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David Sugden |
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NEw post on ... Mobile Learning Blog updated 25th May |
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27th June
2008 |
This has been a
really tiring week. I got to Leeds slightly later than I'd planned on
Monday.
I was up early on Tuesday to catch the train to Middlesbrough, where I was working with RSC Northern at the Chamber of Commerce - which turned out to be just across the road from the station, which made the kit-carrying a bit easier. Here, I was delivering sessions about Learning Platforms and e-Portfolios. It wasn't the best room in the world (lighting was difficult), but all the delegates seemed to enjoy the various sessions. Brian, the RSC-N WBL officer kindly took me up to Newcastle then, where I stayed (foolishly) at the Newcastle Airport South Premiere Inn. I say 'foolishly' because I'd not considered the early morning noise. Which meant another early morning. Today's events were more classroom based, with 'creative use of Office materials' and 'Free tools for web and pc use). They were not as well attended, but everyone seemed to enjoy the day. Brian then took me back into Toon for my train. Thanks Brian. It was the NIACE e-Guides review event in Birmingham yesterday and was a great opportunity to meet like minded friends and colleagues. I'm developing a course for next year and this was peer assessed - which left me with a little more work for this weekend (which I expected). |
Featured Videos Resources My other 'stuff'
Holidays and Gigs
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23rd June
2008 |
I'm finally beginning to see a little light at the end of the tunnel. I've had to work that last two weekends just to keep up with gig preparation. Even if I've delivered a subject before, I like to go through it again, updating and correcting as I do so. But this last few weeks (and the next two) have seen me delivering slightly different subject matters. Last weekend I had to prepare for the RSC Southwest conference (Thursday last) and this weekend I've been preparing for two days working for RSC Northern - Learning Platforms and e-Portfolios, both being newly prepared from scratch so as to keep them relevant and interactive. The other two subjects will be completed tomorrow evening, whilst whiling my time away in a hotel somewhere near Newcastle airport. The Southwest gig was good. I was nervous of it because I'd been booked on the strength of last years presentation, which was only about half an hour long. This year's booking was for 90 minutes and I'd been asked for 'hand's on'. With hindsight, I'd have done it differently but I got the feeling that more than half of those present enjoyed what they got. At the conference, I met many old friends - like last year - not the least of whom was Rod Paley of Xtensis - holders of the NLN materials. Rod is due to meet important people from the LSC this week and our discussions led to plenty of ideas for that meeting. But we were unable to meet with enough time to write down the ideas we discussed. Basically, we'd talked about the fact that there was still much 'unawareness' of NLN materials and e-Learning tools, tips and techniques generally amongst practitioners. Despite the Xtensis records that show how many people have accessed the materials, my own experiences (which are varied - not just single-sector) are that there is still a lack of general understanding of what NLN or 'e' can do. Having said that, there is a readiness amongst teaching colleagues, to take it ('e' generally and NLN specifically if they can be shown how the two might combine) on board - unlike six years ago when NLN was launched - but they NEED training and support.STILL! There is no need for another scheme involving NLN Mentors, like before - but one where at-the-point-of-sale agencies like the JISC RSCs (or LSN?) are responsible for (and charged with) the support and training of F.E. System teachers and trainers. Now - there lies the problem, the RSCs don't have the staff or wherewithal to do that and it would be foolish to increase their staffing for a medium term project like this. However, with their recent remit to 'broker' training, they easily could do it - if given the go ahead and extra funding required. I could name at least twenty and probably more trainers and consultants who could deliver quality, informed and relevant support nationwide - with no need for secondments or expensive long term contracts. Colleges and the like could be encouraged to contribute towards the training (open to discussion) - perhaps with a lead-in period being free or very low cost. The understanding of the need is there, but the cost to replace/cover staff who are out (even in-house) on training is not. Those who attend training should also be committed to complete some form of project post training, to ensure that embedding takes place. And, where possible the training should take place in-house, with partner colleges and training agencies invited to attend. Maybe. |
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14th June
2008 We managed to sort ourselves with a place n France this summer- many thanks to everyone. We're going to a village called Casseras which is between Carccasonne and Narbonne but up a bit! |
Presented twice this week: http://www.slideshare.net/dsugden/massessmentdndave/ First in Birmingham, with Danny Atwere and then in Leeds with Di - this version. |
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6th June
2008 HELP ... Does anyone have - or know of - a nice apartment or cottage in France - preferably somewhere Languedoc no more than an hour from coast? We're hoping to spend a week there 2nd-9th August (we have a place sorted in Normandy for later) THANKS
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In
Friday's London Evening Standard, the city editor Chris Blackhurst
stated that more students than ever before are 'dropping out of
university' and cites his own son as one of the more recent 'dropouts'.
