creative commons licensed (BY-NC) flickr photo by Andrew Huff: http://flickr.com/photos/deadhorse/405395160 For the last few weeks I've been living in two spaces, this space and my new home at www.readwriterespond.com . I've been doing a bit of renovating, touching up a few things, but the time has come to say goodbye. Blogger was a great space in which to start. I loved the simplicity. However, asking to borrow the keys each time kind of had its limits. Instead I've gone and reclaimed my own domain. So if you want to continue the conversation, you can catch me over there. If your interested in setting up your own space, speak with +Jim Groom and the team at www.reclaimhosting.com or check out the original Blog Talk episode ...
There are so many ideas and arguments that seem to get bandied around online and at conferences that sometimes feel as if they lack any evidence and elaboration to explain them. These are the things that are thrown around during keynotes and chats as support for whatever is being argued. The two most common for me seem to be John Hattie's effect size and the phenomenal success of the Finnish education system. Some of the things commonly attributed to Finland are that teachers are allocated a lot of timhe to prepare and that they do not do a lot of explicit testing. The problem with these ideas is that they lack perspective and speak of Finland as if it were some sort of ahistorical commodity, rather than an organic system continuing to grow and evolve. Continuing with my recent love of audio books , I therefore decided to listen to Pasi Salsberg's Finnish Lesson . For I knew that there had to be more to Finnish edu cation than a few titbits. As I have worked my way through the