We started off with seventy different themes posted on a display board. They were what we considered to be our first thoughts about necessary prerequisite skills for effective autonomous learning. Our goal over the coming weeks is to group them effectively, decide when they should be taught (and later reinforced) and by whom in which [...]

Having worked hard to ensure that we have popular functioning libraries and a computer room in our school (6-19 years) comprehensive, the next stage is to ensure that the students are properly equipped to make the most of their learning activities. Re-focusing on the topic of learning skills particularly those related to autonomous learning I [...]

Yesterday I took the opportunity to chat to four digital natives of differing ages at my home. They were Anna (school), Patrick final year university), Yvette (university student) and Carl (last year at school). Anna (17) multi-tasks regularly: listening to music, texting or mailing, doing homework etc and finds it normal and unproblematic. Carl (18) [...]

An elegantly simple slide show by leisa reichelt which underlines the interactive, re-iterative, co-operative nature of the design process skillfully using post-it notes.

Returning to the theme of digital natives and digital immigrants, I notice that Owen writing in futurelab casts doubts in four areas – citing reputable sources as he does so:
- 20-35 year olds are more into game playing than any other group
- adults phone but teenagers use SMS’ because they are cheaper
- ICT is most [...]

Today I made several discoveries one after the other. Very good for one morning! I set out to find information about digital natives and after using my favourite Copernic metasearch engine I found Apple Learning Interchange. Within that I found Ian Juke’s podcast called Learning Environments for Digital Kids in their distinguished educators’ podcasts series. [...]

Of course a spelling test or a grammar exercise is relatively easy to correct. The problem comes when the piece of writing is longer. It could be a piece of creative writing, a summary, expressing an opinion, a script, a portfolio submission or a test for example. The problem isn’t about correcting the mistakes although [...]

This thought provoking piece which I first came across from Janice Szabos in Challenge Magazine should be in every teacher’s and parent’s consciousness in my opinion. It would be interesting to get the response of bright or gifted children (or their parents) to it:
A Bright Child:
Knows the answers
Is interested
Is attentive
Has good ideas
Works hard
Answers the questions
Top [...]

The only e-portfolios I was familiar with were those used as backup for the language passport and those I saw as a sample from Edinburgh’s MSc so I did some research today. I looked at the OSP opensource portfolio site and took the demo. I also visited the gallery of e-portfolios at Penn State which [...]

One of the most interesting parts of my MBA course all those years ago was SWOT analysis. For those who haven’t encountered it, SWOT analysis involves analyzing a business placement in the market place as a snapshot of its strengths, its weaknesses , the opportunities available and the threats facing it. Why it made such [...]

Learning theories have never really impressed me because I have always stood back, mused over them and thought that they were fine from one standpoint but they always appeared incomplete to me. They almost all seemed to be bound to one viewpoint. Like travelling on a train and seeing drab factory after factory until you [...]

I have just read the web article ‘Using the New Bloom’s Taxonomy to Design Meaningful Learning Assessments’ by Kevin Smythe & Jane Halonen and I am interested in the following diagram:

The diagram is based on: Clark, B. (2002). Growing up gifted: Developing the potential of children at home and at school. Upper Saddle River, NJ: [...]

As a comprehensive beginner’s guide to e-learning Derek Stockley’s e-journey on e-learning is impressive. Good links are also provided by Learning Light e-Learning Centre in their library section entitled ‘What is e-Learning?’

It never ceases to amaze me that stakeholders in education frequently make assumptions about the basic learning skills which we are all supposed to possess without anyone really explaining where the training to cement these skills in place is coming from in the first place. Therefore I find this multi-lingual site crucial as a basis [...]