Claire Amos

Click here to view the clip Dealing with media is an interesting exercise, simply because you don't know how they are going to portray you. After four hours of filming in the school it was hard to grasp which direction they might take it - would it be blindly celebratory (unlikely) or would it be all about perpetuating the myth that 'we are going to hell in a handbasket' due to the use of technology in schools (more likely). Luckily it was neither, it was (I thought) a balanced piece that began as many of our colleagues and community do, questioning whether the direction we are going is a wise idea and ending with the conviction that it was indeed a necessary change for the better...even if that message was undone a little by Mike Hosking's final throw away lines. But lets be honest, that was to be expected.

So this is my attempt to capture some of the chaotic magic that was my first foray into team teaching and integrated teaching with the fabulous Danielle Myburgh . Game Over was what we refer to at HPSS as a small module. This is a module that runs for one term and integrates two learning areas under the umbrella of a term long concept.  The concept of Space and Place had guided the planning of all modules in Term Two across the school. Danielle and I worked to together to develop a module built around our learning areas of specialisation - my area English and Danielle's area of Science with a little Maths thrown in for good measure. Our aim was to develop a module that we thought might capture the interest of our particular clientele - Year 9s with an approximate 60/40 ration of boys to girls. We knew we had a whole lot of keen gamers and we loved Sci-Fi and the novel 'Enders Game', after a bit of thrashing about - Game Over was born. 

 Source: http://classroomaid.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/10-drivers-of-blended-learning.png Well it's officially 'hump week' for the  Hack Your Classroom project. Well done to the educators who are still with us! You/we rule!! The sharing via twitter has been spectacular and the shared learning has been magic to watch. In a sense this brings us to this weeks topic - looking at the power and potential of blended learning. If we as educators can recognise the breadth and depth of personal learning (and motivation)  that has been achieved over the last four weeks thanks to online environments and communities such as Twitter and Google+, then why aren't we all using these platforms this way with our learners? Obviously if you are teaching students under 13 years old, this isn't really an option, but there is much that can be replicated in a closed, private environment that can provide similar opportunities for younger students as well. I know my daughters ...

Realising the Future of Education from Claire Amos On Saturday I was lucky enough to be invited to speak at The Festival of Education as a supposed 'mover and shaker'. Here is an overview of my presentation on 'Realising the Future of Education' which endeavored to look at why, how, what, when we need to change education and what the government could do (IMHO) to support it. Okay, so not so humble...more righteous really. Why must we change education? As Ludwig Lachman stated, "the future is unknowable, but not unimaginable" and whilst we can't see into the future, we can look to a strong body of research to try and divine our present and future learners' needs. Put simply, we need to change education, because the world is changing...and changing rapidly. In the Western world we have moved through the 'Agrarian Age' where the land and agriculture were central to existence. We then moved into the 'Industrial Age', it ...

For many years now I have been championing the need for all schools and all students to engage in e-learning, and whilst I definitely sense there is a ground swell of support for this notion I am still patently aware that it is important to be clear about why this should be a priority. I initially trialed e-learning because I suspected it would engage learners and would provide an opportunity for students to continue learning and engaging in the work I set, anytime, anywhere. These continue to be compelling arguments for blended learning, however it is becoming increasing clear that this is in fact just the tip of the pedagogical iceberg. Firstly let's talk about the term e-learning. It is easy to write this term off as twee or outdated, and I agree that it should be about the learning full stop. However we are still, and will continue to be for sometime in a period of transition, and whilst there still remains to be many teachers and indeed many schools who are yet to u...