Many ICT strategy documents include a section called "A day in the life". The idea of this is to bring the vision to life in a way that people can relate to, by describing what it will be like in practice. The trouble is, many of these attempts at descriptive prose are completely useless. They are often boring to read, and usually either pedestrian, unrealistic or like a scene from Star Trek.
Read MoreOne of the things we tend to forget when it comes to major upheavals – such as, in Britain, the so-called “bonfire of the quangoes”, which has seen the disbandment of Becta, Qualifications & Curriculum Development Agency and the Training & Development Agency – is a fundamental law of nature, namely Nature abhors a vacuum.
Read MoreIf always expressing an opinion is bad, never doing so is, arguably, worse. Members of a team usually expect their boss to show some leadership, and that always requires opinions to be expressed, and decisions to be taken sooner or later.
Read MoreIt’s always useful to carry out what I call an ICT health check. It’s like a medical health check: rather than wait for symptoms of disease to manifest themselves, it is far better to be proactive and have a “once over” every so often, say once a year. We rarely do, of course. Another analogy might be farmers’ footing, the practice whereby a farmer will walk around the farm every day to make sure no fences have blown down or anything like that. In short, the idea of a health check is to nip any potential problems in the bud. So what should an ICT health check look like?
Read MoreYou’re probably familiar with the saying “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly”, and its cousin, “If you want a job doing, do it yourself”. Each has a certain intuitive appeal and each, in a leadership/management situation especially, is utterly untenable.
Read MoreI'm interested in how technology is used in the media, and think that in many respects the media is more innovative than schools when it comes to using the technology.
I think it would be interesting to explore this, and perhaps a good way of starting off would be to join an online discussion this evening with Tony Johnston of the Press Association.
Read MoreLast night I watched the first two episodes of The Killing, a 20-part Danish thriller. I have never been to Denmark, and as far as I can remember I’ve never seen it depicted on film or video. But my impression of Denmark is now as follows:
Read MoreIt’s been a week of three conferences including, of course, the BETT show. I really enjoyed it, and will be writing about it in more depth in Computers in Classrooms in the very near future. But for now, here are some reflections.
Read MoreThis is a combination of "My personal BETT Day 2" and my BETT Bulletin.
Things to go to today, if you can:
Read MoreThis is a quick note, in effect, not an in-depth analysis. That will come in the newsletter Computers in Classrooms, after the show.
Read MoreI was looking forward to hearing some great presentations and startling revelations at the Learning Without Frontiers Conference. But I spent almost my whole time there talking to people. The way I figure it, if something is really good I'll get to hear about it anyway, so given the choice between listening to a talk, and discussing –and-catching up-and-networking type of activity, I choose the latter. At least, I did yesterday.
So, how was it for me?
Read MoreIs this the year of the interactive whiteboard? If you’re going to BETT this year it will be worth your while to check out the latest offerings from SMART and Promethean, as well as one or two others which are smaller in terms of education market share but no less inspired.
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It’s a very sad thing, I think, but one thing I have discovered is that if you ask questions, or at least the wrong type of questions, that’s a sure-fire way of attracting opprobrium. A strong word to use, perhaps, but there is little doubt in my mind that daring to question the current conventional wisdom is indeed often regarded as shameful, and usually indicative of not having fully understood the situation.
