A not very informative information notice. Photo by Terry Freedman
I went for a medical consultation recently — don’t worry, nothing terrible. As James Cagney so memorably put it in one of his films, I ain’t dead yet. Anyway, I’ve been waiting and waiting for a report, and only found out today that if the results of a test areinclonclusive, they don’t write a report. “Surely”, I said, “That result should form the basis of the report?”
When I took up a senior management position in a local authority, an irate headteacher phoned me on my second day.
She had had her laptop taken away for repairs two weeks ago, and had heard nothing since.
I told her I’d look into it and had the following conversation with the tech support team:
Me: “Why hasn’t anyone been in touch with X to say what’s happening with her laptop.”
Tech support: “We had to send it away. Now we’re waiting for it to be returned.”
Me: “Have you told her that?”
Tech support: “But the laptop hasn’t been returned yet, so there’s nothing to tell!”
Me: “The fact that nothing appears to have changed is an event in itself. You need to chase up the repair company, and then tell X what you’ve found out and that you’ll call her again tomorrow.”
News travels fast
The following day I was bombarded with phone calls from headteachers asking me to follow up on things that, from their point of view, had been put on the furthest away back burner in existence.
What was missing, at least in that particular section, was a customer service mentality, and a lack of attention to the importance of keeping people informed.
No reasonable person could get annoyed about waiting a couple of weeks for a repair, especially if parts had to be ordered in specially.
What they would find frustrating is not knowing whether their laptop really was being repaired, or whether it was still an item on somebody’s to-do list.
So what are good communications?
I think an organisation’s communications strategy should comprise at least the following:
An easy way of finding contact details
There are some companies that seem to go out of their way to make that impossible.
You can usually find out how to speak to someone by conducting a search in Google, or using AI, but it doesn’t inspire much confidence: my inner voice always says “Why are trying to hide this information?”
A response within a short period of time
For example, the phone should be answered within, say, five rings; an email should be answered within one working day.
Now, it’s easy to cheat in these respects, by using an automated answering machine and an email autoresponder respectively.
Therefore, the word “answer” should be interpreted as a proper answer – unless, of course, your automated systems can answer most issues themselves.
A respect for people’s time
Especially teachers, who usually don’t have hours to spend battling through long telephone menu systems or listening to music or, even worse, dozens of advertisements while being held in a queue.
Clear, jargon-free, emails and letters
There’s no reason to over complicate things. Speak plainly, and edit with a knife.
Once the appropriate response times have been decided, they should be incorporated into the staff handbook, staff induction pack, or whatever similar documents are used in your organisation.
They need to be honoured and become part of the organisation’s DNA.
Good communications are marketing too
Think about it: if a company is rubbish at responding to people before they’ve bought anything, what will they be like afterwards? In think organisations like the health service, or schools, or departments within schools, should be more customer-focused than they usually are. If existing customers — or users if you prefer — are treated shoddily, will they be likely to recommend your organisation/school/department/whatever to others.
Somewhere in the vast halls of learning that make up Freedman Towers there is a copy of Inside The Black Box, by Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam.
This book was all about assessment for learning or, should I say, assessment for learning, not the usual assessment of learning. The former empohasises the benefits of assessment which helps the student learn and improve while the course is still going on. After all, in a way there’s not much point in telling someone they haven’t understood something when it’s too late for them to do much about it.
I especially remember “wait time”. Many teachers ask the class a question and then answer it themselves. I said to a teacher whose lesson I’d been observing that the students had had a nice little rest while he conducted a question and answer session all on his own.
Inside The Black Box explains the benefits of waiting enough time for a student to respond.
Funnily enough, although I found the book immensely useful, I had never suffered from the wait time issue. In fact, I remember in one of my first lessons, teaching ‘A’ Level Economics, waiting for several minutes for any kind of response before turning to the wall and asking, “So what do do you think?”
There have been a number of spin-offs of Inside The Black Box, including this one from Mary Webb and Margaret Cox:
As the title suggests, this applied the principles of Inside The Black Box to the subject of ICT.
Anyway, the reason I mention this now is that I found out earlier this evening that Paul Black has passed away, so I just wanted to acknowledge his part in helping me become a better teacher.
Some books are fully generated by AI and published on Amazon. How can you tell if a book has been produced in that way?
Photo by Terry Freedman
It is not easy to tell just by looking at the cover, but here is what I suggest.
Look carefully at the author's name. Some rip-off merchants create a name that you could easily mistake for the real one.
