Spannerman's Edublog

Doting grandma syndrome

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:06:14 GMT

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Computing in schools: abdicating responsibility

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:22:36 GMT

Here's a thought: if the state really wanted advanced computer coding skills, it would create an elite cadre of talented students picked at about 13 or 14 years old and "streamed" as they used to say. They would follow an...

Part 2: The big private sector sorts school ICT

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:26:08 GMT

Contrary to popular opinion large IT corporations are not motivated solely by profit, stock options, share-holder demands or bonus structures. In fact they care deeply about clients and their families especially in far flung lands like Britain Europe. The welfare...

UK Gov sorts School ICT!

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:38:24 GMT

Imagine a newly created government department, the Department of Small IT Enterprise. It has been setup for a number of reasons chief amongst them being that the Public Sector and Private Sector neither trust or respect each other anymore ......

How the market failed school ICT

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:55:52 GMT

The UK's educational system is publicly funded, and this means that it can be, and is, used as an instrument of the State. The extent to which the educational system is instrumental in achieving the objectives of any government varies...

Coding the New Latin III

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:09:00 GMT

For the first time in 20 years I did not make it to the BETT show. Given the developments last week in ICT for schools it seemed a little pointless, however I am grateful for those reporters who did and...

Gove solves the problem of poor ICT teachers

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:34:34 GMT

The Royal Society (no less) has produced a report on school ICT hot on the heels of Michael Gove’s breathtaking withdrawal this week of the current compulsory ICT curriculum. No sooner had Mad Mick wielded the axe to rapturous applause...

BETT opens as ICT is scrapped by Gove

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:50:55 GMT

BETT, UK’s premier show for ICT education opens today just as Education Secretary for State Michael Gove is going to make it clear that school ICT as we know it is to be scrapped because it’s boring, useless or in...

Coding is the New Latin II

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:47:21 GMT

The Next Gen ICT report by Livingstone and Hope is still causing ripples in education. ‘Coding is the New Latin’ goes the refrain and BBC web-article so-titled accrued over 600 comments. The vast majority deprecated school ICT as being nothing...

Azure in education

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:13:17 GMT

At the end of 2009 I wrote an edublog predicting what would happen in 2010. I forgot to do one for 2011 but no matter, a two year gap is better in some ways. I thought the fashion for Netbooks...

Ofsted lambasts school ICT as youth unemployment hits record high

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:25:02 GMT

A report published by Ofsted, ‘ICT in schools 2008-11’ has found that achievement in information, communication and technology (ICT) was inadequate in almost a fifth of the secondary schools visited. They drew attention to the low skill levels of many...

Cheating in school ICT and other subjects

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:29:57 GMT

A lot of fuss is being generated this week following revelations by undercover Daily Telegraph reporters that Examination Boards are stepping over an imaginary line and giving inside information about upcoming exams to teachers who pay £200 to attend their...

Women go back to the kitchen - to bake Rasberry Pi?

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:20:54 GMT

There is no escaping it, if the future looks dodgy for the young unemployed it is far worse for females than it is males. The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement made it very clear that it will be the low paid public...

Open source, coding and the Cloak of Invisibility

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:37:23 GMT

In this time of magic, who needs to know what an OS is let alone how to code one? Our College IT has disappeared. I knew this would happen, it’s become invisible to my students. Maybe it simply faded away...

Coding - will it be the new Latin in UK Schools?

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:33:20 GMT

In the news this week was the government’s positive response to a report from NextGen by Ian Livingstone and Alex Hope saying that school ICT was pants and kids should learn to code. I should be happy after all I...

Does Free Software cost jobs?

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:51:33 GMT

Last year I generated quite a response when I suggested that the major expense of school ICT, namely the human resources required to keep it all going would be cut and cut again. The model of school ICT that had...

All students must learn to code, Star Trek will 'make it so'

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:46:00 GMT

For thirty years I have been preparing young people to leave school either to enter the world of work or to go onto higher education. Never have I witnessed such a dearth of opportunity before. Around 1.1 million under 24...

Don't look around! Microsoft zombie returns to UK schools

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:04:19 GMT

‘It’s deja vu all over again’. Such wisdom is there contained in soccer’s argot, that whilst reading The Times, I realised, spookily, I was experiencing just that. There is a mighty British technology company that once utterly dominated school ICT...

Do computers solve education problems?

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:01:05 GMT

The New York Times this week has been running articles examining the effectiveness of what we would call e-learning in US schools. In a nutshell, they have found little or no evidence that it boosts students’ grades, despite a widespread...

Moodle goes to college

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:21:22 GMT

Moodle rocks.At least, so say the staff at our college who have just been successfully and migrated from Blackboard (cheers Brian). From my observations of those around me, there have been quite a few surprises. One of the most striking,...

Will 3D visualisation improve results in the classroom?

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:02:16 GMT

Yes, three-dimensional images may be on the way out in the cinema, but it’s not hard to find a biology teacher who bought a projector and found a 3D animation of the heart which was so inspiring it motivated his...

My Chromebook volume III: Which web suite is the winner?

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:34:02 GMT

Goodness, I am beginning to wish I had not started researching this post. It all started simply enough; I was checking the IT expenditure of the Cabinet Office to see if any big chunks of IT money had gone to...

Virtual learning: real or imaginary?

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:45:30 GMT

Young people think differently to older people because technology has rewired their brains. I’m not kidding, this is the currency of the day and you can take your pick of articles and research peddling such ideas. The latest in a...

The Second Coming for school computing

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:14:40 GMT

"Windows 8 is the breath of fresh air that we all have been waiting for. It has been completely re-imagined for an incoming era in which we will use touch screens on tablet computers to access the Internet." Thus opined...

Dear Cabinet Office, public sector austerity and economic growth are not mutually exclusive

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:54:13 GMT

How would you describe an organisation that is losing £164 billion every year on £585 billion revenue, and with a net position already £1.2 trillion in debt1? Of course if this was a private company, and putting it as politely...