Mark Anderson

Mark Anderson

Mark is an in-demand keynote speaker, former Assistant Headteacher and author of the best-selling 'Perfect ICT Every Lesson' who believes in creativity and innovation in the classroom to empower learners. He is now an independent education consultant/trainer and Independent Thinking Associate. He is also a popular award-winning blogger who has led on some of the earliest and largest 1:1 iPad rollouts in schools in the UK. He is a Pedagoo admin, Google Certified Teacher, Apple Distinguished Educator and Microsoft Certified Educator.

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Mark ‘@ICTEvangelist’ Anderson is one of the world’s leading thought leaders in education. Mark lives to make the lives of teachers and school leaders easier, so when we suggested an interview, he leapt at the opportunity to share some of his favourite edu-recommendations.

One of the most difficult things I found as a leader with responsibility for the use of iPads in the school was finding quality CPD for myself, as I was more often than not the person organising or delivering that training. People often ask me where I find out about the latest apps, technologies and other great technological tools. One such place is from great educators such as Joe Moretti, with whom (and several others) I’ll be co-hosting #ATI2017 in Malvern across 10th-12th April.

On Friday 9th December, Dudley’s Village Hotel Club will play host to one day event devised to help teachers hone their edtech knowledge and skills. The EdTech Impact Conference is being held by ‘household’ education names Mark Anderson, Nina Jackson and Lee Parkinson, and will run from 8:30am to 3:30pm, offering teachers (EYFS to Further Education) a whole school day’s worth of insight. Ticket prices range from £106.69 to £169.99.

Monday, 20 April 2015 10:00

Essential 1:1 SEN apps

I’m a firm believer in only using technology for learning when it actually brings something to the learning. When it comes to SEN, technology can transform the opportunities for learning that are available to pupils more than any other way.

Twitter is not just for the teacher, or even the school department. Schools can gain lots from having their own whole school account. There are many ways in which you can use it too. From reporting on whole school issues, passing out messages about snow days and much more, there are very compelling reasons as to why you would want to be a ‘tweeting school’. There are a fair amount of tweeting headteachers too, but this article will be looking solely at schools.

Wednesday, 28 January 2015 11:00

What can Twitter do for a school department?

In case it’s slipped you by, Twitter is a social media service that allows messages of 140 characters or less to be sent out into the ‘Twittersphere’ for sharing. Like many social media you can follow people, organisations, brands, events on Twitter to see the tweets that they write and find out information and read content that they want to share. Personally, I use Twitter to interact with other educators and find it an invaluable PD tool. When I am using it as a tool for my department however I use it in a completely different way.

Tuesday, 09 December 2014 11:00

Why teachers should tweet

As discussed in Cazzypot’s article on teacher-blogging from earlier this year, teachers are often very active in their communities. Twitter plays a huge part in this; here, Mark ‘@ICTEvangelist’ Anderson explains why he considers tweeting to be a crucial part of being a modern teacher.

That’s right - I’m that teacher in your staffroom talking about people, not by their first names, but by their Twitter handles. Have you seen @headguruteacher’s latest blog post on assessment? Yes, I simply loved his Pedagogy postcards. Such a brilliant collection of advice from him. What? That post about Christmas term and how you can make it to the end of term whilst still capturing the magic of Christmas…? So positive and full of great advice - let’s make it so we get the best out of all our community in the run up to Christmas. How can we do that?

Monday, 06 January 2014 15:09

10 ways to use iBook Author in education

Obviously not exhaustive, but here are a few ‘creative’ ideas for using Apple’s brilliant free piece of software, iBook Author, rather than the traditional ways you might use it.

1 – An obvious use is to write your own iBook about your teaching practice, so that you can share your ideas with the wider education community. The end result is very professional, and with time spent, the skills needed to use it are not too hard to learn. If you want to extend your book further too, there are lots of widgets you can add in such as the ones in iAd Producer and other third party widgets from other developers.

2 – It would be a really effective way of collecting and presenting the work of an action research group, so that you can publish your findings if appropriate. The flexibility of the software means that you can present all types of data, as well as embed videos and so on.

Many of you will be looking to integrate more technology in your classroom this new academic year, but unsure at what software and apps to actually go for. Here is a list of Mark Anderson's top free edtech tools for assessment, recording and sharing video and audio, creating posters and presenting learning.

E-learning or using technology to support learning comes in many different shapes and sizes.

I’m always being asked to give advice and ideas on different online tools or iPad apps that can help with learning in the classroom. It’s always a challenge to balance the needs of the activity, with the skills of the learners and often too the greater challenge is to raise the confidence of the teachers.

I often hear from teachers about how they want to achieve more effective learning using technology, but often don’t have the software resources to achieve them, which is often due to finances. This article aims to give you my top free online tools to support learning in the classroom.

Photo credit: Danny Nicholson

Friday, 25 January 2013 12:39

iPad 100 series

Below you will find all of my iPad 100 posts covering everything you will need to know when investing in iPads for your school.

iPad in schools 101 – In the beginning http://buff.ly/TNmYa1

iPad in schools 102 – Why iPad? http://buff.ly/ZjYmuD

iPad in schools 103 – THE device http://buff.ly/TNnbdB

iPad in schools 104 – THE learning http://buff.ly/ZjYH0r

iPad in schools 105 – Workflow – How to save, work with multiple apps and share http://buff.ly/ZjYQkr

iPad in schools 106 – The importance of your infrastructure http://buff.ly/ZjYXwh

iPad in schools 107 – Why trialling is important http://buff.ly/TNnxRj

iPad in schools 108 – The importance of training & staff http://buff.ly/TNnF3o

iPad in schools 109 – Ways in which mirroring can take place http://buff.ly/TNnPYx

iPad in schools 110 – Stakeholders http://buff.ly/TNo31z

Photo credit: FHKE

Tuesday, 28 August 2012 11:37

How to display interactive work online

It is widely recognised that showcasing the work of students, and giving them an online audience, is a brilliant way of empowering students. Pete Jones’ call to arms in his post “Judging a book by its cover: Ideas and thoughts on how learning is displayed in schools“, powerfully makes the case for how he would like work to be shown around his school. Showcasing work helps improve students' confidence, and makes them work harder to refine their work as high-quality as possible, given they are going to have a wider audience. Some fantastic examples of students' work showcased online can be seen at High Tech High, San Diego, CA in this post by @JamiePortman. The way that they showcase their students' work, and the work that is on display, is phenomenal. How can we translate that to the display of work made by students in ICT lessons?

ICT is a subject where it is particularly difficult to put work on the walls without printing it off. This is fine if it is static work, such as a graphical design, a magazine cover, or a piece of writing. However, problems occur when you’re dealing with interactive work - videos, animations, websites, games, etc. How do you showcase these things in a clear and visible light? One way is through the procurement of plasma screens around your department and school - this is a fantastic idea and many schools do this. However, when you regularly want to showcase the work of hundreds of students, schools cannot afford to purchase so many screens to facilitate this. So how do you make it work?

Curation has always been an important weapon in the arsenal of a student, but never before has it been easier to curate, gather, organise and collate information on topics. It is going to change the way in which we teach, and the way in which students learn and can access information.

Robin Good is bang on in his detailed article on the topic when he gives his ten reasons why curation is transforming the education landscape:

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