Check how many books have been uploaded by the same author. Apparently Amazon has set a limit of three books per day per account, but (a) I think you can create multiple accounts and (b) how many genuine writers could upload even one book a day let alone three?
Check what subjects the writer has written about. Most serious authors write just one type of book, so if someone publishes books on different subjects or in several genres the alarm bells should ring.
Use the Look Inside feature or download a sample to see what the writing is like. Although AI can produce credible-looking prose, I thinkyou can still tell, or at least feel suspicious, when sometihing has been written by AI.
Personally, I would never buy a health-related book without doing some research about the (apparent) author. I believe there have been some cases where the advice given by AI-generated books has been positively dangerous.
I've often written about the Atari room in my newsletter, Digital Education. That was a room I set up and filled with Atari ST computers. These were fast, had a graphical user interface (GUI), and lots of great and low-cost or even free software, at a time when the standard computers used in schools were slow, had a text interface or a very slow and clunky GUI, and had mainly expensive software.
One of my briefs in the school was to encourage other teachers to use technology in their lessons. In the words of the headteacher at my interview, in response to my question: "What would you regard as my success criteria?":
"I want to see teachers banging on the doors of the computer room demanding to be let in."
I didn't quite manage that, but I did manage to increase the usage of the computing facilities quite significantly, and the Atari room played no small part. So here are the lessons from that period which I am pretty sure could be generally applied today:
Make sure the kit works
When I arrived at the school, I did some research and discovered why nobody was using the computer rooms: the network kept breaking down. So a class could be within 10 minutes of the end of the lesson, when everything would go off, with the result that all their work was lost. (Of course they knew they should save their work every so often, but how many people actually do that when they're really 'into it'? I know I don’t!)
I paid for someone to come in from the local authority to do a kind of site survey, and he discovered that one of the cables in the wall was broken. Once that was fixed, everything worked just fine.
Ask for money to buy equipment
Yes, I know there is no money in the system, but that has always been the situation. As the ed tech lead in your school you just have to make a case — and keep on making it. That is especially true if you have old equipment (see next point) or equipment that keeps breaking down (see point above).
The thing is, even though I had sorted the problem of frequent network breakdowns, few people had much confidence in the system. One solution, especially in view of the next point, was to get in new, modern computers.
Get rid of useless old stuff
I'm not suggesting that everything that is old is useless (I'm getting on a bit myself, and I'm not useless!). But in the room that was to become the Atari room, there were old minicomputers that didn't work, a stand-alone 380z computer, and a network of 480z computers. I taught myself to use the 380z and the 480z, but they were hardly the face of the technological revolution. Using arcane text commands to carry out the most mundane of tasks, they were interesting from an historical perspective, but completely useless as a curriculum tool. They had to go, apart from one or two specimens to be retained as artefacts in a mini computing museum I set up in the classroom.
Think outside education
Rather than thinking about possible new computers in terms of what was on offer in educational catalogues, I looked more widely than that. The most popular computers at the time out in what we often refer to as the 'real world' were not BBCs or RM Nimbuses. They were Amstrads, Ataris, Amigas and Commodores. The Amstrads were seen as business computers, especially for word processing and number crunching. The others were seen mainly as hobbyist programming and games computers.
Consult other people
I had an ICT Committee consisting of representatives from other subject departments, and so I used that group to help me evaluate different options against a checklist of things we were looking for. The checklist was important. For example, if exploring a potential computer system to buy revealed that there wasn't much software available for it, or that the software was way too expensive, and that very few of the software choices could be used for educational purposes, that computer system would be struck off the list.
Be creative
I was given a sum of money, and told it could be spent on hardware only. So once we had decided on a computer system (the Atari ST), I hunted around and found a supplier that would throw in a load of software for free.
Make it welcoming
I kitted out the room by placing all the equipment around the walls, thereby leaving a lot of room in the middle for people to sit at tables and work away from the computers. You can see that in the photograph above.
New:
Keep up-to-date
Right now, in 2026, that means making sure that AI apps, and information about how to use them, and how to use them effectively in teaching, are essential.
Make it personally relevant
Have you noticed that the teachers who profess not to be able to use technology are more than happy to book their holidays online and shop on Amazon? So I tink it’s a matter of showing them how it’s relevant to them, aka making their life easier, as well as showing them what to do. That is, you need to why as well as the how.
Make it welcoming (2)
Too many computer rooms are cluttered with cables, bits of hardware lying around, are untidy and, frankly, even look grubby. They resemble a teenager’s bedroom sometimes. Not a good look. Here are some ways you could make the space more welcoming:
Keep it tidy.
