Two reviews for the price of one!

I submitted my review of this book to Teach Secondary magazine, an educational magazine in the UK. The first review below is what the magazine published. The second one is what I actually wrote! In substantive terms there is little difference between the two, but you may find it interesting to see what the editor altered.

The review on Teach Secondary

Certain aspects of digital literacy and citizenship can be found in general education frameworks, but as the authors of Future Proof correctly point out, there’s currently no formal recognised framework for digital citizenship education in England.

The growing importance of digital citizenship isn’t just evident from what we hear in the news, but also recent findings from Ofsted that students often aren’t as digitally literate as teachers tend to assume. This comprehensive book makes an excellent attempt at giving teachers the information they’ll need to remedy this, and includes an especially good section on learning expectations and school policies. From past experience, I’d venture that the authors are perhaps a little optimistic in their proposals for implementing a whole school version of such a framework, but otherwise there’s lots here to help address the digital literacy issue.
Reviewed by Terry Freedman 

My original review

n my experience most editors like to tweak submissions, either to conform better to the publication’s house style or, as I think is the case here, to adjust the word count slightly because of space considerations. As a writer, you might like to see my original review, and compare and contrast. Here it is:

Although the authors correctly point out that there is no recognised digital citizenship education framework in the UK, there are aspects of digital literacy and citizenship in more general frameworks. There is very little guidance on digital citizenship in any of the Programmes of Study. However, its importance is not only evident from what we hear in the news, a recent Ofsted report into Computing highlighted the fact that pupils are usually not as digitally literate as teachers tend to assume.

This comprehensive framework makes an excellent attempt to give teachers the information they need to address this. The section on learning expectations and school policies is especially good.

From past experience I would suggest that the authors are optimistic in their idea of implementing the framework across the school. But the Head of Computing will find it useful for addressing the digital literacy aspect of the Programme of Study.