Brian's Blog

Through the tools of social media and small-scale action research educators can be equipped with the necessary resources to engage with larger scale research and researchers. They can identify the strengths, potential classroom implication and aspects that are readily accessible with relation to practice. Some personal examples of when teachers have applied the above understandings are when students readily access visible thinking routines (Ritchhart, et. al., 2011) and a growth mindset (Dweck, 2009) within the course of the learning sequence as a framework of learning not as once off lessons that do not have a lasting impact. The teachers have not read through the complete works; however, interacted with enough others both in text and face to face that had to draw rich conclusions and move to the stage of classroom investigation. Similar experiences can be said about Hattie’s (2007) feedback and Halbert and Kaser’s (2011) Spirals of Inquiry. Given the high levels of variability i...

With there being such a degree of importance on educators becoming researcher and educators lacking the time to engage appropriately with the research the question could be asked what is the way forward? This essay proposes that educators have two viable means to engage with the research. The first is to crowd source, enabling time and expertise by using mechanisms such as social media, more specifically twitter to draw rich understandings of scholarly research and secondly, conducting small-scale projects themselves through action research. Discussing what works and doesn’t work was a normal part of a teacher’s everyday life; however, since the rise of social media, educators have also begun to use twitter as a forum. This informal research offers teachers benefits through the sharing resources and discussing ways of thinking and understanding. Examples of this can be seen in the personal interactions on twitter between Mark Weston and classroom teachers (Weston, 2015) and th...

The following has been borrowed from my end of year post last year as it still remains appropriate. "The one guaranteed constant in educational technology is change, and the pace of that change is definitely accelerating. So as we approach the New Year I thought it a virtuous time to reflect on this year's development in the use of technology at my school." The biggest shift I have seen with the use of technology had been a pedagogical one. I have begun to find teachers have moved away from asking about how to use specific programs, apps and hardware to focusing on this is what I want to teach what tools are out there to enhance the learning desired. This has included coding , makerspaces , video conferences and mystery locations . I have found a major shift towards teaching genres of programs eg word processing and presentation rather than 'word' and 'powerpoint'. I believe that this has been driven by a greater reliance on cloud based computing. ...

I was recently asked by a group of preservice teachers what has been the most powerful professional development strategy that I had undertaken during my career? This was a profound question because they had give me permission to share with them a practice that had revolutionized my world as an educator. My response initially took them by shock but as I explained my reasoning and philosophy they discovered an untapped supply of experts, experience and resources. Social media once was just thought of as a means to connect social stories, updates and status but in recent times there has been a professional revolution with many educators taking up Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest etc. as a means for quality professional development. It has become a form of "Guerrilla Professional Development" where educators have access to professional conversations happening around the world anytime, anywhere, without cost and restriction. For me my choice in social media has been Twitte...

Edcamp Global was a 24 hour virtual professional development program that had over 100 sessions and 1800 participates. The archive of this event can be found on the Edcamp Global's website . I was privileged enough to have been able to facilitate one of these sessions with some of my dearest and most esteemed globally connected educators. Dan Heasler – International keynote speaker, educator and writer. Passionate about issues of engagement and well-being. (Empathy Connections) Marty Keltz – Emmy Award winning producer, Educator, Co founder of the Not Perfect Hat Club movement and former Editor of Scholastic ( Touchcast ) Jenna Ball – Author and Artist, Educator, Co founder of the Not Perfect Hat Club movement and all round amazing woman. ( Not Perfect Hat Club )   Bev Ladd – Master Skype Educator, She is passionate about global learning, and collaboration. ( NPHCBlogIT , Classroom Twitter and Skype) Brett Salakas – Founder of #aussieed , Educator, Speaker and Cl...

Children benefit academically when parents and educators work together, as a parent is a child’s first and most important teacher. Within the formal education system, parent involvement is most effective when viewed as a partnership between parents and educators. Parent involvement occurs when parents and educators participate in regular two-way and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities. Parents are encouraged to be actively involved in their children’s learning at school and are included, as appropriate, in decision-making activities. This may be achieved through regular feedback for schools, students and parents regarding the social and academic progress. As such school reports are an essential element in the partnership between teachers, schools and parents. As teachers focus on building trusting collaborative relationships among families and community members; they acknowledge and respect the family in addressing any class or c...

It can be ascertained that by reading Glover et al., (2005), technology can enhance the pedagogy, subject to teachers and students engaging with it and understanding its potential.  It is a pedagogical means to achieve teaching and learning goals. Their outcomes aligned with my experience using the interactive whiteboards. The interactive whiteboard allowed the teacher to portray the information through a variety of illustration enhancing deeper understanding and engagement (Kennewell and Beauchamp, 2003). Examples of Augmented Learning achieved in my classroom that have enhancing deeper understanding and engagement. Many of these were achieved using social media such as Google Hangouts. • Virtual excursions around the Great Barrier Reef • Global games such as “ Travelling Buddies” • Class blogs & Twitter in the Classroom • Experts in the room • Global issues reporter • Mystery Locations • Not Perfect Hat Club • Blended Learning • Problem Based Learning I ...

As educators we live is such an exciting time to teach. With the onset of the Internet we have had the ability to  embed and curate videos ,  gamify ,  blog , have  Minecraft in the classroom ,  flip the learning , use  QR Codes , access  social media  and potentially  video conferencing  some educators could see that it is too much; however, I see its potential to benefit students and enhance professional development for educators.  There has been no time in history where access to information has been so immediate and available. The potential for teachers to connect and be supported in collaboration, not bound by schools, districts, states and even nations inspires me. I am acutely aware that being globally connected presents the ability to bring expertise, skill and knowledge into my classroom beyond my capabilities.  The networks that I have help me to design activities that measure students’ higher-order thinking skill...

The one guaranteed constant in educational technology is change, and the pace of that change is definitely accelerating. So as we approach the New Year I thought it a virtuous time to reflect on this years development in the use of technology at my school. Blogger Blogging has enabled both myself and my class to publish for a real world audience our reflections of learning. When starting out there was trepidation as many staff were worried about the amount of posts they could do. Initially I worked with one other staff member to build their confidence. We rolled it out to the other staff once they saw the benefits of creating a constant flow of information to parents and students through blogging. Pic Collage They say a picture tells a thousand words. With this in mind we enhance to look and feel of our class blogs by embedding collages created in Pic Collage. Pic Collage is a Top 10 mobile photo app. It is quick, fun and easy. Rotate, resize, edit and delete photos u...