Posts about education, teaching, learning etc.
Kodu is a new game programming language / tool from Microsoft. It has had a very low-key launch, I came across it as it was featured in the excellent Edge Magazine last month. Kodu is initially available to the public on X-Box Live Marketplace for about £3.50. I have been fortunate enough to be allowed…
There has been much debate of late about whether Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), particularly in their British state sponsored variations are dead. For some of the thoughts check out Lindsay Jordan, James Clay, Matt Lingard and Steve Wheeler. One week today I finally start my new job as Director of E-Learning at a high school…
Cre8ate maths is a fantastic set of rich mathematical activities developed by the Centre for Science Education (CSE) with the mathematics lead from the Mathematics Education Centre (MEC), of Sheffield Hallam University. They have been created to support schools in Yorkshire & Humberside, and are focussed on the 12 priority industry sectors of the area. …
So today Google announced that they will be introducing their very own Google Chrome OS. This follows in the wake of excellent the Google Chrome web browser which was released last year. Designed initially for netbooks, it appears that the OS will effectively be little more than a web browser. The beauty of this is…
The fantastic Manchester collaborative of teachers I have been working with have finished our final set of rich mathematical tasks. I previously blogged about the work we had been doing and provided links to some zip files with the resources. These seem to have been really popular judging by the traffic on that post. Read…
Not all online learning networks actually thrive, here’s a tale of a failed attempt by myself: Ghost Town I have been involved with a couple of projects in Manchester as part of a collaborative of schools from across the city. Part of this was the continuation of the LEMA project and the creation of some…
This sketch from the always excellent Gaping Void got me thinking, are there some teachers you shouldn’t bother pushing even the best technology at?
As net-books continue to outpace the rest of the PC industry, prices falling and specs improving, are they ready for prime-time use in schools? I have dallied with eeePCs back in the day, I was impressed then, unfortunately school didn’t back that up with a permanent wireless network and they have been little used since. …
Google announced a new product to the World at it’s Google I/O conference yesterday, Google Wave. There has been much written about it around the Web, by folks more intelligent than I, so if you want to catch up on the intricacies then read some of these sites: Ars Technica Tech Crunch Tech Crunch again…
I’ve been playing around with two tools for mapping data onto Google Maps. They both have potential in and out of the classroom.