gcses have become a distant memory. Some students have been known to burn their exercise (notes) books, later to realise the folly of this decision after enrolment onto gce a(s) and/or btec level 3 courses, based upon content recently sent up in smoke!
A nice aspect of gce a(s) is the observation of students' development of independence. From a rigid timetable, to one that features "free time", this time of year exposes whether good study habits have developed successfully, or not. An extant difficulty: review of students" quality of lesson notes. Some have good ol' fashioned A4 paper pads with loose-leaf binders, folders, paper organisers etc., whilst others enter the world of (almost exclusively Apple) digital machines to photocopy paper documents received, annote, write notes with a stylus. Until summative assessments become more numerous later in the year and greater knowledge of each student becomes evident, it is a bit of speculation to wonder if the type of notes (paper, digital, combinations to various degrees) has an impact on comprehension of the subject matter. Perhaps it is a simple matter of: good students use whatever option, effectively; weaker students suffer from a "tyranny of choice" such that any proposed benefits of technology prove to be a mirage.
From a teacher perspective, not easy to review a multitude of information, recorded in a multitude of ways. Similarly have to develop slightly different "work-flows" to monitor students' performance. Once again, the monopolistic amgaf world acts as an impediment. School networks, it management decisions are more and more restrictive. Instead of 'moodle', 'R' 'Java' microsoft is almost mandatory, regardless of efficiency of use, personal preferences, freedom of thought. It is a frustration.
The recent influx of new users (primarily) from twit... to mastodon has been an amusement to observer. New people of interest have made themselselves apparent; hopefully the content they post will be a welcome addition to the usual content about computers and ... computers. In an editorial published by Evening Standard, it was a surprise to read that you:
"...need a PhD in quantum computing to set up an account."
Although the statement is a slight(!) exaggeration, it does indicate and important aspect of open source software usage. Programmers consistently ignore the esoteric nature of their contributions and refuse to accept that not everyone is a computer science specialist. Many want to use technology as a tool to do something; programmers in the free(dom) software world should acknowledge this reality and encourage an environment that is (ironically) more open to those not of the extant dominant demographic in the software world (see book cover if ignorant!).
Whilst the aforementioned observance of an increased participation in decentralised social media is to be welcomed, slightly annoyed that the rest of the fediverse remains undiscovered.
The "fediverse" is vast; please explore beyond the extinct elephant, then join the conversation! :)
