The Eye of the Future: Waiting for Gonski (Part 2)

All agree that the educational and political issues David Gonski and his panel must sift through are formidable. Maybe we need to simplify. If you asked an Australian person the following question, how would they likely respond? Should all Australian children be provided with a high quality education regardless of social background? The vast majority of […]

Waiting for Gonski (Part 1)

 On 31 August 2011, the Review of Funding for Schooling panel released a Paper on Commissioned Research and four research reports, seeking feedback from the general public. It is important to note that these research reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the panel.          Source   The Review of Funding for […]

A day, make that week, to remember…

It was a memorable day for the the community of Viborg Katedralskole!  The former Danish Prime Minister and current Secretary General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen visited his ‘old school’ for several hours (on the day when the Danish election was announced). His speech to the students was well-received and he answered questions for quite a […]

PISA and the Disadvantaged Student

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) causes a flurry of interest in educational and political circles when newspapers report the publicly released ‘rankings’, often highlighting the ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ like some international sporting competition. Then all is seemingly forgotten, just when robust debate about our educational strategies is needed. Stephen Downes posted about this issue last year. The […]

The future is here…

This post was written for the IBM 100th Anniversary website, Shaping our Future (hit the drop down under the education topic). The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed. —William Gibson, quoted in The Economist, December 4, 2003   ‘The future is here’ and this oft (over) quoted line from the father […]

Script: how do you tell the children?

Scene: an Australian family watching tv in May 2011 Daughter No.1: Dad, how come Prince William and Princess Catherine’s daughter won’t be the Queen if she has a brother? Daughter No.2: That’s not fair! Daughter No.2: Why did the PM say that about that man? (at 1.25-2.20min) Daughter No.1: What does justice mean? Daughter No.1: […]

Future vision?

Back in 2007, some ‘fresh ideas’ excited many Australians, especially those involved in education or who had an interest in the schooling of their own children and grandchildren. In short, that’s pretty much everyone. Here’s a reminder of the commitment our current federal government had, to the ‘Digital Education Revolution’ when seeking election in 2007: […]

Connected…or at least, connecting!

The department supports its employees’ participation in social media online applications such as social networking sites, wikis, blogs, microblogs, video and audio sharing sites and message boards that allow people to easily publish, share and discuss content. The above quote is the opening statement in the new Social Media Policy released by my employer, the NSW […]

‘Shut Down The Schools!’

A new report asks a very important question in, ‘What can we learn today about the students’ aspirations, adoption and adaption of emerging technologies for learning than can help us plan for the future?’ A major national survey concluded that students were already very effectively implementing a vision of socially-based, un-tethered and digitally-rich learning on […]

The Red Wheelbarrow

by William Carlos Williams (1923)   so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. Source …so much depends upon using imagery to engage students and creating opportunities for them to use imagery to engage you… Slider credit: cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by […]

Reading…

I can still see the poster on my own childhood primary school classroom wall: Kids who read succeeed The Conservative politician and current British Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, has recently said that, ‘children should read 50 books a year’. Who could possibly disagree? In my (not so) humble (on this issue) opinion […]

Pen & Paper Exams

A recent conversation with a colleague, who genuinely believes that students are more creative when they write with a pen, really made me wonder about the future of pen & paper examinations in NSW and the rest of the world. As you likely know, the students sitting the Higher School Certificate examinations in 2012 were issued […]

Understanding the Rise of China

Anyone who read my blog in 2010 would know how a trip to Shanghai opened my eyes to what we have all been reading about over the last few years, the rise of China. The 2009 PISA results and commentaries seemed to quantify the obvious investment, vision and an absolute respect for the importance of education that I […]

Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms

Sir Ken Robinson‘s narrative about education is a powerful reading of the institutions at the heart of our societies. It is ‘a reading’ difficult to dispute.  RSA Animate have made this particular paradigm understandable to all with a brilliantly constructed series of drawings. You can see the whole series of RSA animations here. Please, if you […]

The Fourth Way

The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future of Educational Change by Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley was published last year and is worth reading, especially for students, emerging leaders and those looking for a survey of the politics of education in the last 4 decades or so. The subtitle, ‘The Inspiring Fututure for Educational Change’ is what […]

Nic Marks: The Happy Planet Index

Nic Marks‘ TED presentation about what really matters is inspiring and deserving of a very wide, powerful and influential audience. Please watch it and share with your coleagues, students and friends.

Hung Parliaments and the Importance of Literature, Philosophy and History

The political uncertainty of the election ‘result’ that Australians watched unfold last night will lead to concerned discussion about what a hung parliament will mean for our democracy. There will be many at the moment worrying, including myself, about the NBN plan and what will happen to the Digital Education Revolution, if Mr Abbott is anointed. However, another interesting question is, obviously, how […]

What can we learn from the World Cup?

Craig Foster’s recent analysis of Spanish footballing success is likely to resound with many educators.  Spain are a wonderful example to Australia because the fruits they enjoy today were cultivated over the last 20 years through an advanced youth development system, by churning out thousands of qualified coaches to educate young players and through the […]

Diane Ravitch

“Diane Ravitch is the rarest of scholars—one who reports her findings and conclusions, even when they go against conventional wisdom and even when they counter her earlier, publicly espoused positions.” Howard Gardner The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education is Diane Ravitch‘s new tome. It is […]

'Civilisation'

Kenneth Clark‘s television series Civilisation was written and filmed in the year of my birth, 1968. It is not funky, fashionable, contemporary, postmodern or politically correct but I recommend you view or read the book for a stimulating ‘personal view’ of ‘civilisation’. Of course, when you view it now there are passages that make one cringe and would not be broadcast today. It is […]

Flickr, tourism, my kids & Hansard

Something unexpected happened recently that I want to share with you. It is pretty self-indulgent, excuse me for that, but having my daughters mentioned in parliament is very exciting to my extended family. Some of you would have seen this article in our local newspaper, via my Facebook or twitter. Our Federal Member contacted me as she intended to […]

Code of Conduct

The NSW DET Code of Conduct  was updated and took effect last week. The changes are sensible and staff at school have been briefed.                                           page 16 of the NSW DET Code of Conduct   The major additions relate to social media and are not draconian like those announced in Queensland last year that Kelli wrote about […]

MySchool: Part II

The MySchool site lists each Australian school in a group of 60 ‘similar’ institutions using the ‘Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage’ (ICSEA). As explained at the site: The performance of schools on NAPLAN tests is greatly affected by a range of student intake and school location characteristics. When comparing schools, it is important to compare like with like. […]

No laughing matter…

Satire, has long been humanity’s answer to limited, ignorant public policy. Enjoy this parody of American educational policies that have failed.