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? […]
Scott Mcleod has organised Leadership Day, since 2007, by requesting that bloggers post their ideas on a range of pertinent edtech topics. The 30th July has dawned and some reflection is in order. Last year I wrote a response and quoted Seth Godin suggesting that leaders must be prepared to be ‘incompetent’ for a while in order to learn: […]
After my post, Twitter Literati for English Teachers, some discussion arose about the reasons why teacher-librarians are so engaged with twitter, social media and digital technologies generally. Colleagues on Yammer had some good ideas: Darcy, in schools TLs are one of a kind. We have therefore needed to look beyond our schools for support and guidance. […]
Australian English teachers have not flocked to twitter in the way I envisaged back in early 2008. I have been guilty of spamming email distribution lists, evangelising at conferences and publishing traditional print based articles in professional journals, all with very limited success in convincing my colleagues, in any great numbers, to tweet. There are some notable exceptions, tweeple I admire greatly, […]
In a world where fortunes are sought through data-mining vast information repositories, the computer is our indispensable but far from infallible assistant. Personas demonstrates the computer’s uncanny insights and its inadvertent errors, such as the mischaracterizations caused by the inability to separate data from multiple owners of the same name. It is meant for the […]
Cory Doctorow is an author, essayist, activist and public intellectual I admire greatly. His musings on copyright and creative culture are of particular interest, as is his advocacy for the rights of young people. Educators should be, IMHO, cognisant of his ideas. The fact that Doctorow operates in a traditionally commercial way, as an author who makes the […]
Holiday Fun At the beginning of the school holidays I asked Miss 4 and Miss 6 what we could do together for fun. Quite a list emerged, including – ride the bikes, play ‘Cinderella’, take photos, see Toy Story 3, play soccer in the backyard, tease Mum and go to websites – and ‘Dad, can you fix the Wii’? […]
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 […]
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 […]
My interest in photography has always been, in a sense, academic. In truth, I am not really a practical guy and the technical aspect of taking a picture and developing a print never really appealed to me. Whereas the stimulation and aesthetic pleasure of vicariously enjoying someone else’s carefully crafted simulacra was immensely, is immensely pleasing. I like […]
WordPress has a video explaining the new features available in Thelonious, their WordPress 3.0 release, that may interest anyone considering an upgrade. https://videopress.com/v/wp-content/plugins/video/flvplayer.swf?ver=1.21 I have installed the Organic Themes template Structure and am starting to understand what it can do. For example, the left sidebar disappears when one navigates away from the homepage and also, one can have featured rotating […]
I jokingly said to @pipcleaves that my blog will receive some attention these holidays due to the large number of work/school tasks needing to be completed. A new theme, page and header, a couple of posts, maybe a some photography photoshopped was all one had in mind. I certainly had no intention of actually moving away from my WordPress.com […]
I have changed the look of my blog and am seeking some feedback. I really like a number of features available from this new theme: The extra sidebars available – top, bottom, left and right – give some good options The most recent post being highlighted (although this seems to be currently not working properly) […]
Thanks to Ben Jones for alerting me to David Crystal’s recent talk. Like you, I have many of his books on my shelf and find his insights into language, especially the English language, sage. [vodpod id=Video.3937737&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] David Crystal – Texts and Tweets: myths and rea…, posted with vodpod
Steve Wheeler, whose blog I always read, has kindly shared his recent conference presentation via slideshare. [slideshare id=4633878&doc=middlesexuniversity2010-100628061819-phpapp01]
Clay Shirky‘s TED talk deserves 13 minutes of your time.
Local people and organisations ‘working together towards a healthy and sustainable future’ is as important as national and international environmental reform. Considering this, it was a pleasure to be invited to our local community’s launch of the Kiamasphere, last Thursday at The Pavillion in Kiama, to support efforts to improve sustainability. At the launch my friend, Darren Collins, gave […]
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 […]
Asperger’s syndrome has been explored in a number of creative ways in recent years but many people in the community are still relatively unaware of the impact of the syndrome on the individual’s life. Dean Groom posted this video on the weekend. It resounds with me too. It is both informative and a good short animation. [vodpod […]
or, if you prefer