Jongilanga

Some get tips for preaching in schools...

2012-01-30T09:51:00.001Z

Often I am asked to preach in Chapel for school services. David Campbell, Chaplain at Fettes College, added these tips to his website [LINK], which I think are helpful and true...

Here are ten of Campbell’s handy tips:

Long-windedness, in this context, as perhaps everywhere, is invariably a disaster.
Knowing what you want to say and going for it without anything written down is usually best.
Eye contact is everything.
Having just one central theological point and reinforcing it with a cheerful or challenging illustration always makes sense.
Humour is grand, but never for the sake of it – the troops remember the jokes and not the underlying message.
Using too many biblical or even classical allusions is rarely successful – the troops just don’t know them and get it.
Christian clichés such as ‘salvation’ and ‘redemption’ or other advanced technical terms are also best avoided in such a short homily.
So is trying to be something that you are not – and so is patronising.
If you’re middle-aged and greying (as I happily am now) please don’t pretend to be cool and trendy – it is, as the kids say, “awkward” or worse than this in the scale of teenage crimes, “cringe.”
Be sincere.

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This is the kind of world we need to create...

2012-01-26T23:56:00.001Z

Thanks Ian

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I Believe...

2012-01-24T22:41:00.001Z

I Believe…
A Death Certificate shows that we died
Pictures show that we live!

I Believe…
That just because two people argue,
It doesn’t mean they don’t love each other.
And just because they don’t argue,
It doesn’t mean they do love each other.

I Believe…
That we don’t have to change friends if
We understand that friends change.

I Believe…
That no matter how good a friend is,
they’re going to hurt you,
every once in a while
and you must forgive them for that.

I Believe…..
That true friendship continues to grow,
even over the longest distance.
Same goes for true love.

I Believe…
That you can do something in an instant
That will give you heartache for life.

I Believe…
That it’s taking me a long time
To become the person I want to be.

I Believe…
That you should always leave loved ones with Loving words.
It may be the last time you see them.

I Believe….
That you can keep going long after you think you can’t.

I Believe…
That we are responsible for what
We do, no matter how we feel.

I Believe…
That either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I Believe…
That heroes are the people
who do what has to be done
when it needs to be done,
regardless of the consequences.

I Believe….
That my best friend and I can do anything or nothing
and have the best time.

I Believe…
That sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you’re
down will be the ones to help you get back up.

I Believe…
That sometimes when I’m angry
I have the right to be angry, but that
doesn’t give me the right to be cruel.

I Believe…
That maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you’ve had
And what you’ve learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you’ve celebrated.

I Believe…
That it isn’t always enough,
to be forgiven by others.
Sometimes, you have to learn
to forgive yourself.

I Believe…
That no matter how bad
your heart is broken,
the world doesn’t stop for your grief.

I Believe…
That our background and circumstances
may have influenced who we are, but,
we are responsible for who we become.

I Believe…
That you shouldn’t be
so eager to find out a secret.
It could change your life forever.

I Believe….
Two people can look at the exact same
Thing and see something totally different.

I Believe…
That your life can be changed
in a matter of hours
by people who don’t even know you.

I Believe…
That even when you think
you have no more to give,
When a friend cries out to you,
you will find the strength to help.

I Believe…
That credentials on the wall
do not make you a decent human being.

I Believe…
That the people you care about
most in life are taken from you too soon.

I Believe…
The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything;
They just make the most of everything they have.

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Then and Now...

2012-01-13T11:36:00.001Z

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Social media explained

2012-01-13T09:41:00.001Z

via memex.naughtons.org

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A Commitment to Stoke

2012-01-05T00:09:00.001Z

BIRTHRIGHT from Sean Mullens on Vimeo.

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The Christmas Tale

2011-12-18T14:26:00.001Z

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The 5 Best Toys of All Time

2011-12-08T07:45:00.001Z

Love this article by Jonathan Liu (find it
here)

1. Stick
2. Box
3. String
4. Cardboard Tube
5. Dirt

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Lovely Advert from Carlsberg

2011-12-02T09:18:00.002Z

I think I might try to use this clip in a service sometime...

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What I have learnt...

2011-11-26T23:13:00.001Z

Written by Andy Rooney , a man who has the gift of saying so much with
so few words.

I’ve learned… That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of
an elderly person.

I’ve learned… That when you’re in love, it shows.

I’ve learned… That just one person saying to me, ‘You’ve made my day!’
makes my day.

I’ve learned… That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of
the most peaceful feelings in the world.

I’ve learned… That being kind is more important than being right.

I’ve learned… That you should never say no to a gift from a child.

I’ve learned… That I can always pray for someone when I don’t have the
strength to help him in some other way.

I’ve learned… That no matter how serious your life requires you to be,
everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.

I’ve learned… That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and
a heart to understand.

I’ve learned… That simple walks with my father around the block on
summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.

I’ve learned… That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it
gets to the end, the faster it goes.

I’ve learned… . That we should be glad God doesn’t give us everything
we ask for.

I’ve learned… That money doesn’t buy class.

I’ve learned… That it’s those small daily happenings that make life so
spectacular.

I’ve learned… That under everyone’s hard shell is someone who wants to
be appreciated and loved.

I’ve learned… That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

I’ve learned… That when you plan to get even with someone, you are
only letting that person continue to hurt you.

I’ve learned… That love, not time, heals all wounds.

I’ve learned… That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to
surround myself with people smarter than I am.

I’ve learned… That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.

I’ve learned… That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.

I’ve learned… That life is tough, but I’m tougher.

I’ve learned… That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the
ones you miss.

I’ve learned… That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.

I’ve learned… That I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one
more time before she passed away.

I’ve learned… That one should keep his words both soft and tender,
because tomorrow he may have to eat them.

I’ve learned… That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

I’ve learned… That when your newly born grandchild holds your little
finger in his little fist, that you’re hooked for life.

I’ve learned… That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but
all the happiness, and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.

I’ve learned …. That the less time I have to work with, the more
things I get done.

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I never wanted

2011-11-11T20:35:00.001Z

"I never wanted to be famous
I succeeded

I never wanted to be rich
I succeeded to degree level

I never wanted to be this age
It sort of came with experience

I never wanted to be good looking
Achieved at birth

I never wanted to be educated
I achieved in every school

I never wanted to believe in God
I tripped and stumbled into him

I never wanted to be a writer
I just started to reflect on life

I never wanted to be imaginative
It just happens as I strive to love

I never wanted to be comfortable
I had it once, before the faith began

I never wanted to be restless
I now choose it and yearn for it

I never wanted to be irritated
but now I refresh that irritation

I never wanted to be thirsty
then I discovered it in ever sense

I never wanted to be sexy
Thank you very much God

I never wanted to have a sense of humour
Then I discovered more than five senses

I never wanted to be vulnerable
I discovered it was a strength not a weakness

I never wanted to marry a rich woman
I think she is rich beyond compare

I never wanted to be beautiful
It took me 40 years to know
I was a beautiful human person

I never wanted to be in a band
I now have a great band of friends

I never wanted to be imperfect
I now know it is in synergy with beautiful

I never wanted to be on a road less travelled
I discovered it goes along with human development

I never wanted to be a great lover
I found it as a life mission

I never wanted to be disabled
I learned that I have abilities and disabilities

I never wanted an idol, mentor, guru, then
I met someone who said follow me
And that was all I ever wanted...................."

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On this day...

2011-11-11T09:00:00.002Z

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Be the Church

2011-10-30T19:54:00.002Z

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7 compelling arguments for peer learning

2011-10-16T21:42:00.001+01:00

via Donald Clark Plan B

Learning lurches between extremes: the formal v informal,didactic v discover , self-paced v social, teaching v learning. But is there a bridgebetween these extremes, something that cleverly combines teaching and learning?Over the years, starting with Judith Harris’s brilliant (and shocking) work onpeer pressure, then Eric Mazur’s work at Harvard but also through severalpresentations at a recent JISC E-assessment conference, I’ve been smitten bypeer learning. The idea is to encourage learners to learn from each other. Compellingarguments?

1. Powerfultheoretical underpinning

The bible for ‘peer’ pressure, and why parents and teachersshould know about this stuff, is Judith Harris’s wonderful The Nurture Assumption, the work for which she received the GeorgeMiller Medal in psychology. StephenPinker sang her praises in The BlankSlate, and claimed that she had turned the psychology of learning on itshead. I think he’s right. In a deep look at the data she found somethingtotally surprising, that far from parents and other adults, like teachers, influencingthe minds of young people, she found that 50% was genetic, just a few per centparents and a whopping 47% peer group. The initial evidence came fromlinguistics, where children unerringly pick up the accents of their peer group,not their parents (I know this from experience).

2. Massively scalable

Given the massification of education, here’s an interestingargument. Peer learning may actually be better with large classes, as you havemore scope in terms of selected peer groups. As many struggle with thechallenge of large classes, here’s a technique that amplifies both teaching andlearning. Peer reviewing and learning works because it is scalable, especiallywhen good web-based tools are used.

