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

‘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 their own, in and out of school, with or without the assistance and... Read More

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 justmakeit  Read More

Thoughts About What’s Important in 2011 and Beyond at Our School

Hello colleagues, I jotted down a list of thoughts about 2011 that feel important for me to personally remember about our school and our directions. As you can imagine, it kept growing and is somewhat incomplete. Some are basic, somewhat mundane procedural matters that all schools employ but others are philosophically important, or fundamental, if each student is to engage with learning successfully and staff continue to have a vibrant workplace... Read More

10 questions for your child’s teacher

I have never had a parent ask me any of the questions listed below, except, perhaps, the one about ‘happiness’ in a number of guises. I wish someone would. How would your child’s teachers fare if asked these questions: 1. What is your educational philosophy? 2. How are you assisting our child to become a self-directed learner? 3. What professional reading are you undertaking at the moment? 4. What are you reading for fun? 5. How... Read More

Asperger’s syndrome

Asperger’s syndrome has been explored in a number of creative ways in recent years but many people in the community are still relatively unaware of the impact of the syndrome on the individual’s life.  Dean Groom posted this video on the weekend. It resounds with me too. It is both informative and a good short animation.   Read More

‘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. Phil has the following tables outlining some ’false dichotomies in education’ that are of particular... Read More

Growing-up online documentary

This PBS FRONTLINE documentary screened earlier in the year may be of interest. I found it pretty sensational but the chapter on high schools coping with the ‘revolution in classrooms’ and how many teachers were struggling to cater to this generation is worth watching. The anti-plagiarism site Turnitin must be doing a raging business in the USA. I loved it where the students commented about the ‘fakes’ who have 2000 Facebook... Read More

Building planes – as they fly

A wonderful analogy for what we are trying to do at the moment in schools, although you could, one imagines, read it very differently:    Read More