Product reviews for Freaked Out

I am very happy to endorse the very innovative Simon Pridham publication “Freaked out”. I currently work as a senior lecturer in the initial teacher training in South West Wales Centre For Teacher Education within the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. I am the lead for technology enhanced learning and was a former Primary head teacher before this, and the importance of developing technology based skills has been a priority for me for many years. The difficulty is often the different entry point to which teachers or trainee teachers are when they use technology in their teaching careers. It is often very difficult to have material that caters for the needs of many different individual. This book certainly achieves this with entry level simplicity up to advanced ideas in order to develop digital leadership within schools.

The book has been purchased and has been placed on the reading list across both primary and secondary PGCE and BAed programmes as well as being placed in our central student library and is accessible for other education courses. Many of our students have purchased their own copies and already the impact on classroom practice is being seen. Some of the more confident trainees have started to utilise some of the mobile technologies on their professional teaching experience with innovative use of augmented reality with pupils within the classroom. Aspects noted within the book for the less confident, such as creating and using QR codes, it can be seen there has been a significant increase with the use of QR codes within lesson activities. The useful tutorials that are embedded within the book mean the book is not only the physical pages and print that trainees have, but they are able to scan QR codes and augmented reality target images that make the book interactive with tutorial videos and further useful links. This makes the book very good value for money with all of these extra resources available to the reader.

Another aspect the book as allowed us to develop is skills with our own staff. We have invested in the book for the teacher training team. Again the easy to read nature of the book have allowed less confident members of staff to develop their own skills as well as recognise the technological features utilised by trainees out in schools. In addition to this we are aiming to adopt the digital leader model outlined within the book to develop individuals in the centre with their skills and spread their expertise throughout the centre. There are also plans to develop a similar model with our trainees, in order to spread best practice.

It is important to note that the use of technology alone does not equate to good teaching. The book provides sensible starting points that allow the teacher who uses these technologies to enhance their pedagogy rather than replace it, a key message throughout the book. The book also does not enter into the endorsement of relentless varied software and devices, but focuses on how to utilise often basic and free applications that are available to all and can have such an impact within the classroom.

The way in which the book is structured and presented is very effective and is not too daunting for the novice and allows the more advanced to jump to wider technological aspects such as technology co-ordination and middle leader development. The fact that the author has implemented these fully into such a successful school means that the credibility the book has with its readers is very clear. Often technology books can often be technical and unclear, and likewise over academic writing can lead to sometimes a detached perspective. This book is written for teachers by a teacher and it reads in that way.



I see the book as an excellent resource for teachers and it is very good value for money for those who purchase it. The impact it could potentially have in the classroom is something that is particularly encouraging as an individual who works in training the future teachers of tomorrow.