Posts Tagged ‘Education’
Scottish Government bowled a right proper Googly
Posted by: mimanifesto on: May 2, 2012
So, google have withdrawn from the Glow procurement process. Their letter, sent to all LA’s in Scotland is self explanatory. Many of you know that they were involved in user testing with representatives from every LA in the country earlier this year, along with Microsoft 365.
My wish-list….number 4
Posted by: mimanifesto on: June 25, 2011
This wish is one that, admittedly, I’ve had to be convinced about by discussions and reading over the course of the past year now, and it’s for better IT infrastructure for schools. And as my previous three wishes have (at least over an extended life) leant towards a cost-neutral situation, or have even offered some [...]
SNP open to change on GLOW…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: May 5, 2011
Following on from my recent post on the Scottish government elections and social media use, there were some more interesting exchanges with former education minister Mike Russell. In response to criticism of GLOW and its management to date on Twitter. Mr Russell made several interesting comments.. In reply to this post from a Scots twitterer [...]
The difference between anonymity and invertebrate tendency…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: April 5, 2011
- In: GLOW | ICT | LTS | networking
- 1 Comment
Those of you who were about on Twitter a couple of weekends ago will remember that I was a little annoyed about an anonymous comment which somebody had left on my blog for publication… I would never publish an anonymous comment, unless I knew the person who sent it and they asked me to [...]
Jamie’s dream school and what it really teaches us
Posted by: mimanifesto on: March 9, 2011
I don’t know if you watched this, but there’s been some interesting reaction from the press and, more importantly, teachers themselves. I think its a bit condescending of cheeky chappie Jamie O to waltz into schools and try to show us how to, as he put it, re-engage kids with education. After all, we know [...]
Anti-Education Technology- Does it exist ?
Posted by: mimanifesto on: March 7, 2011
I came across an interesting article in a LinkedIn group I’m a member of today. Its all about the impact of the iPad and its uses, or not, in education. Now I have to admit, I’m a confirmed fan of both my iPad and my iPhone. As friends and colleagues as well as regular readers [...]
Emotional education and society..
Posted by: mimanifesto on: March 1, 2011
Judging by what we read in the papers at the moment, Scotland is not a great place to be growing up in at the moment. Drinking, drugs, and dangerous sexual activity are endemic in our society. Knife and gun crime is the norm amongst many children who roam the streets in feral gangs without a [...]
Reports of the death of blogging have been greatly exagerated !
Posted by: mimanifesto on: February 24, 2011
- In: Literacy | networking | PLN | sustainability
- 1 Comment
So teens are going off blogging and turning increasingly to social networking sites such as Twitter instead. So says a recent article in the New York Times I came across, courtesy of the Smart Brief on EdTech. Some interesting comment, particularly about the reasons for this apparent switch. One of these was the time taken [...]
Islay first, and the Cedars follows…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: February 21, 2011
- In: change | future of education | ICT
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Well done to the Cedars School of Excellence, a private school in Greenock for equipping all pupils with iPads and having most lessons taught using them. The school’s website proudly boasts that it is the first school in the world to have a 1:1 pupil/iPad ratio. At a cost of £45K, no small change here [...]
Native linguists removed from schools..
Posted by: mimanifesto on: February 19, 2011
- In: Inclusion | Literacy | Leadership | Equality | change | capacity-building | future of education
- 4 Comments
An excellent piece from Tom Shields in today’s Herald newspaper. He takes a rather witty and beautifully written series of pot-shots at Glasgow City Council Education dept for removing all foreign language assistants from their schools by remembering, somewhat fondly, his own experiences of the benefits of language assistants. The enormous benefits of having native [...]
Inter professional dialogue as CPD
Posted by: mimanifesto on: February 14, 2011
It sometimes strikes me, as I speak and network with other education professionals that we are rather insular in our approaches. Of course, many folk I’ve worked with went from school, to university, and straight into teaching as their chosen career, and have been teachers and educationalists ever since. However, certainly over the past few [...]
Calm before the storm perhaps ?
Posted by: mimanifesto on: February 4, 2011
For the second day running, nothing about education on the ‘letters’ page of The Herald newspaper. Indeed, a quick perusal of the rest of the paper reaveals nothing at all written about education. With the spectre of savage cuts nationwide, teacher redundancies, reductions in IT and computers, increased pension contributions, and other changes to working [...]
I’ve been neglecting this blog…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: January 12, 2011
As the title of this post says, I’ve been very bad at posting recently. It’s the usual litany of excuses…flu, Christmas, more flu, kids and sheer laziness. To be honest, I’ve been taking advantage of all the extra time I’ve had now that I’m on my ‘career break’. I will be back into writing this [...]
Fiddling whilst Rome burns…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: May 26, 2010
So a new government ushers in a period of fiscal austerity…ministers perks are to be slashed, quango’s are to close down, and other cost-cutting measures affecting education are doubtless soon to be anounced in the first Liberal-Conservative budget. BECTA has already had it’s cards and others such as the QCA may also be candidates for [...]
The Emperor’s new clothes….
Posted by: mimanifesto on: April 5, 2010
- In: capacity-building | change | future of education | GLOW | ICT | Leadership | LTS | networking | PLN | Quality assurance | sustainability | Teacher-researchers | teaching and learning | VLE
- 6 Comments
“Your Majesty,” the prime minister said, “we have a request for you. The people have found out about this extraordinary fabric and they are anxious to see you in your new suit.” The Emperor was doubtful showing himself naked to the people, but then he abandoned his fears. After all, no one would know about [...]
Subject specialism and secondary teachers – a status symbol too far?
Posted by: mimanifesto on: October 24, 2008
Do secondary teachers themselves actually increase the barriers between subject areas rather than working to break them down ? Is there still too much of the subject specialist’ culture in our schools? Now I actually remember quite a bit from my days at Teacher Training College and one of these pearls of wisdom was [...]
The greatest barrier to learning is…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: September 23, 2008
- In: AiFL | GLOW | ICT | Leadership | teaching and learning
- 2 Comments
….the talking teacher. I’ve heard this before, but it was brought sharply back into focus for me recently by some of my S4 students. They were working in small groups, having been told they were going to face the dreaded end-of topic test (I really hate these !) I couldn’t bring myself to let them sit [...]
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