All their own work
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Every August, ministers are forced to answer claims that A-levels are getting easier. Though the government counters these charges robustly, it now accepts that the exams have become an inadequate proof of readiness for university.The suggested solution is an “extended project” (EP) that young people can do in addition to their A-level subjects. And it [...]
A visual treat
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Visualisers are digital presentation and teaching tools that enable teachers to share a much wider range of information and artefacts with their pupils via their digital projectors. They allow the examination of text, images, artefacts and even living things in visual learning opportunities that users of the old overhead projectors could only dream about.Essentially, a [...]
The singing professor
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It’s show time in the antipodes. An award-winning performer strides to the front of a regular gathering, picks up an acoustic guitar and strums the opening bars to one of his folk-tinged originals. The fans gawp with undisguised pleasure - heads nodding in time, feet tapping, pens clicking.Welcome to another lecture by Warwick Murray, a [...]
Looking ahead
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The mince pies may be just a delicious memory and the new year resolutions already broken, but I am going to stick my neck out and make a few predictions for the year ahead.A review of school governanceLast July the government published a green paper called The Governance of Britain, which says: “The government currently [...]
Roll up for the Eddies
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The results are in for this year’s Edublog awards (”Eddies” for short), an online event that showcases the best use of blogs, podcasting and other social software in education.Now into their fourth year, the 2007 awards were more ambitious than ever. There were more than 500 nominations in 14 categories, including new additions such as [...]
Read all about it
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How do you define national character? That was the task of history lecturer Dr Peter Mandler from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, when researching his latest work The English National Character. Widely accepted definitions were hard to pin down but after conventional searches failed he finally struck gold - after a word search in the [...]
A degree of deception
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There was a time when a backstreet education meant sending off a coupon in a magazine and getting back a certificate from the University of Nowhere. These quick-buck “degree mills” have given way to a much more sophisticated and lucrative kind of operation. Today’s bogus universities have fronts so elaborate and “professors” so convincing that [...]
Becta rewards the innovators
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There are speakers in every corner, one boy from Wyndcliffe school, Birmingham, explained about the school’s podcasting radio station. “They are in every room; everybody can hear it, all around the school.” Then he thought and his eyes lit up: “And all over the world!”Many other children in the past year have experienced what technology [...]
A league table to worry us all
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The results of the third phase of Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) make interesting reading. Every three years, Pisa tests 400,000 15-year-olds from 54 countries in reading, maths and science. Like all international assessments, Pisa has methodological and statistical limitations. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), however, uses elaborate procedures to ensure [...]
At Bett 2008
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Home accessInternet for all childrenSchools minister Jim Knight will tomorrow announce plans to give every child home internet access during his opening speech at this year’s Bett. Knight will use his address to outline plans to encourage companies such as Microsoft, BT, Sky, Virgin and RM to provide affordable internet access and computer technology. The [...]
