Share best practice? Not likely!

One of the ways in which teachers, and schools, can improve the way they teach and use educational technology is by seeing what other teachers and schools are doing. Obviously, nobody wishes to emulate the good, mediocre or poor -- they are interested only in the best. For this reason, the idea of sharing best practice is held to be a "good thing".

But the very idea is fraught with difficulties, once you start to examine it.

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What do you need in order to be a successful manager of Educational Technology (ICT)? Part 3

In this series we are looking at the types of skills you need in order to be a successful manager of ICT. In the last article we looked at the 5 different areas of expertise, and, in particular, hardware. This time we focus on the second of these, software.

This article is available only to subscribers to the Practical ICT eJournal. Click the link to find out more about this high-value, low-cost, subscription.

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Using a spreadsheet in Word

Word has a table feature which can be used for calculations --

but it's not exactly intuitive. So why not use a spreadsheet
instead? This brief article explains how.

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What do you need in order to be a successful manager of Educational Technology (ICT)? Part 2

In this series we are looking at the types of skills you need in order to be a successful manager of ICT. In this article we look at the 5 different areas of expertise, and focus on the first of these, hardware.

This article is available only to subscribers to the Practical ICT eJournal. Click the link to find out more about this high-value, low-cost, subscription.

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What do you need in order to be a successful manager of Educational Technology (ICT)? Part 1

This series looks at the types of skills you need in order to be a successful manager of ICT. There is no magic combination of teaching and computing skills, but some of the content of these articles may surprise you.

This article is available only to subscribers to the Practical ICT eJournal. Click the link to find out more about this high-value, low-cost, subscription.

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Is motivation enough?

Ask anyone why they use computers in their lessons -- especially where pupils with special educational needs are involved -- and they are almost bound to say something about self-esteem and motivation.

But shouldn't we adopt a rather more critical approach?

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The 14 Principles of Projects

To manage projects successfully you do not necessarily have to adopt a formal project management approach, which may be "overkill" in your particular circumstances.

There are, however, 14 key principles which should underpin your projects. They are listed here. With some adaptation or possible change of emphasis they will be relevant in a school context or in a wider context.

This article is available only to subscribers to the Practical ICT eJournal. Click the link to find out more about this high-value, low-cost, subscription.

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Some thoughts about last year's NECC Conference

Peggy George gives us a personal view of last year’s NECC conference.
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Seven key principles for an educational ICT provision

Whether you are providing an educational ICT service in a school or in a wider context, such as a Local Authority or School District, there are seven key principles which must underpin what you and your team do.

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Seven Tips for planning the use of ICT with one or two computers

What if you can only have access to one or two computers for the whole class for much of the time. Does that mean you cannot do anything of any value? Not at all. Here are seven suggestions for how to make the best of the situation.

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An educational computing conference with a difference

I report on a conference in the USA he attended and at which I presented.

“Help! I don’t even know how to begin!”

The plaintive cry of someone confronted with the latest interactive video game? The heart-felt whimpering of someone who has just been given a critical assignment by their boss (just as he’s leaving for the golf course)? Not exactly. What you’ve just read is a description of how yours truly felt when looking at the programme for last year’s National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in the USA.