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 …

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 …

It’s a Computational Knowledge Engine. A what?! It’s Wolfram Alpha.
This thing is crazy! I don’t remember ever before being so excited about a search engine. Probably because Wolfram is so much more than that.
Still in it’s infancy, testing stage even, this new engine will still return the occasional error but …

This week Amazon unveiled the latest weapon in their armoury to secure the electronic reading market. The KINDLE 2 is a slinky, skinny, portable electronic book-reader. KINDLE 2 gives you access to more than 188 thousand bestsellers, magazines and newspapers.  Some have described the KINDLE 2 as Amazons book equivalent of Apples …

A bit of listening for you today. James O’Loghlin interviews Tim Pithouse from Sony BMG about how to identify legitimate sources to download music. Your children or students may be breaking the law without even knowing it.
Switch on your speakers and Click Here.

Some sketchy details have been leaked in the UK and published by The Guardian about some proposed changes to the Primary school curriculum.
The changes include:

Teaching children to use online services such as Twitter and Wikipedia effectively.
Less use of calculators
Ensuring the students have an understanding of physical development

The list goes on. …

In the spirit of the collaborative nature of Web 2.0 Creative Commons was born. Said to be a leader in the ‘CopyLeft’ movement, Creative Commons licenses clarify to the consumer/reader/viewer how the creators work can be used and distributed.