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The Royal Society has suggested ways the government can overhaul information and communications technology (ICT) teaching in schools, following promises from Education Secretary Michael Gove to scrap the way the subject is currently taught. The body, which oversees UK sciences, recommends dividing computing into distinct subjects such as computer science and digital literacy and it said the government [...]

The last couple of months seem to have flown by as we work on some exciting developments aimed at bringing Learnalot to a wider audience, and as we’re such a small team this has unfortunately impacted the development of new resources and games. This however is something that we aim to address soon. So, as we re-focus our efforts on developing more content at the start of a new academic year, [...]

An online game called Foldit has helped determine the structure of an enzyme that could pave the way for anti-Aids drugs. The game allows players to create new shapes of proteins by randomly folding digital molecules on their computer screens. In the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, scientists write that they have been puzzled by the protein’s structure for over a decade but it [...]

Cambridge Econometrics says the UK is set to miss the 2017 climate change targets it is legally bound to meet, and will also miss future targets by increasingly larger margins. “The unmistakable lesson from the effect of emissions reduction policies 1997-2010 is that policies tend to have a lower impact than forecast, and therefore their strength needs to be increased if targets are to be achieved,” [...]

Research suggests that primary school pupils can do well at maths even if they do not know simple sums by heart. A study of the way eight and nine-year-olds approach arithmetic found that many were above average at maths without knowing facts expected of them. England’s national curriculum says all children should know addition and subtraction facts between 0 and 20 but the Institute of Education [...]

At the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Google chairman Eric Schmidt has said education in Britain is holding back the country’s chances of success in the digital media economy and that the UK needed to reignite children’s passion for science, engineering and maths. Dr Schmidt told the audience of broadcasters and producers that Britain had invented [...]

A report that was commissioned by Education Secretary Michael Gove and Prime Minister David Cameron when they were in opposition in 2009 has recommended that pupils in England should study maths up to the age of 18. It says radical change is needed to give children the mathematical skills needed to succeed in a workplace where numeracy is increasingly important. The report, headed by TV presenter [...]

The secretary for education Michael Gove praised the use of video games as a tool for learning at the Royal Society last week. In a comprehensive speech on the future of education, Gove said “When children need to solve equations in order to get more ammo to shoot the aliens, it is amazing how quickly they can learn”. “I am sure that this field of educational games has huge potential [...]

Another set of recently-released government figures show that a third of secondary pupils in England fail to reach their potential in maths – and that a quarter are also making insufficient progress in English. According to the official data around 200,000 maths pupils are failing to make the progress expected of them between starting secondary school and finishing GCSE. The data also shows a [...]

Yesterday we received confirmation that Learnalot is now SMART accredited. So, what does that mean? It means that SMART have evaluated the portal and have concluded that it brings opportunities for enhanced interactive learning experiences to the classroom and that it is easy to use. It also means that we are now allowed to offer Learnalot products and services on their SMART Exchange service, which [...]