"A-New-Day-by-David-Truss-on-Flickr"

New Perspective

At this time of year, I’m often absorbed in reading about the year that was and the year ahead. Goals, predictions, and nostalgic reviews are read, tweeted and shared in many places like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, and here on this blog. However, this year I headed into the Chistmas break feeling rather unplugged, and […]

"Challenging the Status Quo by David Truss ~ BY::NC::SA"

Challenging the status quo

Educational bloggers blogging about things that need to be changed… This isn’t a post to read from start to finish. Instead, pick a topic that may challenge the status quo in your school or district and dig in. Read, tweet, share, write your own post, comment… it is fodder for YOU to challenge the status […]

Please help our flat classroom students

Our Grade 9’s are participating in the Flat Classroom Project and they need your help! Part of their final, individual video assignment includes having part of their video outsourced. This is an amazing project, and our students have learned a lot… but this has come with some rather large challenges, most of which arise from […]

Do schools really need an AUP?

Internet woes continue to haunt me here in China. I just read a great post by Andrew Churches about Acceptable Use Agreements in Junior School (often referred to as AUP’s or Acceptable Use Policies as well). Andrew questions the value of these documents. I wrote a comment response, clicked the ‘post’ button & got another […]

Choose Your Battle

Choose your position: Are you a gatekeeper, policemen, guard… or teacher? All these jobs are necessary, but which one belongs in schools? Choose your battle: Filters that also filter learning -or- High expectations about appropriate use? Banning POD’s -or- High expectations about appropriate use? Teaching without technology -or- High expectations about appropriate use? Make no mistake, having […]

Warning! We Filter Websites at School

I’m at a Canadian School in China. At a staff meeting I shared a thoughtful blog post by a student reporter for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. It’s a great post by a student that went and visited ‘Tent City’, built to house the city’s homeless during the Olympics: Olympic Games Side Effects on Vancouver. My […]

Openness and Acceptance, Mr Deng and his Allegories of Windows, Flies and Coloured Cats

We just completed a vacation in Xi’an, one of China’s oldest cities and the starting point for the silk road. The silk road was the first gateway to and from the Orient, it was the first real global link to the ‘Eastern’ countries of India and China. Trade of spices and silk, as well as […]