I wholeheartedly agree with his assertion that the education system is
betraying them - and others. Both Sharon and I That sounds like a betrayal, but don't get me wrong - she's a bright kid and will surely cope with anything that is put her way - just the way she's coped with a rigid and inflexible secondary education that has done nothing more than take the fun out of learning. For Betz, even allowing for her illness, it's been and uninspiring drudge and if she does well in her GCSE's (final one yesterday) she will have done so in spite of the education system rather than because of it. And all power to her. Schools are so beset with targets and achievement rates that the learners become commodities to manage rather than pre-adults eager to learn. I've had the pleasure to discuss 'e' (learning) with a fair number of 6th form colleges recently; those bastions of learning charged with testing and preparing young learners for university. One was violently opposed to anything that smells of 'e' (particularly innovative 'e' or 'm) whilst another was just as vehemently in favour (because it -e/m- addressed their learners preferences). There have been shades of opinion in-between, usually in favour: "if only they could get management on board!" The same management that keeps their jobs and position by achieving targets! We
need creative thinkers to lead our education system, people who can see
the way things are without being tainted and informed by their own (fat
becoming outdated) education. Of course - all of the above discusses
mainstream education, something which F.E. tends to stand outside
(treated like the beggar at the door?). But why do we need F.E. (all
post 16, sub-university education), if not to try and make a good job of
those who are failed by the system? |
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3rd June
2008 HELP ... Does anyone have - or know of - a nice apartment or cottage in France - preferably somewhere Languedoc no more than an hour from coast? We're hoping to spend a week there early August (we have a place sorted in Normandy for the third week) THANKS |
Many
thanks to those of you who responded to my
post about Simba's death. I had
emails
June is under way now and there's little chance that I'll be able to keep up with the blog as assiduously as I usually try to. I'm in Lancashire tomorrow and Beverly the day after - before travelling to London to work with Di on a MoleNET gig. She has planned this one pretty much alone (I helped initially) and I therefore have a lot to learn - especially as I have to deliver it next Wednesday in Birmingham on my own! Also next week, I'm back in Beverley on Monday, Leeds on Tuesday and Thursday (one L4LW and one MoleNET - again with Di). The following week I'm in Shipley and Bradford on the Monday, Lancaster and Skipton on Tuesday and I'm travelling down the M6/M5 on Wednesday ready for the RSC-SW conference in Bridgewater on Thursday 19th. I'm presenting 'ILT for the Insane', which seemed a good idea back in January when we discussed the content! I've spent most of today working up the presentation - plenty of hands on and lots (apparently) of delegates. I'm straight back into it on Friday with a trip to Keighley for L4LW. Sharon is coming with me so that she can return to Otley, the voting kit I've hired for the RSC conference. The following week it's Leeds; Middlesbrough; Newcastle; Birmingham and Huddersfield (MoleNET meeting). I finish the month with Gateshead and Middlesbrough. Sharon flies to the States with Betony on 3rd July and when I've dropped them off I have a couple of visits to make on my way to the RSC Northwest conference in Liverpool - which is the following day, 4th July. I'm still discussing my involvement there but it will certainly be Web 2.0 based. July s slightly less charged but I still have a few visits to make w/c 7th and w/c 14th. Phew. |
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31st May
2008
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Phew! that was a new and very scary experience! I've just spent two days wracking my brains for the reason why my blog file (each 3 months writing usually becomes a file of about 60-100kb) had reached 16 megabytes and slowed the whole process down to boot! I looked at the code - which even in Notepad took an age to load and scroll through but could find northing amiss at first. So, today after all my other lame attempts, I loaded it up into Dreamweaver and used the Command to clean up html. Miraculously, it dropped to 70kb straight away - brilliant, problem solved - or so I thought. I work in Front Page for all sorts of reasons, I know it's not the best and I know