On the purpose of education
My contribution to this year’s Purpos/Ed #500 words project.This is something that has mattered to me for all...
-
Creating a new ICT curriculum
Originally published in the June 2012 edition of Teach Primary.Back in 1999 computers were very different beasts. M...
-
The case for agile pedagogy
My post on this from the Guardian Teacher Network Blog:Policy makers, industry and many teachers are eager that pup...
-
Raspberry Pi interview
An interview for RS Components DesignSpark community about computing in general and the Raspberry Pi in particular....
-
Inaugural address…
… as the new chair of Naace, delivered at the AGM, 10 March 12.Friends, colleagues, you do me a great honour ...
-
Rethinking ICT
Just a few thoughts on the way forward for ICT education in response to Chris Leach’s Rethinking ICT #ICT500 invitati...
-
Voice recognition software and interview transcription…
Speech recognition is something of a computing holy grail, and has been for a while now. I’m not aware of any commerc...
-
National Curriculum Review and EYFS revisions
One might be forgiven for thinking that the week before Christmas is a good week to bury bad news at the DfE.Monday s...
-
The beauty and joy of computing
Just discovered that the lectures from University of California Berkeley’s Beauty and Joy of Computing course for non...
-
Ofsted’s latest subject survey: ICT 2008-2011
Quite some media coverage this morning for the publication of Ofsted’s triennial survey of the state of ICT in UK sch...
-
‘A is for Apps’
Long, but interesting and well-balanced piece in Friday’s Guardian about apps for pre-schoolers which may be of inter...
-
The new Teachers’ Standards
Yesterday the DfE published the revised version of the Teachers’ Standards (ie QTS requirements).Whilst I’m disappoin...
-
Reinventing the primary ICT curriculum.
Published in the July edition of Teach PrimaryComputers and the Internet have become a part of almost every aspect ...
-
Michael Gove at the Royal Society
A speech from the Secretary of State at the Royal Society on Wednesday gave the clearest statement yet on the Departm...
-
Computing and Pedagogy
The full version of a piece published in the summer edition of the Computing at School newsletter SwitchedOn:Jack L...
-
Should ICT remain on the National Curriculum?
I coordinated Naace’s response to the first round of the National Curriculum consultation call for evidence. The full...
-
How open source allows schools to do more with less
A ‘think piece’ written for a ‘hot seat’ discussion on the National College’s website...
-
Some thoughts on BETT
My responses to a few questions from Terry Freedman, researching a piece on BETT 2011 for the Guardian: ...
-
Computing in School, the Naace Response
Some fascinating conversations on Naace‘s Advisory Talk List in response to the Royal Society’s cal...
-
Open Source Computing
What follows are notes from a brief presentation to the Computing at School working group meeting in Cambridge this...
-
Control technology in the foundation stage
Originally published in Issue 2 of the Computing at School newsletter, Switched On.In the Early Years Foundation St...
-
Programming for Androids with App Inventor
Originally published on Open Source Schools.It’s interesting how open source approaches are gradually tipping the b...
-
On saving money…
Oringinally posted at MerlinJohnOnline, but comments welcome below…So far, things have not gone particularly ...
-
Technology and the Rights of the Child
My piece from today’s Naace newsletter.My move from teaching to teacher training has brought many interesting...
-
Primary curriculum reform
We live in interesting times. I have no privileged information, but have been following the primary curriculum dev...
-
On Becta’s closure
Originally posted at Open Source Schools. Declaration of interest: the Open Source Schools project, for which I hav...
-
Open Source Education
My ‘provocation paper’ for the recent Open Source Schools think tank.Open source or software freedom is...
-
Social Constructivism and Open Source
Last November, I had the rather strage experience of having one of my lectures filmed, the resulting programme now ha...
-
A learning journey
A personal reflection on my ‘learning journey’, written as an exercise for Roehampton’s PG Certif...
