Saturday 31 July 2010

1: 1 Learning - Where to now?

I will put up more links to DERNSW activities over the coming months. It is all go!

 ... and the ideas from overseas, keep coming too.

1:1 - making the most of it.

Tools and services to use with 1:1 learning

what about wikis

and blogging to enhance digital literacy

Various Themes: A Work in Progress

Today, I have realised I collect a lot of links and resources.  I don't always set them in an articulate post.

Well, does that matter?  Probably not. I may or may not come back to this list and set it up more professionally.

Virtual learning at  high school level
http://ncvirtualelert.blogspot.com/2010/07/ncvps-community-e-lert-for-july-30.html
http://www.ncvps.org/

Digital literacy of digital natives

Digital natives not media savvy.

More on mlearning

For those who do more than me with presenting to others. These people are worth following on Twitter.

Digital Literacy and the Need for Change- A much discussed concept

Getting consensus?

This is a quote presented by Greg Prior Regional Director, Western Sydney in his message to Principals, 16 July 2010

"In schools the main problem is not the absence of innovations but the presence of too many disconnected... piecemeal, superficially adorned projects... We are over our heads".  Fullan 2001

My view:

This is where effective leadership comes in. To use the concepts of Karl Weick in his theory of "loose coupling":

"Tight" on the non-negotiables and "loose" on how subject leaders learn with their staff to implement quality programs and practice.

Our BOS and DET have outlined all these requirements and expectations in current documents.

Good luck with this in your schools ...

ISTE 2010 and Assorted Professional Learning Links

From an Oz blogger: Judy O'Connell thoughts on excellence at ISTE

David Warlick on another "R"

Reflections entitle "The Digital Generation" by Kristina Peters on one of the sessions she attended.

Reflections by Angela Maiers.

... and for our general professional learning ...

The networked student model for construction of personal learning environments: Balancing teacher control and student autonomy. Drexler, W. (2010).


I like this nifty google search graphic

Online Safety - More about the Key Concepts (8)

This post is another lazy-person's mishmash of links. I hope they are of use.

More on filtering in schools.

Online bullying resources

A wiki called filterclimatecheck

Risky behaviour by social networkers.

I think this Yahoo family safety site is a revisit.

Another useful site for online safety resources.

Discussions about online safety are one of the most topical issues in education.

UK Scene: What a difference an election makes. Not.

These issues have been much updated since these early thoughts from the UK.

Should we take note and worry?

Parents to set up schools

We still need selective schooling.

Most schools will become academies

The action on education in the UK is well worth following.

Sunday 18 July 2010

Brain Waves: What's the Latest Thinking (4)

Interest continues in this topic:

How children learn language

Web 2.0 pedagogical evidence and brain research

More about the aging brain


Reduce stress by changing how you think

Thinking about happiness and sadness

Whether the angle is early learning, teaching, thinking or just article on research about our wonderful brains, I will aim to keep up with the thinking.

Sunday 11 July 2010

DER in New South Wales-Where to now? (2)

More about:

In the last of my professional learning posts, I wrote about the fine things Bianca Hewes and Phillippa Cleaves are doing to support and inspire teacher learning.

A few other teachers are active too, here is a post on using Microsoft OneNote by Melissa Giddens

... another from Bianca Hewes, reporting on North Sydney Region DER Think Tank professional learning days.

I hope someone in the DER team is compiling a collection of DER teacher posts from around the state.

and the rest of the world ...

Building the world's largest student laptop scheme an article from NZ.

and another project from NZ.

Just another post on individualising learning

Hans Rosling on global population growth | Video on TED.com

Hans Rosling on global population growth | Video on TED.com

Very topical issue now. World Population Day is today.

The world is concerned with population growth and movement.

The visual impact of his everyday tools is very powerful.

The "west and the rest" says it all.

A must-watch and must-think video.

Friday 9 July 2010

Presenting to the Office of Schools Conference - Engaging learners through innovative practice.

Darcy Moore has put together his presentation for feedback.

My thoughts:
Great prezi, Darcy!  Lots of useful in and out of class ideas. 
It is difficult to know how to pitch to a conference where the composition of the audience is not known.

Your "pitch" will strike chords with many people, since they will love the SRC and various activist ideas.

I would love to be in a high school at the moment, having blogED, DER devices and so on to work with. What an incredibly exciting time, it is!

I would aim to:
  • engage each teacher in the context of their teaching passion, their subjects.
  • offer generic and subject-unique quality teaching strategies
  • run refresher-sessions on literacy and numeracy teaching at the subject level so that teachers...
  • scaffold student writing [daily] using a range of text types and the blogED tool
  • assist teachers to use the blogED learning tool to get students to plan, read, write, reflect [post] on their learning in each subject
I will keep thinking about this, since the success of the Learning Tools project will be a significant achievement for public education in NSW.

More from the conference lead-up:
Bianca Hewes and Troy Martin have prepared a deck on SlideShare: DER Leadership: A Genuine Learning Revolution.

Sunday 4 July 2010

Google Alerts: A Timely Source of Information

I love finding references to my own posts in my google alerts.

I only post on a narrow set of topics, so maybe it is to be expected.







Who said, self praise is faint praise?

Who cares?