If you have the chance I would recommend that you read an excellent book on education and exercise called "Spark - the revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain" by John Ratey. source: http://www.johnratey.com/newsite/images/spark.jpg In the book he recalls a school district that changed how it measured effort in Physical education. Instead of measuring the times students took to complete the run they used heart rate monitors to measure the students heart rate during exercise. What they found was very interesting. Many of the most able students, who completed the run easily and quickly had not applied themselves, there heart rates showed that they had not pushed themselves rather had "cruised" however some of the less able students even those who had come in with the slowest times had committed themselves one hundred percent with their heart rates showing a sustained high level of activity approaching their maximum capacity. The lesson is obvious. High achievement does not equate to high effort in every case. Measuring effort is in most cases subjective. Few areas of learning would have the quantitative tools to be able to measure effort like physical education does here. For many students the tasks we set will pose a genuine challenge and thusly will require an comparable effort to achieve at the highest levels. But for some students the challenge we present them is a poor match for their abilities and they invest little and still achieve highly. For other students the challenges posed by assessment are huge and even to reach a minimum level they struggle. Too often we will see high achievement matched with high effort grades when reporting, when in reality for some students this inaccurate. Similarly the mediocre achievement matched with acceptable effort and poor effort for poor scores. This is not always the case, the teachers who know their students well will be able to reflect on the level of effort the student applies. For me this raises several points: The importance of differentiated curriculum that allow teachers to set suitable tasks for students of different needs and abilities. One size does not fit all, aiming for the middle misses the students who are at either end of the spectrum, the talented and the challenged. The importance of separating "effort", contribution to learning by the student from attainment. The critical importance of the relationship between teacher and student, too often hampered by large class size and assessment/curriculum pressures. The timeliness of reports - a end of term or end of semester report is of little value in reflecting on and modifying the attitude and behaviour of students. I would love to have an educational version of the polar heart rate monitor, the effort monitor to be able to truly grasp and quantify how much effort my students apply and to be able to justly reward them for this. And also to be able to change the level of challenge to suit them. In adventure and outdoor education, we have the concept of play (exploration and experimentation), Adventure, Peak Adventure and Misadventure. It is a theory that matches challenge and personal skill level. source: http://wilderdom.com/images/PriestAdventureExperienceParadigm.gif Exploration & Experimentation Adventure Peak Adventure Misadventure Devastation & Disaster The optimal learning area is Adventure and peak adventure where challenge and skill levels are well matched. (http://wilderdom.com/philosophy/PriestAdventureExperienceParadigm.html) We also see this in the work of Vygotsky in the Zones of Proximal Development (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_proximal_development) In the classroom, just like learning in the outdoors, we need to aim for the zones of adventure and peak adventure, where risk and challenge are matched well to personal skill and ability. In this zone the students effort will be high or even maximal and their achievement will match their effort. Differentiation of task, understanding your student and flexibility of curriculum are key to this.

This is an excellent video clip that explains the different elements of Creative Commons. One of the best parts of this is the author is a Kiwi. http://youtu.be/AeTlXtEOplA Produced by Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand with support from InternetNZ. To find out more about Creative Commons in New Zealand visit us at creativecommons.org.nz

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46035000/jpg/_46035770_003576582-1.jpg The closure of the news of the world is a salient lesson for all who publish. While the lessons are easy to see for the newspaper companies and others in the media industry, they are equally relevant for all publishers. The demise of the news of the world was not due to lack of interest from its audience, they appeared to lap up the revelations the paper revealed. No the demise of the the news of the world was from those who were not the audience but influenced the people who paid the bills. They were the sixty million people in the United Kingdom who didn’t buy the news of the world. They were the people who would be buying the advertisers products. The news of the world pampered to its audience at the expense of others. It probed, prodded and hacked its way into areas that should have remained sacrosanct. It was appalling, unethical and completely inappropriate. But the demise of this British institution provides a saleint example for all of us. Anyone with internet access is potentially a publisher. There are few restrictions on what you can say, unless you reside in repressive regime. No one is going to question the validity of your comments, the accuracy of your opinions or the suitability of your sources before you press the publish button. Because you can does not mean you should. As bloggers, tweets, wiki editors, photosharers etc, we must always consider what we are publishing. We must consider why we are publishing it, the context and content we are about to publish. Whom our audience is and how the content of our post may be interpreted. The tongue in cheek post, the humorous image, the satirical comment should be considered. The revelation you are about to reveal thought through. The consequences considered. If, having considered these, you decide to present to the world you thoughts, opinions and creations great. But like the classic comment about emails send in haste repent at you leisure, post in haste and repent at your leisure. Consider to the tenents of digital citizenship respect and protect yourself respect and protect others respect and protect intellectual property Atleast the news of the world is useful for something other than wrapping fish and chips in. source: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080324041955/uncyclopedia/images/d/df/Fish_and_Chips_in_Newspaper.jpg