3. Learning byteaching is probably the most powerful way to learn

Unsurprisingly, to teach is to learn, as peer learninginvolves high-order, deep-processing activity. In fact, the teacher mayactually gain more than the learner. In any case, the peer’s voice is oftenclearer and better than teacher’s voice as they are closer to the mindset ofthe learner and can often see what problems they have, as well as solutions tothose problems.

4. Encouragescritical thinking

You can easily see how peer learning produces diversity ofjudgement. It is this enlargement of perspectives that is the starting pointfor critical thinking and complex reasoning, the very skills that Arum foundlacking in his recent research in the US.. It also increases self-evaluation.

5. Group bonding aside effect

In addition to enhanced social and communication skills,peer groups bond. In one nursing case study at the University of Glasgow, thestudents started off a bit sceptical but soon demanded and volunteeredparticipation.

6. Dramatic drops indrop-out rates

In all the case studies I saw, higher attendance and lowerdrop-out rates were claimed. This is not surprising, as continuing failure anddisillusionment are often the result of isolation and a feeling of helplessnessin learners, especially in large classes and courses.

7. Higher attainment

Mazur has recorded some startling improvements, not only inthe core understanding of physics, but in general measured attainment throughsummative assessment. The peer learning was, in effect, the result of cleverformative assessment. In a nursing course, they experienced better note takingand higher attainment and in a psychology course with 550 students, reciprocalpeer critiques also led to higher attainment.

Problems?

Do students muck about? Apparently not, in the case studiesI’ve seen the groups self-moderate. Indeed, the peer pressure preventsdisruptive and non-participatory behaviour. It becomes cool to participate.

How do you know they’re not feeding each other false things?There’s certainly the danger of the blind leading the blind, but overall, thecase studies show that real growth occurs. There’s real peer pressure in termsof not being exposed and not bullshitting the others. The approaches and toolshelp overcome this danger through the clever selection of mixed-ability, peergroups.

Of course there’s a difference between peer marking and peerreview. Some advise against peer marking as it can be seen as a step too far,peer review, with constructive comments, however, seems to be more powerful.

Peer tools

You don’t actually need any tools to get started. As Mazurhas shown, simple coloured cards that allow students to respond to theteacher’s diagnostic questions can be enough to spark peer group learning. He actuallyuses clickers, with histograms appearing on the screen, but mobile phones areincreasingly being used for this function. However, for more technology-driven peerlearning, Aropa, Peerwise or Peermark can be used.

Aropais an open source tool from the University of Glasgowthat allows teachers to set assignments then set up peer reviews betweenstudents. You review other students’ work, then receive reviews on your ownwork.

Peerwiseis a free tool from NZ that flips assessment andallows students to create questions, share and see answers, a sort ofpeer-based, formative assessment generator. I like this angle as building goodquestions really does make you think in depth about the subject. It’s used byhundreds of institutions.

Peermark allows instructors to write assignments, fromturnitin, the plagiarism folks. You set dates, can see how many assignmentshave been submitted, set how many students you want to review each assignmentand whether you or the students choose what to review, pair up students, addreview questions, reorder them. There's a nice video demo here..

Conclusion

I’m really convinced that this moves us on. We have tobounce teachers and learners out of that mindset that sees teaching as one tomany and adopt the wisdom of the network. Pamela Katona at the University ofUtrecht showed that students are less than satisfied with the teaching andfeedback they receive. So many learners wait too long for feedback, receivecursory feedback, don’t have access to the marking scheme and often don’t seethe final marked paper.

Arum, in AcademicallyAdrift, has presented good research to show that critical thinking, complexreasoning and communications skills are all too lacking in our universities. Sohere’s a technique that moves us on, combing the best of teaching with the bestof learning. All it takes is just that first step towards student interactivityand participation. And, to repeat, it’s SCALABLE, indeed, the more the merrier.

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do it anyway!

2011-10-14T14:40:00.001+01:00

from The Shiny Headed Prophet by Rob

People are often unreasonable and self centred.

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of alterier motives.

Be kind anyway.

If you are honest, people may cheat you.

Be honest anyway.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough.

Give your best anyway.

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God.

It was never between you and them anyway.

Mother Teresa, 1979 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

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Here's to the crazy ones

2011-10-07T23:32:00.001+01:00

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Extravagant God

2011-10-04T12:22:00.001+01:00

from Simon

Extravagant God

Excessive
Generous
lavish God …
why do you waste so much time on us?
You create rainbows that no one sees;
shower down intricate separate unique
stunning autumn leaves by the billions
and one at a time
that we greet not with applause
but with complaints of inconvenience.

You place whales beneath fathoms of ocean
singing their plaintive haunting songs
too deep for our ears to hear.

You create fantastic jungles within a square foot of grass
a universe in an atom
breathtaking places that have never been seen or appreciated
by a single human being.

Why are we so bored and dull?
Why do we appreciate water most in the desert
health only during sickness
our friend when he leaves
our love when she dies?

Should we pray for less
for you to ration Your grace
to waste no rainbow?
Forgive us.
You don’t paint rainbows just for us to see
nor make birdsong just for us to hear.

Rebuke our terrible pride
and chastise our deism
that imagines You created only once
long ago
and can’t perceive Genesis now
or Eden here
or what a new day means.

Help us to do two impossible things:
to take it ALL in
(every miraculous atom of it)
and to waste our time on a rose
a place
a time
a person.
Perhaps one will bring us all
full time to eternity
one blackbird to You.

Prodigal God, may we find
a millionth of the joy that clearly is yours

Amen

This entry was posted on Friday, September 9th, 2011 at 9:08 am and is filed under Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

via backyardmissionary.com

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How we live and buy?

2011-10-02T23:49:00.001+01:00

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Automatic assessment using Flubaroo & Google Forms

2011-08-06T19:36:00.001+01:00

taken from undertenminutes

Short screencast to demonstrate how you can use Flubaroo (a script in Google Forms) to automatically assess and grade a class set of tests.

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What makes you a good teacher?

2011-07-13T11:20:00.001+01:00

taken from Blazer

"I turn up every day,

I teach my lessons,

the kids learn,

no-one dies,

that makes me a good teacher!"

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11 things that Young People don’t learn in school, but need to know about life.

2011-07-10T10:05:00.002+01:00

taken from Mark Steed who adapted from the American for an English Audience:

Life is not fair - get used to it!
The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
You will NOT earn £60,000 a year right out of University. You won't be a vice-president with a company car and a mobile phone until you earn both.
If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: They called it opportunity.
If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest and set about cleaning up the planet from the mess your parent's generation have made, try tidying up your own bedroom first.
Some schools may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. The examination system may allow you retake exam modules as many times as you want to ensure you get the top grade. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Life is not divided into terms. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to work.
Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

[Extract from Speech to Berkhamsted School Upper Sixth Leavers - Vale 05/07/11]

These 11 things have circulated on the Web purporting to be a speech that Bill Gates gave to High School Leavers - this is an urban myth. The rules are an abridged version of an original piece that was penned by author Charles J. Sykes' 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School

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9 Tips for Emailing Important People

2011-07-02T21:35:00.001+01:00

by James Clear

As web professionals, we spend a significant amount of time communicating through email. In many cases, getting a fast response to our emails can mean the difference between enjoying our job and stressing about deadlines.

Here are 9 top-notch tips for writing emails that make it as easy as possible for the recipient to send you a response.

1. Write Shorter Emails

Shorter emails increase your response rate for one reason: it is easy to write a short reply to a short email.

While many people you email want to send a short answer, they often feel that a quick, one sentence response will come across as terse and unfriendly. The result is that they simply put the email off until they have more time to write a longer response — which is usually never.

Short emails remove this fear because it is appropriate to reply immediately with a brief response.

2. Reduce the Opportunity for Procrastination

When long or unclear emails enter someone’s inbox they get placed in the to-do pile because they take time to figure out and respond to. Sadly, the to-do pile usually ends up being the never-do pile.

However, when a short, one question email comes in, it gets a response much faster.

Make it hard for the reader to procrastinate sending you a reply.

3. Promotion vs. Prevention

In her book Succeed, Heidi Grant Halvorson discusses how some people respond to promotion (touting the benefits of taking a certain action) while others respond to prevention (highlighting what there is to lose from not taking a certain action).

If you aren’t getting a response, then you may find success from reversing the way you phrase your request.

For example, let’s say your job is to find new businesses that can partner with your company. You might not get a response if your boss is the type of person that responds to prevention statements, but you send an email saying, "This is a great opportunity. I think we should partner with company X because of A, B, and C."

However, you might find immediate success if you flip the statement towards a prevention tone such as, "This is a great opportunity. We have a lot to lose here if we don’t move quickly. Company X’s new product line offers a growth opportunity that we don’t want to miss out on."

Determine whether the person you’re emailing wants to prevent downfalls or discover new opportunities, and then adjust your message accordingly.

4. Always Have a Purpose

If you want a response, then your email should have a clear purpose. This applies in all situations, but it’s especially helpful when reaching out to someone for the first time.

For example, if you send an email asking to meet an author for networking or just to chat, you will have much less success than if you asked something specific such as talking about Chapter 7 of your book at lunch.

Important people are busy and they value their time, so you should always have a clear purpose for the meeting. Not only does having an event or goal help drive the conversation, it also makes the meeting feel more productive. Both parties feel a small sense of accomplishment for completing the task that was laid out at the beginning.

