Reflections: Occasional Papers #AI #education #21stcenturyskills #NSWDoE

“As part of the Education for a Changing World project, the NSW Department of Education has established the Education: Future Frontiers Occasional Paper Series. The series will bring together essays commissioned by the department from distinguished Australian and international authors to stimulate debate and discussion about Artificial Intelligence (AI), education and 21st century skill needs.” […]

Humans Need Not Apply

We need to start thinking now what do we do when large sections of the population are unemployable through no fault of their own.  What to do in a future where, for most jobs, humans need not apply? Please watch this 15 minute video. The quote, from the conclusion of the video you just watched, […]

Gonski and Faux Reform

Now the extra base funding necessary to get us to this school resourcing standard over six years is $14.5 billion. It’s a lot of money, but I believe it is a wise investment in our children’s future and in our nation’s future. J. Gillard The Gonski Review has led to our Prime Minister announcing “the biggest changes […]

Learning a Living

“I want to do something I am interested in. I want to pursue my passions and live happily.” Quiia Cheng (17) “China is getting rich now. But if you look at the picture more closely, you’ll see that China is very unequal. So – how do we make society more equal? How do we divide […]

The Wrong Conversations

  Fairfax has signalled that the future is online Fairfax cuts 1900 jobs   Fairfax media, publishing the Sydney Morning Herald, since 1831, is the latest industry to be forced to change, perhaps too late, in response to the digital revolution. Many suggested the writing was on the wall 15 years ago and that tardiness, […]

The aims of the system

This is not about people in the system but the system itself. It is difficult to know how the current controversies, the numerous proposed changes in the way education is organised in NSW and Australia, will impact on the next generation of children. A national curriculum, new funding arrangements for schools, the impact of technology on […]

Waiting for Gonski (Part 1)

 On 31 August 2011, the Review of Funding for Schooling panel released a Paper on Commissioned Research and four research reports, seeking feedback from the general public. It is important to note that these research reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the panel.          Source   The Review of Funding for […]

The future is here…

This post was written for the IBM 100th Anniversary website, Shaping our Future (hit the drop down under the education topic). The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed. —William Gibson, quoted in The Economist, December 4, 2003   ‘The future is here’ and this oft (over) quoted line from the father […]

‘Shut Down The Schools!’

A new report asks a very important question in, ‘What can we learn today about the students’ aspirations, adoption and adaption of emerging technologies for learning than can help us plan for the future?’ A major national survey concluded that students were already very effectively implementing a vision of socially-based, un-tethered and digitally-rich learning on […]

The Red Wheelbarrow

by William Carlos Williams (1923)   so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. Source …so much depends upon using imagery to engage students and creating opportunities for them to use imagery to engage you… Slider credit: cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by […]

Understanding the Rise of China

Anyone who read my blog in 2010 would know how a trip to Shanghai opened my eyes to what we have all been reading about over the last few years, the rise of China. The 2009 PISA results and commentaries seemed to quantify the obvious investment, vision and an absolute respect for the importance of education that I […]

Teaching design for change

How many schools, that wish to innovate and recreate learning spaces for New Times, are hampered by ‘the buildings’ and ‘the space’ the community have inherited from a bygone age? How are the conditions created to best assist change to occur when funding is scant? In this TED talk Emily Pilloton explores ‘appropriate design solutions’ […]

Your future?

How much is your future connected to what you choose to do ‘for a living’? Many of us are lucky enough to be learning/working in the field of education as it offers such great personal and professional opportunities – and, most importantly, one is able to maintain a sense of purpose by contributing to a larger community. It […]

What can we learn from the World Cup?

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 […]

‘Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future’*

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. […]

Tim O'Reilly Explains the Internet of Things

I really enjoyed this post from Read Write Web, the ‘Internet of Things’, highlighting Tim O’Reilly’s recent keynote. Some viewing. The first video is 5 minutes long and the second is 36 minute but worth your time. After my viewing, I had the following in my mind: Q: What does it all mean for our students, communities and […]

Whatever Happened to the Book is Happening Now!

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. […]

5 Minds for the Future

I managed to read Howard Gardner’s most recent book, 5 Minds for the Future these holidays and think it a useful tract. I enjoyed the book. It would be rare that an educator did not know Gardner’s contested work on multiple intelligences and to have made use of it in their classroom. He opens his book suggesting that […]