10 March --educational technology IMany thanks to John for his demonstration of how using tags with Google Earth can be used both to inform learners and to test them.

And to him and Donna for demonstrating how digital resources can enliven assessments.

Both of them recommended the resources bank at the Times Educational Supplement; http://www.tes.co.uk/resourcehub.aspx?navcode=70 

(I invited all of you to send in links to other useful sources. It's a bit early as I write, but I'll collect and distribute your suggestions)

For your sake, I'm happy to say you didn't give me a chance to use my 46 slides to discuss the idea that "the technology is not neutral",  which is I think better discussed here--dated though it may be http://www.doceo.co.uk/rbl/stirrup.htm.

The full version of the poem I quoted by George Herbert is here; http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/herbert/elixir.htm (Some of you may know it better as a hymn.)

But the point I didn't really make as clearly as I should have done is that the cost-benefit case for the use of technology in the classroom is not always made. We did touch on this in a brief mention of clickers (good overview here--Caldwell, 2007) in comparison with coloured cards (see here for Ruth Pickford and Sally Brown's take on that and more--the Fee-Fi-Fo-Fun approach) Not only is there no comparison on equipment price, but also on the cost of staff time which has to go into setting up the systems; and cards are more flexible, too. You can use them opportunistically as well.

Most of the stuff out there is making a case for the use of technology rather than evaluating it critically.

Next week is about inclusivity and diversity, policy and practice; I may well stray into Peter W's territory a bit, because the issues in assessment in particular can be rather delicate.

In terms of preliminary reading, you might like to start from my take (with additional links) at http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/equal_opportunities.htm (Yes I know the terminology is dated)

Branching out, Jim Crawley has an excellent set of annotated links at http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/Include1.htm and

You requested specifically that we discuss issues of culture under this heading. Biggs' (1999) or Biggs J and Tang C (2006) Teaching for Quality Learning at University explicitly addresses the issue of what he calls "Confusion-heritage" students in chapter 7 of the earlier edition.

Incidentally, Newsnight last night was a special edition on education and the election; you can see it here for one week.  17:06