Cass and I just had a play with the most astonishing piece of technology – an interactive table that was straight of the USS Enterprise. I’ll post the details as soon as I get them but if one piece of equipment was going to convert me to fully fledged techno-nerd then that would be it.

Watching a presentation from a QLD primary teacher on usin ICT creatively. We have so much to learn from the primary system, and I’m really starting to grasp why so many students don’t handle the transition as well as they could.

Voice thread

Not sure if the embed I just did is going to work. If it does check it out as it looks like a great classroom tool. Otherwise visit https://voicethread.com/?#q

I realy don’t want these entries to come across as a “look how rubbish we are” whinge because we aren’t. We’re a great school. I think we would be greatly served if we could – as a whole staff – actually blue sky think about where we want to be and how we do it. We are all su passionate but somehow the passion gets sapped from us by life.

It’s possible to be profoundly inspired and massively frustrated at the same time. It’s a weird feeling.

As a motivation technique, Google uses a policy often called Innovation Time Off, where Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time on projects that interest them. Some of Google’s newer services, such as Gmail, Google News, Orkut, and AdSense originated from these independent endeavors. In a talk at Stanford University, Marissa Mayer, Google’s Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, showed that half of all new product launches at the time had originated from the Innovation Time Off.

50 percent of Google’s revenue stream is created by projects stemming from 20% time. Is this an idea we can work with -how would it fit around training!!

One school represented here has a two hour a week “Zeal Zone” – open slather to work on their own project and book in time with relevant teachers to help them. Sounds like chaos but it apparently works.

Talking to teachers from across Australia underlines again that we all face the same issues. If we all know what the issues are why can’t we fix the system??

Chriss Betcher poses the question of whether or not a brilliant polymath like leonardo da Vinci would have survived as a student in the modern classroom or would he have been stymied at every turn by classroom and educational practice.

Steven Bradbury makes a valid point – we remember him for the biggest lucky break in sporting history, despite the fact he flogged himself to get there and he was in the final on merit. He may have got lucky but he created his own luck.