Category: #edchat

Reading – World Book Day

When it comes to reading books as a youngster, my experience was one of homework, context, someone else’s knowledge, questions and comprehension. I thought of reading as something that belonged to school. A tedious necessity. Not something I would do for kicks. My kids experience is somewhat different. It’s choice, interest and curiosity driven, fascinating,…
Learning – to what end?

“Dad? What does this spell? F-L-A-P-P-E-R?” My 5 year old is an engineer in the making. He has a book of how to make a whole array of paper planes. And so he starts his self-crafted apprenticeship. “Dad? Can you help me with step 10?” But this is the Expert Section. “Can you just do it?”…
OER16 – Open…

What a distraction twitter is – especially if it means drawing something. I’ll see something on twitter, have a thought, and before I know it, I’m trying to create that thought. I came across Jim Groom tweeting the title for his keynote at OER16, and I couldn’t resist. I highly recommend tuning in…
What’s inside an Open Badge

It’s easy to talk about open badges without really understanding what’s inside (it’s just a digital badge, right?) There’s actually a whole bunch of stuff inside. The badge class is like the template. All badges issued from a certain badge class will inherit those properties. The assertion relates to the recipient of the badge and…
Tests – Big in Education…

A few years ago, I completed a MOOC (massive open online course) on the Science of Everyday Thinking. I really enjoyed it. I tried to put my finger on what it was that helped me stay the distance. I liked the bite-sized nature of it. The videos were punchy and conversational. The edX platform was…
Understanding dyslexia: the reading circuit

The idea of the “reading circuit” really helped me understand dyslexia a bit better. Fluency takes effort. I’ve always been a slow reader. I didn’t really ever enjoy it. Turns out it’s not the actual material, as in the last decade, I’ve listened to a grillion (not quite as much as a bijillion but more…
Radical Pedagogy

My wife is my signpost – for some things, anyway. She reads faster than me and tells me of books that I might like. I have but one requirement: at the end of the book, I want to be able to say “I’ve never read anything like that before”. As a result, I’ve been enjoying…
Subject – Verb – Object

As a kid in a classroom, I didn’t question it. I took what was laid before me, in the environment in which it was given. I was taught. I found it difficult to ask questions, as it revealed a lack of knowledge or understanding. The game was one of “how much do you know?“, maintaining…
Monologue and Dialogue

The lecture. At home, at school, and at church. I’ve had so many, but can recall very few… The group. At home, at school, and at church. Articulating something half-baked, in order to put it back in the oven and turn up the heat…
Bank of Education

In the olden days, knowledge existed hidden away in pockets, which was fine if you knew which pocket and had the means to access it. However, one must not treat an encyclopaedia like wikipedia, for they offer two subtly different entry-points to learning: interest-led vs prescribed.
An engineering state of mind

When I was at University, the word “engineer” had some odd connotations in my head. Geeky, sterile, boring. It seemed so theoretical, so mathematical. I thought that engineers became engineers by doing an engineering degree at University.
Learning to Credential

Due to the nature of the system, we start with the Credential and work backwards. Ah. This is further illustrated by this graphic, highlighting the massive difference between prescriptive and descriptive pathways.