Monthly Archives: May 2008

Wikipedia recognised as a text

Posted on May 29, 2008 by

Australian first-NSW HSC students will from next year be able to take a course in studying Wikipedia, as part of the English Syllabus (SMH report). Hopefully my kids schools will no longer send notes home every year advisng not to … Continue reading →

Posted in knowledge, schooling, Social networking, Wikis | Leave a comment

Wait’n for the revolution

Posted on May 27, 2008 by

A recent seminar on our DER left me wondering (again) how many times I’ve sat through expositions of the wonders of Web2.0 , and how our schools are failing to engage students with technologies of the street. Over the years … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentries, education, Informal learning, innovation, Net Gen, professional development, schooling, Social networking, Web2 | 1 Comment

Diffusion of innovation

Posted on May 25, 2008 by

Gerry White recently recommended  to me Everett Rodgers book on Diffusion of Innovation. Rodgers nominates the 5 categories of adopters- Innovators Early adopters Early majority Late majority Laggards

Posted in innovation, knowledge, management, professional development | 2 Comments

Desire2Learn

Posted on May 19, 2008 by

An great presentation today with the CEO of Desire2Learn John Baker. Always wary of inviting vendors in the doors of a public education organisation (esp when they sniff the size of NSW). But any company fresh from doing battle with … Continue reading →

Posted in education, ePortfolio, LMS, standards, Web2 | Leave a comment

BECTA rejects Office 07

Posted on May 15, 2008 by

Yesterday Becta sent a formal complaint to the European Union against Microsoft- claiming their products do not suport open standards. BECTA says that Office 2007′s underlying format, known as Office Open XML, is not interoperable with software from other vendors.  … Continue reading →

Posted in open content, Opensource, policy, schooling, standards | 2 Comments

Business of education

Posted on May 11, 2008 by

The recent TAFE:Doing Business in  the C21  possibly highlights the contradictions in  our approach to education. The paper espouses the need for a competitive environment- students are referred to as clients and the title of the doc says it all- not about education but doing … Continue reading →

Posted in education, Public schools, Social networking, Vocational Education, Web2 | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Lessons in paradise

Posted on May 3, 2008 by

Spending some time last week in Fiji, visited a school on Malolo Levu island. It was the last day of term, so the kids were happy and appreciative, but like so many schools in emerging economies that seemed a regular … Continue reading →

Posted in education, Public schools, schooling | Leave a comment