Blogs

Why is being a school principal one of the most dangerous jobs in the country?

John Fischetti, University of Newcastle and Scott Imig, University of Newcastle

Miner, commercial fisherman, firefighter, school principal. Would you have placed your local school head among the ranks of such dangerous jobs? Most likely you would not.

Sir Ken Robinson on TED

Sir Ken Robinson outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish -- and how current education culture works against them. In a funny, stirring talk he tells us how to get out of the educational "death valley" we now face, and how to nurture our youngest generations with a climate of possibility.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_death_valley.html

Short film compettition about youth homelessness

In its second year, THE HOMELESSNESS SHORT FILM COMPETITION 2012 was launched today, a  national competition for secondary school students and part of the on‐going philanthropic initiative,  which aims to raise awareness about homelessness in our community.  The patron, Cate Blanchett, has  been a long‐term supporter of this cause.

TED Education

I'm sure most have you have seen at least one of the terrific videos put out by TED - "Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world". If not get there now and enjoy - www.ted.com

TED have now luanched TED-ED. The idea is to capture the best lessons from the best educators, record them and animate them.

You can submit lessons here - http://education.ted.com/

It's a cool idea, I don't know if the focus on delivering "lessons" is a bit limited, the same old model of content delivered from the front of the class. Where are the students in this?

Scratch - interactive game and story tool from MIT

Scratch is a programming language that allows users to create, share and remix interactive stories and games. It's aimed at educators and builds strong mathematical and scientific concepts.

Scratch is designed with learning and education in mind. As young people create and share projects in Scratch, they develop important design and problem-solving skills, learning how to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.