Migrating from Wordpress to Postach-io Evernote
Dear WordPressI’m leaving you. There I said it straight out loud.Fear not, it’s not you, it’s me. I’ve changed.I love the way you’ve grown into a comprehensive and flexible tool that supports the...
View ArticleUsing Evernote (and Postach.io) to manage student work
I've tinkered with student portfolios, VLEs and microblogging to manage student work - all to a lesser degree of effectiveness. Either: The learners reject the system (Moodle) due to perceptions over...
View ArticleEducation Technology Hype Curve
I've seen variations of the hype curve doing the rounds on the Interweb and thought I'd see if I could make a version suitable for Education Technology. Definitions Innovation Trigger Technology that...
View ArticleHow to move to Postach.io without killing email
I love the combination of Postach.io and Evernote - they just hit that sweet spot of ease of use, killer functionality and price point. Recently, I've used my Pro account in Postach.io to take my...
View ArticleHandling Survey Data
It's that time of year again - across the land teachers are to be seen seeking the views of their charges in the annual round of "student voice" surveys. Regardless of the motivation behind asking the...
View ArticleSanity check
I'd normally post content about data and graphs over at www.badgraph.co.uk - but to be honest this one needs particular attention. I've blogged before about who the audience is on a school web site...
View ArticleNo magic bullets - the impact of ICT on attainment
For such a hot topic, made doubly so by the inclusion in the Donaldson report of "digital competencies", it's surprising that the canon of evidence linking ICT useage to enhanced outcomes is slight....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Teaching kids philosophy makes them smarter in math and English
Does it? Does it really?Via a number of colleagues, I was directed to a post on LinkedIn - and from that was bounced to a link on the Quartz news website who were reporting on a recent EEF report on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pedagogical Shiny Things
"Once upon a time....", "A long time ago, in a land far, far away", "It is a truth universally acknowledged..." Nope, I'll cut to the chase; last week I happened to pop into a leisure centre attached...
View ArticleClik here to view.
(not) A Good way to access email
Or How a pricing model can kill your business....I work in the education advisory service, with our back office supported by a large local authority and their (excellent) ICT support. I'm a mobile...
View ArticleDraconian ICT Filters? @Postachio to the rescue
My job takes me to a diverse range of schools, council offices, government buildings and "managed" offices. One thing is constant between all these locations - the variety of ICT policies and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Even better if...
I was sent this chart recently:Fundamentally this chart shows what it sets out to - the breakdown of grades A* - C across the years 2008 to 2014. But it could do with some Excel-fu:Remove the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What the actual #*$#?
Sometimes you see something that makes you question the very fabric of space time - or at the very least, the entire canon of maths, science and educational knowledge. Look:Reproduced from a school...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Everythin wrong with school data visualisation in one place...
A grand title, but when I received this via email, I genuinely didn't beleive it until I checked out the web site it came from: (here reproduced as 100% from the school site) Under the title: "How...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The 3D Challenge - can you read this chart?
It seems that attendance keeps cropping up as an area that schools struggle to deal with graphically. Take this example (taken from a university course): Firstly, we must keep reminding ourselves who...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Lie Factor
No, not a post about the new series of a popular show aimed at getting us to purchase manufactured "pseudo-talent" - but a real "measure" of how distorted a graph can be. Take this:Leaving aside the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WOW! (Not in a good way)
Via my inbox this week:Because of the left-right perspective on this chart, most of the data looks like its growing as we move from 2010 2015 - as the perspective has made the later dates physically...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Just because you can (don't)
Today's example falls into that category of "pointless" as all it shows is a wall of colour, and nothing is gained from the visualisation:As a parent I have to work very hard to extract any meaning...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Eh?
Conventions are important:Red is HOTMilk in cup firstWalk on the leftAnd, data increases from left to right, especially time:Oh, and:Never explode your pie chartOr use 3D effectsRun your y-axis across...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Getting to meaning
The purpose of creating a graphic and placing it on a school website is to allow stakeholders (parents, students, employees) to determine some meaning and to come to some conclusions - normally...
View ArticleClik here to view.
An insult or incompetence?
If you put something on a website, you expect people to see it...right?Reproduced at 100% - the same aspect ratio and resolution. Has anyone ever read this chart on the school site (if so, why haven't...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Comprehensively wtf?
Direct from a school website (green circle is mine):Looks simple enough - but....The title says [Last Year] - when exactly was last year? From the rest of the site, it becomes clear that Last Year is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Visiting the Eden Project can save your life
The above data came direct from the UK government and ALVA - and it shows a startling trend, and one that we all need to take seriously. The UK deaths directly attributed to “alcohol" as listed on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pie chart insanity...
Presented at 100% size and resolution from a school website. One can only ask - Why?Love the categories that have 0.0% plotted!!Call to actionDon't use a pie chartDon't use any chart for the sake of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Horizontal Category Axis
From this:To this:Rules:Vertical category axisHorizontal numeric axisLimited colour, no 3DNational overlaid as separate series
View ArticleClik here to view.
