Evangelist
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?
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?
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…
Ofsted in their infinite wisdom have deemed that half of Maths teaching in England is not up to scratch. The focus appears to be ‘teaching to the test’, now who’d of thought schools might reort to such a thing when the other option is to be labled as failing? I hope that this is a…
Secondly, never make any comment about your work, about your employer, about teaching issues in general. Jim Docherty, assistant secretary of the SSTA, getting it all wrong. Please don’t listen to him. Speak your mind, share your ideas. And like I always tell my pupils, think before you post. Common sense not scare-mongering. Which reminds…
Does Gove Get Games? A strangely positive sounding report from the great Edge Magazine quotes Gove speaking at The Royal Society, in particular referring to the excellent www.mangahigh.com that Marcus du Sautoy has had some input in. “I am sure that this field of educational games has huge potential for maths and science teaching and…
David is the author of http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/. Worked through some fantastic infographics from his site, go look at them now. Better still see his TED talk: Some interesting insights from using Google InSights to track search terms. Great tool for use in the classroom. Nice talk about needing to compare proportions rather than totals, in the concept of…
The team at Desmos.com have released a fantastic online graphing calculator that draws graphs as you type – it’s brilliantly clear and responsive and will be a fantastic free tool to use in the classroom. This tool will be part of the wider Desmos suite of software which aims to allow teachers to share and create quality…
When I think about the schools I have taught in and especially my current school there are teachers that don’t respond as fervently as others towards technologies being brought into the classroom. Whether those tools are being used to gain a pupil’s interest, enhance our teaching or promote learning some teachers just prefer to stick with what they know that works, even if it might only be the blackboard and a stick of chalk.
Pushing technology into classrooms to benefit teaching and learning will only result in some people drawing back through nonchalance or skepticism. Those of us who are interested in it need also to show that it works , that it is effective and that it can help to raise standards.
I guess it’s the same as any ‘different’ way of teaching, if you can’t show that it works in your own teaching, you’re not going to get far!