Technology is increasing pervasive in all aspects of teaching and learning, whether it is the kindergarden student using the gesture based systems like the ipad to enhance their learning and to create objects and engage or the senior student researching, collaborating, communicating and socialising. No matter what the opinion of the teacher as to the [...]
TVNZ has today reported that Rangitoto College is going to allow its students access to youtube and Facebook! Controversy!!! YOUTUBE how could they allow that and Facebook …. OUTRAGE http://tvnz.co.nz/technology-news/college-keeps-youtube-facebook-in-digital-strategy-4457086 I mean, really, what planet are they living on? My students make very good use of Youtube, they access how to videos, revision clips and [...]
A colleague recently said to me, quite proudly “We are a moodle school” and another school recently announced that they were now a Google school. In both case I felt that they had let down their students. They forgotten what was important, they had forgotten about the learning of the students and focused on the [...]
We know from the research done by John Hattie, in his book Visible learning, that timely and appropriate feedback has one of the largest if not the largest effect on students learning. However, once a term reporting is hardly timely , no matter how detailed and accurate or appropriate the feedback is. Reporting isn’t enough [...]
There is a direct relationship between the level of use a student has in their personal computing device and the level and frequency of damage, misuse or presence of the device. This a trend that I have seen in many schools. Where the laptop, tablet or ipad is a core and essential element of the [...]
It was reported by the Australian news agency ABC that 80 students at a high school – Prairiewood High School in Sydney’s south-west. The students were suspended for accessing and using teacher computers to access blocked online materials – namely facebook and twitter. This raises several questions for me regarding the teaching and modeling of [...]
How do we find a balance between safety and risk? Between exploration and curiosity and danger? It doesn’t really matter what aspect of education we look at there is SHOULD always be this discussion. Curiosity Curiosity is a critical human trait, it is a core part of creativity and has led us to explore the [...]
A year and a bit ago, I had to move from my computer lab into a new classroom space. While my first visions were of a variation on the same theme, desks and desktops, I was given an option for laptops instead of desktops and this changed every thing. The classroom I had been presented [...]
As phrases go “talking to strangers” is hugely loaded. It brings connotations of child molesters, kidnappers and generally wierd and unpleasant people. We teach our students and our own children about “stranger danger” and alas many people live in fear of strangers. Given this you can image the response at a recent conference when Will [...]
One of the frustrations I had in China was the so called “Great Firewall of China” which blocked access to many sites often without apparent reason. The Blocked sites include social media like facebook, communication tools like twitter and strangely enough Google Spreadsheets , sites but not documents. However, tools like Astrill which allow you [...]
