I attended a fascinating talk at the RSA last week. In a lecture entitled “The Internet: Empowering or Censoring Citizens”, Evgeny Morozov questioned whether the internet really is the means to inevitable freedom and democracy it is often portrayed to be.

I am all in favour of the experiment by an ATM company in London which sees instructions in rhyming slang on some of its cash machines.

So, you're about to start a new job as leader or manager of educational ICT. Just over a year ago we published a list of things you could do in order to make an effective start. This tied in with a series about making a good impression, by Alison Skymes.

Here's another article on the same theme, with 21 suggestions.

Like many people, I left school without too much confidence in, or liking for, mathematics. It doesn't take a psychoanalyst to work out why. When, for example, one of my fellow pupils asked what the point of trigonometry was, the answer he received consisted of:

"Are you trying to be impudent, boy?",

followed by the imposition of a detention.

Another teacher had a novel approach to teaching: if you didn't understand the stuff in the lesson, you had a 90 minute detention in which to practise with test papers until you did -- all in utter silence while the 'teacher' (I use the term loosely) did his marking.

E Talbert has asked me to make some comments on effective feedback for the Terry's Two Minute Tips series. So here is my response, with some useful links for further reading.