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Alan Harrison

@httcs.online
1.4K followers 1.9K following 1.7K posts

Educator, author and podcaster, BSc #ComputerScience, MA in #Education, Teacher Trainer, Tutor and Lecturer, #TeamCompSci #caschat, I'm #Autistic and #ADHD and a LGBTQ+ ally, mental health advocate, proud supporter of DEI. httcs.online

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Reposted by Alan Harrison
Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 14/07/2026
I enjoyed researching and writing this for @seced.bsky.social and must thank Dave Leonard @itbadger.bsky.social of Watergrove Trust for the excellent insight into how they manage #AI in #schools #UKEd #edusky
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Reposted by Alan Harrison
Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 15/07/2026
As seen at the Festival of Computing hosted by @craigndave.bsky.social and @aqaeducation.bsky.social My new #coding fluency app six(im).possible().things() is FREE until end September and early adopters get a discounted Teacher Pro subscription for just £99/year. #TeamCompSci #UKEd #Programming
Screenshot of a website showing an IDE-like layout with title Six Impossible Things, a coding sandbox, output window with testing shown and feedback messages.
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 30/07/2026
Today I learned that those three shows were still going. Wow.
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 30/07/2026
I'm running #computing #CPD for OTSA again next year. All Tue 4pm: > 17 Nov 2026: How to Teach Data Representation > 24 Nov 2026: How to Teach Computer Systems > 23 Feb 2027: AI and Data Literacy > 27 Apr 2027: Preparing for the new Computing GCSE www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/otsa-30340... #TeamCompSci
eventbrite.co.uk
OTSA
OTSA is a partnership of over 300 schools and organisations who share the belief that we have a moral responsibility to work together for the benefit of all children and young people.
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 28/07/2026
- "Babe, I can't find that shirt you ironed for me." - *points at shirt hanging on the back of the door* "What's this, Scotch Mist?"
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 19/07/2026
There's no easy way of finding all the possible websites and apps that might be useful, and no time to try them all out. It's actually pretty quick to throw up an app that does exactly what you want now, so it's probably a time issue. Maybe I should vibe code an app directory? 😂
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 19/07/2026
Had a lovely long walk with an old school friend today and we put the world to rights. We agreed that we need a national conversation about immigration and asylum (and maybe recognize these are two different but related topics).
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 19/07/2026
He's untried in that position.
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 16/07/2026
Literally UK COVID test official figures in 2020-2021
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 16/07/2026
Um actually it's punctiliousness. 😁
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 16/07/2026
Not sure about that, but it always irked me that they got the cadence wrong, saying "bbc-dot, co-dot, uk" when we all know the dot is part of the domain suffix, so it should be "bbc, dot-co, dot-uk".
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 15/07/2026
I can be wearing my glasses and still not recognise people I know well, I got someone's name wrong yesterday, face-blindness is a curse!
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 15/07/2026
Robot Uruk Hai, but yes. I'm not kidding.
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 15/07/2026
Now do toilet roll... front or back dispensing? 🧻 Hmm could be front-dispensing, but it's not mounted, so maybe they have swerved that controversy too!
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 15/07/2026
Yes, like Manchester has done. It's about time all UK cities did this.
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 15/07/2026
More proof that money and power makes you evil.
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 15/07/2026
The Unicode consortium once existed to make the web more accessible, now they argue over where the cheese should go in a burger emoji. (I think this I said this when you were on my podcast, sorry for rehashing old comedy)
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 15/07/2026
As seen at the Festival of Computing hosted by @craigndave.bsky.social and @aqaeducation.bsky.social My new #coding fluency app six(im).possible().things() is FREE until end September and early adopters get a discounted Teacher Pro subscription for just £99/year. #TeamCompSci #UKEd #Programming
Screenshot of a website showing an IDE-like layout with title Six Impossible Things, a coding sandbox, output window with testing shown and feedback messages.
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 14/07/2026
I like the addition of "make discoveries" - recognising the rise of "computational science" - or as Peter Naur wrote "programming as theory-building".
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 14/07/2026
This is great stuff and influenced me to put Data Rep as chapter 1 in my book, and to ask you to join me on an early podcast episode! pod.httcs.online/e/e003/ #TeamCompSci
Screenshot of a double page of my book "How to Teach Computer Science" Chapter 1 "Data Representation". The image shows morse code and braille diagrams and this is a sample of the text:

We need to head over to France to find an early binary code. Louis Braille injured 
an eye in his father’s leather workshop at the age of three; the resulting infection 
led to blindness in both eyes by the time he was five. At the age of 10, in 1819, he 
obtained a scholarship to the National Institute for Blind Children in Paris, which 
at the time used a system of raised letters invented by Valentin Haüy. Letter shapes 
are not distinct enough to be easily discerned by touch, however, and Braille found 
Haüy’s system hard to use.
While attending the institute, Braille was shown a system of raised dots used by 
the military to communicate at night. He took this system and improved upon it, 
using just six dots to communicate all the letters of the alphabet, plus numbers and 
some punctuation symbols. Each dot is raised or flat, and a blank space (effectively 
six flat dots) separates words and sentences. In this way, the grid of six dots could 
represent 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 2 to the power 6 or 64 different characters.
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Reposted by Alan Harrison
Computing in a Nutshell @advanced-ict.info · 14/07/2026
I wrote this blog ten years ago, but the representation was also a key part of ICT - specifications used to include things like the portability of file formats and linking vs. embedding. #TeamCompSci www.advanced-ict.info/blog/represe...
advanced-ict.info
Blog: The Representation of Data Links the Whole of Computing
A look at how an understanding of how data are represented inside the computer links together the whole curriculum.
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Reposted by Alan Harrison
OperaBunny @operabunny.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Sounds like a great policy. Should be funded by fossil fuel companies, including installation of solar panels and air conditioning/cleaning in schools. #UKEd
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Reposted by Alan Harrison
Alasdair Beckett-King @misterabk.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
The great thing about Britain is you're free to think whatever you want to think and say whatever J. K. Rowling's lawyers permit you to say.
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 14/07/2026
I enjoyed researching and writing this for @seced.bsky.social and must thank Dave Leonard @itbadger.bsky.social of Watergrove Trust for the excellent insight into how they manage #AI in #schools #UKEd #edusky
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Reposted by Alan Harrison
Headteacher Update @headteacherupdate.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
The DfE #genAI Product Safety Standards offer a framework for safer #AI use in #schools. Alan Harrison – @httcs.online – outlines practical steps on risk, #safeguarding, DPIAs & compliance for leaders: buff.ly/cIHSvkC #education #teaching #edusky
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Reposted by Alan Harrison
Headteacher Update @headteacherupdate.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
The DfE #genAI Product Safety Standards offer a framework for safer #AI use in #schools. Alan Harrison – @httcs.online – outlines practical steps on risk, #safeguarding, DPIAs & compliance for leaders: buff.ly/cIHSvkC #education #teaching #edusky
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Reposted by Alan Harrison
SecEd @seced.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
The DfE #genAI Product Safety Standards offer a framework for safer #AI use in #schools. Alan Harrison – @httcs.online – outlines practical steps on risk, #safeguarding, DPIAs & compliance for leaders: buff.ly/4h5mkvc #education #teaching #edusky
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Reposted by Alan Harrison
Headteacher Update @headteacherupdate.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
The DfE #genAI Product Safety Standards offer a framework for safer #AI use in #schools. Alan Harrison – @httcs.online – outlines practical steps on risk, #safeguarding, DPIAs & compliance for leaders: buff.ly/cIHSvkC #education #teaching #edusky
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 26/06/2026
Remove home secretary Mahmood and rip up her asylum plans, says Alf Dubs
theguardian.com
Remove home secretary Mahmood and rip up her asylum plans, says Alf Dubs
Veteran Labour peer who fled Nazis as a child attacks ‘performative cruelty’ of Shabana Mahmood’s policies * UK politics live – latest updates Shabana Mahmood should be moved out of the Home Office and her asylum policies of “performative cruelty” ripped up by Andy Burnham’s administration, Alf Dubs has said. The veteran Labour peer who came to the UK aged six in 1939 fleeing the persecution of Jews in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia said the home secretary’s talents “would be better used elsewhere in the cabinet”. Continue reading...
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Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 26/06/2026
This is remarkable.
Bar chart which shows y-axis running 0-8000, and x-axis showing years 2019 and 2024. For 2019, a light orange bar runs up to just over 6000, with a darker orange running up to 8000. For 2024, a green bar runs up to 4000, with a dark green running to about 5000. The text "40% lower" is on the lighter green bar. Text at the top of the graphic reads "Estimated air pollution deaths are down by around 40%. New analysis estimates deaths associated with air pollution in London reduced substantially between 2019 and 2024." Text at the bottom of the graphic reads "Note: darker shading shows estimated ranges. Data based on a comparison of estimated mortality burden using updated methods and a scenario-based analysis where only air pollution changes. Source: london.gov.uk/aqmortality". The Mayor of London logo sits in the bottom right-hand corner.
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Christabel Cooper @christabelcoops.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Extraordinary credit to Sadiq Khan for pushing through this deeply controversial policy. This is what can happen when politicians are prepared to stick to their principles.
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 26/06/2026
I am at the #STEM Tech and #AI conference in York, come and say hi if you're about.
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Reposted by Alan Harrison
Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 17/06/2026
David Dimbleby: "As for the benefits of leaving, 10 years have passed – and we are still waiting." www.independent.co.uk/voices/nigel-…
independent.co.uk
I broke the news of Brexit to Britain – we still haven’t seen a single benefit
I’m more convinced than ever that EU membership was far too fraught an issue to put to a simple referendum – and looking
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 15/06/2026
Coming soon... #TeamCompSci
Screenshot of a coding app I have been working on. Will be on show at the Festival of Computing - https://craigndave.org/conference/ - on 1st July in Bromsgrove UK. 