that it's been replaced in the 2007 suite - but it's what I learned to use at the outset (self-taught) and I don't have the time to properly learn Dreamweaver - although I know I should. Anyway, I re-opened the newly cleaned-up file in Front Page and saw that it all looked fine. I scrolled to the bottom just to check that my user stats were there and found that they were not! - in fact nothing before April 13th was there at all. I double checked all the various stages of work (neatly filed in the recycle bin) and found that in the clean-up operation Dreamweaver had ditched everything after that date. But why? So I went back to the code and traced this last entry - only to find that there was 15.9 megabytes of white space between it and the next entry! I've no idea how that got there but once it was painfully deleted, all was back to normal. As I said above - phew! We're actually in Reeth right now (well - read on) and enjoying a working break. Both Sharon and I have work to do and we brought it here for all sorts of reasons: there is no internet access at all (unless you have an Orange contract), there is no phone reception at all (unless you have an Orange contract) and it has beautiful views, walks and pubs top sustain us outside work. But - although I say that's were we are, by the time I 'post' this episode we'll be back in Internet blightly. :-) |
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28th May
2008 |
Gutted.
Although I have work which 'needs' doing, a small amount of which I'm not at all looking forward to (it's actually making me ill, it's so badly organised), I have had to set it all aside today - and part of yesterday to take the cat to the vets. He's dead now. Simba came with Sharon - part of the deal as it were (goods and chattels included one cat and one daughter aged eight!). He was a real beast, mauling everyone and anything that came near enough or attempted to stroke or be nice to him. He often pretended to be nice, but then sunk his claws into any exposed flesh. He had real character - he was a real cat. The amount of small animal body parts we used to find lying about were innumerable (he didn't seem too keen on kidneys) but he was a strong and well loved part of the family. Only two friends - Karen and JT - were able to truly befriend him and he allowed them (and occasionally us) more strokes before trying to bite or claw. They, I'm sure, will miss him. Sharon
has planned a Magnolia bush at the bottom of the garden for some time
and now (or shortly - when the bush is finally bought) it will be
planted on top of the cat - which is just now being buried in that spot.
Our other cat
Maisie should now live in peace and not be terrorised by a growling
curmudgeonly old sod like Simba. But I'll bet she misses him too. |
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27th May
2008
See birds being fed in the nest - click 'Woody' below |
The bank holiday weekend has been fairly nice. We had very strong winds but the rain kept off - until today. It's pouring down now, but that's ok because I have some office work to do today and tomorrow. Sharon and I are going up to Reeth in Swaledale later in the week, but for the next two days it's all hands on deck getting ready for a very busy five weeks - all of June and right into the first week of July. We had Emma and the girls around on Sunday - which was nice. The girls are a handful at the moment, especially as their dad Charlie is working away in Kenya just now. But - kids are kids and it was great to see (and play with) them. My mum and dad joined us yesterday with our friends John and Carol. We had some roast leg of Welsh lamb and it was delicious. There really is a difference between NZ lamb and Welsh. I think that both my mum and my dad enjoyed the company of John and Carol, as it gave them new things to talk about. All in all a very good weekend! |
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23rd May
2008 Click here now before it's too late |
I've also begun work on the evaluation visits for RSC-YH's L4LW project. I've visited East Riding College, Bishop Burton College and Wakefield College so far this week. Bishop will need another visit but with three down, there's just nine to go. I spent today trying to catch up with people for the LSN 'm' Accessibility project and the RSC-NW scoping study we're doing. It's not an easy time of year to contact anyone - there's a half-term feel to it all today but the week after next it sounds like all noses back on the grindstone! So we'll just have to keep at it. |
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18th May
2008 |
We're
just back from the wedding. Even more exhausted.
