Monday, January 27, 2014

Teaching News

Teaching News

Explore the History of Computing!

Posted: 26 Jan 2014 11:21 AM PST

Technology changes every day and it is easy to forget how much things have changed over the years. A new site sharing the history of computers has recently been published online and it’s a really useful way of visualising the development of technology over the past 70 years.

The site shares a number of changes that took place in each decade and it could be used in the classroom in a number of ways. Here are some ideas:

Ask your pupils to use the information to create their own visual history of computing. Could they create this on paper or digitally (in the form of an infographic, website or multimedia presentation)?
Split the children into groups and ask them to research the technology that was available in one of the decades featured on the site.
Challenge your pupils to imagine what computing will be like in the 2020s.
Use the information to make a technology timeline in your classroom.
Ask your class to interview friends and family members about their use of technology at different points in their lives.

Do you have any other ideas? Leave a comment below to tell us…

The post Explore the History of Computing! appeared first on Teaching News.

Teaching News and Events (25/1/14)

Posted: 25 Jan 2014 02:00 AM PST

Family Meal

Here are links to some of this week’s education-related news:

Young people who regularly eat their main meal with their parents are much less likely to be truants, says an analysis from the OECD.
Education Secretary Michael Gove visited the BETT conference and spoke about how technology and computing are changing education.
Girls’ schools dominated the top of the league tables for GCSEs in England, with three out of the four top spots taken by selective state girls’ schools according to data from the Department for Education.
The maths ability of teenage girls in the UK is on average about three years behind their counterparts in high-performing Shanghai, according to figures from the OECD.
More of England’s secondary schools are meeting baseline government targets on GCSEs, the latest league tables show.
England’s secondary school league tables are to be split for the first time to separate A-levels from vocational qualifications.
Parents who earn a combined income of more than £80,000 should have to pay if their children go to the most popular state schools, a report suggests.
A network of 400 “master” computer science teachers is being recruited to deliver a new computer science curriculum in schools across England.

Next week's Teaching Events include:

25th January – Burns Night
26th January – Indian Republic Day
26th January – Australia Day
25th to 26th January – RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch
31st January – Backwards Day
31st January – RNLI SOS Day
31st January – Chinese New Year
31st January – National Bug Busting Day

The post Teaching News and Events (25/1/14) appeared first on Teaching News.