PISA and the Disadvantaged Student

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) causes a flurry of interest in educational and political circles when newspapers report the publicly released ‘rankings’, often highlighting the ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ like some international sporting competition. Then all is seemingly forgotten, just when robust debate about our educational strategies is needed. Stephen Downes posted about this issue... Read More

Golden Ages and the Problem of Perception

I believe we are in a Golden Age of civilisation. Not everyone has this way of seeing. I hear many commentators, educators and parents express grave concerns about the impact of technology, the internet, mobile devices and computers on young people and education in society generally. To me, it seems pathological, reminiscent of the comic book scare in the 1950s. @teachpaperless makes the point well, by using a quote to launch into this post, supporting... Read More

Nic Marks: The Happy Planet Index

Nic Marks‘ TED presentation about what really matters is inspiring and deserving of a very wide, powerful and influential audience. Please watch it and share with your coleagues, students and friends.  Read More

Diane Ravitch

“Diane Ravitch is the rarest of scholars—one who reports her findings and conclusions, even when they go against conventional wisdom and even when they counter her earlier, publicly espoused positions.” Howard Gardner The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education is Diane Ravitch‘s new tome. It is clear, now that I have read it, why reviewers are saying”…this... Read More

MySchool: Part II

The MySchool site lists each Australian school in a group of 60 ‘similar’ institutions using the ‘Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage’ (ICSEA). As explained at the site: The performance of schools on NAPLAN tests is greatly affected by a range of student intake and school location characteristics. When comparing schools, it is important to compare like with like. The My School website allows and encourages comparisons... Read More

MySchool: Part I

I support transparency, governments sharing information with citizens and believe schools must improve by using data, along with a range of other innovations. I applaud the Federal Government’s Digital and Building Education Revolution policies, while recognising far greater vision is needed, as they go nowhere near far enough in regards to innovation or funding. I believe that Mr Rudd and Ms Gillard have a passionate understanding that... Read More

Trends

Older internet users are catching up with Generation Y in the US it appears. Wonder what the Australian trends are in this area? Also, the latest data on German online habits reveals that 26 million German Internet users viewed more than 3 billion videos online in May 2008. That really is a staggering number of videos but American usage dwarfs this for the same month. Look at the 1 billion increase in videos watched from April to May in the USA.  Read More