-
Open Source Projects as Communities of Practice
It was a great pleasure to attend last Tuesday’s Mirandamod to hear Etienne Wenger discussing communities of practice...
-
Firefox is my PLE
Moving between Windows computers in my new office and teaching rooms, my Ubuntu netbook and my MacBook Pro, I find my...
-
TES on 10,000 new undergraduate places in Stem subjects
An article in today’s TES about ways in which schools might encourage more pupils to take up places in science, techn...
-
Meaningful Learning and ICT
Some notes written as introductory material to this year’s primary PGCE courseWhat is meaningful learning? It...
-
Michael Kölling on Greenfoot
Originally published at http://opensourceschools.org.uk/michael-k-lling-greenfoot.htmlIt’s great to see Open Source...
-
The BCS Response to the Rose Recommendations
The BCS have published their response to the Rose review recommendations, which I was pleased to have contributed to:...
-
Schooltool 1.0 released
From http://opensourceschools.org.uk/schooltool-v10-released.htmlThose who’ve been following the recent Open Source...
-
Sugar on a stick
Sugar, the operating system and GUI for OLPC‘s truly innovative XO-1 laptops is now available, in beta at least, as a...
-
Ofsted and Open Source
Written for Open Source SchoolsOfsted’s report on The Importance of ICT was published over a month ago, and was met w...
-
Why schools should use open source software
Originally published on BBC Open Lab.Awareness of open source software amongst teachers, technical staff and students...
-
BBC Learning – Open Lab
BBC Learning’s Open Lab{#c7nw}, a brilliant new website for the open source development of educational resources, is ...
-
A level playing field for open source software
The government’s support for open source software, as outlined yesterday at http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/123...
-
Laconi.ca
Given the increasing interest in Twitter amongst educators, and indeed the general population, it’s hardly surprising...
-
Moodle and Open Source Security
There was a story in Friday’s TES{#u8_7} about a number of schools’ Moodle installations being compromised, resulting...
-
Informal learning Wordles
My first experiments with the Wordle site were with children’s reports: these were great, would make brilliant report...
-
My interview with Tessy Britton of Thriving
Tessy Britton interviewed me about my own and my school’s use of social media for the thriving too blog. The original...
-
What are your kids learning when you're not looking?
It was an honour, once again, to be asked to present alongside Terry Freedman for the BCS Education and Training Expe...
-
Open Source Schools Presentation at BETT
The Open Source Schools presentation at BETT on Saturday 17th January was very well received, with good numbers joini...
-
My first teachmeet
It was a great joy to attend my first ever teachmeet at BETT last Friday. Ian Usher, Drew Buddie, Leon Cych and many ...
-
Moodle and e-safety
A couple of quotes from me in the pre-BETT Guardian. Alas, the photos they took of our pupils Moodling don’t appear t...
-
Open Source Schools Relaunch
After feedback from its own community, Becta and a number of other stakeholders, the AlphaPlus team behind opensource...
-
AccessApps
JISC’s Regional Support Centre for North and East Scotland have won this year’s Scottish Open Source Award for Educat...
-
What are your kids learning whilst you’re not looking?
Terry Freedman and I are presenting for the BCS at the BETT show next January, with the above title. We’re going to b...
-
Learners and Technology: 7-11
Terry Freedman and I are busy using google docs and skype to plot our presentation for the BCS at BETT on ‘What are t...
-
Dynamic Geometry Software
I have a piece in today’s TES Magazine about using dynamic geometry software for exploring symmetry on an interactive...
-
Real time reporting
It was a great privilege to be invited to join the head teachers of Islington’s Education Action Zone for their sixth...
-
Be Very Afraid
A while ago now, but I did enjoy my visit in Half Term to BAFTA for Stephen Heppell’s ‘Be Very Afraid 5’, a celebrati...
-
The Science of Teaching
After exploring the artistic side of teaching{#o4rm}, I suppose it’s only fair to redress the balance and look at tea...
