An Expat Educator in Asia

I think it is a given that young people are going to connect online. All of the research indicates that young people are flocking to the free online communities like facebook at an unprecedented rate. As educators, parents, concerned citizens, the big question for us all is not “should our kids be online in [...]

Interesting discussion on the Oz Teachers list on teachers “befriending” students on sites like MySpace and Facebook.
I have copied a summary here for your interest:

Some think it is okay to include students as friends but are very circumspect; others think that it is crossing the line between private and professional lives, particularly with current [...]

Readers will know that I am very, very keen to have a student strand to the 21st Century Learning @ Hong Kong conference this October. I really feel that this will add a strong air of authenticity to what we are going to be discussing at the conference. I have blogged previously about how authentic [...]

I just sent the following letter out to the members of the sub-committee charged with the challenging but enormously motivating role of trying to realise a dream of having a worthwhile and successful “Student Strand” to the conference this October.

Once again I acknowledge how busy you all are and trust that you are finding [...]

I am now back in Hong Kong and on the bus on the way from the airport to home in Down town Sheung Wan. Before I get engulfed by the piles of “to dos” that will be awaiting me, I want to take a moment to reflect on the great people that gathered in Doha [...]

It often works that the things that you least expect to be of great value turn out to be really significant. I admit to not having Julie Lindsay and Vicky Davis’s Flat Classroom Conference high on my priority list. Not sure why this is but I think it might have something to do with the [...]

I am currently enjoying listening to a forum on 21st Century Learning being hosted by the very able Richard Aedy in Melbourne. It features the following:
Professor Barry McGaw
Head of the National Curriculum Board and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute
Valerie Hannon
Director of Strategy for the UK Innovation Unit
Chris Wardlaw
Former Deputy Secretary of Education in [...]

Yesterday I read a couple of replies on email lists to a teacher keen to start blogging with a class.
The replies and advice were so good that I wanted to record them here.
The first bit of advice comes from Anne Mirtschin, a teacher from country Victoria who gave these pearls of wisdom:

1.   Initially I would [...]

[slideshare id=294420&doc=web-2-for-english11-1204762641989421-3&w=425]I guess it is timely given that I have the Web 2.0 workshop in the morning to have such a huge number of great blog and wiki links come my way recently. The biggest collection has been referred on my Jeff Utecht’s thinking stick blog post When blogs are just what your school does. [...]