YAHAC - Yet another horizontal axis chart
Schools redacted to protect the innocent as this came from an LA site:To:Rules:Vertical category axisHorizontal numeric axisLimited colour, white backgroundAverage overlaid as vertical line - no school...
View ArticleClik here to view.
No graph needed (probably)
From the educational welfare officer in a school: (fuzziness is from the original)With the helpful commentary:"It clearly shows that those students with attendance rates below 85% achieved far fewer...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Conventions are there for a reason (normally)
This arrived in my inbox recently:With the helpful commentary:"The graph shows that for the academic year 2013/14 Y11 students with 100% attendance got As on average. Those with 95% attendance got Cs,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
No spaghetti please...
Any takers for what the underlying message of this chart is? How does English compare to the National figures; what about Maths - and how does Maths compare to English?This is what is affectionately...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lie factors
I've posted about my opinions over the "audience" of charts and graphics mattering. Take the above for example, direct from a school website. I wonder if the vast majority of parents would know what...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Style over substance
Via a local authority web site - looks nice, but how useful is it?Some Excel-fu later:Now I can compare the locations overall and within each local authority.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Conventions matter (again)
I was sent this chart, which after looking at the school site, shows the 5 A*-C results:I really don't like this representation of the data - the upward arrows are confusing and the fact that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Year on Year GCSE results
This arrived today:Which on first reading seemed a little odd - exactly what was going on and why are the data points different sizes? Turns out, it's quite an interesting view of year on year results....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Capped Scores
This just in:Clearly I'm not privileged to the decisions behind this chart - but between 2013 and 2014, the size of the bars would imply almost a doubling of the 2013 data in 2014 - quite obviously...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The impact of Dr Who on student attainment
Watching Dr Who last night and my 10 year old daughter was fascinated – not by The Doctors, nor the story line, nor even the deeper revelations of Whovian lore. No, my 10 year old was fascinated by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Want a Nobel Prize? – Drink more err Tea / Coffee
For me, this time of year is one for reflection and a slight pause when I start to consider what data I need to collect / collate so that when exam season is over, I have everything at hand for my SLT...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pimp your chart in Excel
Before you read on, this is not a heavy post about the merits / demerits of data visualisation and how to extract the most meaning from data – it’s about sexing up your graphs in time for open days,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Averaging the nth largest numbers in a list
I use Excel quite heavily - looking at cohort data, children's attainment and calculating value added scores. All pretty usual teacher stuff. Sometime I look across multiple schools and sometimes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Converting a date of birth to number of days (or months)
School's often process data on a learner's date of birth when looking at cohort data. I was asked recently to help convert dates of birth to a statement of how many years, months and days had passed...
View ArticleMaths is a morning subject. Really?
Across my Twitter feed this morning was the bold claim that "Teaching maths in the morning improves results - TES", which stems from a press release of the Royal Economic Society which can be found...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Useful Welsh Government Expenditure Data (Website that I built)
Over dinner last week I was discussing the Welsh Government "teacher portal"Hwb+ (as you do. Hwb and Hwb+ are different systems created by different companies. Learning Possibilities created Hwb+ and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Using my Android phone via my Laptop
I've just about embraced the capabilities of my smartphone (basic model Motorolla G4) - email, social media and web browsing. But one thing has always been missing - the ability to actually "work" from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
More is, err less
As we wait for the political and journalistic beavers to, well beaver away and process the 2014 A-level results, I thought I'd throw this graph out there:This chart shows where a school's cohort went...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Calculate the speed of sound with a Coke bottle...
As Wales gears up to implement Successful Futures, I'm in the process of collecting as many examples of "real world" science that can be undertaken in Primary and Secondary classrooms - things that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Determine the concentration of an unknown sample with your smartphone
One thing that can be frustrating in the classroom is access to high quality instrumentation - even if you are lucky enough to possess equipment, inevitably students are forced to either share in large...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Attendance data
I came across this chart on the Interweb recently (copied exactly as shown on a school website):It's not clear what story this chart is attempting to tell, but I think it's safe to assume that the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Calculating the transmission of "optically clear" microscope slides
I blogged recently about turning your smartphone into a colorimeter to determine the concentration of an unknown sample using the excellent Physics Toolbox Suite from https://www.vieyrasoftware.net/...
View ArticleClik here to view.
R for teachers - WJEC funding from Welsh Government
I've wanted to learn "R" for a long time - the idea of a command line driven (with GUI), open source (ie free) statistical programming language appeals to me. As a long time Minitab user, the output is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Using JSON to pull web data
Update: 9/12/2016 WG have changed the JSON schema used - the technique still works fine, but the JSON path details have changed.=JsonPathOnUrl(K3,"schName") - now pulls the school name for example.AND...
View ArticleSimpsons Diversity Index
batchgeo.com/map/c9ad46984163a39fb84a6d80560fdefa" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="550" style="border:1px solid #aaa;">
View Article