5. Do the Work for Them

When you send an unclear email, you’re essentially saying to the recipient, "It’s not important enough for me to figure out what the main idea of this email is, so I’m going to make you do it for me."

The main question or offer should be stated clearly and early within your email. If it’s not within the first few sentences, then start over.

6. Don’t Take "No" Personally

Everyone is busy. For most people, it’s simply a matter of timing. If you catch them on a good day, then they will happily respond to you.

If they’re swamped, however, then a simple "No" might be all that you get.

Don’t take it to heart. In most cases, it’s not a reflection of what you said.

7. Make It a Point to Follow Up

What if they don’t respond to your email? Wait a few days and then follow up. You don’t want to pester anyone, but if you give them some time and don’t get a response, then there is nothing wrong with being persistent.

I usually wait anywhere from 3 days to a week before reaching out again. (The more busy the person is, the longer I wait.)

8. Send Your Message to One Person Only

Are too many people receiving your emails? When multiple people receive the same message, the diffusion of responsibility phenomenon begins to set in. Everyone knows what needs to be done and they all assume that someone else will do it.

If you value a response to your emails, then send them to individuals instead of groups.

9. Don’t Hide Behind Email

Pressing Send isn’t the same as doing your job. The ability to collaborate and interact through the Web doesn’t remove your responsibilities in the real world.

Sometimes you need to pick up the phone and get an immediate answer. Sometimes you need to meet face-to-face instead of sending an email and claiming that you "did your part."

If you’re interested in more email strategies that can help you generate more business, build better relationships, and communicate more effectively, then check out How To Email Important People.

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The 20 most-watched TEDTalks (so far)

2011-06-28T07:24:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, on the fifth birthday of TEDTalks video, TED released a new list of the 20 most-watched TEDTalks over the past five years — as watched on all the platforms they track: TED.com, YouTube, iTunes, embed and download, Hulu and more …

What a great, mixed-up group this is! Talks about education and creativity, sex and fish, whizzy tech demos and big questions about the universe … it’s a cool snapshot of what people find interesting.

Sir Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity (2006): 8,660,010 views
Jill Bolte Taylor‘s stroke of insight (2008): 8,087,935
Pranav Mistry on the thrilling potential of SixthSense (2009): 6,747,410
Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense (2009): 6,731,153
David Gallo‘s underwater astonishments (2007): 6,411,705
Tony Robbins asks Why we do what we do (2006): 4,909,505
Hans Rosling shows the best stats you’ve ever seen (2006): 3,954,776
Arthur Benjamin does mathemagic (2005): 3,664,705
Jeff Han demos his breakthrough multi-touchscreen (2006): 3,592,795
Johnny Lee shows Wii Remote hacks for educators (2008): 3,225,864
Blaise Aguera y Arcas runs through the Photosynth demo (2007): 3,007,440
Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing your genius (2009): 2,978,288
Dan Gilbert asks: Why are we happy? (2004): 2,903,993
Stephen Hawking asks big questions about the universe (2008): 2,629,230
Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation (2009): 2,616,363
Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice (2005): 2,263,065
Richard St. John shares 8 secrets of success (2005): 2,252,911
Mary Roach 10 things you didn’t know about orgasm (2009): 2,223,822
Simon Sinek on how great leaders inspire action (2010): 2,187,868
Chimamanda Adichie shares the danger of a single story (2009): 2,143,763

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Pupil's game helps with English grammar teaching

2011-06-27T22:02:00.001+01:00

Crawford Johnston with the grammar cards he designed at primary school

A pupil from Peterborough has created a game that is being used in English lessons at schools across the city.

Crawford Johnston initially designed the Creative Writing Magic Money Cards to help him understand English grammar.

The cards explain concepts such as the use of paragraphs and terms such as onomatopoeia.

"Money" points are allocated to each card and pupils are encouraged to use as many as possible to increase their winnings.

The onomatopoeia card explains it is related to "words that make the sound".

It cites examples including "the sausages sizzled in the frying pan" and lists other onomatopoeic words including slosh, thud and squish.

'Fun and competitive'

Crawford was still at primary school when he came up with the idea for the grammar cards.

One of the creative writing grammar cards designed to help children with their English lessons

"I thought it was an idea that was just going to work for me, to help me revise for exams," he explained.

"I didn't want to make it boring because then people would switch off.

"I wanted to make it fun - like a game - making it competitive so that children want to do it, rather than thinking that it's just another lesson."

The cards are intended for pupils aged nine to 15 and are tailored to fit in with Key Stages two and three of the National Curriculum.

Jonathan Lewis, assistant director of education and services at Peterborough City Council, confirmed that he had arranged for the cards to be distributed to all primary schools in the city.

The Johnston family hopes the success of the game will lead to it being used in more schools around the country.

Crawford, who is now 13, said he was excited by the prospect that his game might be used at other schools.

"If it's going to be used around the UK, it's fascinating. It's really something," he said.

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Generation Y

2011-06-24T21:22:00.001+01:00

People born before 1946 were called The Silent generation..

People born between 1946 and 1959 are called The Baby Boomers.

People born between 1960 and 1979 are called Generation X

And people born between 1980 and 2010 are called Generation Y

Why do we call the last group Generation Y?

Y should I get a job?

Y should I leave home and find my own place?

Y should I get a car when I can borrow yours?

Y should I clean my room?

Y should I wash and iron my own clothes?

Y should I buy any food?

But a cartoonist explained it very eloquently below…

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The Greatest Addiction Ever

2011-06-24T20:57:00.001+01:00

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Stay Creative

2011-06-22T12:29:00.001+01:00

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.

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Lessons from Bamboo

2011-06-14T07:28:00.001+01:00

Be Like Bamboo (TEDxTokyo 2011 slides)

View more presentations from garr

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In his line of work...

2011-06-09T22:03:00.001+01:00

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What a Slit Second look like - some photographs

2011-06-07T07:16:00.001+01:00

Whata splitsecondlookslike

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The Charles Schulz Philosophy

2011-06-01T07:55:00.001+01:00

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schulz, the creator of the ‘Peanuts’ comic strip.

You don’t have to actually answer the questions. Just ponder on them.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.

2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.

3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America pageant.

4 Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.

5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.

6. Name the last decade’s worth of World Series winners.

How did you do?

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday.

These are no second-rate achievers.

They are the best in their fields.

But the applause dies..

Awards tarnish..

Achievements are forgotten.

Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners

__________________________________________________

Here’s another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.

3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.

4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.

5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.

Easier?

The lesson:

The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the
most credentials, the most money…or the most awards.

They simply are the ones who care the most

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Are you of sound mind?

2011-05-31T10:14:00.001+01:00

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I'm Sorry I'm a Christian - A poem by Chris Tse

2011-05-20T20:44:00.001+01:00

Chris Tse presenting his poem at the Poetry Slam Vancouver. He was the 1st place winner on the 21st of December 2009 with a score of 57.3 with his poem.

I am a Christian. I’m sorry.

I’m sorry for the way that I come across

So fair and faith friendly and full of myself

Judging your spiritual health by

the words that you say

And the way that you dress, and the things that you do

Or maybe just judging you.

I’m sorry for the way that I live my life

So confident of my own beliefs that

I would never even think to think about thinking about yours

I’m sorry for the wars.

Ivory clad Crusaders mounting steeds and drawing swords

With such a spirit that if The Spirit spoke they wouldn’t hear

But you see the sword of the spirit was not a sword but the Word

And the Word was with God and the Word was God

And they preached this as they marched on the Holy Land

Singing and Praying and Killing and Slaying

And purging and healing and raping and stealing

It’s ironic that they lined their pockets in the name of God

Just like the priests who line their pockets in the name of God

Just like the people that you can’t stand, because they always raise their hand

And spread their faith and hate and judgment in the name of God

I’m sorry that I take God’s name in vain

Or rather I’m sorry that I stain the name of God

Defending my selfish actions as selfless actions pertaining to the will of God

I’m sorry for being intolerant

For trying to talk down to you

For trying to talk over you

For not letting you talk

I’m sorry for not walking the walk

For being a hypocritical critical Christian

Criticizing your pagan lifestyle while my lifestyle styles itself

Just like the televangelist’s hair

All slick and sly and slippery

As the silver syllables slide their way into your ear

But see that’s my greatest fear

That the steps I take won’t match the words I speak

So that when I speak all you hear of me

is a weak hypocritical critical Christian

Doing one thing, but saying another

Loving my friend, but hating my brother

It’s a show.

I’m sorry I get drunk on Saturdays

and go to church on Sundays to pray

for my friends who get drunk on Saturdays

And on that note,

I’m sorry for making the church about the pews and the cross

And the walls and the steeple

Because see, the building is not the church

The church is the people

I’m sorry that I hate you because you are gay

I’m sorry I condemn you to hell because you are gay

Instead of loving I jump to hatred

Mouth open and tongue preaching

Eyes open but not seeing that you are the same as me

Just a fucking human being

I’m sorry that I only hang out with Christian friends

And we do nice Christian things

Like pot luck dinners and board game nights

While in the night a man beats his girlfriend again

Another homeless man died again

Is this the way that my own crowd has been?

