The World’s Strictest Parents?

I have just finished watching an episode of a show on BBC3 called 'The World's Strictest Parents'. In true BBC style the title masks what was an interesting, eye-opening glimpse into two very different ways of life: the two wayward teens from the UK, and the strict, no-nonsense Botswanan family they spent a week with. …

Presentation apps for the iPad

This is one of the biggies - finding apps that, when coupled with the soon-to-launch wireless mirroring through iOS 5 and Airplay, enable us to ditch the interactive whiteboard (and not before time) and create online presentations that are more than death by powerpoint. There are a few online presentation applications out there - Sliderocket …

Finally, an iPad screen recorder for the classroom

There have been a few iPad recorders around for a while, such as Screen Chomp and Show Me. Both have their place, but have been limited by what you are able to show on them. What was needed was an app with a slide show format, that could show a series of slides, annotate them, …

Unsung heroes

I'm finally off on holiday next week, and to now have been working closely with our ICT chaps in getting our three colleges ready for business. They have been working like trojans to ensure the new systems are in place for the new term, and will largely go unthanked when the term begins. It is …

Where have we all gone wrong?

And so it happened. Last night, as I thought it would, I saw someone on the news that I recognised. On the Cambridge local news a series of CCTV images of 'individuals wanted for questioning' was shown, and one of them, I am almost 100% sure, was of one of the boys from the school …

Twitter: two sides to the story

In the Telegraph today, Bryony Gordon decries the use of Twitter as a vehicle for mawkish and inappropriate outbursts of grief at the death of Amy Winehouse. One tweet mentions that a reason to love Winehouse is because she 'once spat at Pippa Middleton'. However, for those of us fascinated by trends in education, Twitter …

To hand write or not to hand write?

There is a lot of talk at the moment about Indiana State's decision to move from teaching cursive writing to focusing on word processing skills. Some believe that it is inevitable, others are less enamoured of the idea. As someone who has taught English for more than ten years, I can genuinely say that unless …

Are their brains changing?

Research into the brain's neuro-plasticity suggests that young people's brains are different from ours. For the first time since formal education began, we are dealing with a generation of learners who think differently from the way we do. Their visual memory and visual processing skills are now far more dominant than our own, which must …