ICT « steven’s blog

Filtering / A New Site

January 10, 2005 — Steven

There is a link on this website that I wanted to check at work (school) today. To my surprise the main index page was banned. After visiting�the site�archives, it transpired that yesterday’s was the offending post. I wonder what the offending word was that didn’t make it past the school’s filter: ramshackle? queer? electrocuted? Eustace?
I will let you know when I find out.

28 December, 2004�saw the inaugral post to my new personal website. The much loved mrpayne.com will continue�here for the foreseeable future, but there came a time when I needed a slightly more anonymous outlet for my musings. So, rest assured dear readers (family, friends, colleagues, students, and others), you can continue to read this website without fear of offence or�embarrassment. If anyone is desperate to visit my new site (and read my views on such diverse topics as Palestine, Ruth Kelly, Jerry Springer The Opera, and Psychic Phenoma), email me and I may oblige with a link. I will probably slip in a link to it at some point anyway.

Posted in ICT. Leave a Comment »

Computer games at school

October 26, 2004 — Steven

I just read this BBC article about computer games in schools: Computer games could enhance learning and have a legitimate place in the classroom, say researchers.

During my last interview for a maths teaching post, one of the first questions I was asked was how I used games in my teaching. Like most (all?) teachers, I have used games in a number of classroom situations:
to introduce concepts;
to motivate and challenge;
to encourage creative thinking;
to provoke discussion;
to create a meaningful context for skills;
to check understanding;
etc…

So far I have used games to assist in learning, but is there a case for games to be the focus of learning? Yes, I think the study and creation of computer games can and should be included in a modern curriculum. Other cultural forms are currently studied in schools, e.g. television and film in Media Studies and literature in English; the study of computer games could just as legitimately be included in ICT or Media Studies courses. It already is at sixth form level; see these articles about the OCR Media Studies AS-level, in which students will explore “conflict and competition in computer/video games”.

I am currently looking at the possibility of offering Edexcel’s new Diploma in Digital Applications for ICT Users (DiDA) at my school. New modules are currently being developed – the study and creation of computer games might be appropriate content for this ‘revolotionary new suite of ICT applications’.
Students completing this course may also gain a Macromedia Associate qualification. Students I teach seem to enjoy playing Flash games at every opportunity; I think many would also benefit from creating them (and picking up a couple of qualifications along the way).

Posted in Games, ICT. Leave a Comment »

Fonts

October 18, 2004 — Steven

As the old joke goes: Comic Sans walks into a bar, and the barman says, “We don’t serve your type.”

General
I have recently been thinking about fonts – I normally use Verdana for written reports (memos, letters, etc.) and MS Trebuchet for the web (as you see here). Why? Because I like them and find them easy to read – but whether they work for my audience, or send out information about myself, I have not investigated. No one has moaned so far.

I do not use Verdana on the web, as I feel it is a bit too wide; similarly I do not use serif fonts as the serifs appear too thick on the screen.

I am currently trying to learn more about fonts – I have read A DISAGREEABLY FACETIOUS TYPE GLOSSARY; I am reading some stuff on thinking with type; I have found some interesting fonts on dafont.com, fontosaurus, fonts.tk and Letterhead Fonts, among others.

I have read The Scourge of Arial, learned the differences between Helvetica and Arial, and tried to help Helvetica beat Arial in this flash game.

Teaching
The only time I had an argument during a department meeting: we were deciding on a standard font to use for homework books. I was sure that a sans-serif font was easier to read – she was convinced that serif was the way to go. The discussion became quite heated – I think we decided to each use whichever font we wanted. (This report finds that there is little difference in children’s reading performance when serif is compared to sans-serif in books/ this one suggests sans-serif is preferred online.)

I recently asked five different year seven classes which fonts they had used previously, and knew the names of. There were four fonts whose names came up in each discussion – not what I had expected:

I am well into this – more on fonts later…