It will be interesting to see how these are used in schools though. When I was in school the ethos around IT and computers was very much "don't do anything we haven't asked you to do" which seems to be the opposite of how the pi is intended to be used.
I'm now a school governor to make sure that these morons don't take over the planet.
The kill pretty much every bit of interest there is straight away for most students.
The focus from what I remember was very much on the "computers as tools for business" angle. Databases were taught by designing forms in MS Access, not a single line of SQL.
It might be interesting to see how they use the pies though, hopefully they will assign them to students individually and let them change the Window manager/install quake3/install nmap to their hearts content.
I'd watch the blood pressure there (I've been teaching for 24 years).
As you are now on the management: Is there (safe, filtered) Internet via wifi and BYOD for the older pupils? Cheap android tablets for shiny media but also hackable? Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/) on the PCs? Basically what policy innovation/leadership have you contributed?
Not challenging here, I'd really be interested to know. Having documented examples to point at really helps in situations where you have to be diplomatic with idiots.
Changes so far: stopped mass iPad purchase to use as cameras (!?), different acceptable use policy (which stops people being hung without good reason), open systems policy I.e. no single vendor, fired RM PLC, halfed expenditure on consultants, new smartboards which don't fall over every 3 months, got rid of LGFL Fronter, two new IT staff.
All in 9 months.
They are basically an experiment to run a school with less dictates from local government so do not have to follow as many rules.
If there are no profits to make, how do you convince companies to get involved; most companies don't appear to be so altruistic.
I think perhaps I'm under a misapprehension on labelling, that Free Schools are a subset of Academies; see eg http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/may/25/free-schools....
Budget was already available, just misplaced to be honest. I'm sure the state managed predecessors were getting backhanders.
The stupid thing is they did a fund raiser for to fix a hole in the roof!? (£300 cost) and built raised vegetable beds for the students at a cost of £1500 which were never filled and are used for storing games equipment under tarp.
The mismanagement is why it is an academy now.
If you have evidence, you should go to the police. An example (plucked from Google)
http://www.sfo.gov.uk/press-room/latest-press-releases/press...
I personally would be interested in your (collective) big ideas about how IT can support and enhance learning. The strategy thing. With as much detail as your colleagues and sponsors feel could be released. A good write up of that would work wonders for the UK perception of the Academy programme in general and your school in particular. Especially if you include staff development and mentoring in that.
So it's great to see somebody put their knowledge to use and to hopefully create a better environment for kids to learn and be inspired.
What's your opinion of the new CS curriculum they are talking about introducing. From what I've read of it[1], it seems a big improvement over the old "learn to use MS Word and Excel".
1: http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/data/uploads/ComputingCu....
Remove the unions and hire ex industry people on a good salary with training and things will get better, but the current teaching standards across the board is just incompetent dross (bar about 5%). Teaching is not a profession at the moment. It is simply an easy career path for certain types of personality.
I include my wife in that statement as well and she would agree (she is an art teacher and there is very little space for her in society as a traditional creative person).
So summary: great idea, lacking any likelyhood of being executed unless they destroy the unions and hire better people.
No you didn't ;-)
I think "don'ts" contribute more than "do's" in discovering your limits and expanding knowledge.
Same a children, when he does something out of curiosity and you tell him "this is bad, do not do", he learns that do not do that in front of you or tell petty lie.