Life without the mobile

After an excellent weekend away I wondered to myself driving back from Auckland. What would we do without a mobile phone? Throughout the entire weekend I was constantly organising to meet people using my mobile. I wonder whether I would still have those friends if mobiles didn't exist or in fact, I would have never met them in the first place. On Saturday night as I was eating dinner at a very nice restaurant I cast my eye at the table to see 6 mobile phones sitting at the dinner table. Bareing in mind that there were only 4 people sitting at the table I can help wondering whether having a mobile phone is all its cracked up to be. Being contactable any time, any where. I don't think I could live without one, but has society become mobile dependent and would I get mobile phone withdrawals if something happened to mine?

University

I have decided after much deliberation to continue on with my Master of Education with two papers this year. The first one I have decided to do is about Education Leadership. I am interested in this area of education. How do you develop a successful team of people that are creative, innovative and dynamic? People who can take risks and explore new possibilities? Hopefully being able to look at the issues and ideas behind Educational Leadership may lead me to acquire some of this knowledge.

The second paper is Educational Research. I have been told..... if you are going to do a thesis then you have to do a Research Methods paper. "OH" I said in reply!!!!

What have I got myself into...................at least I only have myself to blame :0)

Bring it on I say..........

Thank goodness I have Internet again!!!!

Its amazing how much you rely on the Internet and a school network to communicate with other staff members. The School has suffered from a virus which has infected the Network for the past week or so. This meant that no communication via email or access to the Internet.

I now understand why people were fitter 10-15 years ago. If you had a message for someone, you had to go and find them to deliver it to them. I must have wandered around the school more times in the past week than all last year, because I have to physically locate the person I needed. Was it a bad thing? I am not sure. But I am sure glad it is all back up and running!!!

Interactive Whiteboard GONE!!!!

As the beginning of the year is fast approaching I sat at my desk looking at my Interactive Whiteboard being carried out of the door of my classroom in preparation for the Toshiba tablets that will hopefully replace them. There were feelings of regret, the Interactive Whiteboard allowed me to teach in a very different way, not necessarily better, just different. I hope that these tablet will enhance this knowledge further. Have I done the right thing? I hope so........only time will tell

Something to think about.....

Toolishness is Foolishness

I am contemplating the idea of gadgets.  One of the main purposes for technical gadgets is to make life easier (Or so the advertisements say).  The gadgets that come to mind are the iphone, PDA's, ipod touch, and laptops.  I wonder whether too many gadgets are a good thing or a bad thing.  

Me being the complete gadget king I would say that you can never have enough gadgets.  But reflecting on what I have purchased over the years I have probably been through about 4 MP3 players, 3 different laptops, 5 phones and numerous other toys which I thought would enhance my life in some way.  Unfortunately looking back, it kind of hasn't happened :)

So I am thinking from an educational perspective, what happens???? Is toolishness, foolishness? Do you need to try the tools before you know whether they are going to do the job or not?  Will kids make do with the tools that they already have?  Will the tools be nothing more than gadgets with no educational worth?  And will gadgets last the test of time?

Things in plain English

Have you ever wanted things to be explained in plain English.  Things like Wiki's, Blogs, Twitter and RSS. Well I have found a fantastic website which does that.  It's a bit like the online version of 'Microsoft Word for Dummies'.  

The site is called: http://www.commoncraft.com/