Reading Writing Responding

The Day Technology Came to Town Two things happened this week, the new iPad was released and the Immergo rolled into my classroom. A multi-touch surface that can act as both a vertical screen and a flat table, it came in as the latest and greatest tool for learning that every classroom needs, on loan for a week. It is similar to the screen used in the modern remake of the television show, Hawaii Five O. Described on the website as the 'next generation solutions for the classroom', it got me thinking what was the problem that was needed to be solved and is the Immergo really the solution. Again the old chestnut came to mind, what comes first: the pedagogy or the technology. I have spoken about this before when I looked at the way we learn. What concerned me last time was you couldn't deal with ways of thinking without also addressing how we work and the tools we use. I think much the same can be said about addressing the tools for working in the 21st Century. ...

Wrong All The Time In a post , by +Seth Godin , he spoke about how he dismissed the Internet as, "slower, harder to use and without a business model." The lesson that he learnt out of this was that there are, "two elements of successful leadership: a willingness to be wrong and an eagerness to admit it." Godin's discussion of being wrong got me thinking. What does it mean to be 'right' and 'wrong'? And how does this fit with education? Does it actually achieve anything to constantly come back to idea of their being a correct answer? It is not that I disagree with Godin's reflection, but I feel that notions of right or wrong are often left for historians reflecting on the past and even that is questionable. The terms almost feel empty and slightly trivial at times. A spoil often left to the victor. What is achieved in being right or wrong? Often being wrong does not change a thing as it is only after the moment has past t...

The Victorian government seemingly stepped up their efforts this week to move a step closer 'performance pay' this week. Principals across the state have been briefed by the government about a series of changes to current system . The government have been arguing that if you look at overall student results that they form a bell curve with roughly 30% not making the grade. The belief then is that, even though it is often impossible to 'measure' effectiveness and success, that the same distribution can be applied to teachers, with the suggestion that, just like students, 30% of teachers are not performing at the adequate standard and should therefore not be simply moved up to the next increment. The whole scenario is best summed up in an extract from a bulletin  published by the AEU today, in which they state: The DEECD Secretary replied to the AEU this morning, asserting that "no changes to the existing performance and development guidelines have been i...

When I saw the Google in Education Summit come up in my feeds a few months ago, I thought that it would be a good opportunity to reinvigorate the implementation of Google Apps in my school. Having had a bit of history with Google Drive , the implementation process has come to a bit of a stalemate. I've got to a point where everything is set up, raring to go, but nothing was being used. Often the heart of a conference is its keynotes. There were three all up. The first was from +Suan Yeo , Head of Education in Asia/Pacific region. He spoke about Google's place at the forefront of change and innovation. He shared various things such as Google Glass, the Loon Project and 20% time. What was missing though, is that although Google offer possibilities that were not possible in the past, such as a virtual tour of CERN via Google Glass, there are more pertinent points of innovation that still remain unaccomplished. For as +Richard Lambert  tweeted when Google announced the Loon P...

Tom Whitby stated in a recent blog post addressing Connected Educator Month that: "Being connected is not an add-on or a luxury for educators: it has become a necessity". I could not agree more, there are so many benefits to being connected with the wider world that were not possible in the past. The question that constantly comes up though is why are there not more people connecting? Why are there not more people sharing their ideas with the wider world? In a previous blog I wrote about what I perceive as being some of the benefits of blogging. However, what is often missed in these discussions is why more teachers do not jump on board. Some reasons that come to mind are that teachers do not see any direct benefit for them and their teaching. They do not really use the internet 'like that'. They connect enough with the people that really  matter and they are the teachers in their team. The biggest difficulty though, in my view, is finding ...