It’s been a busy first term, but a highlight was delivering a PD session on one of my favourite examples of instructional design research in Mayer’s principles of multimedia learning. Great, practical advice for developing multimedia-rich learning experiences.
Thanks to Dave McAlinden for being a sounding board as I put these together!
Recently I was asked to give a talk to first year IBDP students about the role of knowledge in ITGS as part of their regular TOK class. I chose to invoke the legendary Claude Shannon in discussing the transformative effect digitisation had on knowledge, and tie it in to the often specious arguments people make about the “half-life” of knowledge.
Had a blast putting together this brief intro to GPS for my first year IGCSE ICT class. Feel free to use & share!
I recently put the finishing touches on task DB1, my introduction to databases for IGCSE ICT students. This was one of the first attempts I made at using video tutorials to support student learning with non-basic software – in this case, Microsoft Access. First time around, there were a few issues with chronology of tutorials (I made a mistake that threw off more than one video), problems...
In ITGS this month students were given a (very!) brief introduction to animation principles in Adobe After Effects, then tasked with creating a short “explainer” video for Creative Commons licensing. As usual, they didn’t disappoint, with some really spectacular pieces of work being submitted. Here are two particularly stellar examples: This video took more of a promotional...
I’ve been asked by my principal to head up a team who will develop a makerspace at the TES high school. In addition to being an exciting opportunity for me to do something a little different to the usual in Computing, it aligns really well with my plans for my research. The initial plans are for students in years 7 to 9 (ages 11 to 14) to do one term-long project per year, on a rotation so...
At the recent Christmas Bazaar I got to catch up with some friends who used to work at my school but left teaching to set up an education startup called Skyrock Projects, offering creative tech programs for kids aged 8 to 15. When they first described the idea to me, I suggested that they pitch it to parents as: “If you’re worried about your kid getting a job, send them to the buxiban...
Student attitudes towards constructivist assumptions were investigated in a study conducted at Erasmus University Rotterdam (Loyens, Rikers & Schmidt, 2007) using a questionnaire containing statements about four constructivist assumptions: The importance of knowledge construction Cooperative learning Self-regulation The use of authentic problems A sample of first-year psychology students...
TES is a not-for-profit international school licensed by the Taipei City Department of Education. It was founded in 1990 when the existing Taipei British School, Ecole Francaise de Taipei and Deutsche Schule Taipei merged in 1990 to share facilities and resources. Each of these existing schools was quite small and economic and logistical benefits led to the three schools being subsumed into one...
The process of a student adapting to new surroundings is referred to as adaptation, acculturation, adjustment or accommodation interchangeably by different scholars. Because the others have a variety of other meanings in various contexts, I will use the term acculturation. This idea is an interesting one in an international school like TES, as all students from all backgrounds have a degree of...