The Professional and the Personal

Back in 2008, Martin Weller’s video, A Twitter Love Song, captured the potential of social media to be the ‘sweet spot’, a kind of comfortable marriage of the personal with the professional. This ‘subjective’ video message of Martin’s really appealed at the time (and still does). This, I think it is fair to warn you, is a […]

Digital citizenship in an era where Big Data is your new Big Brother

How do we best educate children to be thoughtful about their online security in these rapidly changing times? The challenge of staying up-to-date, when technological innovation gallops at breakneck speed and new tools are available daily, is a major challenge for most of us. However, it is not just an understanding of technology that is […]

How to live

‘Montaigne liked to present himself as an ordinary man, distinguished from others only by his habit of writing things down’. I am halfway through Montaigne’s essays  and recommend them as great reflections to keep on your bedside table. If you are interested in the seismic shifts we have experienced in our hyperconnected age – the rise of the […]

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: Digital Communication Tools (Part II)

In the age of ‘infowhelm’ choosing the appropriate digital communication tools – to stay in-the-loop and professionally connected – is essential for any professional person, especially teacher-librarians. A teacher-librarian can make a start on developing a Personal Learning Network (PLN) by following these steps at their own pace: finding several excellent blogs to follow and […]

Connected…or at least, connecting!

The department supports its employees’ participation in social media online applications such as social networking sites, wikis, blogs, microblogs, video and audio sharing sites and message boards that allow people to easily publish, share and discuss content. The above quote is the opening statement in the new Social Media Policy released by my employer, the NSW […]

‘Rethinking Education’

Michael Wesch has been such an important educational thinker and innovator for so many of us in recent years. Here is his ‘Rethinking Education’ video recently posted on his YouTube channel which is a must subscribe to space. You can submit entries for @mwesch‘s next video here. This is an remix of the submissions so far:

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 […]

One Social Web

OneSocialWeb is a ‘free open decentralized social networking platform’ in development and will, undoubtedly, try and capitalise on the widespread dissatisfaction with Facebook’s privacy policies. [vodpod id=Video.3604307&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] more about “YouTube – Why OneSocialWeb?“, posted with vodpod

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 […]

Social Media Explained Visually

@achurches tweeted this great visual explanation of social media video today [vodpod id=Video.3353602&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] more about “Social Media Explained Visually“, posted with vodpod