When Yong Zhao was last in Australia, I asked if he would consider contributing a guest post to bluyonder. I’m pleased to say his post, which is adapted from his newly published book ‘Never Send a Human to Do a Machine’s Job: Correcting the Top 5 Ed Tech Mistakes‘ is below. Yong suggests that we need to consider … More How technology will make teachers more human
I am often asked about what technologies and devices will be like in the near future. Given the innovation, the rate of change, and the exponential power of new technologies, not to mention the cost, this question is understandable. Up unto the last two to three years it was all about “picking the winner” in … More Are raspberry pi(es) good for you?
Following on from last week’s blog post on big data, I had the great pleasure of meeting researcher and educator George Siemens recently. George is the Associate Director, Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute at Athabasca University in Canada. He was also one of the first people ever to facilitate the use of MOOCs. George has been immersed in learning and … More A different level of insight
Canadian principal George Couros spent last week sharing his ‘connected’ learning with our teachers and leaders. Several school leaders said they felt ‘inspired’ after hearing George talk so passionately about his students, profession and his professional learning. The workshops with George and our Principals Masterclass may look like ‘stand-alone’ or ‘one-off’ events but they are … More ‘Connected’ learning
I have often asked my colleagues to write guest blogs as a way of sharing expertise from those at the coalface. In reality, those at the heart of schooling are our students. In May, we hosted the Council of Catholic School Parents’ Conference. The theme was iConnect and the weekend was in part an opportunity … More A learner’s voice
A few months ago I came across an ad for IBM in the Harvard Business Review. The title was “The more we know, the more we want to change everything.” Ads don’t normally capture my attention but this one did. As I’ve written before, there are many things that schools can learn from business. We … More Big data buzz
Don Tapscott’s latest book is not actually a book but an iPad app New Solutions for a Connected Planet. It was created in partnership with Thinkers50 and sponsored by the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. What makes this app innovative is that it is an evolving ‘book’ full of real-time, rich … More The 21st Century Textbook
I’m not sure if you have had this experience, but the last thing I expected while travelling in Greece on a pilgrimage with Catholic Education colleagues was to be approached by two fellow Australians who recognised me from my Twitter profile. It was a powerful moment to connect ‘face to face’ with people who had … More It’s a small ‘virtual’ world
It never ceases to amaze me how when confronted with challenging issues we tend to default to our past experiences. Perhaps it’s because hindsight provides 20/20 vision or because it gives us a sense of security to cling to what we know. But in a knowledge age, when it comes to solving today’s problems and … More Learning without a licence
The New Media Consortium will release its 2012 K-12 Edition of the Horizon Report next month. I’ve read this with great interest over past years as it identifies and describes emerging technologies which will impact on education over the next 1-5 years. If you’re interested, you can read through the Horizon Project preview – it predicts that … More Are we trend setters or chasers?
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