But here I am with the same friends again

But see what I always forget is that Jesus didn’t come

to hang out with the priests and the lords.

No, He hung out with cripples and beggars and whores

Love

I’m sorry for history

For native tribes wiped out in the name of the church

Lodges burning Stomachs churning and yearning for justice

And mothers screaming and pleading

Pleading for the young ones

As they are dragged away to church schools

Where they were abused

I’m sorry for the way that I refused to learn your culture

Instead I just came to spread the Gospel

And the plague

I’m sorry that I stand at the front doors of abortion clinics

Screaming at fifteen year old girls as they enter

Instead of waiting at the back door to hug them as they leave

I’m sorry for taking my wars and my faith to your lands

When historically it was on your lands that my faith was born

And in the face of the storm, I realize that

If God is Love and Love is God

Then why are we shooting instead of sharing?

Why are we launching instead of learning?

Why are we warring instead of walking together?

Why are we taking instead of talking together?

Why are we bombing instead of breaking bread together as brothers?

You see, I think that God looks down and He’s sad

And from His right hand throne above

Jesus asks where is the Love?

And if it takes Wil-I-Am and Justin Timberlake

Asking that same question for us

To start asking that same question

Then where the fuck are we headed?

So I will take this stage to be my chapel

And this mic my confession booth

And in the presence of God, the few, the proud,

and the blessed I confess, that

I am a Christian. I’m sorry.

- A poem by Chris Tse

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Reasons to BAN pens and pencils from the classroom

2011-05-18T15:56:00.001+01:00

15 reasons to BAN pens and pencils from the classroom

1. Too easy to lose

How many wasted hours do learners and teachers spend getting everyone a pen or pencil? They’re thin, narrow and roll unaided, designed therefore, to be lost through any small hole and from any surface. The average person must lose dozens, if not hundreds, in a lifetime.

2. Dangerous weapons

Nothing is more dangerous in classrooms than pens and pencils. They’re used to poke, prick, draw on and even stab others. Empty plastic Bic tubes are also superb pea-shooters. They are, in effect, dangerous weapons.

3. Messy

Pens leak, clothes stain, pencil shavings get everywhere. In short, these implements are a cleaning nightmare. A leaked pen in a pocket or bag can cause havoc, staining clothes, flesh and anything else that comes into contact.

4. Notes

Encourages bullying through notes and a notes culture around going to the toilet (actually walking the corridors or a sly cig), explaining why you were off that day (forged note from parent) etc.
5. Doodling
How many learners doodle the hours away, rather than learning. They'll doodle on paper, books, plaster casts and any available surface, even their own hands and arms.
6. Pen tattoos
A bit extreme but it happens. A compass an ink pen's all you need to get your first boyfriend or girlfriend's name on your arm or those stupid words LOVE and HATE on your knuckles.

7. Limits editing
To NOT allow word processing on writing tasks is to not allow reediting, redrafting, reordering and self-correction, the essence of good writing skills. It actually encourages the regurgitation of pre-prepared, memorised answers.
8. Paper mountains

Keeps schools stuck in a world of paper, which can’t be emailed or easily stored. How many pieces of paper with writing are simply lost, deliberately or otherwise by children at school?
9. Cost of photocopying
Paper, pencils and pens cost money, but that is nothing compared to the cost of printing and photocopying, in terms of photocopying machines, printers and print cartridges.
10. Not green
Paper production, for writing assignments, destroys trees, uses nasty chemicals and if it doesn't end up as landfill. entails difficult and costly recycling.
11. Encourages academic curriculum
Pen and pencil assessment skews assessment towards writing and away from performance. This has led to an overwhelmingly academic curriculum, at the expense of practical and vocational skills.
12. Paper homework
It encourages primitive, photocopied A4 sheets for homework and mechanical 'fill-in-the-blank' assignments, with the additional problem that homework has to be physically marked by overworked teachers. Automated, online homework and assessment is surely superior.
13. Red pen assessment
It encourages teachers to use ‘red pen’ marking, highlighting failure, rather than the generosity of formative feedback. Children learn from failure which is why all feedback should be constructive.

14. Skews assessment

My kids look at pens and pencils as if they’re Egyptian artefacts. The fact is, that pens and pencils, if used in assessments, actually hinder or skew the proper assessment of attainment. Many of these kids write, incessantly on keyboards, not using pen and pencil.
15. Real world deficit
Lastly, when they enter the world of work, if they write, it will be largely on a keyboard. Surely touch typing is a skill worth learning.
This was inspired by Katie Stansberry's original idea

posted by Donald Clark at 4:14 PM

via donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com

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A six-year-old girl writes a letter to God. And the Archbishop of Canterbury answers

2011-05-16T07:55:00.001+01:00

Taken from the Telegraph in Damian Thompson's column

Archbishop Williams plays God (Photo: Getty)

There’s a charming article in today’s Times by Alex Renton, a non-believer who sends his six-year-old daughter Lulu to a Scottish church primary school. Her teachers asked her to write the following letter: “To God, How did you get invented?” The Rentons were taken aback: “We had no idea that a state primary affiliated with a church would do quite so much God,” says her father. He could have told Lulu that, in his opinion, there was no God; or he could have pretended that he was a believer. He chose to do neither, instead emailing her letter to the Scottish Episcopal Church (no reply), the Presbyterians (ditto) and the Scottish Catholics (a nice but theologically complex answer). For good measure, he also sent it to “the head of theology of the Anglican Communion, based at Lambeth Palace” – and this was the response:

Dear Lulu,
Your dad has sent on your letter and asked if I have any answers. It’s a difficult one! But I think God might reply a bit like this –
‘Dear Lulu – Nobody invented me – but lots of people discovered me and were quite surprised. They discovered me when they looked round at the world and thought it was really beautiful or really mysterious and wondered where it came from. They discovered me when they were very very quiet on their own and felt a sort of peace and love they hadn’t expected.

Then they invented ideas about me – some of them sensible and some of them not very sensible. From time to time I sent them some hints – specially in the life of Jesus – to help them get closer to what I’m really like.

But there was nothing and nobody around before me to invent me. Rather like somebody who writes a story in a book, I started making up the story of the world and eventually invented human beings like you who could ask me awkward questions!’

And then he’d send you lots of love and sign off.
I know he doesn’t usually write letters, so I have to do the best I can on his behalf. Lors of love from me too.
+Archbishop Rowan

I think this letter reveals a lot about the Archbishop of Canterbury’s sort of theology – more, indeed, than many of his lectures or agonised Synod addresses. I’d be interested to know whether readers of this blog think he did a good job of answering Lulu’s question.

But what the letter also tells us is that the Archbishop took the trouble to write a really thoughtful message – unmistakably his work and not that of a secretary – to a little girl. “Well done, Rowan!” was the reaction of Alex Renton’s mother, and I agree

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Hymn Books or Data Projectors in Church?

2011-05-11T16:18:00.001+01:00

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Opening Liturgy

2011-05-11T16:16:00.001+01:00

I found this opening liturgy and really like it. I think it speaks for a community or group that want to travel and search together.

We gather together to explore
May we be open to see new perspectives
We gather together in awe of the world around us
May we be open to new insights
We gather together confused by things that happen
May we be open to hear new questions
We gather together to be encouraged
May we be open to each other
We gather together to journey
May we have the space to find our path

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“Forget Google…”

2011-05-07T18:02:00.001+01:00

via gapingvoid.com

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Dear 16 year old me...

2011-05-06T00:14:00.002+01:00

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Happy Star Wars Day

2011-05-04T12:32:00.001+01:00

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Cambridge University: A-level scores are the best indicator of future degree success

2011-05-03T10:11:00.001+01:00

via Mark Steed

Cambridge University has defended robustly its right to admit students on the basis of merit, without regard to social or educational background. Thus far it has resisted all pressure from Government to alter its admissions procedures to be a vehicle of social mobility. [See 'University is not for promoting social justice, says Cambridge vice-chancellor' Daily Telegraph10/09/2008] The findings of a recent study conducted by the University Admissions Research Working Party gives support to this approach and to the policy of using AS-level UMS scores as the best predictor of future degree success.

Richard Partington, the report's author commented,

"A Levels - as measured by unit scores or UMS - were overwhelmingly the best indicator available of likely future degree performance. The one exception is for entry in Mathematics, where Cambridge Assessment's STEP exam gave the best indicator of potential."

The study, The Predictive Effectiveness of Metrics in Admission to Cambridge University, analysed the those students who sat Cambridge Tripos examinations in the period 2006-2009. It also found that Cambridge students from state and independent schools are equally likely to enjoy degree success:

"School background and gender did not make a significant difference. Given the same UMS performance at admission, students from different schools and colleges were equally likely to perform well in Cambridge exams in the period 2006-2009."

The study also found that GCSE grades, the preferred measure used by Oxford University, have largely been a less effective predictor than AS UMS. Interestingly, looking to the future, the Working Group are going to analyse the effectiveness of the A* at A-level as a predictor of future Tripos success.

Long may our top universities resist all external pressures to lower their admission standards to meet a social agenda; and long may they continue to admit students on the basis of merit as demonstrated in nationally recognised examinations.

