BYOT: Not everyone needs a device.
But perhaps we don’t need every student to have a device? I’ve been arguing for a while that schools need to think much more closely at the wonderful gift they currently have of having students actually attend school in person. As online education grows so does the potential for students to opt out of face […]
Kindle on holiday
I was given a Kindle for my birthday. And I loved it. I took it on holiday to Sicily. And I loved how much lighter my bags were without all those holiday books. Heaven. The screen bust. And now, bookless, I have to trawl those English bookshops which only seem to sell dog-eared Danielle Steel […]
How to listen better
Worth a watch. Almost wish TED could rebrand itself so I don’t feel I’m always watching TED. The 5 steps are: Silence. 3 minutes a day helps recalibrate your ears The Mixer. See how many channels of sound you can hear. Savouring. Enjoy mundane sounds, e.g. tumble dryer. Listening Positions. Move to different positions to...
It is Sir Ken not Saint Ken
Will Orr-Ewing has a thoughtful post here, and it says a lot of things that needed to be said. Very much worth a read. [Update: George Haines has more to say on Sir Ken and the Kool Aid problem – thanks @surreallyno]
Students making games to help them learn
This, from link: EdTech Toolbox, is really exciting. I had a student approach me today with a game that he has based around the unit of work that we are studying. Each of the students negotiate their own research based on their understanding of the concepts covered by the unit. He has used Game Salad […]
Social Media, Technographics & Schools
Getting social media off the ground in schools is hard. And it’s hard even when staff know some IT basics. I’m not sure this is practically helpful, but it does at least provide a framework for discussions. Forrester have classified various social media types and then used their research data to show you what the […]
The next few months
Teeny bit depressing. But ho hum, mustn’t grumble, etc. etc.
Baroness Greenfield’s brain is being melted by MyFace waves
Baroness Greenfield is at it again. The internet is very bad for children’s brains, it seems. Starter for 10: which UK newspaper had this as a headline? Facebook and Twitter are creating a vain generation of self-obsessed people with child-like need for feedback, warns top scientist Yup. The Daily Mail. Stephen Downes points to a...
More on Mindfulness in Schools
Still thinking about ways of cultivating mindfulness & resilience in students. There’s an excellent article at Psyblog called How Meditation Improves Attention. It provides some evidence from the academics and, usefully for my purposes, a quick beginner’s guide which is simple enough to explain to students. Meditation is...
Books, desert islands and play with a capital P
Isn’t this, in reverse order, what we should be showing children books can do? [via 3quarksdaily ] Robinson Crusoe is notable for a lot of reasons. It was one of the first English novels. It brings up stuff like cultural relativism and morality and providence with a capital P. Marx favorably critiqued its depiction of […]