Twitter, Mobile Phones and Mark Pesce

…in the last six months, a lot of people in Australia have discovered Twitter – particularly those folks who, like myself, are interested in what’s up-and-coming on the Web. Nearly all of those folks use Twitter these days, and most of them follow one another. I quickly got swept up into this madness, and am […]

BYOD (in a post-DER world)

State schools in NSW are grappling with a post-DER world. The Digital Education Revolution funding from the federal government provided Lenovo laptops, technical support and wireless coverage to schools. For the last 5 years Year 9 students have been issued with a laptop. That has all evaporated with no funding from the state government to […]

The end of the ‘Digital Education Revolution’?

“The Australian Government supports the use of new technologies in Australian schools to prepare students to learn, train and live in a digital world.” (sic)                 SOURCE It has reached the stage where the contradictions in government education policy in Australia are leaving satirists with very little to parody. In […]

A Bigger Picture

Winston Churchill famously said that ‘democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried’. One can certainly bemoan the messiness of what can only be described as a serious deficit of coherent national educational strategy, ironically, at a time when ‘Australia is falling behind’ is often heard from politicians. […]

Future vision?

Back in 2007, some ‘fresh ideas’ excited many Australians, especially those involved in education or who had an interest in the schooling of their own children and grandchildren. In short, that’s pretty much everyone. Here’s a reminder of the commitment our current federal government had, to the ‘Digital Education Revolution’ when seeking election in 2007: […]

Pen & Paper Exams

A recent conversation with a colleague, who genuinely believes that students are more creative when they write with a pen, really made me wonder about the future of pen & paper examinations in NSW and the rest of the world. As you likely know, the students sitting the Higher School Certificate examinations in 2012 were issued […]

Catalysts – making it happen!

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. […]

10 IDEAS: blogED Prezi

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 […]

PLE Reflection (after a presentation for our Year 11 conference)

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 […]

Digital Education Revolution NSW

  [vodpod id=Groupvideo.3254407&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]   more about “Digital Education Revolution NSW“, posted with vodpod   You may wish to subscribe to the NSW Public Schools Youtube Channel.

The Best of 1:1 Advice

Here’s the cream of the 100s of replies from my PLN, you folks, for a 4 minute – ‘best of 1: 1′ laptop suggestions – video. 1:1 PLN Advice

10 things 'a school' can do in preparation for 1:1 (laptops) in classrooms

This is the third post in a series. You may wish to read the first and second posts concerned with what a teacher and faculty can do in preparation for 1:1 too. 10 things ‘a school’ can do in preparation for 1:1 (laptops) in classrooms: 1. Funding– expectations of  a champagne experience from a beer budget tend to fizzle when the reality […]

10 things 'a faculty' can do in preparation for 1:1 (laptops) in classrooms

10 things ‘a faculty’ can do in preparation for 1:1 (laptops) in classrooms: 1. Support the school’s agenda – help to make good ideas work but also shape them with positive input followed by action. HTs have a special role here in leading their faculty positively and realistically. Be collaborative and then complete honest reflection […]