Building planes – as they fly

A wonderful analogy for what we are trying to do at the moment in schools, although you could, one imagines, read it very differently:   [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.616735&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] more about “EDS Airplane online | Duncan’s TV Ad …“, posted with vodpod      

Constructivism

Constructivist teaching methods are IMHO essential, especially as we move into this new world with such powerful tech tools being at our disposal. More experienced staff haven’t had the exposure one would expect but all the prac students currently at the school are conversant with this theory. If we decide to use Moodle, and I think we will, this […]

‘The Revolution Will Be Digitalized’

The Revolution Will Be Digitalized is an interesting article on the Kindle and future of books. If you wander into Dymock’s you can have a look at the iLiad, an Australian released equivalent as, to my knowledge, Kindle is unavailable here.

Inanimate Alice

‘Inanimate Alice’ is a wonderfully innovative online text that tells the story of Alice, a young girl growing up in the first half of the 21st century. Alice grows from an eight year old living with her parents in a remote region of Northern China to a talented mid-twenties animator and designer with the biggest […]

ClickView and IWB Professional Development

Six of us from DHS attended professional development at TIGS this afternoon on using IWBs. ClickView was in evidence and the classroom teacher who gave us a demo was a fan of this video library. It is essential the school budgets for this next year IMHO. Some more IWB links of interest: http://smarttech.com/ http://www.interactivewhiteboard.net.au/

Education revolution worries everyone apparently

Cost shock puts school PCs at risk in the SMH today is another example of common knowledge being reported as if it is news. Staff are quite rightly concerned about what it all means and even the enthusiasts will be ‘worried’ shortly considering some of the events that have been in the news recently re: our Minister that will […]

Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs)

DET has purchased an enterprise license for Promethean’s ACTIVstudio as the IWB Lesson Creation Software tool. Here are some links for TPL using IWBs: http://www.electroboard.com.au/trainingcentre/trainingmaterials.asp http://prometheanlearning.com/uk/ http://www.prometheanplanet.com/uk/

Laptops

The revolution is being televised: http://www.digitaleducationrevolution.gov.au/computer_fund/round_one/nsw.htm and it will be wonderful. We have an opportunity now to really start to innovate and re-position schools as relevant 21st century educational institutions. The challenges are extant but it is going to be exciting; the glass is half-full. View some laptop lessons.

Annotations feature at YouTube and more on Twitter

The annotations feature now available at YouTube has been used to make this interactive card trick. I’d love to hear any ideas on how this can be used with classes. Neither video can be embedded into vodpod, unfortunately, hence the links. Also, keen to hear how Twitter can be used with classes (I have posted […]

HSC examinations

Maralyn Parker has written about the Board of Studies this week and suggested cracks are beginning to show. The examination system relies on truckloads of papers being driven all over the state, then picked-up to driven all over the state for marking. How long before we consider the format of these exams and how it […]

Youth Twitter

Some staff are keen to use blogs and with the vodpod widget should be able to develop a good resource that students can access at home and school. I am sure good ideas will emerge as understanding grows. It is a pity that Twitter cannot be accessed at work; this Wired article explains the benefits. I […]

Screenagers

The Library of Congress is hosting a series of 4 lectures on ‘Digital Natives’ with speakers including Michael Wesch, Steven Johnson and Douglas Rushkoff. The first lecture has been webcast: The Anthropology of Digital Natives but you need RealPlayer to view. I will post subsequent webcasts as they are uploaded.

Web 2.0 and Work

A tough day today. The internet was down all day and the SBR reporting system could not be accessed for more than an hour or two at the height of report season. It is frustrating that staff (and students) are blocked from using many of the Web 2.0 sites I take for granted at home but […]

This week…

commenced with some Professional Development courtesy of education.au on the Digital Revolution. Mark Pesce gave a great keynote that was uploaded to his blog that day. Joined a number of networking sites this week – all I already knew about but had not gotten around to joining – as a result, me.edu.au being one and twitter, digg […]

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