Apr

19

Australian History rap

April 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment

cf_des_bishop_rap_history_down_under

Ireland-based, American comedian Des Bishop’s Australian History rap, which includes key moments in the past 200 years of Australian history in three minutes. Performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, 2009.

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Nov

29

Media Literacy

November 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Members of the research team at Project New Media Literacies discuss the social skills and cultural competencies needed to fully engage with today’s participatory culture. Featuring Henry Jenkins, and produced by Anna Van Someren at Project New Media Literacies.

In the past, media literacy was about “getting consumers to think critically about what they were watching”. [...]

Jul

26

Beyond Standardising Testing

July 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment

assessment-overview-video

This video explores the tensions between standardised testing and performance-based learning and advocates a move to “high-quality, localised assessment”. Project examples include students building robots, designing future schools and racing electric cars. The Urban Academy in New York City, which is part of a consortium of 32 schools, has replaced standardised testing with performance assessment [...]

Jul

10

It takes years to be good…

July 10, 2008 | 3 Comments

This video from Ira Glass, radio host of USA’s This American Life on National Public Radio, provides pertinent advice for those of us, teachers and students, who are trying (and failing) to create quality media products.
Glass’ advice is that it takes years before you can produce work that is where you want it to be [...]

Mar

30

History televised!

March 30, 2008 | 2 Comments

Interested in History? Keen to explore the past?
Based on the BAFTA award-winning TV series, Timelines.tv is a free, new and exciting on-line history resource.
“It offers a wealth of quality TV documentary, arranged on interactive historical timelines that put you in control of your journey through the past. Timelines.tv spans the centuries. It’s rich in detail, [...]

Nov

18

Zombie survival guide

November 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Okay, so it’s way past Halloween but I couldn’t resist, from the makers of the best survival guides, CommonCraft

Via Open Thinking and Digital Pedgagy

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Nov

4

Re/thinking information

November 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Another instalment from Digital Ethnography. According to the creators: “This video explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information. This video was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and [...]

Oct

28

Speaking with conviction

October 28, 2007 | 1 Comment

I inwardly cringed as I laughed at this video because I am, like, totally guilty of this “disarticulation … ness”.

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Aug

11

Lifting the fog

August 11, 2007 | 2 Comments

As an English teacher, I spend a lot of time thinking about what it means to be literate. It seems obvious to me that “literacy” has connotations that extend beyond the ability to read and write. This is tied to a consideration of the “21st century” skills students need to be successful lifelong learners. These [...]

Aug

11

Times marches on…

August 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment

“The world is moving at a tremendous rate. Going no one knows where. We must prepare our children, not for the world of the past. Not for our world. But for their world. The world of the future.” John Dewey
Via the 21st Century Collaborative:
“Dewey’s thoughts have laid the foundation for inquiry driven approaches. According to [...]