Dear Utrecht, Falling in love is hard, especially with a city. But you are an easy city to fall for, even in lockdown. Obviously you’re gorgeous, the postcard picture of what a Dutch city is supposed to look like full of bicycles, little bridges, and narrow houses along winding canals…

Technologists love to think they are innovators. This is certainly true in education tech, where you can hear breathless claims today about how technology is going to transform young people’s experiences of school. A typical pitch is that tech will improve learning by cleverly giving pupils a personalised experience, ensuring…

When I first began living in the Netherlands I quickly realised there were a few phrases the Dutch use almost constantly. These include “Lekker!” (tasty), “Echt?” (really?), and “Leuk” (nice). Using a combination of just these three words can get you surprisingly far. But I’ve also picked up a few…

There are many reasons to think Britain’s current situation is nuts. But here are three particular charts I keep thinking about because they make what’s unfolding seem even stupider. 1. The vast majority don’t want a “No deal” Brexit The latest YouGov polling is clear that most adults in the UK think “No Deal” is a bad idea. Indeed the…

Good Omens is finally coming to television. Hallelujah! But we came close to seeing it in cinemas nearly two decades ago. The main reason I have been thinking about the unmade film version is because I interviewed two of the key people involved at the time: its then-director Terry Gilliam…

There’s a theory that addiction is about trying, and failing, to recapture a first high. Whether that’s your first teenage romance, your first hit of heroin, or the first computer game you could not stop playing, well, that’s up to you. My first addictive taste of grown-up comics was the…

I wondered if I would feel like an interloper at the first conference I’ve ever attended on Open Educational Resources (OERs). It wasn’t a dress code issue (though in hindsight I should have worn trainers) but that most of the attendees at #OER18 were from universities, while only a few…

I used to complain about things I called “vanity A/B tests”. Those were tests I felt were the equivalent of vanity metrics. They were experiments that had wholly obvious, entirely predictable outcomes — so just seemed a way for a product manager to feel good about themselves and show off…

Might remote user-testing actually be better? It’s generally not a good sign if someone bursts into tears during a user test. In fairness, it wasn’t the tester who was crying but their child, a three-year-old who had been playing in the background. I was on a video chat with the…