Over the past year or so Beyond Chalk has had the privalege of working with tens of thousands of teachers throughout Australia. We are constantly inspired by the teachers who are transforming their schools and classrooms, so that future generations will be prepared to lead our great country in this technological 21st Century. …

Twiddla is a real-time online collaboration tool. Imagine traditional brainstorming with marker pens on a white board or a large piece of poster paper. Now transfer that vision to collaborating real time on the internet.  Check it out at www.twiddla.com

There have already been some great posts written about social bookmarking by my colleagues at Beyond Chalk. There are a number of excellent bookmarking websites, with slight variences between them.
One aspect that I like about Diigo is being able to join like minded groups and receive feeds about great sites that …

As discussed in a previous blog, ‘multiliteracies’ is one of the Literacy Education buzz words. It has been recognised in education for numerous decades that literacy and meaning making is multimodal, and this includes online communication.
Our students are increasingly engaging with literacy online and there is great debate as to …

Since the beginning of time music has universally been one of the most powerful forms of communication and has long been used as a tool for teaching literacy. Music not only stimulates our senses and emotions, it also engages our listening, speaking, writing and reading skills.
Young children are naturally responsive …

Ever year thousands of Australian students graduate with the hope of entering the work force or college. It is widely accepted that these students dont only compete against each other, but in fact compete in a global market. China is often quoted as the next world super power, producing savy, english …

World headlines would indicate MI6 intelligence has been compromised by Facebook. It depends however, if you would consider the style of swimmers that the future head of the intelligence agency wears a national secret?
 

As his website states, ‘Steve Spangler is nationally known as a teacher’s teacher who shares his passion for learning in the classroom, on the platform, and through the airwaves. Over the last 15 years, Steve has made over 500 television appearances as an authority on hands-on science and inquiry-based learning. …

‘Multiliteracies’, one of the Literacy Education buzz words, describes what constitutes literacy and meaning making in today’s world. Furthermore, as Kalantzis and Cope (2008) point out, meaning is made in ways that are increasingly multimodal—in which written-linguistic modes of meaning interface with oral, visual, audio, gestural, tactile and spatial patterns …

A number of years ago, I was sitting in a PD session conducted by a colleague, when he placed before each of us fellow teachers a marshmallow. He told us ‘If you do not eat your marshmallow during this session, you will get another one at the end. However, if …

It has always struck me that boys and girls interact differently with ICT in the classroom. Having worked in co-educational and boys’ schools, I have noticed that girls tend to work collaboratively and creatively whilst boys tend to excitedly explore. The differences identified that exist between genders are, of course, …

Marco Torres gets it and tells it how we need to hear it! As a former Los Angeles high school teacher and now a technology and innovation educator, and a member of Barrack Obama’s Technology in Education Advisory Committee, he discussed digital learning on ABC Radio National.
He talked about how many schools get …