Who We Are and How We Got Here by David Reich #review and my #reading in April

“The breakthrough that all archaeologists have been waiting for; a truly exciting account of the way in which ancient DNA is making us rethink prehistory. Essential reading for everyone interested in the past.”   Barry Cunliffe “In just five years the study of ancient DNA has transformed our understanding of world prehistory. The geneticist David Reich, […]

NSW Premier’s Teacher Scholarship Study Tour: San Francisco #4

San Francisco is a wonderful city to explore with many homes and buildings having memorable architecture.  Tacy Trowbridge hosted my visit to Adobe in San Francisco (located in an amazing building). Tacy is Head of Adobe’s Education Programs and I had the privilege of meeting with her team including Johnson Fung and Terry Fortescue. Tacy, formerly an English and […]

NSW Premier’s Teacher Scholarship Study Tour: Washington #3

“The Genographic Project is an ambitious attempt to answer fundamental questions about where we originated and how we came to populate the Earth. Through your participation, you can play an active role in this historic endeavour.” The National Geographic Society is headquartered in Washington. The Society believes in the power of science, exploration and storytelling […]

NSW Premier’s Teacher Scholarship Study Tour: New York #2

“From its inception, a PDS education was founded on relationships and learning by doing; it valued play as creative cognitive growth and working together as a means of effective progress and the promotion of democratic values. It was about openness to opportunity and growth rather than right answers and closed minds.” Visiting schools is always […]

Coming to America

My study tour focuses on how the latest learning about new and emerging technologies, such as non-medical DNA analysis, can be shared effectively and ethically by teachers across the curriculum and state, using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in an effort to genuinely personalise learning for students. Personalising Learning in the Age of Knowledge My […]

Citizen Science and Big History

National Geographic encourages student citizen scientists to participate in their Genographic Project, which employs cutting-edge genetic and computational technologies to analyse historical patterns in DNA from participants in an effort to better understand our human genetic roots. They have an emerging education focus that encourages schools to participate. Last year I wrote about plans to […]

Big History, Bill Gates & 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 ‘So Bill Gates Had This Idea for a History Class’, although inaccurately titled, is quite a good article from The New York Times […]

The Big History Conference (and the future of education?)

Educational leaders need to do better in ensuring a more cohesive educational experience for students in our schools. We must ameliorate the current, balkanised, approach to how curriculum is delivered in high schools with new, cleverly designed, models of learning. That’s why I’ve been at the Big History conference at Macquarie University for the last […]

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Ozymandias I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped […]

BIG HISTORY

To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. William Blake Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity is an extraordinarily important course developed by Professor David Christian which is […]