There’s a really interesting conversation going on on the CESI mailing list right now. It started off with the incredible news that the Irish government is spending almost half a million euro in licencing fees for products available to all Irish schools through the Broadband scheme. These products are two encyclopaedia – the World Book … Read more
I was fairly shocked when I was made aware of this press release from the Department of Education. Twenty graduates of technology or teacher training college courses are to get work placement positions in Microsoft Ireland to help develop digital material for the school curriculum as part of a deal signed by the Minister for … Read more
Today I attended a seminar for primary school principals, which was given by the National Council for Technology in Education, (NCTE), in Kilkenny. I was very interested in this seminar as I believed that I would be hearing all about the €150m grant that was recently announced. Although this was indeed the case, the NCTE … Read more
I feel that I should reiterate that I have deep concerns about the €150m investment in “Smart Schools”, which I wrote about a couple of months ago (http://anseo.net/?p=1538), as it’s just been published this week. My main problem is with the impression that our ICT infrastructure in our schools is even adequate. There appears to … Read more
This is copied and pasted from the responses I received regarding the reasons I will not give the INTO my mandate for strike action. There were 3 pages of responses within 2 days, during our holidays. Wow… didn’t expect so many responses so quickly. I’d like to respond to them if I may because I … Read more
Everyone knows that we’re in the middle of a recession: everyone, that is, except for the INTO, the union representing Irish primary school teachers. The McCarthy report outlined several ways that the government could save some cash in the education sector. None of the recommendations included a pay cut. However, the INTO are convincing its … Read more
I know this isn’t strictly an educational post, (until the end), but I think it might highlight a few lessons we as teachers can learn about the power of technology and how we can use it. It also, I think, is a nice story. Last night, after the CESI meet in the digital hub, halfway … Read more
I received an interesting email from Peter Blackbyrne from ImaginationGYM. His company is partnering with an American organisation Safewave.org to “bring safer internet activities to school children in Ireland.” Essentially, he’s looking for volunteers to pilot a social networking site for children. It’s already pretty big in the US and its ethos is to allow … Read more
We all received our letters from the union this week, basically there is a moratorium in the public service and it means that acting B and A posts cannot be filled. Also, there will be no such thing as an A or B post within a certain amount of years..When a teacher with a post … Read more
A guy who goes by the name of Scousedaddy on Education Posts has decided to start a campaign. If you qualify as a teacher outside of Ireland, you are forced to sit the most horrendous exam known to man called the Scrúdú Chailíochta Gaeilge (or the SCG for short). Scousedaddy found something that shows the … Read more