Archive

Why do edtech folk react badly to scepticism? Part 1: Vested interest

Feb 20, 2016 | Category: technology

"It's difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it." Upton Sinclair. I'm sceptical about the benefits of 'edtech'. This is, I think, a legitimate positio...

#Apple #Apple Distinguished Educators #vested interest

One more nail in the Learning Styles coffin...

Feb 19, 2016 | Category: myths

We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it: She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice Remains in danger of her former tooth.Shakespeare, Macbeth Just when you think you've found a way to put...

#learning styles #working memory

The Learning Styles myth debunked on the back of an envelope

Feb 18, 2016 | Category: myths

"You don’t have to believe in learning styles theories to appreciate differences among kids, to hold an egalitarian attitude in the midst of such differences, and to try to foster such attitudes in st...

#learning styles

Just give me one good reason to use a tablet in the classroom

Feb 18, 2016 | Category: Featured

I'll start with a confession: I don't really get iPads. This came as something as a surprise to me as, by and large, I'm pathetically geeky about Apple products. I use my iPhone 6plus all the time and...

#iPads #edtech #opportunity cost

When planning fails... what to do when behaviour breaks down

Feb 17, 2016 | Category: behaviour

"There is in the act of preparing, the moment you start caring." Winston Churchill Lots of people who don't normally like the stuff I write seemed to approve of the post I wrote on responsibly plann...

#Looked After Children #no excuses #exclusion

Taking responsibility for predictable problems

Feb 16, 2016 | Category: behaviour

"All stable processes we shall predict. All unstable processes we shall control." John Von Neumann Let me preface all this by saying that I think refusing to accept excuses for low standards and poo...

#equality #CAMHS #Children Looked After

Who is dyslexic and why does it matter?

Feb 11, 2016 | Category: myths

"Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true." Francis Bacon I've been thinking about dyslexia for a while. Here are a few of the posts I've written over the past couple of years: May 2013 D...

#dyslexia #Julian Elliott #Elena Grigorenko

Learning is liminal

Feb 10, 2016 | Category: learning

I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades For ever and for ever when I move. Tennyson, Ulysses I offered my de...

#Graham Nuthall #liminality #Robert Siegler #mimicry #Victor Turner

On bullshit: the value of clarity, precision and economy

Feb 08, 2016 | Category: writing

"Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear." Ezra Pound I've always been of the opinion that saying what you mean clearly, precisely and...

#bullshit #Dick Mack #Ernest Gowers #Harry Frankfurt #Terry Leahy

What's the starting point for all learning?

Feb 07, 2016 | Category: learning

"No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious." George Bernard Shaw UPDATED 7th February 6.30pmThis morning in answer to a question about whether children should be tau...

#questioning