David Millband wants to ban home study leave, the practice by which students take time off before exams, because boys generally lack the self-discipline to make good use of it. I heartily concur with the analysis of the problem, but I have doubts about the solution. For one thing, girls do make use of home…

What is it about this “of the future” tag? Every time you see it you know someone’s heading for a prattfall. It conjures in my mind images of the Jetsons, Spandex suits and the Millenium Dome. The problem is that predictions are generally based on extrapolating a single trend, and assuming that everything else will…

Flickr is the latest piece of “six degrees” social software; said by experts to be technically well ahead of the field. I am interested in how these kinds of systems might be adapted to the needs of education, and the best way to find out is to participate. If you are interested too, my screen…

I thought the BBC’s reporting of the Institute of Education study on homework was a bit lightweight until Stephen Downes drew my attention to the absolutely fascinating debate now raging on the BBC site. Perhaps this is the most challenging comment to professional educators: If it weren’t so sad, some of these comments would be…