‘The New Science of the Teenage Brain’
The current October edition of National Geographic has an interesting article on the ‘teenage brain’. I do not usually buy this magazine but waiting for ferries in Hong Kong, and the incredibly inexpensive cover price compared with Australia, has led me to buy a couple recently for articles of ongoing interest. The New Science of the Teenage Brain does not tell educators anything completely new, if you have been paying attention for... Read More
The Education Revolution: Pledge
cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by Darcy Moore I am currently listen to the live stream from TEDxLondon of the #EducationRevolution. Here are the speakers and the Facebook page for the event. Sir Ken Robinson has just opened the conference with his usual inspiring clarity. His anecdote relating Peter Brook‘s beliefs regarding theatre, that you can strip almost everything away, except that relationship between ‘the... Read More
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
GOOGLE+
On the road for more than a month now, I have not been paying as much attention to my social media networks as usual and was a little horrified to see that foolishly I had two Google+ accounts. That’s to0 many circles. How did this happen? A colleague needed my (not often used) Gmail account to organise an invite in the first days Google+ was available. I was barely paying attention but managed to add some folks to circles and quickly check... Read More
Learning in Paris
The Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie is the biggest science museum in Europe, with the admirable goal, according to Wikipedia, of spreading ‘scientific and technical knowledge among the public, particularly for youth, and for creating public interest in science, research, and industry’. To be honest, it was my least favourite place in Paris but the kids absolutely loved it. The kinesthetic learning activities would make a constructivist... Read More
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 Department of Education of Training (recently renamed the Department of Education... Read More
Learning HDR Photography
It is always wonderful to have a fresh enthusiasm to share. HDR photography (or HDRI) is new to me and in the last weeks of the holidays I learnt much about this art. Just a few years ago it would have been very difficult for me to learn about this quickly as I do not know anybody who shoots HDR in ‘real life’ and there are no books at my local library or on the shelves at the nearby bookstore. What is HDR? High Dynamic Range photography... Read More
Civilization Revolution: Learning & Games
Do you play video games? Lucy (7) and I are playing Civilization Revolution (CivRev) on PS3 with great gusto. Sarah (4) plays this same game on the iPad and we all enjoy each others company in the family room. Here’s the opening to the game for those not familiar with Sid Meier‘s Civilization franchise: A friend, who is not a teacher, once said to me that, ‘it does not matter too much about the content at all, it is how one... Read More
Hung Parliaments and the Importance of Literature, Philosophy and History
The political uncertainty of the election ‘result’ that Australians watched unfold last night will lead to concerned discussion about what a hung parliament will mean for our democracy. There will be many at the moment worrying, including myself, about the NBN plan and what will happen to the Digital Education Revolution, if Mr Abbott is annointed. However, another interesting question is, obviously, how did a recently popular,... Read More
The Endless Ocean, Situated Learning & James Gee
Holiday Fun At the beginning of the school holidays I asked Miss 4 and Miss 6 what we could do together for fun. Quite a list emerged, including - ride the bikes, play ’Cinderella’, take photos, see Toy Story 3, play soccer in the backyard, tease Mum and go to websites – and ‘Dad, can you fix the Wii’? The Wii is now fixed and we had fun playing Endless Ocean this morning. Here’s a brief trailer, for... Read More
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