The reception was held at Maunsel House near North Petherton. The inside was a delight of old 'stuff' and old newspaper cuttings - really eccentric, but as I say - more later when time allows. Beverley tomorrow then back in the office to catch up on desk work ... Guess where the bear was! |
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Picture from Middlesbrough event at TTE! This week has been busy - I drove up to Sunderland on Tuesday morning, stayed in Middlesbrough last night (worked there today) and am now sat in Leeds, waiting to meet Anne Featherstone prior to our day 3 e-Guides gig here tomorrow. The first two days were with the RSC Northern. Brian Burr, their recently appointed Work Based Learning chap, has organised a series of 'how to' workshops in conjunction with me and Simon Fitzpatrick - Anne (above) is also doing one. My first two (one morning and one afternoon repeated at each venue) were called: Everyday tools to develop e-assessment and Creating video evidence and Podcasts. The first touched on Mobile devices, Web 2.0 stuff and desktop software like Word. The second took a close look at Audacity (and MyPodcastRecorder), Gabcast, Photo Story 3, Cam Studio and Windows Movie Maker. we also looked at VeoTag but I don't think they got it (we just breezed past it really). Once again though, the delegates on both days (all four sessions) really seemed to enjoy themselves and went away really pent up and raring to go. But I'm exhausted. After tomorrow's e-Guide gig and a night at home, we're off to Taunton for a wedding! |
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9th May
2008 See this |
It's
almost lunchtime on the second and final day at the National Science
Learning Centre. I think I only managed to get through Office Materials for ILT; NLN and QIA websites; Subject specific resources and movies (Cam Studio and Photo Story 3). We finished with a brief look at Accessibility and SimDis and had to ditch mobile learning and Web 2.0 due to time pressures. Nevertheless, we were able to give them time to play with Forms and Comments and to register themselves onto the NLN web site and explore the materials. Half of the group had seen NLN before but only one person had seen Forms or Comments. There's just a short plenary to go now and then it's lunchtime and time to finish. It's been a great event and I look forward to being invited to attend the next session for Hair and Beauty in December. This is a great venue and it would seem that the word 'no' is not part of anyone's vocabulary. It was also to meet the team from TechDis (who kindly delivered some materials for me to use) and to spend some time with Emma talking about M.E. |
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6th May 2008
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Just a reminder of how to fillet flat fish. Also see my Google pages site - with more info. |
During the meeting we discussed many things but several stick in my mind as important. We touched on 'new builds' and how very few 'build' managers pay any more than lip service to those who will eventually have to work in the new building. Someone told a story of being asked 'why do you need so many electricity sockets in the rooms?' There seems to be no real understanding or even discussion of how learning space might be utilised in the not too distant future. Mark van 't Hooft touches upon this in his bit of Becta's recent publication: 'Emerging technologies for learning' Volume 3 [2008]. |
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I am required
by one college to include some idea of how to teach with 'pods' in my
training sessions - but worry that 'pods' are not the answer as they
assume that the delivery will still be 'in-house' and 'situated' -
whereas the future may (I think) hold something entirely different. We also discussed staff skills (following a discussion of the assumptions we make about learner skills). I think that we agreed that generally speaking, staff understand the need to give learners a variety of learning opportunities and realise that technology could help them to do that - but they are still fearful of how! They don't know what they don't know (to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld). Which shouts out for more pointed, tips and techniques (as opposed to tools) staff development. Anyway, the journey down to Birmingham was fine, it got as far as Birmingham before breaking down and not continuing its journey to Reading. Coming back there has been a whole load of problems with track at Milton Keynes and as a consequence my train back to Manchester is like a cattle truck. Which is just not fair when all the passengers have paid so much for their tickets. Every carriage has people stood right up as far as Macclesfield. |
