Category Archives: schooling

Autonomous schools- outed

Posted on March 11, 2012 by

Finally the curtain has been raised on the NSW Govs. intentions over autonomous schools- as the initiative now comes out of the trial phase and into implementation late April. http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/principals-want-more-power-but-no-strings-20120311-1usob.html#ixzz1oqSYJ3kO http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/bureaucracy-of-the-department-of-education-will-be-stripped-back-under-the-states-biggest-education-revolution/story-e6freuzi-1226296356803 While Public school principals have endorsed a NSW government … Continue reading →

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

The real barrier to IT adoption

Posted on November 17, 2011 by

In response to Dan Haesler’s piece For today’s learners , it just clicks.SMH Nov 14(http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/for-todays-learners-it-just-clicks-20111113-1ndwi.html). Yes, NSW schools now have access to great learning technologies thanks in large part to the National DER initiative and our State Connected Classrooms Program. … Continue reading →

Posted in access, digital natives, schooling, Teacher | 1 Comment

Becta & beyond

Posted on May 30, 2010 by

With the recent snuffing of BECTA, must also come the warning signals for similar organisations in many other western countries including Australia.  While an outpouring of comments might suggest messages are mixed on the success of BECTA, inevitably a structure … Continue reading →

Posted in eLearning, Leadership, schooling, standards | 7 Comments

Building Innovation: learning with technologies

Posted on April 12, 2010 by

Kathryn Moyles Building Innovation is another example of some provocative issue papers already emerging this year. The paper explores national and international policy priorities for building students’ innovation capabilities through information and communication technologies (ICT) in Australian schools. Importantly it … Continue reading →

Posted in Communities, education, eLearning, Informal learning, Leadership, open content, Opensource, policy, schooling, Web2 | 5 Comments

ICT and Educational Outcomes

Posted on March 26, 2010 by

With the paucity of good educational research on ICT on educational outcomes this report  (Are the millenium learners making the grade? ) makes a significant contribution to redefining the landscape and better focusing the research question. In 2006, PISA ran its … Continue reading →

Posted in access, Leadership, Outcomes, professional development, schooling | 9 Comments

Our favourite pastime

Posted on January 30, 2010 by

Whos top and bottom of the class? Well the media revelled  (“todaythe door has opened to knowledge…”) in the Myschools website data this week- and so did everyone else. On the Train Thursday morning SMHs spread out and into the offices- even … Continue reading →

Posted in IPad, myschool, schooling | Tagged , | 1 Comment

What does C21 learning look like?

Posted on September 13, 2009 by

Yesterdays seminar What does C21 learning  look like? – interesting day with Mark Pesce doing a great job of hosting what could be argued to be an event dominated by vendor interests. This was the formal agenda but thanks to … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentries, education, eLearning, schooling, VET, Vocational Education, Web2 | 7 Comments

C21 Learning

Posted on August 30, 2009 by

A good discussion running on David Warwicks  blog on what is 21s Century learning. Dipping his toe into a muddy puddle, he has offered some succinct points, being careful not discount 20th century practise of- listening, watching, remembering, his following … Continue reading →

Posted in education, eLearning, schooling, Teacher | Leave a comment

NSW DET Netbooks

Posted on April 22, 2009 by

Lenovo is certainly getting its expected deal of press on the laptops for schools program. The S10e is an impressive device; for NSW DET- 8-9 hrs battery life, intelligent cycling, RFD/ RFI antitheft tagging-  certainly the company has risen to … Continue reading →

Posted in Laptops, Public schools, schooling | 4 Comments

1:1 laptops- research dilemma

Posted on December 17, 2008 by

Sifting through some current research papers on the value of 1:1 laptops, took me back to Tom Reeves coments some years ago regarding the paucity of good educational research. And the difficulty of any ed research are the variables to … Continue reading →

Posted in education, schooling | Leave a comment

Loos or Laptops

Posted on December 6, 2008 by

The announcement from last weekends COAG meeting on the roll out of laptops for NSW public schools, has produced a frenzy of comments in the media. While most letters to the ditor raised the inevitable- ‘why can’t the money be … Continue reading →

Posted in education, Public schools, schooling, Social networking | 2 Comments

Cyberbullying

Posted on October 24, 2008 by

After witnessing an incident with my daughter recently, and a mounting interest in this at work-the paper (thanks Jane) was timely.  ‘Confronting the Pedagogical Challenge of Cyber Safety’  highlights the paucity of empirical studies in educational contexts (‘pedagogical’ bit strong here). The … Continue reading →

Posted in Internet safety, Net Gen, policy, schooling, Social networking | Leave a comment

Mind over matter

Posted on August 26, 2008 by

Todays Edu.au seminar with Professor Martin Westwell Martin (Director Flinders Centre for Science Education in the 21st Century ). Below I’ve taken some of the main points of interest – Teachers are asked to be experts in everything. Whereas in … Continue reading →

Posted in eLearning, Informal learning, information organising, schooling, Social networking, Teacher | 3 Comments

More Shift happens

Posted on July 3, 2008 by

I know these are popular at the moment but this latest version is neat    

Posted in education, knowledge, Net Gen, Public schools, schooling, Social networking, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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

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

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

Interactive White Board-primary lessons

Posted on March 4, 2008 by

Interesting to see the changes in my daughters primary school with the introduction of IWBs in every classroom.  Her teacher seems to have undergone (as the principal) described it – a rebirth in terms of teaching. Alice comes home and … Continue reading →

Posted in eLearning, Interactive whiteboards, IWBs, professional development, schooling, Teacher | Leave a comment

Filters a no go

Posted on February 19, 2008 by

Seems like another argument against net filters is emerging as the previous Fed Govs NetAlert campaign undergoes a rethink. Piece by Heath Gilmour claims that the Rudd Government has branded a failure the $85 million software filter scheme to protect … Continue reading →

Posted in digital natives, filtering, Internet safety, schooling | Leave a comment

Waiting for the revolution

Posted on February 12, 2008 by

Reading today in the SMH about the demise in the record industry, seems to have parallels and similar lessons for education.  Firstly the industry is based on flawed assumptions: Generic business mode Monopoly on information Single source providors Users can’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentries, digital natives, education, eLearning, Informal learning, knowledge, schooling, Social networking | Leave a comment

Go ask Corey

Posted on January 19, 2008 by

In all the media frenzy around Australias new bad boy Corey Worthington (>230 Google refs so far) -no analysis of the role played by MySpace in promoting Coreys’ lifestyle. In the Phew report on teen use of social media (Dec 2007) the … Continue reading →

Posted in Net Gen, schooling, Social networking | Leave a comment