The Cognitive Apprentice must die to save the princess.

Introducing more technology at any price does not predict pedagogical change. Adoption of new theories, methods and tool sets are needed. Going from cognitive apprenticeship (the dominant school model) to project based learning changes the use and purpose of technology by changing the pattern of learning. If you haven’t noticed the pattern – its the [...]

Spy Class – Orientation

ORIENTATION for the super-secret spy class (I still have no idea what they do) was held in Evergreen tonight for distance students preparing for a role-play assessment task. This is actually the space for Scott Merrick and Co’s MUVERS activities in simulations and assessment. It’s got this great feel to it and has very simple, [...]

The whole world in our hands

This video appeared last week, vanished and has now returned. Laptops (Netbooks) in schools are a welcomed investment and if nothing else will finally driving some modern infrastructure in schools. It is unknown how many laptops, when or if there is on-going funding to reach year 12. Elections will probably have a lot to do [...]

Never mind the learning, heres the policy

RESOURCES may bring people to to start line, but won’t motivate them to take part in what they often perceive to be a marathon. Most teachers consider themselves busy and time poor. They are already providing many hours free to deal with expanding workplace demands. Teaching is a complex juggling act between academic, discipline learning [...]

How to assess international spys

DISTANCE students in an International Security course at Macquarie University are about to play games. The are playing the roles of people who might potentially be making some of very important ones for real. It seems that the chances are, many conversations will happen over great distance as well as in the conference room. While [...]

What if I look up more and inward less?

NOTHING stays the same it seems, yet education follows familiar annual cycles. There are signals of change in  Australia and schools will see a flood tide of new technologies and values appear in classrooms in 2010/11. These are likely to be tampered by continued frustration around filters, opaque policy, premium-economy schools, inequity in funding,  new [...]

Proximity of influence

Suzie Boss at Edutopia, posted a great article about ‘a back porch for teachers’, illustrating why it is important to create some time and space in the local community to talk about the business of learning and teaching. In this post I’d like to share how Suzie’s post aligns with some of the work I’m [...]

Honey, we got your report and … we need to talk.

THE SCHOOL REPORT has shown up, and well, frankly – its a bit of a broken record. Must try harder, doesn’t stay on task, distracts others, easily distracted, does not take responsibility for his own learning, often skips class and disrespects the teacher. Yep, I just read another government funded report on the state of [...]

Online School of Opportunity (OSO)

Mashable posted  “Why Teens Don’t Tweet”, giving a range of data and view on the demographics of a social network growing at +1300% a month. It made me wonder about how effective we are at competing for the attention of students, teachers and educational leaders. Are we too busy pressing the ‘Digg’ button and missing [...]

Beautiful puzzles and alco foil planets

SAMOROST is a beautiful browser based flash puzzle game. The animation, illustration. sound and character development is amazing. A stand out in the genre of online games and puzzles. The basic level is also FREE, loads fast and invites exploration! It is so visually rich that it can easily be used to create a digital [...]