Group items tagged

UK policy direction: "Is the government's attitude to computer technology in schools taking us back to a "dark age" of chalk-and-talk?"

Quote: "Parents who push their children to work hard at school have a bigger impact on their child's academic success than their teachers, research suggests."

iPaditis 2 makes you poorer, twitchier and crazier than the original iPaditis. Watch out!

Very funny clip, only goes for two minutes if you want a bit of a laugh. "iPaditis is either a new plague about to be unleashed on humanity… or a way for the BBC to poke a little fun at those of us who enjoy our iPads."

A piece of technology not much bigger than an adult's finger could help a new generation discover how to programme computers. Games developer David Braben and some colleagues came up with the Raspberry Pi - a whole computer on a tiny circuit board made with not much more than an ARM processor, a USB port, and an HDMI connection.

"How Microtask's Digitalkoot game helps weed mistakes out of the Finnish National Library's e-archives One more step, and a tiny creature will cross the bridge and get to safety. Just one more step - but letters do not match, the fragile structure blows up and the brown mole falls into a digital abyss. But as Juha Valtamo, a 21-year-old Finnish student, correctly types the next word that appears on the screen of his laptop, another mole happily reaches the destination. Digitalkoot may sound like a typical online game - but there is more to it than just building bridges and saving moles."

"Test your Internet safety knowledge with Hacker and help the Horrible Histories gang stay safe online."

Although aimed at younger students, these clips could even be used as staff PD. (Check Guy Fawkes & Lady Jane Grey)

Instructions on how to setup an Unblock Us account on your computer

"Google bought Nest for $3.2bn (£1.8bn) earlier this year despite the fact it only had two relatively niche products on sale. The search firm's chairman Eric Schmidt described the acquisition at the time as "an important bet" on intelligent devices for the home that were "infinitely more useable" than existing kit. Others are also making early steps into what is being called the "internet of things":"

"Sit back and take a ride from the Sun to Jupiter, at the speed of light. Animator Alphonse Swinehart made this video to illustrate the sheer mind-boggling scale of the solar system."

"In Denmark, the government has taken the bold step of allowing pupils full access to the internet during their final school year exams. A total of 14 colleges in Denmark are piloting the new system of exams and all schools in the country have been invited to join the scheme by 2011."

Tom March makes reference to this article in his keynote "It's Broke - So Let's Fix it!"  http://ozline.com/entry/2011/09/recorded-keynote/

Doctor Who is teaming up with a Dalek and trying to save the universe and teaching children some early computer programming skills at the same time in a game due to launched on the broadcaster's CBBC website. The Doctor and the Dalek includes voice narration from current Doctor Peter Capaldi, and a new story by Phil Ford, who has written for the TV show.It is a free web game is aimed at 6-12 year-olds, and involves freeing a battered Dalek from a ship of Cybermen, then building it back up to full strength through puzzles based on the programming elements of the new English computing curriculum. At the moment the game is only playable on computers, but the development team is working on future updates that will will try to make it work on tablets too by early 2015.