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? […]
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’? […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
“Diane Ravitch is the rarest of scholars—one who reports her findings and conclusions, even when they go against conventional wisdom and even when they counter her earlier, publicly espoused positions.” Howard Gardner The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education is Diane Ravitch‘s new tome. It is […]
As I was unable to attend the Education Future Forum, held in Sydney earlier this year, Dr Phil Lambert kindly emailed me his presentation, 2010-2020: Ten Propositions for the Decade. Phil’s paper is lengthy and it is not my purpose here to cast a cold eye over it but to take one issue of interest and seek your input, dear readers. […]
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. […]
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 […]
Now, having finished David Shenk’s, The Genius in All of Us, I’d like to continue my reflection on the importance of this work to educators, students and parents. The notes I made while reading, using that function on my Kindle, highlight that our quintessential thinkers, in Western civilisation, have always suspected that giftedness’ was a […]
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 […]
Satire, has long been humanity’s answer to limited, ignorant public policy. Enjoy this parody of American educational policies that have failed.
I support transparency, governments sharing information with citizens and believe schools must improve by using data, along with a range of other innovations. I applaud the Federal Government’s Digital and Building Education Revolution policies, while recognising far greater vision is needed, as they go nowhere near far enough in regards to innovation or funding. I believe that Mr Rudd and Ms Gillard […]
I’ve decided to pronounce the year “twenty-ten”. Not sure what the popular wisdom on this matter will be but I suspect most will continue with the “two thousand and…” that we have been using for the first decade of the 21st century. “Twenty-ten” sounds like the never-arriving future is here – and I like that! It is a minor […]
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 […]
I’ve now read a book on my Kindle and feel the time has come for a brief review. Firstly, I’m glad I purchased the device and have no reservations about the outlay of approximately $300. I am happy with the leather cover and the weight of the Kindle. The fact that one can add documents , […]
Context This brief, largely informal and reflective (draft) paper for the Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Online Course, is written with the intention of positioning Connectivism in context, for educational leaders intent on developing new pedagogy in Australian schools appropriate to the digital age. It is perhaps, not what was intended for this assignment but is an accurate reflection of my perceptions of the […]
Disruptive technologies You may remember that I almost bought an iLiad last year. I had been after an e-reader for quite a while but the available product was just not good enough to purchase. The release of the Kindle 2 re-awakened my digital lust earlier this year. Today, my Google Reader presented *drum roll* Amazon’s Reader Comes to Australia […]
This week, like many learning professionals around the globe, I commenced an online course to disrupt all online courses, Connectivism & Connective Knowledge. The #CCK09 MOODLE has many resources and you can drop by and read all the participant introductions. ‘Connectivism is the thesis that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that […]
Last year I started asking around, on Twitter, for the origin of the acronyms that I was reading so much about. ‘Personal Learning Networks’ (PLNs) and ‘Personal Learning Environments’ (PLEs) were so often used by the educators that I was following that it was surprising no-one really could source them. Recently, I have had more […]
The glacial pace of change in Education is a theme constantly discussed by colleagues I admire but mostly I hear the opposite, that change is too relentless, too challenging. Systems seem to have some inbuilt, organic way of slowing change – preserving the status quo – and even when the paradigm shift is acknowledged, key players seem unable to generate the […]
I always like to start the school year with a clear sense of direction and personal professional priorities and goals; a sort of pre-reflection, if that makes sense. It goes without saying that one needs, as an educator, to be a: – better learner – better teacher – better leader and to do something personally […]
We are in a Golden Age, by any measure, us, who reside in NSW in the first decade of the 21st century. Agree? However, it seems that I hear nothing but negativity from a diverse range of people – the media, educationalists, parents, my Mum and Dad – anyone would think that comparative to past […]
Welcome to this ‘Blogs and Blogging’ ETA workshop. We have 30 computers but with so many particpants you may have to share a computer, which may work out well as we collaborate today (and in the future?) to develop our blogs and networks. The rubric for the workshop: The media landscape, especially journalism, has undergone […]