Links:
School background is not a factor in Cambridge degree successCambridge University News Website 05/04/2011

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Choices, and their importance

2011-05-03T07:32:00.001+01:00

‘It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.’ Dumbledore to Harry Potter

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Creativity Is Not A Talent

2011-05-02T20:49:00.001+01:00

via gapingvoid.com

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Reason to Flip a Coin

2011-03-12T16:40:00.001Z

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Dear Citizen

2011-03-10T19:06:00.001Z

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In the future YouTube, Twitter and Facebook will merge to...

2011-03-03T19:10:00.001Z

via twitpic.com

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What If It Was Possible?

2011-02-20T23:50:00.001Z

Teachers get this fairly often.

That's impossible, I can't do that.Is it really impossible?

Or does it just take a whole lot of work?

Watch.

So next time you feel yourself getting ready to say,

That's impossible.

remember this video and ask yourself,

Is it really impossible? Or do I just have to work at it?

What kind of box have you put yourself in?

Taken from Karl Fisch

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Great New Year Blessing...

2011-01-08T18:04:00.001Z

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness.

I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art - write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can.

And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself." Amen.

Thanks to Pete Greig

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Interesting and Thoughtful

2011-01-07T00:42:00.001Z

I came across this slideshare thanks to John Naughton, and it make for some interesting pondering. I wonder how many of these will actually make it big. I suppose only time will tell.

JWT: 100 Things to Watch in 2011

View more presentations from JWTIntelligence.

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Love this...

2011-01-01T19:46:00.001Z

from Howies...

Happy New Year

2011

What are you going to do different?

What are you going to give up?

What will be your new challenge?

What new thing are you going to start?

What cause will you fight?

What will be the life changing moment?

What bad habit will you break?

What dreams will you make true?

What plans have you been brewing for too long that you will action?

What ever you do, Do something.

You only have 364 days left.

Tick tock…

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So true!

2010-12-30T17:34:00.001Z

via asbojesus.wordpress.com

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200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes

2010-12-28T18:28:00.001Z

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Another Version of the Christmas Story

2010-12-26T21:41:00.001Z

This is a classically wonderful Nativity, performed by children from St Paul’s, Symonds Street, Auckland, New Zealand. Thanks to Penny Nash

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Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas...

2010-12-24T09:36:00.001Z

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What to do when the snow lies...

2010-12-22T19:37:00.001Z

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Does Jesus believe in God?

2010-12-18T19:46:00.001Z

Taken from James Hawes

Does Jesus believe in your god, my god or our god?
Which version of God does he believe in or follow?
He didn’t seem to believe in the god of the Pharisees
He didn’t believe in the god of the Old Testament
He doesn’t believe in a patriarchal god or a dualistic god
He didn’t believe in a top-down god
He didn’t believe in a god out there
He didn’t believe in a distant or separate god
Would he believe in the God that many people worship today?

He appeared not to be interested in the finer aspects of the law
But moved people from an exterior code of conduct
To an internal consciousness and responsibility
He dumped dogma
He moved us from the be-liefs to the be-attitudes
He didn’t promote a god who is set apart
But a god who can be with me, in me, part of me
Be at-one with me

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Christmas Poem by Benjamin

2010-12-16T10:19:00.001Z

Making cards and wrapping gifts

Endless fun

Ring goes the bells

Riding their cars to the mall

Young people waiting for their parents to get their coffee or tea

Christ was born this day

Holidays

Rest time

It's a merry time of year

See your family

Time goes fast on this day

Movie time

A time for giving

Santa comes

By Benjamin Philip Schonken (aged 8)

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If the Christmas Story Happened Today...

2010-12-15T22:35:00.001Z

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Fantastic Post Match Interview

2010-12-13T08:00:00.002Z

Being tired of all the critism that he gets for speaking him mind, Brendan Venter tries a new approach.

Ten reasons Linux is the best choice for kids

2010-11-07T17:28:00.001Z

written by Jack Wallen for TechRepublic

"The problem with working in IT is that when we go home, our job often continues. Sometimes, keeping our children's computers running can be a bigger challenge than sorting out the adults at work.

But if you install Linux at home, you can avoid the headaches. That's because sound reasons exist for migrating young users from other operating systems."

He gives the following reasons...

1. Viruses and malware
2. Security
3. Cost effectiveness
4. Age-specific tools
5. Netbooks
6. Agile learners

I know that my two (8 & 5) are loving their uBuntu Netbooks.

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Technical Optimism

2010-11-05T13:49:00.001Z

taken from whyismarko.com

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Turn it Off!

2010-10-22T03:36:00.001+01:00

Turn it Off from Nigel Upchurch on Vimeo.

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Future Vision

2010-10-20T09:11:00.001+01:00

Ray Fleming gave the following talk at FOTE 2010...

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The True Size of Africa

2010-10-11T20:06:00.001+01:00

via Karl Krause

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Quote of the Day!

2010-10-01T07:17:00.001+01:00

"Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability." - John Wooden

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it's not where you take it from ... its where you take it to.

2010-09-25T12:08:00.001+01:00

via theshinyheadedprophet.blogspot.com

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Life on screen? Is this possible?

2010-09-12T10:34:00.001+01:00

via memex.naughtons.org

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The Dark Side of the Lens - Short Story

2010-09-04T07:48:00.002+01:00

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Key to Success...

2010-08-04T20:32:00.002+01:00

Storytelling, I want to be better...

2010-07-26T23:17:00.003+01:00

Stories are important. They have a power to change things. Stories are how we learn. They pass knowledge on. They explain things we don’t fully understand. They inspire us.

They touch us. They stay with us. They can sometimes alter our very course in life.

A great story will tell us important life lessons. About determination, about sacrifice, about sheer bloody drive. It will tell us about the pursuit of trying to find a better way and the inevitable obstacles that stand before it. And a great story will tell us the importance of an idea, that new remarkable way of seeing the world that leads to a change in our behaviour.

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Anti Theft Lunch Bags

2010-07-26T20:42:00.002+01:00

Ever had your lunch taken from the office fridge, try one of these...

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Public Safety Announcement when Cycling...

2010-07-22T20:45:00.001+01:00

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That Summer Feeling...

2010-07-22T20:20:00.002+01:00

Does this video not get you in that summer feeling, or is it just me?

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Just Remember...

2010-07-22T11:28:00.001+01:00

The next time you feel like God can’t use you, just remember…

Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Sampson had long hair and was a womaniser
Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
John the Baptist ate bugs
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious
Timothy had an ulcer…
AND
Lazarus was dead!

What do you have that’s worse than that?

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Things to Do this Summer

2010-07-21T21:40:00.001+01:00

Now that the kids have finished their term and start their summer holiday tomorrow, I have to plan a couple of things to do. Here is a list of ideas...

Watch a sunset - This will mean keeping them up very late, but might do this while camping in August.
Catch our own supper - There’s plenty to eat out there in the wilderness, but I need to know what to look for and where to look for it. www.wilderness-survival.net will show me what’s edible and what’s not.
Cook on a real campfire - Is this like a braai, or more rustic?
Make our own ice lollies - I am sure this will be a hit on those hot afternoons. www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes
Sleep under the stars - This is probably another thing to do while camping.
Get some sand between our toes - www.goodbeachguide.co.uk is an online guide with a description, photo and map for each of 1,200 beaches in the UK and Ireland.
Swim in the sea - Nothing like a dip in the ocean to cool down on a hot summer day.
Go out all day and don’t come back until it gets dark - More daylight = more time outside.
Pick some wild fruit and make a pie - Now is the best time to go find all those great British berries and make a delicious pie. www.edenfoods.com has recipes for all the best summer desserts.

These should keep us busy for a couple of days then.

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Some Star Wars General Knowledge

2010-07-15T09:53:00.004+01:00

Thanks to Chris Curtis for this information & graphic...

After WC 2010, what can you use the vuvuzela for?

2010-07-14T14:22:00.003+01:00

Thanks to Zapiro for the ideas...

Hacking Education

2010-07-09T10:28:00.000+01:00

Is the iPad magical?

2010-07-09T09:47:00.001+01:00

Found this clip on Youtube...

Why we put things off

2010-06-21T11:31:00.002+01:00

Change is difficult for us. Staying as we are is often easier.
We don’t like the unknown. We prefer known comfort zones.
We worry about failing. We imagine the risk more clearly than the reward.
We are too busy. And we aren’t disciplined with our spare time.
We look for excuses to make us feel better about not trying.
Change needs a catalyst so the pain of change is less than the pain of staying the same, and we tell ourselves it hasn’t happened yet.
We talk about change but for some reason we are not prepared to give the words the action that they require.
We let the scale of what we need to do prevent us from taking small steps towards change.
We are not willing to sacrifice or go without in order to change something.
The dream isn’t powerful enough in our heads to lead us to want to do something to make change happen.

The purpose of Education

2010-06-15T10:53:00.001+01:00

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one” - Michael Forbes

You Are Remarkable.

2010-06-09T19:49:00.002+01:00

Remember your mum whispering in your ear at bedtime ‘how special you are’. And you thinking at the time, just how perceptive she was? Way before you knew what perceptive even meant.

