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Monthly Archives: May 2008

Developing and stimulating vibrant online communities

May 22, 2008 – 2:01 pm

In my job, I do a lot of thinking about how you make online communities work, how do you know they are “working”, and how do you know they have passed their “use-by” date?
I’m convinced that though the technology can assist, and obsolete technology can hinder, that the clue to success lies within the community […]

By Kerrie Smith | Posted in Educationau, community development, virtual environments, community building | Comments (1)

School Libraries in the Digital Education Revolution

May 21, 2008 – 9:00 am

Those who talk up the role of ICT in education often refer to the internet as a”cyber library”. They believe books are obsolete technology, that libraries will become an anachronism, and the economists have even been heard to say that schools will be able to save money by doing away with their libraries.
Back in 2000 […]

By Kerrie Smith | Posted in Educationau, Australian education, digital education revolution | Comments (2)

Complex Digital Divides

May 20, 2008 – 3:07 pm

The issue of digital divides is a very complex one and, as I see it, like a prism with a number of facets. In Australia each obvious digital divide has more divides within it, depending on your point of view.
For example, let’s think about the DD in the school sector. There is, some literature/anecdotal research […]

By Kerrie Smith | Posted in Educationau, Australian education, digital divide | Comments (0)

National Reconciliation Week (Australia) 27 May- 3 June 2008

May 19, 2008 – 8:51 am

Each year National Reconciliation Week celebrates the rich culture and history of the first Australians. It’s the ideal time for all of us to join the reconciliation conversation and to think about how we can help turn around the disadvantage experienced by many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The theme for National Reconciliation Week 2008 […]

By Kerrie Smith | Posted in Educationau, community building | Comments (0)

Factors influencing the Future

May 16, 2008 – 3:59 pm

A US Report prepared in 2007 by ETS (Educational Testing Service) called America’s Perfect Storm: Three Forces Changing Our Nation’s Future identified 3 powerful forces producing polarisation in American society.
They are

divergent skill distributions
changing economy
demographic trends

The report’s executive summary makes interesting reading.
Here are some of the trends:
Wide disparity in literacy and numeracy skills

USA ranks 16th out […]

By Kerrie Smith | Posted in Educationau | Comments (2)

Digital Education Revolution - things will be different

May 15, 2008 – 12:18 pm

A discussion here yesterday with colleagues at education.au got me thinking about how different things might be once you can assume that every Year 9-12 secondary student has access to a computer all the time while at school.
One of our group commented that everything that has happened so far in the last 20 years with […]

By Kerrie Smith | Posted in Educationau, online technologies, Australian education, learning environments, web 2.0, future schooling, digital education revolution | Comments (1)

Bloggers Unite for Human Rights, May 15

May 14, 2008 – 2:32 pm

Bloggers Unite is an initiative designed to harness the power of the blogosphere to make the world a better place. By challenging bloggers to blog about a particular social cause on a single day, a single voice can be joined with thousands of others to help make a real positive difference; from raising awareness for […]

By Kerrie Smith | Posted in Educationau, communication tools, blogs, Howard Rheingold | Comments (0)

National Simultaneous Storytime (Australia)

May 14, 2008 – 11:09 am

National Simultaneous Storytime 2008 will take place on Wednesday 21 May at 11:00am throughout Australia. The children’s book, Arthur, written by Amanda Graham and illustrated by Donna Gynell, will be read simultaneously at participating organisations. There is an impressive list of intending participants.
An initiative of the Australian Library and Information Association, National Simultaneous Storytime is […]

By Kerrie Smith | Posted in Educationau, OzProjects, online projects | Comments (0)

edna, me, & the digital world go online, June 18

May 12, 2008 – 2:33 pm

edna, me, and the digital world goes online with free online workshops
Workshops: Wed. 18 June 2008 - times are AEST

8-9 am - social networking with me.edu.au
10-11 am - Finding resources for embedding in Multimedia
1-2 pm - Digital Literacies
4-5 pm - Learning without Borders
7.30-8.30 pm - Education in Other Worlds

All sessions will use Wimba Live Classroom, […]

By Kerrie Smith | Posted in Educationau, professional development, web conferencing, ednaworkshops08 | Comments (0)

Who am I - my digital identity

May 12, 2008 – 10:27 am

Stephen Downes presented a very engaging talk at the recent Eifel ePortfolio conference in Montreal.
His presentation called My Digital Identity is well worth listening to.
Stephen describes it as a “scattered presentation that looks at authentication and identification, resource profiles, and e-portfolios. Mixed in with notions of the self, potentiality, historicity, and dimensionality. With a description […]

By Kerrie Smith | Posted in Educationau, digital footprint, e-portfolio, eportfolio, metadata | Comments (0)