Emerging ideas about education for discussion and debate
Bob Harrison responds to official comments (in England) about 'remote learning'
As I judged the entries for the Learning Reimagined Awards – which celebrate the most inspirational uses of technology for learning around the world – I could not help reflect on how incredibly quaint and outdated these innovations make the Department for Education’s (DfE's) remote education efforts look. ...continue reading "Online learning – there is nothing remote about it"
By Dennis Sherwood
In the summer of 2020, the Covid-19 outbreak led to the cancellation in the UK of all school exams. What happened next has been described as a scandal, a disaster, a fiasco, as has been reported extensively elsewhere. In the quest to discover what went wrong, ...continue reading "Why are exam grades unreliable?"
Around the world governments are taking action to contain the spread of COVID-19, often in ways that are quite revealing about the purposes and practices of schooling, and the scope to which unchallengeable norms in education can actually be overthrown. ...continue reading "COVID-19 and the future of schooling"
After nearly 24 years working at the Open University in the UK - most recently as Professor of Education (Futures) - I have decided to move to Australia (as Professor of Education (Innovation in schooling and educational technology) at the University of Newcastle (in NSW). Several people have asked me 'Why?'.
Digital literacy is another of those slippery terms which we use frequently but which are open to very different interpretations. Thus we are frequently talking at cross purposes.
At one end of the spectrum digital literacy is seen as ...continue reading "What do you mean by digital literacy?"
This article was originally published in The Conversation on the 4th February 2014
Computing is an important subject, but it is only one of many that schools have to teach, and few would argue that it is more important than English, maths, or science. But ...continue reading "Backlash against computing curriculum misses the point"
This article was originally published in The Conversation on the 21st Feb 2014
As schools struggle with shortfalls in their digital technology budgets and as teachers see how much parents spend on laptops and tablets at home, many teachers are considering ...continue reading "Bring or buy: would you let your child take their tablet to school?"
