Reading Time: 4 minutes

Reading Time: 3 minutesAt Bett Show 2015 I was invited to talk about my experience of working with both BYOD & 1to1mobile device experiences. What lessons can be learnt from these experiences?

Reading Time: 1 minutesMy presentation for the ICT in Education, Leeds conference exploring a conversational framework for e-learning.

Reading Time: 2 minutesGoGo (Get Online, Get Open) is a facilitated online open course, combining the best of face-to-face with the best of online.

Reading Time: 2 minutesI feel a little bit like the OERxx Conference has perhaps come of age. My Take on OER15.

Reading Time: 2 minutesSo Periscope has hit the app store. This iOS only app (for now) turns your iOS device into a portable live video broadcast system. Here are my early thoughts on how we might use it in learning & teaching.

Reading Time: 2 minutesInternet based services and companies need to keep ahead of their competition. If they don't they risk losing (my) business.

Reading Time: 2 minutesAt the recent #jisccreativity event we proposed an idea for a geo-located mentoring app for (university) students. We decided it was a bit like YikYak but with a purpose.

Traditional public schools have a testing- and competition-focused model that often gets in the way of potentially positive social interactions. After all, you can’t test students in their personal interactions, so in what’s the point in fostering it?When considering if school is a good place to learn healthy interpersonal relationships, it is important to make the distinction between socializing and being socialized.  Socializing is fun. Being "socialized"... not so much. When we think about school, we generally see 20-30 children, grouped by date of manufacture,  in a room with one adult. Order and rules govern the room. They are required to move from place to place when loud bells ring. Recess, another thing that can’t be tested, is fast becoming an endangered species.  Today’s schoolchildren enjoying 50% less time outdoors then when I was in school.  The ability to be quiet is highly valued. Do not talk during class. Do not talk in the halls. Be quiet in the lunch room. Failure to conform to "shushing," is met with a stern warning: "You’re not here to socialize." Disobedience results in consequences, even low grades in "conduct.I want more »

The New York City Department of Education lifted the ban on cell phones last spring. For some schools the difference was that students could bring their phones to school, but have them locked up or out of sight. For some of the more innovative schools however, that meant teachers could empower students to harness the power of student devices for learning.  That's exactly what happened at Harlem's P.S. 129 where 4th grade students in Stacey Nealy’s and Ryann Geldner’s launched the initiative in their school using the devices to better understand Native Americans. Students read information and sent in their reflections via a student response system from their own phones or laptops. For students without devices they were provided a school-issued device or they shared with a peer.  In an interview with the Hechinger Report, Amy Thiam, a fourth-grader explained, "We are learning and having fun at the same time."  You can read the whole article here.