Author: admin

Finally, I’ve reached that stage of my PhD where the writing can commence! I think this is the part that most students find challenging – I’m sure I will, but so far I’ve really enjoyed the experience. Doing it part time has allowed me to adopt a far more leisurely pace, which has been enjoyable,…

Like I imagine most teachers did, I read the details of the Gonski reforms with a degree of tiredness, trepidation and more than a little cynicism. Again, like most teachers, I felt pretty pleased at the increased levels of funding, and funding based on the needs of every child rather than the type of school,…

There’s been a lot of talk about iBooks Author and iTunes U recently in education circles, especially as the iPad makes its way into the educational systems in Australia. It’s a pretty exciting prospect, I must admit. For those of you who don’t know, iBooks Author allows teachers to create their own textbooks – but…

Recently, I was fortunate to attend an Apple Distinguished Educator’s event for South East Asia. It was a brilliant event – there’s no doubting that Apple, at this time, has the will and the desire, as well as the tools, to engage in a campaign of digital destruction of education – after all, I don’t…

Carrying on from my previous post, where I bemoaned the fact that lockers shouldn’t really have a place in schools anymore, or at least not in the form that they currently have, I started seeing lots of other things that I think schools should get rid off. The next thing that I noticed was the…

I think most people would acknowledge that the pace of change in schools has been – and continues to be –  for the most part, glacially slow. Computers, which have revolutionised the way businesses run for the better part of 40 years, are now only just beginning to make their presence felt. Strangely, there is…

I’m not a journalist. I’m not an academic who studies communication. I’m not someone who ever has, nor do I think I ever will, work in the media. Like they say, I’ve got the face of a radio star! I preface this blog post with that introduction because I acknowledge that I am about to…

I read, recently, with great interest that apparently the NSW Government is making plans to introduce a policy that will ensure that people who want to be teachers have to get band 5s in at least 3 subjects – and one of them has to be English. So what’s my problem with that? Well, in…

I read, with some interest, and no little sadness, about the death of Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela earlier this week. It might seem a strange thing to say, considering the way that he’s been villified as an enemy to democracy, but I actually think that, in order to approximate the truth, we need…

So, I’ve reached that stage in my doctoral work where I need to start putting together all of the work that I’ve done in the form of some kind of extended writing. Originally, I’d planned to go down the path of a submission of a portfolio – I mean, I’m already there with a couple…