Teacher-Librarians

Thanks to Robyn Beyer and the organising committee of the Northern Sydney Regional Teacher-Librarian conference for kindly inviting me to present the keynote today. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The delegates were enthusiastic and treated me very kindly indeed. cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by Darcy Moore My pre-conference survey elicited a number of... Read More

Balance & Wisdom

Today’s information technologies provide instantaneous access to vast amounts of information, opening up wondrous new possibilities in education, commerce, and entertainment. But these opportunities are not without cost: the easy availability of information can turn into information overload; the presence of multiple communication sources and devices may lead to the fragmentation... Read More

What can we learn from Francis Fukuyama?

The purpose of this book is to fill in some of the gaps of this historical amnesia, by giving an account of where basic political institutions came from in societies that now take them for granted. The three categories of institutions in question are the ones just described: 1. the state 2. the rule of law 3. accountable government. A successful modern liberal democracy combines... Read More

“If the education system was destroyed last night…”

“What is a system? A system is a network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish the aim of the system. A system must have an aim. Without an aim, there is no system. The aim of the system must be clear to everyone in the system. The aim must include plans for the future. The aim is a value judgment. The first step is clarification: everyone in... Read More

Ethics, Gaming and Problematic Knowledge

From a teacher’s perspective, the Quality Teaching Framework is an important professional document supporting learning in NSW schools. At a glance, for readers unfamiliar with the QTF framework, here’s an overview: I’d like to relate a recent and ongoing class conversation, related to the element of ‘problematic knowledge’, raised in dialogue with... Read More

AI MOOC (Guest Post)

My colleague, Andrew Walker, writes about his experience doing Stanford University’s AI course in a guest (and his first) blog post.   cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by Darcy Moore In August last year, tech enthusiasts were buzzing with the news that Stanford University would be offering three classes online and free, in the upcoming spring semester. The... Read More

Staff Development Day – ideas for 1:1 laptop learning

Colleagues, Your mission today is to spend some time thinking and sharing about learning in your 1:1 laptop classroom. The key issue about learning in a 1:1 laptop classroom is not the technology but the pedagogy. Today we will share our knowledge, accumulated over the least three years since the rollout of netbooks, using an online tool. Please register as ‘a teacher’... Read More

iBooks Author

cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by billaday The announcement of new education tools at the ‘Apple Special Event’ excites many and leaves others with a range of concerns. Here’s a guide to this Apple education initiative if you do not watch the presentation. iBooks Author is what excites me. I think Apple’s hype is justified and this tool will... Read More

Connectivism and Connective Knowledge #CCK12

Connectivism and Connective Knowledge is an open online course that over 12 weeks explores the concepts of connectivism and connective knowledge and explore their application as a framework for theories of teaching and learning. Participation is open to everyone and there are no fees or subscriptions required. Connectivism and Connective Knowledge #CCK12 is a Massive Open Online... Read More

The best of both worlds: an anecdote

I have been asked to ‘lecture’ at the University of Wollongong this year. This position gives me the privilege of working with tertiary students preparing to become English teachers. This is an exciting opportunity and while preparing, thinking about the idealistic and the pragmatic, it became evident to me that the experience of organising to teach at the university... Read More