-
OpenSourceSchools – the inaugural meeting
A good meeting today up in London as part of the advisory group for the opensourceschools project that alphaplus cons...
-
AS ICT – Some thoughts
Just back from a lovely long weekend in Wales, including a day’s training on the WJEC GCE ICT Specification that I’m ...
-
Cloud Classification
Interesting post from Luis Villa over on the rather wonderful Freedom to Tinker concerning cloud computing, and how i...
-
VLE vs Informal Learning
An interesting conversation on Ferl’s splendid VLE discussion list over the last couple of days sparked off by Leon C...
-
Open Source Schools
It’s nice to see opensourceschools.org.uk up and running. This is an information portal for schools, developed by alp...
-
Personal productivity tools for teachers
I have a piece in today’s TES Magazine exploring the use that teachers and school leaders could make of personal info...
-
The Paperless School?
Interesting item on the World Service news this morning about the Don Milani di Rivoli elementary school in Turin tha...
-
Flickr and InDesign
I find myself teaching AS ICT to a few of the senior school’s pupils this year. Quite a difference from the running t...
-
Twitter
Well, I know I’m really late coming to this particular party, but for the last week I’ve been spending time with Twit...
-
EdTech 2013
A really interesting day on Thursday as part of the ‘Expert Reference Group’ for Nottingham University’s Becta sponso...
-
Creative Clicking
I have an article in today’s TES Mgazine looking at open source applications that can be installed on a school webser...
-
The Art of Teaching
After a splendid summer holiday touring a number of north European cities, with visits to galleries, concert halls an...
-
Curric. 08
My speech to parents at this year’s curriculum evening, with a focus on personalised learning…Good evening ladies and...
-
Are we ready for parents to watch our lessons by webcam?
I was interviewed for a story in today’s TES about the future of parental access to children’s school work: Virtual ...
-
Working progress
I have a short article in today’s TES magazine about real time collaborative text editing Collaborative text writing...
-
Moodle nudges forward
Interviewed by Jack Kenny for today’s Guardian about Moodle: And Moodle has also been written by teachers, something...
-
Bringing order to chaos
I have an article in today’s TES Magazine about using Moodle in the Foundation Stage or Key Stage 1: … Key stage 1 t...
-
Curric. 07
My speech to parents at our annual Curriculum Evening…Good evening ladies and gentleman. It’s great to see so many of...
-
Open Source Presentation Tools
I’m struck by the extent to which PP has become synonymous with a computer based presentation these days, and have mi...
-
Algebra on Computers
A couple of interesting updates today from Chris Sangwin at Birmingham University.Anyone who’s ever done any maths on...
-
Wiki man
I was interviewed for the article on wikis in today’s TES magazine: When my pupils realised that the others could ch...
-
BETT 07
Nice coverage in today’s Guardian for Terry Freedman and my upcoming seminar at BETTGeorge Cole writes: One of the B...
-
Open Source and Web 2.0
The following was written for the new edition of Terry Freedman’s “Coming of Age: an introduction to the new World Wi...
-
Personalisation and the BCS EdTrEP working weekend
With one thing and another I only managed to make it up to Leamington Spa for the middle day of this year’s B...
-
Primary Mathematics
Here’s my autumn term report to the IMA’s Schools and Further Education committee. National Curriculum...
-
DfES Technology Benefits Realisation Workshop
I spent a few hours up in London on Wednesday with a number of folk from the DfES, some other ‘practitioners&...
-
Network Manager or Learning Technologist
Whilst I’m looking after the strategic side of ICT at whole school (ie prep and senior) level in the new job,...
-
Curric
This is the text for my speech (no powerpoint slides this time!) from our Curriculum Evening on Tuesday, our first of...
-
A new job…
So farewell, St Ives. Yesterday was technically my last day as deputy head at St Ives, and today my first as head o...
-
Learning platform update
Much has been written about the Blackboard VLE patent, and there’s not much I can add to this, although IR...
