Archive for August 2009
Teaching naked
Posted by: ashleytan on: August 31, 2009
This NPR report headlines as “Dean Urges Tech-Free Classes”.
It’s not accurate. Dean Jose Bowen actually urges faculty to use technology more strategically and effectively.
Read and hear for yourself. And keep your pants on!
I dare you
Posted by: ashleytan on: August 28, 2009
You might have read this Channel News Asia (CNA) article about MOE’s latest buzz phrase. I’ve highlighted two parts of the article but I actually have three things to say about it.
First, teachers now have a vision statement: “Singapore Teachers: Lead. Care. Inspire”. A former colleague of mine that I follow on Facebook said:
slightly bemused [...]
RSS via Netvibes
Posted by: ashleytan on: August 27, 2009
I’ve had a Netvibes account ever since Netvibes promised new ways of pulling and pooling content. But I abandoned it a while back when it did not deliver as much as I wished. I have renewed my interest in it because of a helpful comment from a visitor to my blog recently.
As a result of [...]
RSS of my classes
Posted by: ashleytan on: August 26, 2009
Ever wonder what the RSS feeds of my classes looks like?
I use Google Reader to follow the entries and comments in group blogs maintained by my teacher trainees. I also use Vienna on my Mac to track the total counts or to archive good postings (click image below to view larger version).
I opted to rename [...]
Reflecting on initial changes
Posted by: ashleytan on: August 25, 2009
One of the reasons I maintain this blog is to model processes of edublogging. I don’t claim to be a perfect model, of course, as there is always something new to learn. As I ask my trainees to maintain blogs as platforms for reflection, I think that I should use this blog to reflect on [...]
Byrne on edublogging
Posted by: ashleytan on: August 24, 2009
Every semester, I get my teacher trainees to learn how to edublog. In a very timely posting, Richard Byrne shares his thoughts on how edubloggers can contribute in at least three ways.
If I heard him correctly, he says that the roles edubloggers play are DJ (sharer of resources), preacher and philosopher. That’s a lot better [...]
Magellan: Portugese initiative
Posted by: ashleytan on: August 20, 2009
Play a word association game and start with “Portugal”. Football fans might mention “Ronaldo”. History buffs might say “Megellan”. Practically no one would mention “edtech initiative”.
But they should in light of an initiative that has put laptop computers in the hands of nearly 1 million secondary school students! Here is a snippet:
the end-cost to students’ [...]
Schooling vs. learning
Posted by: ashleytan on: August 19, 2009
I like what Seth Godin had to say about the difference between schooling and learning.
School was the big thing for a long time. School is tests and credits and notetaking and meeting standards. Learning, on the other hand, is ‘getting it’. It’s the conceptual breakthrough that permits the student to understand it then move on [...]
Preliminary poll results
Posted by: ashleytan on: August 18, 2009
Last week I posted a poll to find out what my teacher trainees thought of the automated email notifications from PBworks. Here are the preliminary results (click to see full size):
To date, less than half of my trainees have responded. But from the results so far, I am somewhat surprised that the yays and the [...]
