In my post about overcoming edtech inertia, I focused a lot on the opportunity cost of the adoption of any new system. When I choose whether or not to adopt a new system, I always consider it explicitly in terms of the Teacher Time Economy (TTE). As teachers, our scarcest resource is time. And it is finite – as tempting as it might be, borrowing time from our personal lives to do schoolwork is not a healthy habit. We need time to mark, learn specifications, plan, develop effe

Welcome back! I hope your holiday was restful yet productive, and that four a.m. panics about little Susie in year 11 who hasn't fully grasped the significance of the summer term were kept to a minimum. So far, I've avoided giving away much about what kind of role Pinemarten Education will have. It is, as the website suggests, in the business of making educational apps and technological solutions aimed at both learners and institutions. I wanted to give you a sneak peak into

I am picky about the technology that I choose to adopt in my everyday teaching practice. It has to be effective, efficient and win/win for students, teachers and managers. Mail merges are a tool that I would not want to do without. Many, many sensible teachers use excel and some make good use of mail merge, but I am continually surprised by how many haven't discovered how much easier their lives would be and how much more effective their AFL could be with the judicious use of

The basic infrastructure that underpins the way we think about 'school' hasn't changed very much over the last few hundred years, and it isn't questioned nearly enough because we as a society have so much invested - socially, politically and financially - in this system. The entire structure is predicated on the idea that there are many students, but only a few educators. Therefore, classrooms have many children, but one teacher. Exams are one-size fits all, with only a minim