Yearly Archives: 2026

Resources / Robotics

Dublin Airport Security meets SafariBot!

What a journey!

SafariBot has the look of something that airport security might well be expected to raise an eybrow about.

Yet on the way over to Mourne, those manning security at Heathrow were calm and intrigued – albeit SafariBot had a cracked sensor deck on account of my trying to squeeze the robot into a rucksac.

The same rucksac was packed with the best of Irish food for the return leg. 

 

Dublin Airport’s security team were rather less calm. It didn’t help that I was running late for the flight. The dense mass of organic food: 2.5kg of butter in rectangular blocks and a further 1kg bag of good Irish spuds must have made for an interesting x-ray. The rucksac was duly given the “shunt of shame” along the special carousel!

I watched as the robot appeared next. A crowd of three scrutinised it before it was carefully loaded onto a very special trolley. Both items made their way towards me pushed by steely-eyed guards. The questions started: what? why? what? And then I caught sight of my hands – covered in blood! Yes, for some unknown reason my hands had chosen that moment to leak blood all over the place.

It actually had a humanising effect on the guards – who rushed off to find plasters. Once all was resolved I grabbed my shoes and belt and rushed through the duty free corridor – before kneeling down beside the bulging bag and curious robot to tie my shoe laces. The look that I got from some alarmed passers -by was one of mild horror and shock! Safaribot travelled back under the seat.

 

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October 14, 2026
Resources

New Logo

1999 - 2012

2012 - 2021

2021- 2026

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October 9, 2026
Robotics

SafariBot

SafariBot was only meant to demonstrate what it could look like to explore woodland remotely.

I have built this robot for Autism Support Kilkeel to experience Woodland Coding for the upcoming Meet & Code event in Mourne Park.

This will be our fourth year of offering a form of Woodland Coding. This year we will also be joined by Matthew from Aperture NI and his amazing drones!

SafariBot has taken on a bit of a life of its own though! – please see the link for more info..

 

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October 5, 2026
Marvellous Musical Machine / Robotics / Tech To Help (TTH)

Marvellous Musical Machine 3 Concludes

Working with the children of The Ridgeway School ASC has been a joy and a privilege. 

Thank you Will, Adam, Ryan and all the team at the ASC. Keith and I have enjoyed every moment of it – and we think that your pupils have too!

Please see www.flickernet.net/mmm3 to explore their work or, better yet, come along to future MMM events to have a go with the latest machine that we created together.

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July 22, 2026
Robotics / Tech To Help (TTH)

Expression

As  I gradually add to the Sessions, the third, called “Expression”, is one that I am most eager to develop.

This is the chance for anxious or disheartened young people to find a way to share what they are feeling through robotics.

The page will slowly grow – please feel free to email me any thoughts or ideas: it will be a vital part of the RaceHub project.

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June 2, 2026
Art of Conversation / Tech To Help (TTH)

Cats on the prowl!

Driftwood Islands now contain a variety of animals, as voted for by the wonderful pupils at Crowdy’s! These include [dancing] goats, fish and now cats. Much discussion and voting has now resulted in a cat-shaped island  with stars and sparkles, natural features and a huge rock nose!

Their latest island, Tutorial Plateau is also taking shape – it will contain many new puzzles including a labyrinth. 

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May 25, 2026
Resources / Robotics

Robot Arrivals

Excited to begin testing of the new Freenove Raspberry Pi robots.

 

Although they will need extra functionality added to become RaceHub robots (such as RGB lighting strips / dot matrix diplays) – the signs are that their manoeuvrability is similar to the Micro:Bit powered units – which makes them thoroughly race ready!

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May 11, 2026
Marvellous Musical Machine

Cheltenham Festival

Thank you Andrew and the wonderful Access To Music team for providing a fascinating gathering today.

Keith and I enjoyed sharing both Marvellous Musical Machines – the robots were on best behaviour – although the light theremin added some unexpected contributions during panel conversations!

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May 1, 2026
Art of Conversation / Tech To Help (TTH)

Cat Island gains eyebrows!

Our Cat Island (more accurately called “Meow Meadows”) was the focus this week.

It looks rather more cat-like, now that the Year 9 pupils have voted on the placement of a variety of materials from which cat features can be built..

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April 27, 2026
Robotics / Tech To Help (TTH)

Session 5 Trial 2

The RaceHub Sessions are taking shape, not necessarily in order! Enjoyed exploring Session 5 with the KS3 SoS group today.

They had so much fun, but in the process were also super-helpful at showing me potential road-blocks in the planning – which I am racing to fine tune now!

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April 24, 2026
InFindingOut (IFO) / Resources / Space To Learn

Cat 6 underground

A network cable that was precariously strung between trees – tin can telephone style! – has now been replaced with an underground cable.

Hopefully schools in Swindon can now enjoy uninterrupted camera feeds of the squirrels and other animals!

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April 3, 2026
InFindingOut (IFO) / Robotics / Space To Learn / Tech To Help (TTH)

Robotics reimagined

RaceHub is the new robotics project that I have been working on for some time now. It is a sister project to Robotics Link. Together they will form the RaceNode Network.

