James Bowkett's iThoughts

View Original

The Birth of my Web Presence

I was an early adopter.  I have managed my life and organised my tasks through a pocket device since 1990.

I may have lost track, but I've just counted that the iPhone 4s in my pocket is pocket PDA number 14 for me, & my New iPad is my second iPad.  It is perhaps therefore not surprising that now that our school is ready, I am currently leading the largest 1:1 iPad deployment in the UK and the 35th largest deployment in the world.

I am currently the sole Deputy Headteacher at Clevedon School North Somerset.  I do a bit of Tweeting but generally haven't said too much online about how I decided that we were ready for 1:1, why do it anyway, and what have we done?  So I decided to teach myself how to create an online web space, thought it couldn't be too hard, and actually, on my home Mac, it wasn’t.

In addition to introducing our own @ICTEvangelist to an iPad, a steady stream of iPad trialling teachers or consultants have visited Clevedon and I have now articulated my vision and rationale many times.  You probably follow some of them, and they blog some superb material; @DavidMiller_UK @syded06 and others with far less followers.  Perhaps I helped some of them to crystallise some of their thoughts.  Whatever the case, with several schools contacting us weekly for advice and guidance, I thought that now should be the time where I break silence and post some of my thoughts here online to perhaps help a wider audience.

I hope that some of you may find them useful.