Remember when you fell off your bike that time? Did you ever think about not getting back on? Nope, not for a nano second, right?

Remember running your first marathon? Of course, you wanted to quit. Like, really-really wanted to jack it in. But you didn’t, did you?

And remember all those times that you trusted people and they let you down, badly so. But you didn’t let that stop you believing in people. No way, you still think its better to trust than to be a cynic.

You’re made of tough, amazing, brilliant stuff. But even so, from time to time you can forget how remarkable you are.

Time can do that. Life can do that. Just being busy can do that.

So sometimes, you just need reminding of your utter specialness.

Dealing with haters - Tim Ferris

2010-06-07T23:35:00.001+01:00

Tim Ferris, (Do Lectures talk back in 2008), author of The Four Hour Work Week went onstage at The Next Web 2010 event in Amsterdam and discussed how best to deal with haters. Originally blogged by Amy-Mae Elliott at Mashable, here are the 7 pieces of advice:

1. It doesn’t matter how many people don’t get it. What matters is how many people do.

“It’s critical in social media, as in life, to have a clear objective and not to lose sight of that,” Ferriss says. He argues that if your objective is to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people or to change the world in some small way (be it through a product or service), you only need to pick your first 1,000 fans — and carefully. “As long as you’re accomplishing your objectives, that 1,000 will lead to a cascading effect,” Ferriss explains. “The 10 million that don’t get it don’t matter.”

2. 10% of people will find a way to take anything personally. Expect it.

“People are least productive in reactive mode,” Ferriss states, before explaining that if you are expecting resistance and attackers, you can choose your response in advance, as opposed to reacting inappropriately. This, Ferriss says, will only multiply the problem. “Online I see people committing ’social media suicide’ all the time by one of two ways. Firstly by responding to all criticism, meaning you’re never going to find time to complete important milestones of your own, and by responding to things that don’t warrant a response.” This, says Ferriss, lends more credibility by driving traffic.

3. “Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity.” (Colin Powell)

“If you treat everyone the same and respond to everyone by apologizing or agreeing, you’re not going to be recognizing the best performers, and you’re not going to be improving the worst performers,” Ferriss says. “That guarantees you’ll get more behavior you don’t want and less you do.” That doesn’t mean never respond, Ferriss goes on to say, but be “tactical and strategic” when you do.

4. “If you are really effective at what you do, 95% of the things said about you will be negative.” (Scott Boras)

“This principle goes hand-in-hand with number two,” Ferriss says. “I actually keep this quote in my wallet because it is a reminder that the best people in almost any field are almost always the people who get the most criticism.” The bigger your impact, explains Ferriss (whose book is a New York Times, WSJ and BusinessWeek bestseller), and the larger the ambition and scale of your project, the more negativity you’ll encounter. Ferriss jokes he has haters “in about 35 languages.”

5. “If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.” (Epictetus)

“Another way to phrase this is through a more recent quote from Elbert Hubbard,” Ferriss says. “‘To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” Ferriss, who holds a Guinness World Record for the most consecutive tango spins, says he has learned to enjoy criticism over the years. Ferriss, using Roman philosophy to expand on his point, says: “Cato, who Seneca believed to be the perfect stoic, practiced this by wearing darker robes than was customary and by wearing no tunic. He expected to be ridiculed and he was, he did this to train himself to only be ashamed of those things that are truly worth being ashamed of. To do anything remotely interesting you need to train yourself to be effective at dealing with, responding to, even enjoying criticism… In fact, I would take the quote a step further and encourage people to actively pursue being thought foolish and stupid.”

6. “Living well is the best revenge.” (George Herbert)

“The best way to counter-attack a hater is to make it blatantly obvious that their attack has had no impact on you,” Ferriss advises. “That, and [show how much fun you’re having!” Ferriss goes on to say that the best revenge is letting haters continue to live with their own resentment and anger, which most of the time has nothing to do with you in particular. “If a vessel contains acid and you pour some on an object, it’s still the vessel that sustains the most damage,” Ferriss says. “Don’t get angry, don’t get even — focus on living well and that will eat at them more than anything you can do.”

7. Keep calm and carry on.

The slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On” was originally produced by the British government during the Second World War as a propaganda message to comfort people in the face of Nazi invasion. Ferriss takes the message and applies it to today’s world. “Focus on impact, not approval. If you believe you can change the world, which I hope you do, do what you believe is right and expect resistance and expect attackers,” Ferriss concludes. “Keep calm and carry on!”

posted by David Hieatt (link)

The Truth About What Motivates Us

2010-06-01T22:56:00.000+01:00

Dan Pink’s talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace.

What is Education for?

2010-06-01T22:37:00.002+01:00

As kids, we walk into school with an open mind.

We are innocent and naïve.

It's a time where everything is new. And where everything is possible.

We are the human equivalent of a living-breathing-back-pack wearing sponge.

We are barely knee high and yet we have reached a pivotal time in our lives.

We are going to meet our first teacher.

Luckily most teachers are brilliant.

The brilliant ones are that way cos they love what they do.

And as kids even if we don't always listen to the words they say, we can feel the passion with which they say them.

And passion, like negativity, is contagious.

But all teachers, no matter how passionate, have to follow a curriculum born of the last century.

And then teach that to kids from this century.

At best, it's a struggle for the teacher.

At worst, kids can't relate to it. And switch off.

Our educational system still thinks we have to sit exams to show how smart we are. And yet a test of memory doesn't always show our ability to think.

An exam doesn't tell teachers how creative you are, or how determined you are, or how prone to stress you are.

Can we learn as much about Maths by making things as counting things? Probably. Can sport teach us more about ourselves than almost anything? Definitely.

But the big question is does our educational system want to learn about the kids in front of them? Does it want to ask them what they are interested in?

The reason to ask them is simple: we learn better when we are interested.

Now the next big question is can a school learn? Can it adapt? Can it make itself more relevant? Can it change? Can it give education that connects to the kids in front of them? Or will it carry on giving them what it has prepared from the last century, regardless of how relevant it is to today. So that brings to the last big question: Love. We are taught the importance of finding a career but not the importance of finding our love. We have to change education to find out what they are interested in. Find their interest and you will unlock the floodgates of their learning.

So interest is key. If you are interested in something, you will be willing to toil away at it. Put the hours in without feeling like it is a chore. If you are interested in it, it will become your passion. And in the end, it will become your love.

And as you walk out of school and into a job you love, then work will feel more like play, the clock will never go slow, and because you love what you do, the chance are you are going to pretty good at it. And it will be a bunch of fun too.

So I guess getting schools to come into this century is pretty important.

taken from Do Blog (link)

I love this quote...

2010-05-26T21:23:00.001+01:00

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
- Plato

Posted via email from schonken's posterous

Everything you always wanted to know about text

2010-05-18T16:26:00.000+01:00

Everything you always wanted to know about text

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

Wave for Education

2010-05-16T21:53:00.002+01:00

View more presentations from John Jennings.

Lithuania set new Rugby World Record

2010-04-26T12:56:00.002+01:00

taken from here

Lithuania have written their name into rugby's history books after beating Serbia 77-5 on Saturday to record an 18th consecutive test victory and surpass the previous record in the men's Game held by New Zealand and South Africa.

A nation of three million people, Lithuania's run began on 27 May 2006 with a 23-17 away win over Hungary in Esztergom and has now seen them beat 12 different countries across Europe with only four matches decided by a single score.

Lithuania have already secured the Division 3A title and promotion to the third level of the European Nations Cup, but the record provides a confidence boost ahead of their Rugby World Cup 2011 qualifier with Ukraine on 8 May.

Victories over Israel (19-3) and the higher ranked Netherlands (6-3) have earned Lithuania the play-off with Division 2A champions Ukraine, the winner of which will face Romania home and away to determine Europe's representative in the cross-continental play-off for the 20th and final place at RWC 2011.

"It's great to achieve 18 successive wins and be the record holders, but we haven't yet achieved our goal," captain Mindaugas Misevicius told AFP. "We want to qualify for the World Cup in New Zealand."

Lithuania scored 13 tries against Serbia, centre Gediminas Liutrus and flanker Andrius Martinskas grabbing hat-tricks with Tomas Zibolis, Justinas Vasiliauskas, Egidijus Detronis, Edvardas Zilius, Kestutis Marcijauskas and Marius Andrijauskas the other scorers in the record-breaking win.

The All Blacks had set the record of 17 consecutive test matches between 18 September 1965 and 6 June 1969, a sequence ended with a 17-6 loss to South Africa in Pretoria in July 1970.

The Springboks, then world champions after their success at RWC 1995, equalled this run between 23 August 1997 and 29 November 1998 with England's 13-7 win at Twickenham a week later denying them the record outright.

10 Amazing Life Lessons You Can Learn From Albert Einstein

2010-04-13T21:37:00.002+01:00

Albert Einstein has long been considered a genius by the masses. He was a theoretical physicist, philosopher, author, and is perhaps the most influential scientists to ever live.

Einstein has made great contributions to the scientific world, including the theory of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the prediction of the deflection of light by gravity, the quantum theory of atomic motion in solids, the zero-point energy concept, and the quantum theory of a monatomic gas which predicted Bose–Einstein condensation, to name a few of his scientific contributions.

Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.”

He’s published more than 300 scientific works and over 150 non-scientific works. Einstein is considered the father of modern physics and is probably the most successful scientist there ever was.

10 Amazing Lessons from Albert Einstein:

Follow Your Curiosity

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

What piques your curiosity? I am curious as to what causes one person to succeed while another person fails; this is why I’ve spent years studying success. What are you most curious about? The pursuit of your curiosity is the secret to your success.

Perseverance is Priceless

“It's not that I'm so smart; it's just that I stay with problems longer.”

Through perseverance the turtle reached the ark. Are you willing to persevere until you get to your intended destination? They say the entire value of the postage stamp consist in its ability to stick to something until it gets there. Be like the postage stamp; finish the race that you’ve started!

Focus on the Present

“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”

My father always says you cannot ride two horses at the same time. I like to say, you can do anything, but not everything. Learn to be present where you are; give your all to whatever you’re currently doing.

Focused energy is power, and it’s the difference between success and failure.

The Imagination is Powerful

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Are you using your imagination daily? Einstein said the imagination is more important than knowledge! Your imagination pre-plays your future. Einstein went on to say, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.” Are you exercising your “imagination muscles” daily, don’t let something as powerful as your imagination lie dormant.

Make Mistakes

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

Never be afraid of making a mistake. A mistake is not a failure. Mistakes can make you better, smarter and faster, if you utilize them properly. Discover the power of making mistakes. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, if you want to succeed, triple the amount of mistakes that you make.

Live in the Moment

“I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.”

The only way to properly address your future is to be as present as possible “in the present.”

You cannot “presently” change yesterday or tomorrow, so it’s of supreme importance that you dedicate all of your efforts to “right now.” It’s the only time that matters, it’s the only time there is.

Create Value

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

Don’t waste your time trying to be successful, spend your time creating value. If you’re valuable, then you will attract success.

Discover the talents and gifts that you possess, learn how to offer those talents and gifts in a way that most benefits others.

Labor to be valuable and success will chase you down.

Don’t Expect Different Results

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

You can’t keep doing the same thing everyday and expect different results. In other words, you can’t keep doing the same workout routine and expect to look differently. In order for your life to change, you must change, to the degree that you change your actions and your thinking is to the degree that your life will change.

Knowledge Comes From Experience

“Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”

Knowledge comes from experience. You can discuss a task, but discussion will only give you a philosophical understanding of it; you must experience the task first hand to “know it.” What’s the lesson? Get experience! Don’t spend your time hiding behind speculative information, go out there and do it, and you will have gained priceless knowledge.

Learn the Rules and Then Play Better

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

To put it all in simple terms, there are two things that you must do. The first thing you must do is to learn the rules of the game that you’re playing. It doesn’t sound exciting, but it’s vital. Secondly, you must commit to play the game better than anyone else. If you can do these two things, success will be yours!

What If?

2010-03-07T22:13:00.003Z

What if I can achieve more than I dream?
What if I can do more than I believe?
What if I am better than I think?
What if I aim too low?
And what if I only ever achieve what I aim for?
What if the world never sees what I really can do?
What if I never see it, either?
What if my ideas never leave my head for fear of failure?
What If my biggest hurdle to jump over is me?
What if I never fly because I don’t believe in my wings?
Before you can change the world, you have to change your own.

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass

2010-03-04T21:59:00.000Z

This is great for a little bit of R&R...

Your Personal Memory Device.

2010-03-03T21:26:00.000Z

It will happen some day. It is inevitable. In the near future, someone will decide to record every moment of a human life from birth to death in digital storage. This will be more than an extreme reality TV stunt. It will mark the era of personal memory offloading, an adaptive memory technology that records and indexes every single moment of your life. Offloading personal memory begins with a personal memory device, or a PMD. The basic PMD would be no more complex than a small video and sound recorder that captures your every experience. A PMD could be easily fitted shortly after birth; the least invasive option would be like a Bluetooth headset worn over the ear connected wirelessly to a local device no larger than a cell phone. Once installed, the PMD would capture and upload all first-person memories to a centralized database for indexing, search, and recall.

Data captured by the PMD would be linked over the internet into distributed software services like GPS, Google Maps, facial recognition, speech/text recognition, brainwave analysis and so on. It would create an ongoing record of the people, terrain, and objects in your vicinity. Contextual memory stored in the PMD’s back-end database would be total, like tracking your avatar moving through the World of Warcraft or Second Life, except plotting actual data from real life in real time. Whatever you do will be captured by the PMD for later playback and recall. Your PMD will remember every place you visit, every person you meet, every conversation you have, every object you look at, every movie you watch, every meal you eat, every page you read, every email you write, everything.

Would the PMD remember where you parked? Always. Will it warn you when you are about to walk away and leave your hat and sunglasses on the bench behind you? Totally. Will it send you birthday reminders, schedule your meetings, remind you to pick up your dry-cleaning and let you program your DVR with voice commands? Yes. Will it find your car keys and remote control for you? Maybe. Will it record your innermost thoughts? Probably not. It won’t always be perfect, but it will greatly extend your normal range of memory, and over time it will become like an indispensable part of your brain.

Brain on motherboardExternal data is easy to record and index, but internal memory such as feelings, thoughts, ideas, and dreams present some engineering challenges. The PMD could be fitted with an invasive brain implant to extend functionality, but to keep things simple, let’s consider some cheap, non-invasive solutions. Biometric data such as temperature, galvanic skin response, brainwave activity, pulse, respiration rates, and perspiration levels can monitor mood, arousal, activity levels, and so on. This biometric data, no matter how spotty, can be used to generate a dynamic emotional profile for any individual as they move through their day. Speech and behavioral analysis can also track levels of focus and activity to indicate mood and engagement in reality. Facial gestures and voice pitch can be tracked to sense subtle emotional reactions to stimulus. There could be a service that monitors your diet and daily routines to see if you are acting in healthy or unhealthy ways. If environmental data capture is complete, filling in emotional data from biometric analysis would be a simple software task.

With your PMD you would be able to say, “Remember the time I did (activity) with (person) at (location)?” and your PMD would search your memory database and stream the audio, video, and emotional rendering of the experience to your cell phone. Or you could ask, “Remember that book I read on chimpanzees? Who was the author?” Multiple memories may fit your query and be returned as a basic search list with text, video, and audio links. Similar memories with substituted variables might be offered up as tangents. Your request may provide you with “links” to other activities at that same location or to other books you have read by the same author. Beyond that, you could watch yourself relive important memories, or if friends and family members had similar devices, you could share personal events and watch group memories through multiple perspectives. Human memory integrity need no longer rely on lossy neural compression and the unreliable he-said/she-said narratives that compose written history. It would all be a matter of public record stored in time-stamped relational database tables for all of history. At the very least, it may save a few arguments between married couples.

Brain resoucesThe PMD sounds like science fiction, but the technology for creating it exists today. It could be an iPhone app. The engineering hurdles would be the physical disk space and CPU cycles needed for daily storage, compression, and indexing of video and audio data for every person with a PMD. Let’s assume storage and CPU cycles are solvable problems and that indexing and compression of video and speech data will only get better and faster over time. So pretty soon, for a moderate monthly fee, you could get a PMD system bundled with your cable, cell-phone, or internet bill. With a pocket or desktop unit, your daily memory will be locally stored and indexed. The relevant data points would then be uploaded to a central server for global storage and cross-indexing with other personal memories and digital records over the course of your lifetime. Like a Tivo, your PMD would be able to predict which memories you want to save, which memories your friends and family will like, and which memories are private, redundant, or expendable. It would be easy to customize these features for each individual, making indexing personal memory an intuitive task that would involve automatically setting user preferences based on daily routines; mirroring actual learning and memory networking in the brain.

Engineering a PMD is a relatively simple challenge, but the ramifications of such a device go far beyond personal memory storage. If a smart device is tracking and indexing your personal memory, every aspect of your life can then be recreated in virtual space and reviewed from any angle. Each night, our personal memory would be indexed and compressed while we slept. This would be a sort of “digital dreaming” — our digital dreams would naturally grow over time to mirror our personal dreams. Your digital memories and preference files from any period in your life could be assembled to create a virtual avatar that looked, talked, and behaved just like you. You could have a digital ghost that acts out probable behaviors in hypothetical scenarios, like a dream projecting itself into a videogame future. This digital version of you would exist long after your physical body was gone. People in the future would be able to log on and meet you, relive your memories, or place your avatar into a virtual simulation. It is not immortality, but it beats a MySpace page by a long shot.

Will it warn you when you are about to walk away and leave your hat and sunglasses on the bench behind you? Totally.

