Author: admin

I created my first Twitter account in 2007 – back when the social media giant was just beginning to take off. Over the next seven years, I’ll be honest with you – I’ve fallen in and out of love with both twitter and Facebook, and there have been long periods where my digital footprint has…

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately – not thinking for my doctorate, but thinking about my doctorate. It’s not often one has the opportunity to devote such a lengthy amount of time to any one project as you do in a program of doctoral study, and it is a privilege to do so;…

I’m generally not a huge fan of streaming. There’s a lot about it that I don’t like – in some schools, I see it being used as a tool to punish children. Having said that, I’ve been contemplating the way that it might work in schools that I’ve worked in. Ultimately, my dream – and…

I’m watching the cricket on Saturday night, and it’s Australia playing South Africa at the Harare Sports Club. It’s put me in some kind of nostalgic mood; I know that both my parents watched people play there at some point, and I’ve heard the stories, but I’ve never been there myself, so the place is…

I’ve been reading a lot about social media and the maker movement. It’s been generally good stuff and I’ve actually enjoyed it, which isn’t always the case with some of the stuff that I’ve read for my doctorate. I’ve been thinking about why that might be the case, and I think it’s related to the…

I think that one of the best thing that a teacher can do for his or her students is to provide them with opportunities to engage with authentic audiences. This broadens the school community beyond the classroom walls, and allows students to see their work in a real context. Of course, it needs to be…

Something that’s been on my mind a lot lately has been the issue of reading and how important it is for students to read regularly, widely and deeply. I’m sure I am not alone in thinking that reading will remain one of the fundamental skills for academic success for a long time to come, regardless…

I can’t remember if I’ve written about this before but it’s a topic that I keep returning to. Privatisation – the selling off of public assets to private companies. It’s been standard economic fare for a long time now, beloved by neoliberals and their ilk. The basic theory of it goes a little bit like…

I was listening to Philip Adams on the drive home to work and he was speaking to an economist whose name I didn’t catch. I know that Adams is an unabashed ‘lefty’ – whatever that means in today’s day and age – and most people would argue that he’s hardly impartial about things like the…

The death of Robin Williams caused me to reflect on his work. I’ve always liked him as an actor, but I don’t think I would have ever said that he was my favourite actor or anything like that. To me – and I think this is probably a limited point of view, betraying my own narrow…