Fortnightly Mailing 
A leaving speech
I stopped being chair of governors of The Sheffield College at the end of March 2021, after a 45 year connection. Here's the short speech I gave to an online staff meeting. == The invitation to speak caught me by...
In September 2015 I took part in a symposium about "digital capitalism" organised by CRASSH (the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities). This culminated in an evening talk by Dan Schiller - Digital Capitalism: Stagnation and...
Clayton Wright's Educational Technology and Education Conferences, January to June 2016
Clayton Wright - source The 34th Educational Technology & Education Conferences listing [93 pages, 1.3 MB DOC] has been published by Clayton Wright. Here is Clayton's covering note to the list. The 34th edition of the conference list covers selected...
Alphabet
This makes me smile every time I pass it.
Paul Mason's Postcapitalism - talk and discussion
"Ask yourself. How can eight men undercut that machine [washing cars]? And what is it doing to the society we live in that eight men, often with zero legality of migration status, can undercut that machine. That's the society you...
FE Area Based Reviews should start by making an assessment of need
[Also on LinkedIn. Header image added 3/10/2015. Small edits made 4/10/2015. Addendum from evidence by Martin Donnelly and Peter Lauener to the 19/10/2015 Public Accounts Committee added 20/10/2015] Until 2002 I was employed in The Sheffield College. For the last...
Citizen Maths - powerful ideas in action
[Cross posted, with some very minor changes, from LinkedIn.] Since late 2012 I have been closely involved (as "project director") in the creation of Citizen Maths, a free open online maths course at Level 2. I last wrote about it...
Robotics - someone who ran DARPA's Robotics Challenge looks ahead
This article [10 page PDF - web-based version here] is by Gill Pratt, until recently responsible for the DARPA Robotics Challenge. Pratt starts by explaining why a "cambrian explosion" in the pace of development is on the way, highlighting eight...
On the long-term future of artificial intelligence
Minor edits made 19/8/2015 Stuart Russell is co-author (with Peter Norvig) of the very highly regarded text book "Artificial Intelligence - A Modern Approach". This 30 minute talk provides a striking, accessible and ethically focused explanation of what AI is,...
A ten year old interview
Reda Sadki reminded me about an interview I did by email for Epic (now Leo) in July 2005 in which I'd banged on about wanting to ban the term blended learning. The interview was long gone from the Epic/Leo site....
Video and Online Learning: Critical Reflections and Findings From the Field
A terrific article by Anna Hansch, Lisa Hillers, Katherine McConachie, Christopher Newman, Thomas Schildhauer, and Philipp Schmidt. Well, I think it is terrific, because if chimes with so much of my experience working on the design and development of Citizen...
The productivity puzzle: bad news for the "education, education, education" crowd
Here is an eye-catching section from Ricardo Hausmann's "The Education Myth": And there is more bad news for the “education, education, education” crowd: Most of the skills that a labor force possesses were acquired on the job. What a society...
Prevent death on the roads by better treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea
Edited image of crash site from BBC News In August 2006 my nephew Toby was killed by a truck whose driver, Colin Wrighton, an obstructive sleep apnoea sufferer, had "blacked out" (Wrighton's phrase) at the wheel. The crash-scene is above....
Brewster Kahle's Internet Archive matters more and more
Here are some links to a couple of past posts about the Internet Archive, which is playing a crucial role in archiving the Web and digital artefacts such as films, games and software: 13/3/2009 - Brewster Kahle - the man...
Clayton Wright's Educational Technology 32nd Conference Listing, January to June 2015
Clayton Wright - source The 32nd Educational Technology & Education Conferences Listing [90 pages, 1.15 MB DOC] has been published by Clayton Wright. Here are the first two paragraphs of Clayton's covering note to the list. The 32nd edition of...