By Iain MacMillan on September 25, 2008
I was alerted by my good lady wife (who is a teacher herself) to an interesting article in the Times Education Supplement the other week, which directed me to TES Connect. I’ve been banging on about the need for this type of website for ages. Having seen the number of hours teachers spend on creating their own lesson plans and resources, its development is well overdue.
Before I get set upon by any teachers reading this article (especially my wife), I know that planning lessons is a very personal thing – and a good lesson plan depends on a huge number of factors as well as simply subject, year and syllabus – examination board, academic strength of the class, time of day of the lesson, teaching style etc etc. However, a good tagging taxonomy could provide the answer, allowing the resources to be tagged and searched by all these criteria.
On the subject of education and technology, here’s a recent article from the Times Higher Education website talking about the need for academics to embrace Web 2.0.
Brenda Gourley, vice-chancellor of The Open University, …said higher education had to be “irrevocably tied” to technology if it was to prosper.
There’s a clear job here to be done, not only in building the systems required, but also in making sure their benefits are clearly communicated to potential users.
Posted in Education, Press, Stories |
Iain founded RMM in 2006, with the objective of providing good, strategic advice across all areas of digital and social media. Nowadays, the focus is entirely social and involves the provision of more than just advice – insight, inspiration and expertise in social media. Iain leads the strategy development and training teams on most client projects.
He specialises in leading client strategy projects in a number of sectors, including finance and gambling, where RMM has conducted studies into social behaviour in highly regulated environments. He also leads projects for travel sector clients, a sector in which RMM works in partnership with eCRM sector specialist, Spike Marketing. They work together across a number of clients, most recently including Neilson Holidays, Thomas Cook’s ski and active holidays division.
Prior to RMM, Iain spent five years helping to run the web design business, Tonic, winning and managing accounts such as Vodafone, GE, GAP, MTV and Barclaycard. Before that he worked at Tribal DDB London, working on Volkswagen before heading up the Victor Chandler, Sony Europe and Guardian accounts. And before that he had a colourful career in music promotions, running the annual Soho Jazz Festival in 1997.
Iain spends quite a large amount of time trying and failing to explain to his long-suffering wife why he really loves golf, seventies hard rock and eighties pop. She remains none the wiser.