Screen shows an IDE-like environment with code sandbox on the left, and output on the right. Integrated testing and feedbacack is visible, with output that says:

All 4 tests passed — nice work!
✅ Test 1 — Normal - EUR to GBP
✅ Test 2 — Normal - GBP to EUR
✅ Test 3 — Boundary - zero amount
✅ Test 4 — Normal - large EUR
Style
💡 Wrap your logic in a function — e.g. def calculate(): — and call it from a main block.
Score: 7/10
💪 Nearly there — aim for 8/10 or above before moving on to other styles.
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Reposted by Alan Harrison
Tanja Bueltmann @tanjabueltmann.net · 10/06/2026
16) These UK developments sit within a global fascistic turn with some of the most advanced patterns evident in the US; in Germany the AfD leads polls. 17) Democracy collapses much more quickly than most people think, because it doesn't actually have to collapse for it to become non-functional.
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Tanja Bueltmann @tanjabueltmann.net · 10/06/2026
14) Meanwhile, many in the UK do not understand how far down this road we already are. A prominent far right extremist was correct when he said that the Overton window has been ‘obliterated'. That is not what many see when culture wars and 'anti-woke' agendas are manufactured to speak for them.
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Tanja Bueltmann @tanjabueltmann.net · 10/06/2026
There are, in my view, 25 things everyone needs to understand in light of recent events: 1) Those out in our communities last night were not protestors, but organised far right extremists. 2) Their actions align with fascist ideologies. 3) So yes: these are fascist practices on our streets. 🧵
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 11/06/2026
If a left party (which Labour once was) tries to win votes from the right by validating their talking points, three things happen: - They lose votes to more progressive parties - They do NOT win any votes from the right - The right is emboldened by the support and grows in confidence.
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Ian @ianpadg.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Hitler and Lord Haw Haw had medium wave, around 3KHz and the Daily Mail. Putin and Farage have X,RT and GB News, amplified via the BBC. Reform are destabilising the country.
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The Bear @bearlypolitics.co.uk · 11/06/2026
Should X be banned? Yes. And it should have happened in January when non-consensual sexual imagery proliferated on the site. The government’s inaction on what is becoming increasingly a vehicle for violence and hate is appalling. Much more needs to be done. And quickly.
bearlypolitics.co.uk
Republication: Is Banning X Really Censorship - or Long-Delayed Accountability?
Why governments should no longer be willing to ignore a platform architected for harm.
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 11/06/2026
Totally agree. No idea why they can't see that liberal democracy is under attack across the world via both legacy and new media, and urgent action is needed.
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 09/06/2026
We should be legislating that Meta, Google, X spend at least 10% of their annual revenue on user safety, with a mandatory annual report on harm reduction efforts, and mandatory reporting of harm stats with independent oversight. Any platform that has high levels of harm gets shut down.
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 09/06/2026
Yes. Social media is extremely dangerous, and should be massively more tightly regulated. It's a radicalisation engine, being deliberately weaponised against democracy and social cohesion, while causing mental illness and enabling sexual exploitation. Legislation is SO FAR behind the harms on this.
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 26/05/2026
Reform, Restore and Advance are all white nationalist parties, the children of the BNP, formerly the National Front, formerly the British Union of Fascists. They believe in white supremacy, and do not believe non-white people can be truly British. They are neo-Nazi in nature.
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 26/05/2026
Name this band. Wrong answers only. No, I mean that's the name of the band 😁
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 26/05/2026
Yikes. Hope everyone is OK in France and Spain.
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Bylines Network @bylinesnetwork.co.uk · 26/05/2026
Climate targets scrapped. Committees abolished. Climate language removed. What Reform councils have done after taking power. @eastangliabylines.co.uk
eastangliabylines.co.uk
Reform in charge: what happens to local climate action now?
Reform’s local election gains have opened a new front in Britain’s climate politics
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 26/05/2026
I am running the Manchester 10k on Sunday for the MIND charity, if you can spare a few quid that would be purely belter... Please RT. Thank you ! ajbellgreatmanchesterrun2026.enthuse.com/pf/alan4mind
ajbellgreatmanchesterrun2026.enthuse.com
Alan is Running for Mental Health
It's OK not to be OK. Everyone is not OK sometimes. We all know someone who has had struggled with mental health. (If you didn't, well, hello. You do now*) MIND supports millions of people in their ho
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 20/05/2026
Wow, is he getting any ROI on that £300? He's right though, teaching is a proper job!
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Alan Harrison @httcs.online · 20/05/2026
It goes on (ignore the bit about a book I'm probably not going to write...) "Even where I'm reliably accurate, I'm producing text that pattern-matches to correctness without the kind of understanding that would let me know why it's correct or when to doubt it. " More in Alt Text #TeamCompSci #UKed
A deeper point for your book:
The confidence question isn't just about accuracy — it's about the type of knowledge. Even where I'm reliably accurate, I'm producing text that pattern-matches to correctness without the kind of understanding that would let me know why it's correct or when to doubt it. A student who writes a correct answer for the wrong reasons is a concern to a teacher; an LLM that produces correct outputs through processes that don't constitute understanding is a more fundamental issue — and one that sits right at the heart of what you're arguing.
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