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Introduction With the increasing prevalence of technology and social media in schools, it is important for school leaders and teachers to keep in mind the purpose of including such technology; namely, to improve student learning outcomes. Although it is natural to shy away from cost-benefit arguments in education, nevertheless it is important to consider how…

An idea that is beginning to gain a lot of favour in educational circles at the moment is the notion of fixed versus growth mindsets, and how they might relate to students and learning. Based on the work of Stanford University psychologist, Carol Dweck, the idea of mindset is related to our understanding of where…

It was a great weekend for so many reasons: the Socceroos (and by the way, can we change the name, please?) won the Asian Cup in a thriller against South Korea, the Cricket team thrashed the poms, and of course, Queensland handed a message to the ruling LNP that was unambiguous., to say the least….

I don’t really know how to start to write this blog post. Anything I write here seems to be pointless – firstly, because it’s all been said and done before, and secondly, because I find it hard to understand what possible good it might do. I’ve heard it said that funerals are for the living,…

Travelling via public transport gives you unparalleled opportunities to engage in that most city-like of activities: people watching. I know this because, for the last few days, as I’ve headed into Sydney to complete some basic training for my new job as an Organiser, I’ve done exactly that. It takes about an hour – sometimes…

So 2015 is going to be a new beginning for a lot of reasons, some of which I’ll write about and some of which I am not going to. One of the biggest is that I’ll no longer be in the classroom: instead, I’ll be working as a union organiser for the Independent Education Union,…

So, as the song goes, another year is just about over, and a new one is soon to begin. Or something like that. I like this time of year because it gives you a chance to actually stop and reflect about what you’ve achieved – something that you don’t often get a chance to do…

So, I finally got around to going and seeing Interstellar on the weekend – blame a cancelled flight to Brisbane, in addition to the cancellation of the first test at the ‘Gabba for that little opportunity. I don’t know about you, but I find going to the cinema to be an excruciating prospect at the…

Steve Jobs is reputed to have said that the best stylus for the iPad was at the end of your hands; that is, your finger. In many ways, he’s probably right, but I think he misunderstood how much even a couple of generations of computer use have conditioned us to use other tools for input….

Plenty has already been written – by people far more knowledgeable than I – about the events in Ferguson following the decision not to indict a police officer for the shooting of a black teenager. There’s also been a lot written about First Contact, the SBS TV show that exposed white Australians to the lived…