Interesting resources emerging from The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education is involved in a wide range of interesting projects that are exploring the role of digital technology in HE and beyond. The Forum, through their teaching and learning enhancement fund funded 11 projects in their first round of funding in…
There was great excitement yesterday in the newly established DCU Institute of Education, formerly St. Patrick’s College of Education, when they hosted the Microsoft Future of Learning event. The event involved two keynote addresses: one from inspirational speaker Mark Pollack and the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella. Mark Pollack shared his inspiring story with the packed auditorium and how he embraces challenge in life and he certainly has had his…
The Scottish Government recently launched their Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy. This is not the first Scottish Digital Strategy but it builds on previous strategies in an attempt to enhance learning and teaching through the use of digital technology. The strategy implies that digital technology should improve learning and teaching and that things should not remain the same. The Strategy’s vision is as follows: The focus is on educational improvement…
Subscribers to the TeachNet blog may remember some of my previous posts on code; To Code or Not to Code?, Cracking the Code & it’s creatively titled sequel Cracking the Code…Again?, all reflecting an the ever burgeoning curiosity among teachers and students around computer programming and becoming code literate. Be it the introductory Hour of Code Week, putting the Scratch Cat through his paces or building a Raspberry Pi Weather…
It’s probably every teacher’s worst nightmare: the children are plugged into virtual reality headgear and someone else is giving them their lessons while the teacher is redundantly hanging about or simply a bystander while the lesson is going on. Although the scenario is as unlikely as any virtual primary school teacher has so far proven to be, we have seen the benefits of utilising virtual learning environments such as YouTube,…
I read a very interesting article recently on Silicon Republic written by the journalist John Kennedy. It was a thought-provoking article and it caught my attention because I had been involved with some of the ICT initiatives mentioned in the piece. The opening sentence of the article provides a clear synopsis for anyone who hasn’t read it yet “The constant stop-start-stop cycle of failure that defines technology in Irish education…
In the past week I met a group of primary principals and during our conversation the discussion turned to the use of tablet devices in the classroom. Many of the principals reported they were disappointed with the impact these devices have had in their schools and they were surprised that only a small number of teachers actively use these devices regularly. This anecdote comes against the backdrop of a study…
“Technology has the power to transform how people learn – but walk into some classrooms and you could be forgiven for thinking you were entering a time warp. There will probably be a whiteboard instead of the traditional blackboard, and the children may be using laptops or tablets, but plenty of textbooks, pens and photocopied sheets are still likely and perhaps most strikingly, all desks will face forwards, with the…
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