Our principal, Andrew FitzSimons, has led the executive team, once-a-term over the last 5 years, to visit a business, organisation or important community location in the Illawarra who host our strategic meeting. We work off site in this different setting but about an hour is spent learning from our host about their organisation. They explain: Strategic planning What this organisation values in employees […]
It is time to vote in the annual Edublog Awards. Thanks to the Edublogs team who have worked hard to compile so many nominations. It really is a great way to find new blogs and bloggers. I feel honoured to be nominated in the Best School Administrator Blog category. You can vote in that category […]
I believe we are in a Golden Age of civilisation. Not everyone has this way of seeing. I hear many commentators, educators and parents express grave concerns about the impact of technology, the internet, mobile devices and computers on young people and education in society generally. To me, it seems pathological, reminiscent of the comic book scare in the […]
Are you using Google Earth? Which subject? How are you using it? Anyone exploring ethical questions about data collection with their students? The potential for students learning in an integrated, holistic manner using Google Earth are extant. I have no hard data – and would love for the following assertion to be successfully challenged – but […]
Reading a post by Larry Ferlazzo led me to think of 10 tweeps I enjoy and get good value from each day. I notice that all have a fantastic blog/site which is essential IMHO. In alphabetical order: @ABCMarkScott – The ABC has positioned itself well online over that last decade or so, especially in regards […]
I could easily nominate most of the blogs and bloggers acknowledged in previous years, as all continue to be a daily or weekly part of my reading, tweeting and RSS circuit. However, I have decided to make a completely fresh list of my favs for 2010. This has proven to be extremely difficult and many great blogs and […]
The Edublog Award nominations are now open for 2010. It is great fun to recognise the people who fill our readers with enjoyable, thought-provoking posts about learning and technology, education and ideas. What I really like about the awards is that they lead to the discovery of many new blogs and bloggers, tweeps and teachers. For […]
How many schools, that wish to innovate and recreate learning spaces for New Times, are hampered by ‘the buildings’ and ‘the space’ the community have inherited from a bygone age? How are the conditions created to best assist change to occur when funding is scant? In this TED talk Emily Pilloton explores ‘appropriate design solutions’ […]
What is a meme? Wikipedia says: The British scientist Richard Dawkins coined the word “meme” in The Selfish Gene (1976)[1][4] as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catch-phrases, fashion, and the technology of building arches.[5] I […]
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 […]
How much is your future connected to what you choose to do ‘for a living’? Many of us are lucky enough to be learning/working in the field of education as it offers such great personal and professional opportunities – and, most importantly, one is able to maintain a sense of purpose by contributing to a larger community. It […]
Mrs Ding, a community leader, invited our group to visit Cao Yang neighourhood for a day last week. This suburb is about 20km NW of downtown Shanghai and was established in the early 1950s. There are about 95 000 residents and they are served by a dozen primary and high schools, as well as a technical institute, hospital and a […]
Australian students with a Chinese background have long been respected in NSW schools for their diligence and conscientious attitudes towards learning and school. After my first experience of China, 12 days in the exciting metropolis of Shanghai, I can understand more completely why these students are excelling in our schools. To say that the Chinese […]
Shanghai has exceeded, my already very high expectations, over the last week – it is a great city and, as you can see from the featured photo of Nanjing Road, very paradoxical! I expected to update my blog daily but quite frankly, have been having too much fun and very little time on my laptop, […]
I keenly await the new Steven Johnson book, Where Good Ideas Come From, released next month. Until then, here’s his most recent TED talk.
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 […]
The NSW Deputy Principals’ conference continues today. DPs have signed up to our conference ning and many more are using Yammer. Change is in the air. My presentation, ‘Communicating Online’ is ‘a prezi’. Communicating Online on Prezi I had my PLN say hello via yammer and twitter during the workshop, there were some pearls of wisdom. […]
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.
The ABC Teacher Forum held at the Ultimo studios today was an opportunity to explore the process and reality of reporting the news. We had a quick tour of the studios before enjoying the 2-hour forum. The panel of ABC staff: Simon Palan, Sue Stephenson, Anne Maria Nicholson and especially Walkley Award winning journalist Tim […]
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 […]
Here’s the complete list below of posts for #leadershipday10 from Scott Mcleod‘s blog, Dangerously Irrelevant. Leadership & Vision Blake Skidmore (@blakeskid). Pick Up the Mouse Your E-Mail is Ringing. I will be gliding through building technology at schools, and how to take some concrete steps for “old dogs learning new tricks”. Carolyn Foote (@technolibrary). Stepping […]
I have been lucky enough to gain a NSW DET scholarship to vist China, as part of the National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program (NALSSP), next school holidays. Excuse the ‘outcome speak’ but, so you can help me out, this Teacher Education Visit (TEV) to Shanghai aims to: enhance NSW DET teachers’ knowledge and […]
I have never had a parent ask me any of the questions listed below, except, perhaps, the one about ‘happiness’ in a number of guises. I wish someone would. How would your child’s teachers fare if asked these questions: 1. What is your educational philosophy? 2. How are you assisting our child to become a self-directed learner? […]