Betchaboy

LATEST ARTICLES ( 117 )

• Launching Our BYO iPads

  At my school, PLC Sydney, we just launched a BYO iPad program for our Year 5 and 6 students. This followed on from a fairly successful trial of iPads last year... Read more

  Posted on 28 February 2014 SCIENCE, TECH

• The Difficulty Differential

  

  Yesterday, I ran an all day iPad workshop for the teachers at my school. There were two things that were a bit unusual about it. One is that it was an all day... Read more

  Posted on 02 February 2014 TECH

• Predicting the Future

  

  is challenging.I remember reading Nicholas Negroponte’s book Being Digital many years ago, and it’s been amazing to see so many of his predictions come to pass. Read more

  Posted on 26 January 2014 SCIENCE, TECH

• An Open Letter to Teachers Mutual Bank

  

  The following is a letter I wrote a couple of months ago to John Kouimanos, the head of Teachers Mutual Bank, just prior to the last AGM. My annoyance ( to put... Read more

  Posted on 17 January 2014 SCHOOLING, SELF EXPRESSION, SOCIETY

• Going Back To Basics Is Still Going Backwards

  

  I’m not a big fan of Christopher Pyne. As far as I’m concerned, our new federal education minister has shown himself to be inept and completely out of his... Read more

  Posted on 15 January 2014 COMMUNITY, SCIENCE, SOCIETY, TECH

• Babies and Bathwater

  I was recently in Hong Kong for the excellent 21st Century Learning conference, where I had the very great pleasure of running some hands-on workshop in Google... Read more

  Posted on 08 January 2014 SCIENCE, TECH

• Developing Deliberate Daily Discipline

  

  As December 2013 came to an end I was considering doing another one of those 365 Day Photo Project, where you take a photo every day for a year. Read more

  Posted on 07 January 2014 SCIENCE, TECH

• Coding for Kids

  While not every student might want to write their own software, understanding the big ideas of coding is a skill that all students would benefit from, even the... Read more

  Posted on 10 November 2013 SCIENCE, TECH

• Making Conferences Worthwhile

  

  Having just experienced an interesting juxtaposition of two quite different conference modes, I was struck by the following thoughts…I spent most of last weeken... Read more

  Posted on 16 October 2013 SCIENCE, TECH

• Removing Friction

  

  With Google turning 15 this week, I’ve been pondering about just how much friction has removed from our lives because of technology (and web technology in... Read more

  Posted on 06 October 2013 SCIENCE, TECH

• Done is Better Than Perfect

  

  I’ve never really been what you might call a perfectionist. Nor do I believe that it’s ok to do a half-assed job of things. It’s good to do things right and to... Read more

  Posted on 30 August 2013 SCIENCE, TECH

• Breathing Easy

  

  It’s been said that you know when a 1:1 computing initiative is truly working in a school because you stop talking about it. The conversation stops being about... Read more

  Posted on 17 August 2013 SCIENCE, TECH

• A Place to Call Home

  It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, which got me thinking about why that might be.I think the obvious answer is that it’s just too easy to contribute on... Read more

  Posted on 04 August 2013 SCIENCE, TECH

• Dear Twitter… Help!

  

  I started on Twitter back in 2006, joining the service as user number 779,452 using the name @betchaboy. At the time, I thought I was already late to the Twitte... Read more

  Posted on 30 June 2013 SCIENCE, TECH

• My Other Computer is a Data Centre

  

  One of the most common questions I get asked by teachers is how to include video in their online resources. Whether it’s including video clips in Moodle or... Read more

  Posted on 21 May 2013 SCIENCE, TECH

• Changing the Bathwater, Keeping the Baby

  

  It’s clear that there is quite a lot about this thing called “school” that probably needs to change and that there are many schools around the world that are... Read more

  Posted on 09 May 2013 SCIENCE, TECH

• I’m a Horribly Inefficient Teacher

  . Honestly. I look around at what other teachers do, and I’m amazed at their productivity and efficiency. They get so much more done than me. It makes me... Read more

  Posted on 27 March 2013 SCIENCE, TECH

• Being Visible Is Hard

  

  I was talking to a couple of people today about the way we use blogs with our students. At my school we have a number of students and classes blogging, and ever... Read more

  Posted on 14 March 2013 SCIENCE, TECH

• Why I Don't Want to Lose Google Reader

  

  Read more

  Posted on 14 March 2013 TECH

• Discussing the Australian Curriculum: Technologies Draft

  On Ozteachers the other day, we were informed that the Draft paper for the new Australian Curriculum: Technologies has been released for review and ACARA, the... Read more

  Posted on 12 March 2013 SCIENCE, TECH