Most interestingly, the PMD can be used a social memory or cloud memory device. If you select the social memory networking option, then your public memories can be shared with anyone who shares overlapping memories with you, making shared social memory (the collective consciousness) an instantly accessible reality. This raises some privacy issues, but cell phones already track our location and capture audio and video; capturing every moment of environmental data for cloud-memory rendering is merely the logical endpoint of this technology. You could jump in on a friend’s memory stream and share their experiences over the internet; you could watch a rock concert through the eyes of the guitarist, lead singer, or anyone in the crowd. Then you could replay that concert over and over from different angles. With environmental data capture from multiple PMDs, recreating any event in virtual space becomes a matter of video crunching and graphics rendering. Rendered PMD cloud data could recreate crime scenes or accidents for review in court; create virtual classrooms and training centers; or make vacation memories available to friends on Facebook. You would never again have to ask, “Remember that time…?” All you would have to do is send a link to their PMD. They will remember.

taken from Your Personal Memory Device. You Could Have One Today | h+ Magazine

To the crazy ones

2010-02-28T23:40:00.003Z

Steve Wheeler wrote this on his blog (link here) and I think it makes me think:

"Are you considered a little crazy? Are your ideas looked on with scorn, or with mild amusement? Well, don't give up. Twice I have come across the same quote today, in two different versions, and I now think that someone, somewhere is trying to tell me something. So I share it here with you. I'm not sure whether this is even the complete quote, but it's one that really inspires me, and the words also turn up within the amazing portrait by Dylan Roscover of Apple guru Steve Jobs (link):

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward.
And while some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

And here's the 'Think Different' video"

Modern Life?

2010-02-25T21:45:00.001Z

true?

A Teacher's Guide to Generation X Parents

2010-02-24T20:30:00.002Z

Susan Thomas writes an excellent article here [link] on how to work with well-meaning but demanding moms and dads.

She use the generational stereotypes to explain behaviour of parents that teacher might and do face.

She also offers some advice, which I think is rather useful...

Listen to Us
As insufferable as we can be at first contact, listen to us first. We may look and act like adults, but there is a part of us that still feels like a neglected kid inside. Paying attention to our concerns may be a little more time consuming, but the effort will pay off. We're loyal allies, and we love to be helpful.

Include Us
Invite us to teach in the classroom for an afternoon. Or assign students free-choice homework one night a week, to be completed with a parent. Many Gen Xers are genuine intellectuals with interesting ideas and hobbies. We'd love to share them!

Put Us to Work
We share your passion for making schools more successful learning environments. Besides letting us help you in class or share a homework assignment with our kids, harness our energy by asking us to help plan a field trip or do background research or otherwise help you prepare a class project.

Give Us Limits
"I let parents know that I'm always willing to listen to their concerns, but that there are certain issues that are negotiable and others that just aren't," says Shelly Wolf Scott, an administrator at Brooklyn's Rivendell School. Parents are not allowed to alter their children's classroom placement, curriculum, or administrative decisions.
They are, however, permitted to offer information about their child that the school might not know and that could assist in making such decisions. "This group of parents seems to respond well to those boundaries," she says.

Work with Us
"Parents don't seem to know how incredibly carefully all teachers and administrators think about their children," says Lynn Levinson, assistant director of Upper School (and a parent of two) at the Maret School, in Washington, DC. "I always reassure them that I know how many conversations have revolved around these children and their classmates, so I know that it's the right decision, even if I'm not happy with it as a parent."

Food for thought as I tackle a couple of parents' meetings in the next month.

Be a Doer

2010-02-24T20:23:00.002Z

Set yourself a goal.

Set yourself a deadline.

Define success at the start.

Make a plan to make it happen.

Build a team to help you.

Get the team to sign up, head and heart, to the plan.

Understand there will be hurdles, barriers. Accept them. But defeat them.

Work each day toward getting things done. A little can do a lot.

Keep the end goal in your mind at all times.

Understand the importance of your energy. Your stubbornness. Your persistence.

Half way through a project is always the lowest point. You are neither at the start, nor at the end. Energy dips, morale is low. Have a day off.

The next day remind yourself why you started it in the first place.

Focus. Focus. Focus. But focus on the most important thing.

Tell the world what you are doing.

Tell the world your deadline.

Celebrate progress. Any progress.

Never give up.

Look back at how far you have traveled. It will surprise you.

It will also tell you that you are closer to your goal than ever before.

Keep going.

Then one day, after many, many days, you will complete your goal.

You got there in the end.

Your words and your deeds are one. Most people in life are just talkers. But you are a doer. Well done.

written by David Hieatt from the Do Blog [link]

What is 21st Century Education?

2010-02-23T19:56:00.002Z

taken from 21st Century Schools and makes interesting reading (link)

e-Learning?

2010-02-21T19:15:00.003Z

Is there a new role for learning?

Does e-learning differ from learning by more than the medium?

Can e-Learning be a combination of self-study, online resources, community/group projects, interaction with an instructor, assessment and transfer? or is this the same as learning?

Is e-learning about providing more than learning at specific times?

Is the provider's role to help individuals make the best of the learning that's available and to access it on-demand?

Is e-learning providing an environment in which people can work and learn almost seamlessly?

Is it more about managing the climate for learning than just the content for learning?

So many questions and so little time to research and experiment.

ICT and Education: 10 Trends

2010-02-12T15:00:00.003Z

Taken from WorldBank Blog (link) and written by Robert Hawkins

In the spirit of the new year and all things dealing with resolutions and lists, I submit below my first blog posting for the EduTech blog (checking off a resolution) with a discussion of 10 Global Trends in ICT and Education for 2010 and beyond (joining the crowded space of lists in this new year).

The list is an aggregation of projections from leading forecasters such as the Horizon Report, personal observations and a good dose of guesswork. The Top 10 Global Trends in ICT and Education are:

Mobile Learning. New advances in hardware and software are making mobile “smart phones” indispensible tools. Just as cell phones have leapfrogged fixed line technology in the telecommunications industry, it is likely that mobile devices with internet access and computing capabilities will soon overtake personal computers as the information appliance of choice in the classroom.

Cloud computing. Applications are increasingly moving off of the stand alone desk top computer and increasingly onto server farms accessible through the Internet. The implications of this trend for education systems are huge; they will make cheaper information appliances available which do not require the processing power or size of the PC. The challenge will be providing the ubiquitous connectivity to access information sitting in the “cloud”.

One-to-One computing. The trend in classrooms around the world is to provide an information appliance to every learner and create learning environments that assume universal access to the technology. Whether the hardware involved is one laptop per child (OLPC), or – increasingly -- a net computer, smart phone, or the re-emergence of the tablet, classrooms should prepare for the universal availability of personal learning devices.

Ubiquitous learning. With the emergence of increasingly robust connectivity infrastructure and cheaper computers, school systems around the world are developing the ability to provide learning opportunities to students “anytime, anywhere”. This trend requires a rethinking of the traditional 40 minute lesson. In addition to hardware and Internet access, it requires the availability of virtual mentors or teachers, and/or opportunities for peer to peer and self-paced, deeper learning.

Gaming. A recent survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project per the Horizon Report found that massively multiplayer and other online game experience is extremely common among young people and that games offer an opportunity for increased social interaction and civic engagement among youth. The phenomenal success of games with a focus on active participation, built in incentives and interaction suggests that current educational methods are not falling short and that educational games could more effectively attract the interest and attention of learners.

Personalized learning. Education systems are increasingly investigating the use of technology to better understand a student’s knowledge base from prior learning and to tailor teaching to both address learning gaps as well as learning styles. This focus transforms a classroom from one that teaches to the middle to one that adjusts content and pedagogy based on individual student needs – both strong and weak.

Redefinition of learning spaces. The ordered classroom of 30 desks in rows of 5 may quickly become a relic of the industrial age as schools around the world are re-thinking the most appropriate learning environments to foster collaborative, cross-disciplinary, students centered learning. Concepts such as greater use of light, colors, circular tables, individual spaces for students and teachers, and smaller open learning spaces for project-based learning are increasingly emphasized.

Teacher-generated open content. OECD school systems are increasingly empowering teachers and networks of teachers to both identify and create the learning resources that they find most effective in the classroom. Many online texts allow teachers to edit, add to, or otherwise customize material for their own purposes, so that their students receive a tailored copy that exactly suits the style and pace of the course. These resources in many cases complement the official textbook and may, in the years to come, supplant the textbook as the primary learning source for students. Such activities often challenge traditional notions of intellectual property and copyright.

Smart portfolio assessment. The collection, management, sorting, and retrieving of data related to learning will help teachers to better understand learning gaps and customize content and pedagogical approaches. Also, assessment is increasingly moving toward frequent formative assessments which lend itself to real-time data and less on high-pressure exams as the mark of excellence. Tools are increasingly available to students to gather their work together in a kind of online portfolio; whenever they add a tweet, blog post, or photo to any online service, it will appear in their personal portfolio which can be both peer and teacher assessed.

Teacher managers/mentors. The role of the teacher in the classroom is being transformed from that of the font of knowledge to an instructional manager helping to guide students through individualized learning pathways, identifying relevant learning resources, creating collaborative learning opportunities, and providing insight and support both during formal class time and outside of the designated 40 minute instruction period. This shift is easier said than done and ultimately the success or failure of technology projects in the classroom hinge on the human factor and the willingness of a teacher to step into unchartered territory.

These trends are expected to continue and to challenge many of the delivery models fundamental to formal education as it is practiced in most countries. It will be interesting to reflect back on this list at the end of the year to see which ideas have gained the most traction; and what new ideas will make a list for 2011….