An Expat Educator in Asia

I read an interesting post recently about the Open Source Operating System on the XO notebook that Negoroponte wants to put in the hands of the world’s disadvantaged children via the one laptop per child project. This software is called sugar and is apparently now finding favour with more than just the XO laptops. The [...]

Filed under: 1:1 access in schools, Appropriate Hardware for Education, Learning for a Flat World | 1 Comment »

I just wanted to put up a post with some starter ideas for some early years teachers I am working with in terms of introducing them to the EWB at the moment. Here are some ideas.
Firstly, the kids need to be on their toes, ready to be called up at any time. This classtools.net activity [...]

Filed under: Electronic Whiteboards, Ideas for Great Lessons | No Comments »

I know that a great many educators in this region are looking at mobile devices including PDAs and even mobile phones as learning devices. I recently read this posting to a list which I felt compelled to copy here so that teachers are at least aware that such work is taking place and is possible.
Many [...]

Filed under: Appropriate Hardware for Education | No Comments »

I just read this post from Barbara Braxton on the Oz Teachers list. I remember sending this rather addictive link around myself last year.
Try http://flightsimx.archive.amnesia.com.au/ (but don’t get addicted) and create a league for the students.  Have them investigate all the different designs for paper planes and experiment to see if one design [...]

Filed under: Ideas for Great Lessons | 2 Comments »

I came across a great post by Jason de Nys last week that is worth sharing, especially if you are one of those really organised teachers already working on planning for the new school year.
Jason mentioned two tools for classroom organisation:
Termites for creating seating plans

and Monkey, for creating productive groups

Here is what he had to [...]

Filed under: Ideas for Great Lessons, Learning for a Flat World | 1 Comment »

I really enjoyed the conversation in the back channel during the most recent episode What Stalls the Shift? of David Carpenter and Jeff Utecht’s On Deck Podcast. This was the first time that my commitments allowed me to do this but I am a big fan of this style of interaction and will ensure that [...]

Filed under: Learning for a Flat World | 3 Comments »

Just returned from the citers 2008 conference at HKU. It was really professionally organised, as usual and was a credit to all at CITE.
I enjoyed the plenary by Professor Nancy Law. She spoke of the SITES2006 study into pedagogy and IT use in schools around the world.
She also introduced another study by researcher Ms [...]

Filed under: Education in Hong Kong, Educational Conferences | No Comments »

I responded to a post in the OZ-Teachers email list today on rolling out EWBs in a school in Australia.
Have just taken delivery of our first wireless (wacom) tablet & data projector (with more on the way) as we explore less expensive alternatives to putting interactivity into our classrooms. I am very excited about the [...]

Filed under: Appropriate Hardware for Education, Electronic Whiteboards | No Comments »

I must confess that the first time I used a document camera in a classroom, it was not the most useful device I have ever had access to. This is a combination of the fact that the one I had was very small and limited in its functionality and the subject I was teaching was [...]

Filed under: Appropriate Hardware for Education, Electronic Whiteboards, Ideas for Great Lessons | 3 Comments »

Interesting to read Chris Betcher’s “rant” on teachers opting to stand on the sidelines when it comes to integrating technology use into learning today.
I really don’t know where I stand on all of this as I am dealing a lot more with educational leadership here in Hong Kong and I can’t help but lay a [...]

Filed under: Education in Hong Kong, Learning for a Flat World | No Comments »