Spannerman's Edublog

Should profit determine what computing our children learn at school?

John Spencer — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:34:31 GMT

Recent discussion about GCSE ICT and the new Computing syllabuses for 2014 has raised in my mind some interesting questions. Specifically I am interested in the triple interface affecting what is learned by each generation. These interfaces are created by:...

GCSE ICT v Computing. Back to Basic?

John Spencer — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:08:49 GMT

The future of computer education in mainstream UK school is taking shape. The accepted reference point for a qualification at the end of secondary education is still the GCSE so I thought it would be interesting to look at what...

Mobiles in Class II: the Ofsted view

John Spencer — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:06:59 GMT

I posted an article last week describing how we make use of student's smartphones in class. It attracted modest interest but no comment. I was disappointed if I’m honest as the use of personal technology in education is (in my...

Mobile phones come of age in school

John Spencer — Thu, 03 May 2012 11:47:41 GMT

At last I have managed to use smartphones to good effect in a class. By this I mean leveraging the students' ownership of technology 'in the wild', that is to say as opposed to being under my directed control. It's...

Free Schools: an amazing opportunity for ICT

John Spencer — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:53:57 GMT

Free Schools are in the spotlight at the moment. Anyone can setup a school outside the control of the Local Authority and get it fully-funded by the state so long as they adhere to a set of baseline rules. Obviously...

Flossie 2012: Girls in ICT

John Spencer — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:28:15 GMT

Michael Gove's official deprecation of school ICT has given me a problem in as much as I blog about school ICT and its soon-to-be absence (at least at GCSE) kind of puts a dampener on the topic. I have, as...

The Monday morning problem

John Spencer — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:59:45 GMT

In science we call it 'the Monday morning problem'. Essentially this is shorthand for what would happen if a paradigm was shown to be false... on Friday! It means that had you built your career articulating, developing and promoting such...

RIP ICT 2012

John Spencer — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:58:17 GMT

Who says politicians don’t listen to the people, especially if those people happen to run Google and Microsoft and are telling the world that our ICT teaching is awful?With lightning speed the government has joined in the general disrespecting of...

ICT in paradise

John Spencer — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:09:57 GMT

Some of you may know this already but thanks to a kindly IT department (and the fact that no-one else wanted them) my science class is now awash with 10" tablet computers. I have had them for a month or...

iPad: suitable for all ages

John Spencer — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:32:41 GMT

I've just had a fascinating visit to a primary school rated by Ofsted as Outstanding. The school was, as you would expect ‘in to’ everything and very tech-savvy. To prove it, they had iPads and ‘were getting’ Raspberry Pi. They...

Ninja Blocks vs Raspberry Pi vs Arduino

John Spencer — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:59:51 GMT

I am very grateful to the Raspberry Pi project, because even though I will almost certainly never own one, I have been galvanised by the publicity that followed the wave of nostalgia for the digital version of Paradise Lost. By...

From workfare to warfare

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:26:58 GMT

In an episode of Star Trek long ago the Enterprise orbited a planet which was in an internal state of perpetual conflict. The twist was that in order to protect their infrastructure from war damage, its governments had agreed to...

Rasberry Pi and DIY genetic engineering

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:19:30 GMT

I am caught up in the latest craze for the elderly. I am going to become an owner of a Raspberry Pi. I can’t wait; kids will gasp at my mastery of the semi-colon shaking their heads as I produce...

Meet the first generation of Digital Suckers

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:12:40 GMT

This post has been inspired by the ongoing ACTA events and a series of conversations with my students. These young members of the Facebook generation are an eclectic ethnic and socio-economic mix, with really only their youth in common. Naturally...

Extinction of the P: drive bureaucrats

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:17:52 GMT

It really looks like the UK Gov now ‘so gets’ the Cloud in contrast to how it ‘so didn’t get’ Open Source this autumn. To prove it, the spring’s officially dead G-Cloud comes alive on 1 March. Hundreds of suppliers...

Doting grandma syndrome

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:06:14 GMT

Everyone who has regular conversations about technology must have heard this little gem come up. "My child knows more about computers than I do."It’s often said and some go further, "my four-year-old knows more about computing than I do and...

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...