Barry replies….

I received a reply from Barry O’Farrell, Leader of the Opposition in NSW, regarding my DER enquiry. Have a read: I guess that’s a yes? What do you think?

Share Button

#libsder – The first reply.

It’s been almost a week since I Tweeted and then emailed the Leader of the NSW Opposition and his Shadow Education Minister about the future of DER in their hands, should they win the upcoming NSW election. Today – a response! Mr Adrian Piccoli MP, The Shadow Minister for Education, Skills and Youth Affairs, emailed … Read more

Share Button

#libsder – my letter to Barry O’Farrell.

I’ve decided to continue my tradition (well…I’ve done it twice) of asking the political leaders in upcoming elections (this time the NSW State election) what their position is on maintaining the Digital Education Revolution (DER) program. The word is that the Labor Party will maintain the program. The word “savings” was heard during Barry O’Farrell’s speech last … Read more

Share Button

Tracker video analysis and modelling tool.

I’ve been playing around with a cool little app on the DER laptops that are in schools in NSW. Tracker is a free video analysis and modelling tool, designed originally for physics classes, but perfect for analysing movement in PE classes too. While not being an uber sport scientist geek, I found the app to … Read more

Share Button

Students making their Debut

Just a quick one. Part of our Yr10 School to Work assessment task portfolio is to be “mock” interviewed. In order to get ready for this (for some) traumatic experience, I decided to exploit a piece of software on the DER laptops. Called Debut Video Capture, it allows you to easily record video using the … Read more

Share Button

Email to Julia and Christopher

I’ve reproduced here an email I sent to the current Federal Minister for Education (Julia Gillard), and her potential successor (Christopher Pyne). I would encourage everyone to do the same as the Federal election grows nearer. Dear Minister and Shadow Minister, I am the Head Teacher Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) at Erina … Read more

Share Button

My near (teaching) death experience

I’ve always prided myself on being prepared for lessons. This week though I found myself in a situation from which I was able to extricate myself relatively painlessly, with the help of an interactive white board (IWB), my DER laptop and some fast thinking. For some reason I thought I had Year 9 Outdoor Recreation. … Read more

Share Button

Moodle, Glogster and Runkeeper

This week I’ve played with a few things that might come in handy as far as student engagement goes in the next few months. As the roll out date for our DER laptops draws nearer (11 days and counting), I tried some things that I can lead my faculty through as simple but quality engagement … Read more

Share Button