Reading Writing Responding

creative commons licensed (BY-NC) flickr photo by CaptPiper: http://flickr.com/photos/piper/4249136849 One of my goals this year has been to move towards a more student-centred approach. Whether it be reducing the time spent on instruction or providing more meaningful tasks, I have sort to evolve my own practise. Often such conversations open up into talk about choice , authentic projects and placing students at the centre of discussions. However, a particular ingredient that I have added to my cocktail this year has been the focus on ambiguity. Ambiguity can come in many shapes or forms. For me, it maybe leaving a project open for interpretation or providing a task where students are given a space to decide on various elements. In his book on digital literacy , Doug Belshaw wrote a fantastic explanation of ambiguity, influenced largely by William Empson's book Seven Types of Ambiguity . For me, ambiguity has come in the form of narrative. My focus has been to move the ...

Via  @hhoede  on  Twitter  I remember late last year discussing ICT with a guy I know who loves technology and he suggested to me that you need a complete vision for technology in school. Don't say, 'I wan't iPad's in Early Years or laptops in Secondary', you need to have in mind a complete vision as to what a 21st century classroom looks like, for students, for teachers, for parents, for administration, for everyone. I understood what he was saying, that when it comes to 21st century learning, it is important to have a narrative, a story to tell, a painting to show in order to provide the reason and purpose behind the call for change. The problem is that a part of me felt that every time I started imagining such a reality it simply collapsed in heap. All I could see were the road blocks, the hurdles to be jumped. For as I spoke about in my post on excuses , we so often worry about what is not possible and start there. Instead, I have decided that I...

This post is a follow up to my presentation at the Melbourne Teachmeet held at the Immigration Museum on the 10th of May. The focus was the question, "are you really connecting if you are not giving back?" This was a topic that I had previously written about in a post of the same name . The one difference was the implications for sharing in the classroom. Are you really connecting if you are not sharing? from Aaron Davis I don't know how many times I have heard Edmodo referred to as being 'Facebook for education'. Other than the fact that it simply isn't, the biggest problem I have with this is that so often such spaces are set up as a place for one way communication. Where although the teacher has stepped off the physical space, they have merely stepped into a virtual stage. Now I understand that as the teacher we have a responsibility to manage such spaces. However, should it be any wonder when there is little traction from stud...

cc licensed (BY-NC) flickr photo by Thomas Hawk: http://flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/2355249759 I am not sure if I was being naive or slightly arrogant, but this post began its life as an effort to provide an overview of the different modes and methods of inquiry. Whether it be challenged-based, project-based, problem-based or plain old inquiry, I was trying to bring everything together in my own head, to make more sense of it all. However, what I soon realised was that the more I explored the topic, the more variants that appeared, with so many different ideas and interpretations. It all came to a head when  +Richard Olsen  shared a blog with me from  +Ewan McIntosh  on the difference between project-based learning and design learning. As you read through both McIntosh's  post , as well as various comments that follow, you realise that there is little consistency throughout. Although many of the differences are only marginal, there is littl...