#edchatnz is on!
#edchatnz Tweets
The teaching profession needs to undergo fundamental change
Are computers programming our children or are we teaching our children how to program computers? I bought Miss11 an iPad for Christmas. She takes it to school and uses it for learning. Maths Games, Spelling Games and research are most of what she does in year 6. This is surprisingly good. You couldn’t motivate her […]
Investing in Educational Success – what it might mean for parents, unions and laptops
The General Election in September will be all about education. The National Party has been on the front foot this year – and this is a little unusual. One of their key policies is IES – Investing in Educational Success. In a nutshell, $358m over three years invested into teacher salaries. Clusters of about 10 […]
Cee – Dee – Eee – A Platform for Learning
Last week I wrote about learning. It’s a Banquet, not a Soup Kitchen. I’ve been thinking about how to assess whether this kind of twenty-first century learning is going on. I’m calling it: Cee, Dee, Eee. This is basically a set of KPIs. Unfortunately, I need to describe it backwards. It’s not my fault the […]
Learning is a Banquet, not a Soup Kitchen
Teaching used to be about knowledge distribution. “I’ll show you this knowledge today. Tomorrow, I’ll build on that and share some more knowledge…” The teacher was the source of knowledge. Teachers controlled the flow, quality and timing of knowledge. The student was the grateful recipient. There were many structures in place to support this idea: […]
Invisible Technology – a vision for school IT
A friend asked me what my dream for the IT systems at school were. This is it: Seamless integration of ICT tools across our two sites, so that the tools become invisible. Students and teachers are so focused on learning they’re not even aware of the technologies being used. Invisible ICT enables teaching and learning. […]
Sleep is for the Week – a weekly(ish) roundup, Edition 2
Ashton Kutcher This is a fantastic piece of motivation for teenagers. Ashton Kutcher uses his acceptance speech at the Teen Choice Awards to give some great advice to teens. My favourite quotes are: “…opportunity looks a lot like hard work…” and “…I never had a job that I was better than…” Te Raranga This is […]
Sleep is for the Week – a weekly(ish) roundup, Edition 1
I’m going to try a weekly roundup of edtech news and releases. I hope it will be a little easier to digest and more compact than several emails per day. This week: Chrome. Huh? Monte Vista Christian School Conference – Education in a Changing World Delicious – social bookmarking Learning over Lunch (LoL) Blogging Fever […]
Can girls fix computers?
HP have a great onsite warranty scheme. If your computer breaks, they a technician to fix on onsite. It’s a great service. A few times now I’ve had a young lady from India fix machines from me. She breaks a bunch of stereotypes. She’s a very competent woman who fixes computers. She came today while […]
Kodu game lab “see how they run!”
I’ve been looking at Kodu Game lab with my Year 8 Technology Classes. Kodu is an app where students create their own games. There’s some great programming and creativity going on, but the main thing that excites me is how little instruction I need to give. Every student is really just working it out by […]