-
A few knowledge management finds
I asserted confidently in my Naace Computer Education paper (pre-print online), and subsequently in my recently com...
-
Tablet PC stuff
I’m rather fond of my Tecra M4 tablet, which might not have been the fastest machine around at the time, but ...
-
Other highlights of the Salzburg trip
The weather, it should be admitted, wasn’t as kind as we’d hoped it would be, although I’m told t...
-
Così Fan Tutte, Salzburg
We braved the torrential rain on Thursday 3rd August to make it to the opening night of our other production at thi...
-
Die Zauberflöte in Salzburg
Clare and I are in Salzburg for a holiday, and having a brilliant time of it, despite my travelling with laptop and...
-
Moodlemoot 06 – day 2
Not so many threaded sessions on the second day, and I only made it to one of the school strand ones, regrettably m...
-
Moodlemoot 06 – Martin Dougiamas’ keynote
Excellent to hear the man himself speaking in person this year, rather than via video link as at previous moots. Mart...
-
Moodlemoot 06 – Jason Cole’s keynote
A wide ranging and visionary keynote address from Jason Cole, one of the OU’s band of e-learning gurus and au...
-
Mode DfES Learning Platform Wisdom
an Usher’s Changing the Game blog reproduces in full the latest wisdom from the DfES via the Naace newsletter...
-
Moodlemoot06 – day 1
Sean and the team had put together an excellent programme for the moot, with most of the time sessions divided into...
-
Moodlemoot 06 – Introduction & Niall Sclater’s Keynote
Back home now after a couple of amazing days at the third UK MoodleMoot. This year’s moot was hosted by the O...
-
Flossie 06 – Day 2
Friday’s programme began with a little more insight into the work of Bolton’s TICfrom Dr Brian Iddon MP...
-
Flossie 06 – Day 1
I’ve spent the last couple of days up in Bolton for Schoolforge-UK‘s FLOSSIE(free, linux and open sourc...
-
“Why minimally guided instruction does not work”
There’s been an interesting debate on one of the moodle.org forums over the last few days provoked by Kirschn...
-
BSF and innovation
Following on from the innovation theme of the last couple of posts, a story in last week’s Computing caught m...
-
Becta / Futurelab Innovation Workshop – Day 2
Day 2 turned out to be a bit more hard work than the relatively relaxed start to the workshop, with little input fr...
-
Becta / Futurelab Innovation Workshop – day 1
Up in Kensington for a 24 hour Becta/Futurelab gathering exploring ways of creating a culture of innovation in the ...
-
London Grid for Learning – the dangers of DIY
I’m grateful to ‘Grumbledook‘ for posting to the SF-UK list a link to LGfL’s “Briefin...
-
XChange06 – the challenge of innovation
We returned to the innovation theme for the last session of the afternoon, chaired by Becta’s Vanessa...
-
XChange06 – Innovation in Practice
Stephen Roulston of C2K, the province wide managed service for IT in schools, spoke about the forthcoming r...
-
XChange06 – Crossing the digital divides
Powerful presentation from Valerie Thompson, executive director of the e-Learning Foundation on digital div...
-
XChange06 – The Challenge of Change
An all too brief session from Alan November on “The challenge of change”, that was more about posing qu...
-
XChange 2006 – The Next Curve
XChange06 is the second of a series of four educational ICT conferences, which are being hosted in turn by the four...
-
blog.ac.uk: Guidelines or Tramlines – blogging safely towards digital literacy
Peter Ford led an excellent session at yesterday’s blog.ac.uk unconference, looking to arrive at the sort of ...
-
Becta open source seminar
I spent yesterday at Becta’s seminar on “commercial models and issues of sustainability for open source...
-
A day in Sussex
A lovely day out yesterday down to a corner of Sussex we’d not visited before. We took i...
-
School choice of learning platform
Importantly, and with relevance to the Leicestershire business discussed below, The DfES have jus...
-
Live blogging and art
I’ve been following some threads from Stephen Downes and Terry Freedmanabout the efficacy of blogging during ...