RaceHub will come first: individual young people being provided with a robot to build, and to keep, with which they can join in to a supportive network and even enter into robot racing competitions.

If they do not feel ready to race their robot in person then they can compete remotely. Their robot also becomes an individual expression of their wellbeing or race readiness..  

 
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March 30, 2026
Art of Conversation / Tech To Help (TTH)

AoC Assembly

Thank you to everyone at Crowdys today for listening so attentively to our ChoiceBox and Secrets of Driftwood Islands update!

The eagerness of pupils to volunteer to take a turn at navigating the islands and the questions about how to become involved / download the game were super encouraging! 

We will publish the next working draft on the Digital Writes AoC page and on the Flickernet AoC page after the Easter holidays

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March 26, 2026
Resources

Sora to see it go

The Sora AI video creation app offered remarkable creative possibilities. I am currently exploring a method of combining physical computing triggers with alternative AI video creation tools such as Runway and Pika.

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March 26, 2026
tech_ventures

Badges!

Sincere thanks to Pete, Matt and all the team at Digit<all> for awarding me these badges. It is always a pleasure to work with the charity – the number of schools that you are reaching nationwide is great to see. Looking forward to creating some new resources around robotics for you ere long.!

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February 24, 2026
InFindingOut (IFO) / Robotics

SoS Robotics

The Year 11 SoS pupils have taught me so much over the last three terms – in particular they have reminded me that all learning starts with engagement. 

It seems clear to me that when a young person is engaged with what you are offering them,  then are they ready to learn. 

Robotics and project-based learning feels like a natural fit – these children respond to robotics and their engagement inspires me.

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February 20, 2026
Robotics

Robot Reporting

Partly as a practice race for the upcoming Robotics Link project, but mainly so that pupils could have an event to film for their Video Editing Computing unit (and also for fun!) – we held a robot race today.

Pre and post-race interviews were filmed from multiple camera angles so that they can be cut with action footage of the race action. 

It was encouraging to see how fascinating the robots were for these children – a great way to inspire hands-on programming skills. 

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February 9, 2026
Art of Conversation / Tech To Help (TTH)

Jungle and Cat Islands

The creative super-powers of Class 9C at Crowdy’s have led to the creation of two new islands for the growing Secrets of Driftwood Islands world.

Jungle Island involved maths skills in choosing the angle of their plant stems (having used their art skills to draw the leaves) followed by english skills in telling the story of Chloe the cat who left Cat Island to visit Jungle Island.

With the ChoiceBoxes remaining central to this project, every week each pupil has been able to vote for what they would like to see happen next.

We will publish the updated online-playable game here soon so that you can hear the children reading out their story as you explore the growing archipelago! 

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February 5, 2026
Resources / tech_ventures

Quiz Machines

Each week when I visit Bishopstone Primary School (the smallest, most perfectly formed village school with whom I have been friends for a very long time) – they are eager to bring technology into our studies in ever more imaginative ways.

Inspired by this, I have created Quiz Machines, which allow quick assessment of any subject, using off-the-shelf equipment. 

The four options that each pupil has available are important, as a teacher could deploy them many ways – for example in RE where personal perspectives and reflection allows for answers to be indicative without needing to be considered “right” or “wrong”.

Further details and an example of the code can be found here: Quiz Machine HQ – Flickernet

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January 27, 2026
InFindingOut (IFO) / Tech To Help (TTH)

School Of Solutions

Congratulations to Tammy, Bill, David, Tarcila and all the SoS team for the publication of their book, 

Everything You Need to Know to Set Up a Therapeutic Alternative Provision: Exploring the School of Solutions 

now available to order on Amazon.

I continue to deliver weekly sessions for the SoS in Swindon.

These are usually focused on robotics, sometimes they are sensor based, but always wellbeing assessment led: these wonderful pupils have taught me so much about ways to determine – and hence adapt to – their collective mood and readiness to learn.

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January 19, 2026
Marvellous Musical Machine / Tech To Help (TTH)

Marvellous Musical Machine II

We are delighted to be working with The Ridgeway School Special Resourced Provision Unit each week, as they become the second school to create a Marvellous Musical Machine.

Keith and I are looking forward to seeing where these pupils take the project, in light of their great ideas and enormous enthusiasm!

This week we focused on introducing core coding skills with MicroBit extensions such as the Bit Commander and servo driver board.

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January 14, 2026
Art of Conversation / Resources / Tech To Help (TTH)

The Islands Awake!

Please click here to view the virtual world that Class 9G  of Crowdy’s have spent the last two terms building. 

As we prepare to begin the building of two new islands for this world with Class 9C, we are reminded of what a privilege it is to witness young people applying themselves to a unique task such as this, especially given the step that they bravely took to use ChoiceBoxes to vote with.

Driftwood Islands
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January 6, 2026
Art of Conversation

Insects Animated

This video clip shows the insects drawn by each of the pupils of Class 9G, coming to life on their Mushroom Meadows Island,

using Unity

– as part of the Driftwood Islands archipelago! 

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January 4, 2026

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