I recently gave an assembly on the rather boring sounding title of keyboard shortcuts (please don’t leave just yet!). Little did I realise that this topic would have such a huge impact on how the students use a computer.
I had been asked to give a 10-15 minute talk, to year 7 & 8 students, on any topic of my choice. This sounded easy and it didn’t take me long before I came up with a list of some cracking and inspirational ideas, if I do say so myself. However it wasn’t until I was watching a group of students logging into some PCs that I had another topic idea. I noticed that each of them logged into the PC in the same way, a laborious way. They did not know how they could login without using the mouse to click between the username and password box. This process of grabbing the mouse, locating the on-screen cursor, clicking in the password box and then typing their password was costing them valuable time. OK, admittedly only a moment or two but I realised that for every time a student uses the mouse, when there is a keyboard alternative, they could save themselves oodles of time (and possibly reduce any RSI health issues).
Until recently I owned hundreds, if not thousands, of computer storage devices. Not just CD’s, hard drives and USB sticks but 3½” & 5¼” floppy disks, 
The Paperless Educator Challenge is over! Almost…
It sounds like the start of a slapstick ‘whodunnit’ but the following is a true story. Not only is it all rather amusing but it’s also a useful reminder on how the internet has become a quick reference library full of (un)reliable sources. The story goes like this… My friend and colleague Robert Hunter, the pianist of this story, was accompanying a double bass player at the 
I’m worried. I’ve noticed a steadily increasing number of students sending me emails late into the night. Many of these are one-off late night panics: ‘Sir, I won’t be in your lesson tomorrow because..’. However, a significant minority are also from students asking for advice, requesting a worksheet or handing in work. At this point let me be clear; I’m not worried about 
If you’ve created a document and sent it via email, there is no way you can be sure it will appear on the recipients device in exactly the same way as it appeared on your screen. That is unless you send it to them as as a PDF. Think of all those images you’ve painstakingly inserted into a Word document, the charts you’ve generated in Excel or those swirling text graphics you embedded into a PowerPoint presentation. They may look picture perfect on your device but can you be sure that the recipients of your document have exactly the same settings and software on their device as you do? It’s highly unlikely that they do. As a result, it’s possible that they will receive a garble of images and text that are oddly floating over some important information.
Audacity is a free, easy to use and extremely powerful tool that enables teachers to create high quality recordings. Whether you’re wanting to create, edit or splice together a collection of recordings then this is the perfect software for you. At first glance the array of buttons, dials and plugins can seem a little overwhelming but this blog post takes you through some simple steps to help you create your first Audacity project. 
Currently the Head of e‑Learning and a teacher of music at a large school in Sheffield, UK. Stephen Wiles is a front runner in the use of technology in the classroom. Alongside his popular 