This on the wire upadte looks at cartoons, there is something here for pretty much everyone - even physics 1. Physics.org Marvin and Mills cartoons - http://www.physics.org/marvinandmilo.asp As well as being a useful resource site for Physics, Physics.org also has a great set of Marvin and Milo cartoons that explain in a fun way Physics Source: http://www.physics.org/UploadDocs/Feature/images/70-musical-tea-700.jpg 2. Plasq.com Comic Life - Plasq is the company that produces comic life. This is without a doubt the best comic creation tools on the market. I love this and make regular use of it in my classes. It is available for windows and mac with versions for the ipad and ipod touch (comic touch). The site liciences are very good value for money and well worth considering. source: http://plasq.com/images/product-comiclife2-fp.jpg 3. Comicstrip CS - yourcomicstrip.com This is another excellent comic creation tool developed for the ipad, iphone and ipod touch. An excellent portable comic creation tool. This allows you to create single page comics with 7 different styles of layouts using images from the pictures on your i-device. 4. Comic Creator - http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic/ This is a web 2.0 tool hosted on the read, write, think website - simple and useful a good online tool. I like using comics and cartoon creation tools with my students as its a visual approach to learning, it provides variety and is engaging. I have used these tools to provide methods for science experiments, to summarise video clips and movies, to present how to documents or timelines and to storyboard videos. The uses are numerous. For further resources link to my wiki - http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Comic+Tools

My students are working on a unit standard that requires them to examine two past IT trends and analyse these and then to examine two current trends and predict how they will influence the future. One of the key trends that is impacting on Information technology and pretty much everything else is Moore’s law. Gordon Moore stated his law 1965. He revised it in 1975 essentially he said that "the number of transistors will double every two years"  and this law has stayed true, except that the time period has shorted. I have just updated my version of comic life, so quid pro quo - IT Trends -Moore’s law Gsource: http://www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs_sscs/sscs/06Sept/halfhillChrt.jpg

I am preparing for a keynote in 6 weeks time, on teaching and learning in a digital world and it occurs to me that technology can be the death of lower order thinking. As a teacher, I strive to have my students working in the upper reaches of  thinking skills; to be analytical, evaluative and creative. As a learning technologist what is becoming obvious is that lower order thinking skills like remembering and understanding are easily replaced by technological intervention. Someone said at a conference I attended (and I would love to give them credit for this) that a poor question is one you can google. Its so true. Google’s search engine accepts phrases like "what is…<insert term>? " and will retrieve suitable hits for it. Search engines allow unprecedented access to information and far more quickly that you could normally access reference material. Accessing resources like wikipedia is simple and straight forward from your smart phone. source: http://studymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/technology-in-class.jpeg What about remembering? Digital bookmarking using social bookmarking tools like delicious or diigo allow students to capture, annotate, tag and describe useful information and then distribute it as required to their peers etc. Given the phenomenal rate of growth of information, as Ian Juke and Lee Crockett say, we are living in exponential times this is a suitable tool for remembering too. But are the students actually learning? This is the 6 million dollar question. The answer is yes, but it is dependent on the process. Faced with an almost infinite depth of information, with material being added at a rate beyond our comprehension, students must develop skills to manage information digitally and to utilise the tools available to us. Using tools like google to provide definitions and explanations and book marking tools like diigo and delicious to record key information requires more than just clicking a button to save or search. The student must develop and actively apply analytical and evaluative skills. They can never be satisfied with the first answer of the block. They must be curious and questioning, and by doing this they are considering, judging and analysing. Not all information available to them (in any media) is correct. Whether it is in printed media that is out of date, sites that are inaccurate or opinions that have bias, all information sources can be invalid. Students must develop the skills of evaluation. By developing suitable processes in our students, where they question, check, critique and validate we can challenge the requirement for them to rote learn facts and  figures that are out of date and inaccurate almost as soon as pen hits paper, if not before. We can teach them skills that will aid them in a world beyond the classroom where they will not be paid on the basis of remembering facts or figures, but asked to be analytical, creative and evaluative. In a world where they will be expected to check that the information they have is accurate and valid. Where they would be required to gather and analyse a range of sources and evaluate each on its merits. I think technology can be and should be the death of lower order thinking. source: http://www.unfspinnaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/iphoto-tear.jpg

