Year 10 English in 2012

cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by Josef Grunig I am excited at the prospect of teaching Year 10 English next year; the first time since 2006. The NSW Board of Studies has been instructed to abolish the School Certificate and there are great opportunities for teachers, with the extra time suddenly available, […]

Teachers and Social Media

“If you can’t dance a step, you can’t teach it, and if you can’t teach it – we might as well all pack up and go home.” from STRICTLY BALLROOM cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Dell’s Official Flickr Page I read Steve Wheeler’s PLN post, ‘Tools of the trade’ this weekend and […]

Teacher-librarians: Context (Part I)

I am presenting to teacher-librarian colleagues about ‘digital communication tools’ this week.  I’d rather say we are ‘collaborating’ than I am ‘presenting’ and have used survey monkey to collect data from the delegates prior to the conference about their needs and yammer to seek advice about the perceptions of what ‘skills’ and ‘knowledge’ are needed […]

#leadershipday10

  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: […]

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 […]

The Empathic Civilisation

Tim Kastelle posted this video talk by Jeremy Rifkin which I repost here and am sure you will enjoy. [vodpod id=Video.3625992&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] more about “RSA Animate – The Empathic Civilisation“, posted with vodpod   I like the point Tim’s emphasises, that when, “you develop…deep connections with the people you serve, the ideas that you give them […]

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 […]

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 […]

Google Docs

I have been encouraging colleagues to participate and collaborate using Google Docs for a number of reasons. Schools are busy places and often, all the stakeholders are not involved in every conversation about the future direction of the school or even more mundane issues that would benefit from more input by staff. Collaborating with Google Docs will […]