5 minutes of fame – TDA Christmas ICT Videos

About a month ago I was contacted by a PR agency working for the TDA on teacher recruitment. They were looking to make a Youtube film to attract people into ICT Teaching following a similar successful campaign around maths in everyday life. Amazingly they approached me after reading this blog and hearing my interview for the Edonis Project.

I had a long and fairly tiring day at Waterfall Studios in Shepherds Bush filming in front of a green screen and constantly forgetting my lines and having to do things again and again from different angles. The results are below and I’m in awe of the computer graphics that they have put around me to make a totally empty room look full.

Film 1

Film 2

I find both videos rather cringeworthy to watch (I did have a cold and a cough on the day of filming!) but I hope they have some effect. I know for sure London and the South East are short of qualified ICT teachers. After completing my Computer Science and Software Engineering degree the world of programming didn’t have much attraction to me and I went into teaching as it brought together two passions of mine, education and technology.

Technology continues to bring so much to education and it is so inspiring being part of online communities such as twitter, mirandanet and edtechroundup where practitioners actively share the most inspirational and creative uses of tech in the classroom.

In common with many other ICT teachers I sometimes find what we teach a little frustrating. Sometimes students are not challenged by the curriculum, you often hear tales of students being fed up with teachers who know far less than they do (not in my school!) and the numbers taking examinations in ICT and Computing continue to fall. Again there are a number of inspirational people working to rectify this including the recently formed computing at school group who are pushing forward new ideas for getting computing into school.

Being a teacher and an ICT teacher isn’t an easy job, you have to learn to manage all the distractions that computers and the internet offer to children, you have to constantly keep up with all the new software and technology that change every year, and you have to help your colleagues out with all their ICT problems. But you also get to use technology that can be inspiring, children love computers, and once you get over the hurdle of realising that you can’t know everything, learning a new trick from an 11 year old student is a real joy!

Published by D Needlestone

Teacher

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10 Comments

  1. Well done, Dan – great videos & presenting style…when they are looking for a new gadget show presenter, I think they know where to come! ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. Numbers of people taking ICT is not falling in KS3 and 4, but it is falling at A level and university. This is not because ICt is in danger of becoming less important in peoples lives, but because of the dull, sterile curriculum we peddle. have a look at http://www.e-skills.com/Research-and-policy/2661 and share it with your colleagues. The problem primarily is the ICT GCSE. When I began teaching ICT we were liberators showing students – and their parents – a new way of doing things, now power is usurped by technicians who decide what is and is not allowed past their filter and the students experience of ICT is way in front of the schools. My students spend 3 – to 5 hours a day on their home computer, but an average of 2 hours a week at school.
    As ICT teachers we need to raise the bar on what we do. An epiphany the other day when I found an ‘outstanding’ OFSTED subject report for Wigmore school.

  3. Thanks for your comment Chris,
    I agree with what you say although at our school numbers have definitely fallen at KS4, it’s still a popular option but not as popular as it was and the number of girls seems to be decreasing.
    I’ve had a brief look at the e-skills resources and will definitely have a closer look over the holidays.

  4. hahahahaha sir this is epic! You should give up being a teacher and become a professional actor!

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