Commercialisation of educational technology

2018 January 20 Saturday 11:01

Next week will be BETT London. The first time this writer attended was two years ago and as a new teacher, it was a real surprise to see very little use of freedom software within the school infrastructure, used by teachers and students.

Inertia about file formats

2018 January 25 Thursday 12:06

Despite numerous government guidance (here, here, and here) about the need for public sector entities to adopt non-proprietary document file formats, this writer has yet to see a single school document in such an Open Document Format. All school staff seem totally oblivious. So, as a first start, an exam board specification has been edited and converted into a "writer" document, but the next question is where to share such files?

All about robots

2018 January 28 Sunday 17:38

So, the "ed-tech" industry exhibition, BETT concluded this weekend for another year. Notable observations? Everything has to be "gamified" to appeal to the current "yoof". Tedious, but necessary. Similarly, robots and additive (aka 3D-) printing are proving to be popular.

There was a memorable quotation (sorry can't remember the source) about the need to embark on the technological train, or risk being left behind. A scary thought, heightened by the fact that there are so many choices; which to take? Which choice will lead to a dead end?

Freedom to think differently

2018 January 29 Monday 21:05

One of the liberating features of GNU/Linux is the freedom to think differently and beyond proprietary perspectives.

Curious to know the weather tomorrow? Just typed:

					torsocks lynx finger://london@graph.no
				

One day, we will be able to have similar freedom when using a mobile phone...The power of the command terminal! :)