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5th May
2008
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Bank Holiday. It's poured down all morning and has only just started to clear up, but I suppose that's par for the course these days. I had a good day on Saturday, walking all morning and reading all afternoon, it actually felt like I was on holiday. A little different yesterday as Sharon was mythering about her Masters paper. I proof read that with her and offered some constructive advice (given that all her other work is usually marked good or very good, this one had come back from 'draft' with slightly less than flattering remarks). She finally put it to bed late last night and we were able to relax again. I'm working on gig preparation today, but now the weather has looked up, might go out for a walk. Scotland is a long way! My changes on the way back (two) were nerve wrackingly tight and at Lancaster (the first change) my train was actually late getting in. Luckily, it seemed to have been given priority into the station over my connection (from Windermere to Manchester Airport), which rolled up just a few minute later. The same happened in Manchester, where my train had caught up enough time to be on time and I only had to wait five minute for the connection. It wears me out worrying though! I'm going to Birmingham tomorrow for an ALT FEAC meeting there. Then on Thursday and Friday, I return to the National Science Learning Centre (NSLC) for another Hair and Beauty event. I hope to catch up on my preparations for work in the Northeast on Wednesday - this is all pretty much under control - but I need to send them work for photocopying etc. We're going to see Paul Weller at the Victoria Theatre in Halifax tonight - so there should be something to report there! |
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28th April
2008 |
I'm
up in Scotland at the moment, staying in Jury's Inn on Jamaica Street,
Glasgow ready for the My journey was uneventful, if slightly long. The taxi from home (we don't have buses more than twice a day) had to come at 7.45am as they couldn't do 8.10am (as the taxis are all in use taking children to school!!) and I therefore managed to catch the 8.16am to Manchester. My train from there to Glasgow was at 9.45am, so I had a 45 minute wait there. The bulk of the journey was on time and comfortable except that after Lockerbie, the heating seemed to shut down and it became quite cold. My laptop battery also shut down at this point, so I had to read instead of work. I'd
gone a little earlier than I needed, so I could meet up with Margaret
Wallace from EPICT. We'd being trying to
find the time to chat for a while now and this was the perfect
opportunity. We discussed various ways that I (and maybe Village
e-Learning) could work with EPICT to our mutual benefit. So hopefully it
was a productive meeting - I think it was. Then it was off to meet my
co-presenters for a pretty mediocre meal and a couple of pints! I now
hope the view doesn't keep me awake all night? |
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28th April
2008 |
On Friday last, Sharon and I took advantage of a Sunday Times deal to take lunch at the White Hart at Lydgate, near Oldham. For £10.00 we were each able to eat at one of the best restaurants in the region. It wasn't the nicest of days and the room was a little cold, but apart from that it was a perfect break from routine. I had Smoked Goose Breast with pickled mushrooms and Sharon had a Terrine of Goat's Cheese and Potato. Both were tasty - although the Terrine needed warming in the mouth. For mains I had Fillet of Pork with sage flavoured Boulangere potatoes and wilted spinach while Sharon had a Breast of Chicken (but I can't remember now what this came with). I finished with cheese and she with Sticky Toffee Pudding. Lovely. I'm
catching up on workshop preparation for the coming months right now. I
have four workshops to present at
Bishop Burton College,
eight more for RSC northern,
and a couple of MoleNET things to do over the next couple of months, so
I need to re-visit, re-build and construct presentations and activities
to suit. The first two are in a couple of weeks time and I'm really
looking forward to them. Other work is coming in too and yet more is
under way - so busy times! |
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24th April
2008 |
Today started full of promise. I had a full day free to catch up
on my accounts, tidy my desk and to clarify my position on one or two
projects. But it all went down the plughole as everyday life hit us
square on (Sharon is at home on strike - the lesser publicised
F.E. strike,
not the more newsworthy 'proper'
teacher's
strike [said
with huge tongue in cheek]).
