David Weinberger’s 2002 ‘Small Pieces Loosely Joined‘ outlined what was important about the web, offering a framework for understanding its far-reaching effects on our lives and societies. The accompanying ‘kids’ version made the ideas accessible to a younger audience. I used it with my students for quite a few years and it was effective in helping them stop and think about something that they were beginning to take for granted. Seven years later it feels slightly dated although the principles and central message still ring true- for me at least. A collaborative spruce-up...

In 2001, I was encouraged to ‘dream wildly’ about what educational technology should look like in the future. I was no better at predicting the future than anyone else but I did have a view as to how education should work with developers of new technologies.

You have an totally empty Year Six classroom space and want to turn it into an effective learning and teaching space fit for the 21st century (or the next 5 years at least). You’ve got £20,000 to make a start. Everyone in the school is on board with your vision for teaching and learning and you just have to put in the orders for what is required. What’s on your shopping list? What might you acquire with little cost? Not enough money? Almost certainly. Don’t let that put you off making an effective start. I’m working on a similar, if slightly more realistic, brief together...

I didn’t mean to write a poem today. When I fired up Twitter this morning I noticed that Leon Cych had already been out and about taking photos in the snow. Somewhat intrigued, I took a look at his photos and left a quick comment.  They would have made good material for writing a topical poem about snow with my students. When Leon fired me a tweet with a link to a poem, ‘Handwriting Exercise’,  he had written about the snow 30 years ago, the material and surrounding backstory became excellent inspiration for writing a poem. If one of my schools had been open and visiting Silverstone...

My first post here for 18 months. It feels fitting that the subject of my last post, Gareth Davies, inspired me to fire up the old blog through his comment at  Silverstone Study Centre, where I have been spending most of my on- and offline time. Some Year Two pupils recently visited and demonstrated a remarkable ability to appear actively attentive with their eye contact and body language. Not only were these pupils ‘hanging on my every word’ as I explained activities and interacted with them but they also made the choice to show me that they were ‘bothered’ using their...