Archive | September, 2011

The games people play

Although I’m sceptical with much of the ‘research’ that describes virtually everybody as a ‘gamer,’ there is no doubt that over the last few years there’s been an explosion of activity in casual games. Of course one could argue that we’ve always played casual games such as Solitaire and Minesweeper but recently the genre has […]

Why technology is failing in schools

Edudemic posted this collection of presentations recently describing not only why technology is failing to deliver real benefits in schools but more importantly, some ideas about how to fix it. Why it’s failing   The Future of Technology and Education   Changing Education with Web 2.0 tools   What are your experiences of using technology […]

Childhood & Family articles

Special needs students and their teachers are the victims of a “muddled” approach to schooling, says Leicester Uni http://j.mp/qB5qcd Socioeconomic status as child dictates response to stress as adult according to University of Minnesota http://j.mp/qDZRZ8 Parents are forgetting how to play with their children, study shows – article from The Guardian last year http://j.mp/jdoiSR Teenage […]

Apple promotes iPad for school

There’s a new TV ad from Apple extolling the potential of the iPad in classrooms. http://youtu.be/_5i1Dyj5k1A A few months ago Edudemic posted this list of 50 Innovative Ways to Use an iPad in School. What do you think? Does the iPad represent revolutionary technology for all teachers and students or simply another tool in the […]

Beach games

During the summer I went to North Wales with the youth group I help lead. While we were away, we played lots of games. Not high-tech, computer-based games but real-world, physical games. It was a timely reminder to me that play, even for teenagers, does not always depend on bits and bytes but can happily […]