New Flyer

Over the last few weeks I've been involved in producing a new flyer to advertise my services as an IT trainer. I have just had them back from the printers and I am very pleased with them. I've just uploaded an electronic version to the Think Bank website, and I'd like to share it here as well.

Think Bank Flyer

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Teaching Education training podcast

If you do want any kind of IT training in your school (or elsewhere) then get in touch and we can discuss your needs. I think it really helps to be trained on your site, on your kit. Alternatively, look on the sidebar for the courses I deliver at venues around the UK.

Online Presence

One of the perils of having an online presence is that you can be looked up by anybody with access to the internet. This can include prospective/current employers and, in the case of teachers, pupils and their parents.

Here is a cautionary tale from the Washington Post. Again it outlines the dangers of having your personal life on show for all to see. Thanks to John Sutton on the Creative ICT blog for the link.

I'm on Facebook, but have avoided some of the other sites like Bebo and MySpace. I try and keep my profile slightly work-related, and just use it to keep in touch with friends and colleagues. I'm also going for the world record for the number of application invitations I am currently ignoring!

Many new teachers are making the transition from student to teacher and in September there will be another cohort starting their first teaching posts. Most of them have Facebook accounts and so can be found by pupils and parents. It's another level of complexity from having your profile read by your boss for those in an office job.

Setting your Facebook profile to limited access is one way to stop unwelcome visitors finding out what's on your wall, or some of your personal details. But it's going to be harder to stop friends and colleagues posting material that contains you - such as the xmas party photographs etc etc.

It's a shame you can't set up private and professional versions of your profile - one only viewable by friends and one for colleagues. A kind of TwoFaced Book.

Of my group of 21 Primary PGCE students that I teach, 19 have Facebook profilesand only two of those have a viewable profile. The rest have them set to friends only - so at least the message is getting out there to protect your online identity.

Here's a nice parody of Facebook, that really rings true. If it's not acceptible in real life, why is it OK on Facebook?

Do schools kill creativity?

Here's an inspring talk by Sir Ken Robinson. Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize, much less cultivate, the talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity,"

I don't think we know the solution yet, but the video makes you think.