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…

The World Wide Web Consortium officially launches the Semantic Web tomorrow. The Semantic Web project has been a topic of hot debate for several years now and I’ve been trying to apply the well-honed arguments from that debate to disentangle my concerns about Curriculum Online. The Semantic Web has the endorsement of Sir Tim Berners-Lee,…

Today marks something of a milestone as Paperless School is finally getting a long-promised feature; recursive marking. Since the beginning, a teacher has been able to annotate an essay or portfolio assignment and send it back to the student. Now, the student can edit the work and send it back for re-marking. The cycle can…

This morning’s TES came with no fewer than three heavy job supplements. The staffing crisis is now so bad that the Secondary Heads Association has had to issue an edict against schools poaching each others’ best teachers. Costs are going through the roof the TES is making a mint out of all this advertising, all…