Alas, went to work during my hols again today and of course, all social networking sites are blocked to staff, regardless of position in the school. I will request that Twitter is unblocked – and Facebook, but suspect my request will be denied. We are so starved of information about the changes that will take […]
What was it like at your school? Were you a smart kid? Were the classes streamed/graded or mixed ability or some combination of both? How did your teachers teach, engage and stimulate interest in the topic or activities? What was the best thing about the way you were taught at school? What was the worst? […]
Everything’s changed or changing – fast. Michael Wesch commences with some of the issues of teaching in an inappropriate space before moving on to new media. I particularly love the Marshall McLuhan quote referred to at the opening of this hour long presentation: The past went that-a-way. When faced with a totally new situation, we […]
Tuning in to the zeitgeist is a full-time job and one that educators are uniquely situated to both understand and interpret. How many other professions have such an opportunity to analyse the march of generations and the cultural climate of the times while reflecting on the nature of knowledge and learning? How can an educator […]
How do I use del.icio.us? Another good ‘Plain English’ explanation. [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.624274&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] more about “Social Bookmarking in Plain English“, posted with vodpod
[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.623774&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] I don’t want to give the punch-line away but after you’ve viewed click here and then here.
Wikipedia is in the top 10 visited online sites by Australians but are you aware of some of the compendium’s cousins? A good critical literacy lesson or 3 could result by investigating the way each of the following Wikipedia clones presents information and positions the reader. I especially like the parody sites ‘Uncylopedia’ and ‘Wickerpedia’. Try typing some […]
This PBS FRONTLINE documentary screened earlier in the year may be of interest. I found it pretty sensational but the chapter on high schools coping with the ‘revolution in classrooms’ and how many teachers were struggling to cater to this generation is worth watching. The anti-plagiarism site Turnitin must be doing a raging business in the USA. I loved […]
My travels in India gave me an appreciation of ‘Hinglish’ and I wasn’t in Singapore long enough to experience much ‘Singlish’ but hopefully, with Chinglish on the rise, opportunities will present themselves to enjoy the richness of this derivation in the not too distant future. How English Is Evolving Into a Language We May Not Even […]
NSW may scuttle computers in schools deal and way down at he bottom of the article one reads, tomorrow is the deadline for NSW to sign on to the deal. We’d just like to get started knowing where we are heading – and when. Timeline needed…now! A good blog post about the underfunding of the revolution is Australia’s […]
Thought this may help you to understand, or explain to others, RSS feeds. [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.617098&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] I use Google Reader.
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
We put Evolvo through his paces and recorded his emergence into the world and uploaded him to YouTube: [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.616278&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] more about “Evolvo“, posted with vodpod
My daughters and I designed our first Spore creature after downloading the demo. It was pretty interesting to see Lucy and Sarah, at 4 & 2 years of age, discuss choices about the anatomy of our creature that would not usually be part of their vocabulary. ‘Evolvo’ certainly ignited the joy of learning – and […]
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 […]
I was disappointed that – to my knowledge – no colleague at work took up the Dailylit service suggestion. It is a joy to find a thought-provoking piece you can read in a few minutes in your inbox. I’ve been reading The Best of Technology Writing 2006/7 by installment via this service and it has been brilliant. […]
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’ 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 […]
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/
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 […]
An article in The Australian, Education revolution worries teachers makes for interesting reading. Read it for yourself, but the statistic claiming only 27% of teachers – ‘…believed the internet was transforming the way they engaged their students…’ would be of fundamental concern. I would like to see the survey to understand exactly what was asked. And Greg Black’s […]
Howard Rheingold’s vlog has some interesting videos. Here’s one that asks the question, “What do journalism students need to know in the digital era?” [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.606073&w=425&h=350&fv=] more about “Journalism in the Digital Age“, posted with vodpod
For many youths, ‘entertainment and socialisation blend seamlessly’ and stats published this month show YouTube reached ‘4.1 million kids 2-11 and 8.9 million teens 12-17. That’s more than 5 million more teens than the No. 2 video destination, MySpace.’
Ironically, I wrote Boys and their Electronic Toys: Pleasure and Becoming Multiliterate (p67-72) published in mETAphor and SCAN, just after I gave up playing video games. Having a new baby, house and job demanded that I uninstalled European Battleground and the Total War franchise. My copy of WoW provided me with a free month subscription then […]