Having been teaching with a tablet in my classroom for nearly a year it has become evident that the market for Education apps still isn’t quite right. I think this is most evident in the fact that the course I run training teachers to use an iPad effectively in the classroom features almost no ‘education’ apps. I do one session (out of 7) that revolves around subject-specific apps, but other than this, the apps that are used on a...

I spend a huge amount of my time reading about the top 5 apps for teachers, the best software for collaborative writing, the best web tool for this, that or the other, how to do something that I’ve never heard of but should have and now feel guilty about, so I’m going to Google it and try to drop it into a conversation next time I’m face to face with another teacher, so that I seem on top of the ever-burgeoning world of educational...

In the UK, private schools often use ‘small class sizes’ at 6th form (16-18years old) as a selling point to entice parents to choose their school over another. I regularly have the opportunity of teaching groups of 10 or less in their final year of study and this certainly has significant benefits. What is fascinating about teaching 6th form students is how 2 significant things change in the classroom: the teacher stops standing at the...

From 8th January – 22nd March I chose one class, my First Year class (aged11-12) to give up using exercise books, reading books and textbooks. Instead, they would use only digital mediums that were available to them through an iPad that they were supplied with during each lesson. We are now at the halfway point of this test, and I wanted to reflect a little on what I have found so far. The first stumbling block was the fact that...

This article has also been published on the fantastic Edudemic website.  Apple TV has been around for a while now, but it is not as famous as the devices and machines that the company have become famous for. In many ways, its use in the domestic household is limited to a few really neat tricks. But, when you get this device into a classroom, I would argue that it is a game-changer. 1. You are the front of the room With Apple TV you...

Last week, even by my standards, was an EdTech overload. I spent a day at BETT 2013 and followed this up with a visit to The Brewery in London for the Apple Education Leaders Summit. Aside from the fact that they were both free, the two events could not have been more different. One was chaotic, overwhelming in its size, underwhelming in its ability to inspire and poorly lit, the other was cool, calm, slick and intelligently indoctrinating....