The day started with a phone call
from school saying that Betony would fail her Drama GCSE if such and
such wasn't handed in by tomorrow evening. Careful discussion
ascertained that this wasn't as onerous a task as we first thought as
the work missed was during the time that she was very ill (she has
ME/CFS) and the school
had agreed that should this situation arise a summary of her course work
and prospective grade (currently 'B') would be submitted. All she needed
to do was re-write some work she'd already submitted but which had been
'mislaid'. Oh - and she had to comment on the one production she had
attended and she could come into school to watch the video so that
she could do that. But not today - the
school is closed! Sharon dealt with this very
Then the newly recovered 3-piece suite was delivered early afternoon. And given the state of play I thought it best to agreed that it should be 'placed' straight away - that it wouldn't wait until this evening. Hey ho. I thought this might be amusing - I came across it today (thanks Dave T). If you bear in mind the furore that accompanied the 2012 Olympic logo - you can see why someone is trying this one on. http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2008/04/the-original-lo.html - enjoy. |
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20th April
2008 |
I've
finally figured out what I was doing wrong with VeoTag. See
http://www.veotag.com/player/?u=sysdsklmrw. I hadn't 'published' my
previous video. I'm still unsure how to VeoTag a YouTube video though
...
VeoTag is an online (and
essentially - free!) that allows you to upload videos from your computer
and to add text/tags to the video stream. See this video for a much
better explanation.
http://www.veotag.com/player/?pid=e6ccc0c4-75d1-4b6b-9f3c-fd4368147be9
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19th April
2008
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This week I've been all over Yorkshire. Leeds on Monday, Dinnington (Rother Valley College) on Tuesday, Beverley on Thursday and Huddersfield on Friday. Apart from Beverley - which was private work for Bishop Burton College, all of the week was devoted to MoleNET. Monday's gig was at Leeds College of Technology (LCoT) and was a repeat of the workshop that Di and I did last Thursday in London. Easter once again spoiled the attendance, but I think that those who attended each took something away with them. As before we talked about the 'where', 'how', 'what' and most importantly - 'why' - of mobile learning (some Blooms, some medium v message and some accessibility). I enjoyed the day, but delivering all day like that is tiring. On Tuesday I was back at it, this time with Lilian Soon. We presented a workshop on the use of SMS and of Web 2.0 - especially with mobile devices. I finished the week at an almost day-long meeting of the Huddersfield project for MoleNET. I did
some catching up at home on Wednesday and prepared for my gig at Bishop
Burton College on Thursday. This was 'Basic PowerPoint' - but during
delivery, I realised that for many 'basic' wasn't basic enough - 'an
introduction to...' is what about six of those present needed. Of the
eighteen, I'd say another six were at the right level for what I'd
prepared and the rest were there to learn just small things. I don't
think that the first six gained much at all and this worries me. They
won't now come to anything else that I deliver and will no doubt think
that 'e' is too hard or too exclusive a club to join. I'd prepared work
on Master slides, Hyperlinking, Animations and inserting images - but
even that wasn't basic enough. They wanted to know 'why' they might use
PPT, where they would find it on their computers and how to alter text
size, shape (and why) etc! There's still a lot of work to be done. Many
of my colleagues feel that these skills (the basic use of computers:
familiarity with toolbars, changing text, saving files, locating files
etc.) should be essential to teachers in the modern world. It reminded
me once again that we should never assume that everyone does have those
skills and that training sessions should still be provided for teachers
to gain the same. |
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13th April
2008 | |||