-
Leicestershire vs Moodle
Things seem to be hotting up in the competition for the UK government’s 2008 rollout of ‘learning platf...
-
The writing's on the wall for paper and pencil
Interviewed by Heather McLean for today’s Guardian about blogging and wikis in primary schools: Blogging has been br...
-
Geotagging update
A new service for viewing Flickr’s geotagged photos launched on Thursday, at mylocalguru.com – they see...
-
Moodle in the TES, Friday 5th May
My article in last week’s TES Online on how we’ve used Moodle at St Ives is now online in their web archive. “The vi...
-
Latin and Programming
I, alas, missed out on Latin in my school days, but feel that a Basic grounding in programming was almost as good at ...
-
Latin and programming
I, alas, missed out on Latin in my school days, but feel that a Basic grounding in programming was almost as good at ...
-
More fun with Flickr
Thinking more about ways of using Flickr in the classroom, I’ve discovered the wonderful world of geotagging. Essenti...
-
Flickr@School
The St Ives girls are making increasing use of Flickr as a source for images for school work, which I’m delighted to ...
-
Götterdämmerung
Inspired by Radio 3’s Ring in a day on Easter Monday, I stayed on in town on Wednesday to see Götterdämmerung at Cove...
-
Harnessing technology – beyond tomorrow
NCSL asked me to run my seminar on ‘extending the school’ for Wednesday’s London conference as part of their SLICT co...
-
Moodle concept map navigation
I’ve been playing around with the Flash browser for Freemind maps, and I’m very impressed. Here’s an attempt at one f...
-
Learning topology and Mirandanet
Another inspiring meeting of the Mirandanet Inspirationalists at the IoE today. We’re working towards a set of journ...
-
Coming of Age – an introduction to the new world wide web
Last December, Terry Freedman (who’s on the BCS e-learning working party with me) asked me to write an article on wha...
-
Gliffy
Fellow Mirandanet Fellow Wilma Clark posted about Gliffy a couple of months back. I received my invitation to the bet...
-
The potential of open source approaches for education
Seb Bacon and Teresa Dillon have written an interesting paper on “The potential of open source approaches for educati...
-
Pupils' home use of computers
There’s an important and interesting piece of research by Valentine, Marsh and Pattie over on the DfES site into home...
-
The Royal Maundy
Along with Clare’s parents, we were fortunate enough to get tickets for yesterday’s Royal Maundy service in Guildford...
-
Florence
Clare and I are now back from our short break in Florence. We had a wonderful time, and whilst we did far too much to...
-
Primary VLEs
As part of the NAACE transformed education project, Mike Partridge and I have started to put together a spec. for a C...
-
Top 10 Moodle Myths
Back in October, as part of the HUGToB campaign, Josie Fraser compiled a list of the ‘Top 10 Moodle Myths‘. I’ve had ...
-
Beethoven and Bruckner at Cadogan Hall
Whilst up in London on Friday last, I went to hear the Philharmonia at Cadogan Hall. This was the first time I’d been...
-
End of term
So, farewell to the spring term. It’s always interesting seeing how the year 6s move from the exam focus in the first...
-
Knowledge management in education and the role of VLEs
I’ve just received my copy of NAACE’s Computer Education journal, with my paper on the above. The paper started life ...
-
Moodle and Elgg at NCSL
A long drive up to the National College of School Leadership‘s ‘Learning and Conference’ centre in Nottingham after s...
-
St Ives Mootlet
St Ives was delighted to host a mini Moodle moot last Tuesday. A number of folks had expressed an interest in visitin...
-
Hercules
Clare and I drove up to the Barbican last Saturday to catch William Christie and Les Arts Florissants‘ production, or...
-
Moodle in the TES, Friday 10th March
Last Friday’s coverage of Moodle in the Times Educational Supplement’s Online section has now hit the web archive.The...
-
Readability
Year 6 are just starting to work through a statistical investigation, around the idea of comparing pieces of text. We...
