Creativity is the key ... have I said that before!

Creativity is the key ... I feel like I've been saying this for ages and I'm not the only one. What is it going to take to get the world to listen and share in the freedom, progress and life that creativity brings?

'Sir Ken Robinson, a leading thinker on education, creativity and innovation, who has advised various governments and major global corporations says that most education systems around the world including Australia’s, are still modelled on the needs of the industrial age, were already narrow and are getting narrower.' from the 7:30 Report ABC.

Check the text and audio transcript out at
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2009/s2600125.htm

Looking into the crystal ball

Where is technology heading in the near and not so near future?

From the http://horizon.nmc.org/wiki/2009_Shortlist

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less

• Mobiles
• Cloud Computing
• Collaborative Environments
• Paperless Publishing

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years

• Geo-Everything
• The Personal Web
• 3D Virtual Worlds
• Alternative Input Devices

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years

• Semantic-Aware Applications
• 3D Telepresence
• Thin Screens, Flexible Interfaces
• Smart Objects

It's not about technology!

In 2007 I received the Microsoft Scholars Award as part of the DET and the Minister's Award for Excellence in the Intergration of Information Technology into classroom practice.

Although very humbled by the award it allowed me to conduct a study tour of the US and Canada. As part of the tour I visited many schools, universities and departments of education.

The trip allowed me to visit MIT's famous media lab from where LegoMindstorms were conceived as well as the OLPC initiative. It allowed me to visit the Alameda Community Learning centre where student centred learning has taken new meaning. The trip allowed me to visit Maine where a forward thinking governor has put laptops in the hands of every middle school student. And that is just the tip of the iceburg.

The focus question started out as 'improving learning outcomes for students from disadvantaged communities using ICTs' as the tour progressed it became apparent that to remain at this level of questioning was too simplistic. There was a bigger question out there!!

The report of my findings can be found by clicking on the links below. This is a culmination of the learning done whilst on the tour but also a lot of the learning done online with educator colleagues around the globe - living proof that the world is definitely flat.

Click on the links below to view the report.

Report part 1

Report part 2

Report part 3

Randy Pausch - achieving your childhood dreams

creativity - dreams - not about technology - success is about relationships

Real life learning.

Inspiring on many levels.

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Visits to US school

I've been back in Australia for 5 weeks and I am finally able to begin to consolidate all the learning I have done whilst on my study tour to the US and Canada. The focus of the tour was technology and its ability to impact on student learning.

The trip allowed me to visit a number of schools, departments of educations as well as a number of universities and talk with researchers, practitioners and administrators.

Some initial conclusions:

* Creativity is the key. It's where our students should be heading;

* Good teachers are good learners;

* Technology does not make bad teaching practice magically turn into good teaching practice.


I now need to write a report for the DET and Microsoft Corp. I will post the link to the final copy once it is complete.

Getting Scribefire to post to my blogger account

I usually use scribefire to update by blog. Scribefire is a great firefox add on and makes blogging so much easier. Of late, though it seems to dislike my blogger password. When I go into blogger and use the same username and password I have no problems.

hmmm. I wonder what it could be?

The Adventure Begins

At the end of last year I was awarded the Microsoft Scholarship. With this I was able to organise a study tour of the US and Canada to have a look at how the various schools and districts use ICT in to improve learning outcomes for students.

During the tour I will visit a range of both universities and school and school district offices.

And after a 13 hour trip I will keep this blog up to date with details of the visit.