What techniques do you use to gauge understanding from your students? How do you really know if they understand what you’ve taught? Obviously marking work is very informative, but wouldn’t it be better to have a clearer understanding as you're teaching? Whilst self-assessment methods such as thumbs up can be effective, they also suffer two main problems; peer pressure and the fact that students can be misguided in their level of understanding. Through the use of student response systems it is possible to gain a greater depth of understanding of how our students’ are rea... (Read More)

All too often, expensive IT equipment is left in cupboards gathering dust. In the past it may have been Digital Blue cameras and microscopes, or more recently, webcams and Lego robots. But most recently I’m sorry to say it can be iPads or other expensive tablet computers. I have been reminded of this fact yet again recently as I spoke to two teachers from different schools regarding their rather large stock of tablet computers. There’s no denying their eagerness for the technology or their enthusiasm to share ideas with their team, but despite this the devices are getting very lit... (Read More)