-
Moodle at BETT – the video
Just heard that the Moodle stand at BETT has been featured in the show’s official review, see http://www.frederation....
-
The Education Show
A good time at today’s Education Show at the NEC. The 10.00 am slot, and relatively low key publicity, meant that my ...
-
Moodle at BETT and after
I was very happy to play my small part in seeing Moodle represented at the BETT show last January. I see Leon Cych ha...
-
That Guardian interview in full
Excellent coverage of Elgg in today’s Education Guardian. I was very pleased to be able to help out with the schools’...
-
Elgg, Moodle and now Drupal.
A really interesting post over on Bill Fitzgerald’s blog about integration of Moodle, Elgg and Drupal. He says it bet...
-
Excel, dice and bar charts
Year 5 and I have been exploring ways of presenting data, which is always a topic I find something of a challenge, as...
-
Virtual Torquay
Alas, the notion of £560 and three days off school has meant that I’ve not been able to get to this year’s NAACE stra...
-
Becta publish learning services framework agreement
The full text of the framework agreement for those wishing to supply learning platforms to local authorites and RBCs ...
-
Snow in Godalming
Well not exactly… The Hollywood film crew were back to film a few more scenes for The Holiday, but alas the stars wer...
-
Non-linear learning and research
An excellent day at the IoE for a Mirandanet meeting on visual communication. The project is sponsored by Inspiration...
-
A short history of computing
Today I rounded off our Year 6 unit on Victorian Mathematics (which I meant to do last half term, when it was still t...
-
Mindmapping
A good IT lesson this morning, using FreeMind open source mind mapping software. I’ve tended to be relatively cynical...
-
Gifted and Talented
Someone asked me recently about what provision we make for our ‘gifted and talented’ students. I try not to worry too...
-
Schooltool
We had Tom Hoffman of Schooltool visiting us at school today, as part of the SchoolTool world tour – Monday, St Ives ...
-
Half Term Culture
A lot of the half term has been spent at the computer (surprise, surprise!), reading more of the blogosphere than I n...
-
Primary Matters Spring 06
As part of my ‘watching brief’ on primary matters for the IMA‘s Schools and Further Education committee, I write a te...
-
LAMS
I must admit, I’m not quite sure about LAMS.LAMS is an open source, web-based tool for sequencing learning activities...
-
NAACE and transformed education
I’m involved with NAACE’s project on transformed education, which is an attempt firstly to come up with...
-
Futurelab – enquiring minds
Curious how one thing leads to another! Steve Lee posted on the schoolforge list about a Nesta Futurelab / MS project...
-
Futurelab seminar on re-thinking learning networks – part 2
We were asked at the nesta futurelab seminar I mention below to think through a few questions. Here are my random rav...
-
Futurelab seminar on re-thinking learning networks
A really interesting moring with some big names from academia and central government. Tim Rudd’s thought provoking ‘p...
-
TES Culture Vulture
Back in January I was interviewed for the TES culture vulture column – the interview appeared in last Friday’s editio...
-
Elgg at BETT
I can’t believe I’ve not posted here for three months. Oops. We’re continuing to make good use of Elgg, despite some ...
-
Images in Elgg
I decided to encourage a bit more posting over the last week, and I’m pleased to see most have risen to the challenge...
-
Customizing Elgg
A few technical gliches getting the standard themes working properly in our installation, but we’re there now (Thanks...
-
Elgg v 0.3
Wow.Many thanks for all the work that’s gone into getting the new release up and running.I spotted the download was a...
-
Blogging in schools
A few elgg related things have struck me over the last week or so, so thought I’d share them here.The first was Jeff ...
-
Our first posts
Rushed off my feet for the last week, but I’ve been meaning to post an update on how we’ve been getting on.A few of t...
-
Elgg – the first day
I’m giving Elgg a try as a blogging tool for Year 6 in my school, as an alternative to our usual ‘design your website...