education – Page 3 – Dave Briggs

What I’ve been reading

March 25, 2012

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

cpsrenewal.ca by Nick Charney: Mapping Internal Policy to the Hype Cycle – "I've been thinking a lot this week about how organizations issue policies to govern the use of new and emerging technologies."
The BBC Micro can still teach us a lot – "The BBC Micro taught a generation of teenagers the joys of programming. It's time to re-engineer such a revolution"
Amazon v. Apple « LRB blog – "Readers might be revelling in the lower prices they find on Amazon, but if the books they’re buying are ever less worth reading, it doesn’t seem much of a bargain."
What is Dart? – O’Reilly Radar – "Dart [is] an open-source project that aims to enable developers to build more complex, highly performant apps for the modern web."
MIT App Inventor – "To use App Inventor, you do not need to be a professional developer. This is because instead of writing code, you visually design the way the app looks and use blocks to specify the app's behavior."

You can find all my bookmarks on Pinboard.

What I’ve been reading

March 18, 2012

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

Facebook’s ‘dark side’: study finds link to socially aggressive narcissism – "Psychology paper finds Facebook and other social media offer platform for obsessions with self-image and shallow friendships."
The UK Hackspace Foundation – "Hackerspaces are physical places where people can meet to learn, socialise and collaborate on projects."
‘The world hasn’t ended’: what happens when you give all staff access to social media – A great story – lessons for many organisations fearful of letting people loose on online networks.
FixMyStreet’s been redesigned – A welcome new look for a still vital site.
The university as a hackerspace | Expedient Means – "Like any programme of study, work and investment, it needs careful thinking about how to set it up right, but from where I stand, it feels like a gaping hole in higher education that needs to be filled. Do you know of any examples that are already running? A ‘MIT Media Lab lite’ could be close to what I have in mind, but I have no experience of how it’s run and whether it breaks down the distinction between academic and non-academic staff to the extent I have in mind."

You can find all my bookmarks on Pinboard.

What I’ve been reading

October 20, 2011

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

Getting the digital debate going – Jimmy Leach announces the FCO's conference on cyberspace. Sounds interesting!
Mid year review: the state of DH digital – Great honest review of activity in digital at the Dept Health
Ofsted Parent View – Interesting "Parent's Opinion" style school feedback site from Ofsted.
Staff, social media policies and managing risk – Good stuff from Simon Wakeman on the need for organisations to have a clear approach to social media and networking.
Trimming the long tail – the danger of stripping back our websites – Interesting addition to the debate around the top task focus on local government websites.
Introduction to Databases – Stanford University – Free online course. Interesting!
Thinktanks are in crisis. To survive, they must become ‘do tanks’ – "For thinktanks to be effective, they must be imaginative and radical. But a funding crisis is making them increasing bland."

You can find all my bookmarks on Pinboard.

“Kids today need a licence to tinker”

August 29, 2011

Nice article by John Naughton on the state of IT education in schools:

What is happening is that the national curriculum’s worthy aspirations to educate pupils about ICT are transmuted at the chalkface into teaching kids to use Microsoft software. Our children are mostly getting ICT training rather than ICT education.

And if you can’t see the difference, try this simple thought-experiment: replace “ICT” with “sex” and see which you’d prefer in that context: education or training?

How we got to this ridiculous state of affairs is a long story. It’s partly about how education departments, like generals, are always preparing for the last war. Thus, while we’re moving into a post-PC age, our ICT curriculum is firmly rooted in the desktop computer running Microsoft Windows. It’s also partly about the technophobia of teachers, local councillors and officials. But it’s mainly about the chronic mismatch between the glacial pace of curriculum change in a print-based culture, and the rate of change in the technology.

What I’ve been reading

June 7, 2011

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

Civility in service | Public Strategist – "Civil servants should understand the constraints they accept as part of the job. They – and everybody else – should understand the limitations on public speech (not quite the same thing) which are part of the deal."
Using digital tools to build local activism – Nice roundup from the Young Foundation's digital social innovation team
A Simplified Version Of The Online Community Development Process – As always, really useful, practical stuff from Rich Millington.
Middle-class angst over technology in the early years – "Study says nursery staff and 'affluent' parents are spurning new technologies in early years"
How helpful is journalism for People Powered Change? Further thoughts. – More from David Wilcox on community media and recent funding decisions.

You can find all my bookmarks on Pinboard.

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