I’ve been looking for a possible mobile application for in-service and pre-service teachers to connect to each other and to other social media tools. I thought that it would be really useful for teachers to start using blogs, photo sharing, social bookmarking etc a network with other professionals as part of their tertiary training. Last …
Author archives: Derek
To Twit or to Facebook with KZN teachers
Pre service and in service teachers need to be introduced, taught about, with and through ICTS. But the problems of access make implementation of this goal difficult. I’ve counted phone numbers, fax, email addresses etc of schools in the KZN Midlands region. Out of the 506 schools 96% have mobile numbers, 74% have landlines, 45% …
Your progress and your opinions of my progress
Well done to you all. We are more than half way through the course, and many of you are on track with task submission. 68 students have submitted task 1, 63 have submitted task 2 (still waiting for the outstanding 13 to tell me which group they are in), 65 have submitted task 3, 41 …
Continue reading “Your progress and your opinions of my progress”
Mindfulness
Spend the weekend at Solitude on a photography retreat. Thomas Merton, Richard Rhor, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jack Kornfield, Eckhart Tolle and photography were brought together by Bear and Sharon for a Mindfulness weekend. The two facilitator worked amazingly well to introduce themes that had both a place in photography and spirituality. Sojme of the thoughts that …
Intimidated by numbers?
Sometimes the 17 180 917 760 cells in Excel that sit waiting for you to organize, calculate, chart, graph and/or display are a little intimidating. True – Excel has a lot of features that seem a mystery and terms that are new. But instead of focussing on Excel, think about what you want to accomplish. …
Writing Wrongs
A busy teacher does not have the time to mark electronically. Track changes is meant for an editor, not an overloaded educator. Too engage with the content using electronic marking is possible. With a bit of fore thought, a stressed techer could use the following electronic marking techniques.
Presentations
I’ve been designing materials for a Programme entitled “Skills for a changing world” for the past few months and have just got to the piloting phase. Below are three PowerPoint presentations that I put together. They might be useful to those who’d like to familiarise thmselves with the PowerPoint programme. PowerPoint Orientation PowerPoint Multimedia PowerPoint …
“What teachers make”
Taylor Mali is a teacher and poet. He’s a advocate for teachers and the nobility of teaching profession. He’s got a great poem entitled “What teachers make”. I like the way that the poem has been visualised. It’s a great example of a sticky presentation Taylor has and asked (and answered) the question – What …
I hate learning from failure…
Shoot! Technologically – a failed lecture on Digital Portfolios. My old computer conked out and I was left with a chalkboard and a borrowed lap top (thanks Marco). I had wanted to introduce my students to the Digital Portfolio template and had put together for the Skills for a Changing World Programme and get them …
Starting with the end
I’ve always found it useful to start a course with the end product in mind. I also wanted to communicate that the Ed Tech course that I was introducing would be hands on (both behind the computer and at the desks). So I spent a good few hours groveling around the web, looking for a …