10 IDEAS: blogED Prezi

This is a draft of my presentation, to be delivered next week at the Office of Schools conference, Engaging learners through innovative practice, about blogEd, the NSW DET blogging platform. Actually, the presentation is more about using blogs at school and in class, rather than anything specific about using this great tool for students and teachers. If you are […]

Digital Tribes and the Social Web

Steve Wheeler, whose blog I always read, has kindly shared his recent conference presentation via slideshare. [slideshare id=4633878&doc=middlesexuniversity2010-100628061819-phpapp01]

PLE Reflection (after a presentation for our Year 11 conference)

My brief, to present at a Year 11 conference about online tools, has accentuated, in my mind, how far away we are from providing the Personal Learning Environment (PLE) at school students need in a networked society. Your input, via comments at a previous blog post, twitter and yammer proved invaluable but also challenging, when one considers the […]

Prezi: Cool Online Tools (draft)

This is the first presentation using Prezi I have ever completed; although I have started a few in the past 12 months before the pressure of being prepared for whatever conference led me to not finish (and use my blog or PowerPoint).  Prezi has turned out to be a fun tool – once you ‘get’ the […]

Cool Online Tools

Next week I facilitate a workshop designed to assist Year 11 students find some useful online tools to support their learning, especially research, collaboration, organisation, study and presentation. There will be a very, very brief presentation and overview of each tool and then students will be free to experiment, exploring the tools of use/interest to them. Do you mind […]

Readability

Readability is a simple tool that ‘makes reading on the Web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around’ what you’re reading. Check out how it works: [vodpod id=Video.3214367&w=425&h=350&fv=]   Great, definitely a useful tool but what interests me is the opportunity it offers English teachers to explore how ‘Readability’ (and similar technologies) change the nature of the meaning of the text. I […]

One Social Web

OneSocialWeb is a ‘free open decentralized social networking platform’ in development and will, undoubtedly, try and capitalise on the widespread dissatisfaction with Facebook’s privacy policies. [vodpod id=Video.3604307&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] more about “YouTube – Why OneSocialWeb?“, posted with vodpod

The first people I followed on twitter…

I have been tweeting for two years. I know many of you have been on twitter for much longer but it is amazing to think how fundamental to my day social media, especially twitter, has become in this relatively short period of time. The first person I followed was @mpesce who presented an interesting talk at […]

Whatever Happened to the Book is Happening Now!

At great risk of appearing unneccesarily sycophantic, I need to say that Mark Pesce‘s post, Whatever Happened to the Book,  is clever, unusually clever, even for Mark. Everything that currently intellectually interests (read obsesses me) about literature and our hyperconnected age is explored. Please read it closely and tell your friends, especially if they are teachers still learning. […]

Miscellaneous Voices: Australian Blog Writing

A post by James Bradley, at his City of Tongues blog, led me to buy and read Miscellaneous Voices: Australian Blog Writing, edited by Karen Andrews.   I would not usually buy an anthology of ‘online’ writing as it just seems too silly, losing all the hyperlinks and hyperconnectivity, but felt happy to invest in this project when I read: “This […]

Social Media Explained Visually

@achurches tweeted this great visual explanation of social media video today [vodpod id=Video.3353602&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] more about “Social Media Explained Visually“, posted with vodpod  

The End of Publishing As We Know It?

 [vodpod id=Video.3250505&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] more about “The Future of Publishing – created by…“, posted with vodpod    Hat tip to John Connell who posted this at his blog this week.

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 […]

Golden Rules for Keeping Safe Online

Read Write Web recently posted a story that I thought would garner more comments. I suspect it only had three, as most people agree with Europe’s 17 Golden Rules for Keeping Safe on Social Networks but are breaking some of them out of neccessity. This is what I mean. The following three ‘European rules’ When joining a social […]

Multitasking

The PBS public affairs series Frontline recently aired, Distracted by Everything, the first episode in digital_nation – life on the virtual frontier about multitasking. Henry Jenkins has a word of warning about the program though, he suggests the documentary ‘panders to the biases’ of viewers. His analysis of how students multitask is important and comments about the dangers of […]

Collaborate and Prevail

I found this 4-minute video at Jane Hart’s site and recommend you watch it. It is advertising for the Internet Time Alliance but explores many of the most important concepts relating to social media, particularly networked economies. Note the reference to Darwin’s theories and that those who learn to collaborate most effectively, prevail. Social networks and social learning are […]

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 […]

'How Has The Internet Changed The Way You Think?'

Here are the best answers you are likely to read, compiled by the Edge Foundation at their World Question Centre, to this important question.   The following passage, from Tim O’Reilly‘s musings on the question, Pattern Recognition, made me reflect about the challenges of staying ‘educated’ and being and ‘educator’ in our ever-shifting culture:   “It used to be the case that there was […]

What Matters Now

“As students realise that the tools for living are the same for learning, they will naturally expand the range of things they can do.” Read  Download  Genesis

Edublog Nominees: When You Have Some Time…

It really would be worth taking some time to explore the nominated blogs, wikis, tweeps, nings and educators nominated for Eddies this year. I intend to look at all of them during the holidays and reorganise my Google Reader to reflect my current interests. After reading Miguel Guhlin’s post it got me thinking about what is […]

The 2009 Edublog Awards: Voting

Time to vote in the 2009 Edublog Awards for your favourite bloggers, tweeple and online colleagues. I have been fortunate enough to receive nominations in two categories, Best Individual Tweeter and Best Teacher Blog. Thanks to Dean Groom, Kelli McGraw, Judy O’Connell and Tomaz Lasic for their nominations this year. I appreciate your enthusiasm, humour, […]

1 2 3 5