Creative Commons in schools

“Universal access to research, education and participation in culture” – Creative Commons Aotearoa goal. I recently attended one of the sessions being held around the country by Creative Commons Aotearoa, featuring guest presenters included Matt McGregor, Keitha Booth, Andrew Matangi, Ian Munro and Stephen Lethbridge. Together, they offered a quick-fire overview of the issues, challenges and […]

Teaching as inquiry and e-learning: 3 questions

I have done a fair bit of work with schools recently exploring what the ‘teaching as inquiry’ professional learning cycle looks like in a school that has e-learning as a focus. There seem to be a handful of key questions that keep coming up that I thought I would touch on in this post 1. […]

iPads for learning: Connections, diversity and coherence

It was great to see the most recent publication of Computers in New Zealand Schools: Learning, Teaching,Technology, 25(1-3) come out recently. It took the use of iPads in schools as its theme, one that is certainly topical, whether one prefers this as tool for learning or not. As the editorial by Cowie and Williams (p. 1-2) […]

My CORE Breakfasts 2014: Digitising professional learning – or not.

“You actually bring about real change by working with … people. Not by demonstrating, but by working alongside them and getting into the core of what it is. To really bring about change, you’ve got to get an understanding about what that person is about and what drives that person. You can’t just do it to […]

BYOD: Build your own depth

Today I’m sharing a thought to conjure with. My recent presentations to schools have increasingly emphasised the inclusive nature of effective learning design. The importance of designing different pathways around the learners, those people, both students and teachers, who sit at the heart of how we think about learning programmes. Dimensions of effective teaching A recent […]

The impact of digital technology on learning

I recently saw the following piece of research – “The Impact of Digital Technology on Learning” – pass across my desktop, via DERN (the Digital Education Research Network). Overview In their intro to this report, DERN states: “Taking into account the scarcity of rigorous research into the benefits of teaching and learning with digital technologies, [this […]

National Digital Forum Conference: Where education and GLAM collided

A belated post but only because the riches of the National Digital Forum conference [#NDFNZ] have been percolating and settling. On one level, going to this event as an educator feels a bit like sneaking in on someone else’s guest list, the focus largely being the GLAM sector. But increasingly I feel the benefit of reaching […]

Only some of us can be digital citizens

“I have children in my class whose parents do not want them to appear online. So how can I do collaborative work with those children? They have to do something else and that’s not fair at all…” It is quite normal, even ideal, to surface crunchy questions during sessions with schools. One of the workshops […]

Online community facilitation | Jumping off points

Facilitating an online community for a client relies on a careful tightrope walk between the needs of the client and the needs of the community members.

#Ulearn13 Reflection | Four ideas in evolution

The #ULearn13 conference last week, for me, was a blur of workshops [check out the end of this post for the full list of my resources] and working with the Social Media team in CORE to blend, integrate and support teachers to look at connecting their practice. I would have dearly loved to have got […]