A friend of mine in the UK just email me an interesting article on iPads in schools - http://www.metro.co.uk/news/869340-kent-school-gives-an-ipad-to-each-of-its-1-400-pupils This isn’t the first school I have heard of that has moved to using iPads. I have heard of schools who are replacing their textbooks with iPads for a similar cost. It makes sense when you see some of the applications like Al Gore’s Our Choice. I like my iPad and I find it a stunning tool for many things, I have even written a book using it (and about the ipad too), but its not yet a full replacement for the desktop or laptop computer. I have heard a number of people comment that it is a "consumption device" and as a family room table computer which you use to check the email and look up the TV guide, or to play games or surf the net I would agree. But put it into a classroom and its so much more. As a classroom tool it for fills many of the standard needs that I have. For example: word processing - pages data processing - numbers presentation tool - keynote mind map - iThoughts HD Web surfing  - Safari (or Puffin with flash support) Clickers or personal responce tools  - eclicker and eclicker host Comic Development tool - Comic Life Video editor - iMovie, splice and itimelapse pro Music creation - garageband translation - iTranslate Simple image editing - Adobe Photoshop express I have over 280 apps on my iPad and only 6 of which are games. There are so many uses and tools that are available for the iPad, its not at all surprising its making it into the classroom in increasing numbers. And like so many tools, its not the tools that is limited its the operator who limits the tool. Our use of a tool is limited by our imagination, the restrictions we set in place and the freedom we allow our students to have. Consider this list of schools - using ipads or launching programs

This update is a mixed bag with some interesting stuff for the iPad, video resources (ideal for media studies and English teachers) and some good stuff for IT students (and teachers) for developing web pages. 1. Best ads http://www.bestadsontv.com/ This website hosts examples of the best advertisements from a variety of medias. The advertisements range from Television, to radio and print to outdoors. A good resource for teachers of English and Media studies. 2. Idea Wallet Apps - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ideawallets-remember-every/id364240349?mt=8# iPad applications This is a series of applications that are essentially thinking tools. The reviews are mixed as they are apparently buggy, but the developers are working on this. However they are free, clean and quite simple to use. Here are the three I am playing with: SWOT - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/swot-by-ideawallets/id390703853?mt=8 Brainstorming - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brainstorming-by-ideawallets/id385752154?mt=8 Free thinking - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/free-thinking-by-ideawallets/id385747141?mt=8 3. Veritasium http://www.veritasium.com/ (thanks @Simoncrook) Veritasium is a science blog that hosts some neat little science videos. This is a useful resource to troll through and find the videos for science classes. This is what they say about themselves : "Veritasium is a science video blog which aims to present topics in all areas of science from the simplest to the most complex. The goal is to make scientific ideas clear, accessible, and interesting. Veritas is Latin for truth, and the ending ‘ium’ makes it into an element - the element of truth." Source: http://www.veritasium.com/p/about-veritasium.html They have their own YouTube channel as well - http://www.youtube.com/user/1veritasium source: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HanXVwUBzxM/TV043W3AshI/AAAAAAAAACE/OKeOiw4KoU4/s1600/Veritasium2.jpg 4. Web Development resources - http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/07/massive-compilation-of-designer-tools/ - these are some of the sites that I have cherry picked from the web designer depot post: CSS property index - http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/css/propindex/all.htm CSS Shorthand guide - http://www.dustindiaz.com/css-shorthand/ Colour scheme - http://www.dhtmlgoodies.com/scripts/color-schemer/color-schemer.html Adobe Kuler - http://kuler.adobe.com/#themes/rating?time=30 Source: http://www.spiderscribe.net/img/site/logo.png Next an online mindmapping tool - http://www.spiderscribe.net/ I like mind mapping tools they are a great way to visualize the relationships within information. Here is another useful one that is worth examining and considering. The last word goes to this twitter info graphic - http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/twitter_history_0410.jpg?w=640