Keep it clean.
Put plants in. Spider plants have been shown to help purify the atmosphere.
If there’s enough room, put a few easy chairs around the place.
What do people want to do in easy chairs? Read, right? So make sure there are some interesting magazines available. I used to bring in copies of my own computing and technology mags when I’d finished with them. So maybe you also need a couple of coffee tables — again, if there’s room and if you can acquire them inexpensively or through a PTA donation.
People also want to discuss stuff. Easy chairs are a good way to encourage that.
Lower the barriers to entry
Why are teachers reluctant to use technology? Here are some reasons, and how I addressed them:
Fear that the equipment would fail
Fixed the network problem.
Brought in new, very reliable kit.
Not knowing what they could do with the equipment
I produced lists of software available for each room, such as the one shown below.
The Atari room software poster
Not knowing why they should use it
Teachers need a reason to use computers or other technology in their lessons, and those reasons must be based on their own subject's needs, not yours. So...
I produced research reports outlining how computers were being used in different subjects elsewhere.
I asked subject teachers to look at subject-specific software and tell me whether they thought it was any good or not.
I brought to their attention any software that would save teachers time, or ease their workload.
Not knowing how to use it
I ran induction sessions for staff.
I produced quick-start posters and plastered them around the walls.
I wrote manuals detailing how to use the main programs, and attached these to each computer in the school, not just the Ataris.
NEW! You could also run drop-in surgeries on a particular day after school, perhaps using pupils to help out, with parents’ permission, of course.
Not knowing when they could use it
I created a computer room booking form for all the computer rooms, and placed them on the staffroom noticeboard.
I also visited heads of department to give them the opportunity to make block bookings if they wanted to, so as to guarantee they would get access for an extended period of time if they need to.
This is more a personal note rather than ed-tech related, apart from, I suppose, two things. Firstly, one of the things that the National Introverts Week people (see below) think would be a good way to observe the event is by engaging in social media. Isn’t that where all the extroverts gather to tell the world how wonderful they are (I am honoured to share etc etc ad nauseum)? Why would any self-respecting introvert want that? Secondly, it strikes me that a good use for agentic AI (which I do not intend using any time soon, for reasons I’ll talk about in my newsletter, Digital Education, is to let it do all the interactions you don’t really want to do because of being an introvert.)
But enough of this persiflage!
For the period 16th March to the 22st March 2026 I intend to become an honorary American. Why? Because that is when the USA observes National Introverts Week.
I think that’s a potentially excellent idea: an excuse to close down all communication with anyone else for a week — a whole week! That’s even better than World Introvert Day in January, which I celebrate by avoiding as many people as possible.
The correct way to celebrate any occasion with the word “introvert” in its title is as follows:
Unplug your landline.
Change the settings on your mobile to make phone calls go direct to voicemail.
Better still, set it to Do Not Disturb.
Draw the curtains, and keep them drawn.
If you have a car, park it a few streets away.
With a bit of luck, everyone will think you’ve gone away for a while. This is where I agree with Joe Cocker’s words of wisdom in Dangerous Mood:
“I parked the car down the street
And I unplugged the phone
So it would look just like
Ain’t nobody home”
— Dangerous Mood
Yet the National Introverts Week website suggests taking the opportunity to inform people about the benefits of introversion, and to pulverise a few myths.
Not me. I intend keeping myself to myself.
The most abiding and deep-rooted myth, I believe, is that introverts are shy. That is not necessarily the case. This was something that puzzled me for a long time. I tend not to say too much in meetings, or at least I don’t feel the constant need to make myself heard. That’s not because I’m shy, but because I agree with Salvator Rosa:
Be silent, unless what you have to say is better than silence.
If I were shy, I’d be reluctant to sing and play in a blues band, in which I went by the name Dr Tel:
Dr Tel
Neither would I have appeared in various amateur dramatic productions, in which my stage name was Rick Benson.
Yet I consider myself an introvert.
The best explanation I found for this apparent paradox was in a book called The Successful Self, by Dorothy Rowe. From reading that I discovered that I am an outgoing introvert. That may sound like a contradiction in terms, but if we define introversion/extroversion in terms of factors such as stimulation, it becomes clearer. Introverts do not need external stimulii to the extent that extroverts do. Indeed, above a certain level of sensory input the typical introvert feels extremely uncomfortable, and needs time — alone — to recuperate.
Thus for me, the idea of using National Introverts Week as a reason to interact with lots of people is a non-starter.
If you are going to celebrate National Introverts Week, I hope you enjoy yourself.
