Googling Better – how to search the internet

In IB Diploma Economics, students have to write four commentaries about economic events that are published in the news. Therefore students are always searching the internet for good sources of articles. Google has always been a pretty reliable tool to search for articles but students seldom use the advanced features to refine their search and …

Helping high school teachers adjust to a 1:1 laptop environment

In my spare time I have been reading a book by Chip and Dan Heath Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. The book has been on the best seller list for a while, and I was reminded of the book in a Apple Educators presentation a few months back. I think the …

Teaching tendencies in a 1:1 laptop classroom

In a 1:1 laptop school it is very important to provide support and advice to teachers. Due to the initial excitement of having technology in the classroom many teachers often go too far, too soon with laptops to the detriment of student learning. I always highlight to staff that laptops are an aid used to …

Inspirational PD video – Sir Ken Robinson

I try not to republish things that I see and read on other peoples websites. Sometimes however the temptation is just too much, so I have borrowed a resource from the Lucacept Blog by Jenny Luca Below is an excellent animation that supports a presentation by Sir Ken Robinson. The presentation about Changing Education Paradigms …

Should we be monitoring student use of laptops?

One of my aims as eLearning Coordinator, is to develop systems that support teachers using laptops in their classroom. One of the frequent questions I get asked is about how teachers can stop students from being off task whilst on their laptops. Being off task, generally means that students are using their computers for something …

What are authentic, transformational eLearning tasks?

Recently I attended a Breakfast Leadership workshop with an Apple Professional Educator Stephanie Hamilton. Her short presentation was about the importance on focusing on the learning occurring in schools and ensuring that technology is being used in an authentic way to transform the learning process. She had gathered many of her ideas from travelling around …

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Laptops in the Classroom

This is a piece of research I completed part way through the establishment of our 1 to 1 laptop programme at ISS International School, Singapore. It is based on data collected from one Grade 11 Economics course, after six months of immersion. I am currently writing an updated report about our reflections of the first …