I was recently asked, via twitter, what sort of environment we would need to foster creativity in the classrooms. This is an interesting question. Creativity in our current teaching paradigm is sadly often an extension. The current assessment and curriculum driven and limited approach, does restrict the opportunities for creativity. I believe that creativity can be and should be part of all learning. No matter which discipline, curriculum model or syllabus. So what environment do think we need to foster creativity? Source: http://www.kidtrek-sundayplus.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/classroom-view-32.jpg It would be an environment focused on formative rather than summative assessment - examining the developmental needs of the student rather than taking an end point snap shot. Providing feedback that is honest, learning & learner focused, timely and appropriate. The curriculum would be delivered using a project/problem based approach. You need a syllabus to provide structure, but it must be flexible enough to cater for the "teachable moment" and the question and investigation out of left field. Such a curriculum requires planning and reflection, student input and direction. Teaching and learning would be based around real world problems which have relevance and significance to the students. These processes would require students to be engaged in collaborative and individual learning experiences. It would be an environment that celebrates not only success but failure, an environment that encourages exploration and experimentation. An environment that is reflective; critical, honest, analytical and evaluative. It is a place where students are exposed to creativity in its many forms, where they see, engage with and question exemplars of creativity across the disciplines and arts. They engage with creators from the various fields be it science or sculpting, design or dance, theatre or technology. It is not a world of "free for all", there are structures and frameworks, there are curricula and syllabi. But it is a world that appreciates and balances the need to be flexible and agile, as well as structured and compliant. In this environment technology is like oxygen. It is essential, ubiquitous and invisible. (thanks Chris Lehman for the inspiration for that). For this world to work their must be buy in and ownership from all parties - teachers, students, parents and administration. This isn’t something you can institute at the drop of a hat. The inertia of the education system is such that changes on this scale applied immediately would never be widely accepted. So this is a gradual change process, change, adjust, revise and apply. source: http://bigvanillaathleticclub.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/fitness-poster-lady-stretching.jpg The creative classroom and school does not separate the disciplines, rather each adds to the other - it is cross curricula. The creative classroom or school understands the needs of the person are not just academic, but encompass sports, the arts and academic endeavors. It is environment that is healthy, where daily exercise (which is different from sport or thematic physical education) is valued for its worth to academic pursuits including improvements to executive function, creativity and attention. What would you change or challenge? What do you disagree with?

It has been quite interesting sitting on the sidelines watching the media publish apparent howls of rage over Orewa College’s announcement that iPads are required for 2012 - Letter_to_Year_8_parents_24_June Even our fridges are internet enabled. Source: http://media.firebox.com/pic/p411_big.jpg I say apparent howl’s as I have spoken to staff at Orewa and there was an extensive discussion process in place. The Media has reported that the stationary list is now topping $1500, the implication being that they will have to buy the iPad immediately, however, this too is incorrect as the supplier has provided a range of plans for purchase with the cheapest costing under $10 per week - Purchase_Options_July_2011 http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/5304916/Schools-iPad-requirement-divisive http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/capital-debate/5307048/Capital-Debate-iPads-at-schools http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10739410 I am not surprised to hear the usual round of comments about the introduction of technology into the school. These are tired and lame excuses. To the commentators who say that they didn’t need computers when they were at school, we now live in a different world where computers are integral and ubiquitous. To those who are concerned about the impact on hand writing, what was the last meaningful thing that you hand wrote? What documents are hand written today? How would you feel if your lawyer or accountant sent you a hand written statement, invoice, notice or update? Would you question their professional approach? Yes examinations are hand written, this is sad and archaic and if we look at the global trends this too is changing. To those who say well they will still need books - this too is changing consider this article about Korea and their move to have all textbooks digital by 2015 - http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/07/01/all-korean-textbooks-to-go-digital-by-2015/ What is sadly missing in the reporting I have thus far seen is the huge education benefits that can be derived from these stunning tools. The opportunities for anywhere anytime learning, collaboration, immediate and timely research, continuity of education between school and home, operating in a medium the students are not only comfortable in but prefer, the diverse range of excellent resources, media and tools available to the students through these tools. These tools are suitable and appropriate, engaging and motivating, flexible and agile. Yet these points seem to be ignored. The purpose of school is to prepare students for the future by appropriately educating them. We know that the future is under certain, Sir Ken Robinson stated in his famous TED talk http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html that our kids will be doing jobs that are not even invented yet. There are some things that we do know - that the use of computers is going to grow and grow. That they are going to ubiquitous and invisible in our lives and that our students and children must be fluent in their use. source: http://lornapblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/big-tick.jpg Orewa college has taken a step that is appropriate and necessary. My only criticism of them is that why did it take so long? Well done, Orewa College. Kia Kaha. Am I going to sit an mourn the passing of the pen? No more than I wept for the departure of the fountain pen.