How lucky am I!! (And that’s not a question). I get to meet so many fantastic people, and to travel to an incredible variety of places! As an example, am leaving 2morrow for South America. Amongst other things, I’ll be walking Macchu Picchu in Peru. A lifelong dream. Will work out some metaphor to share with you when I return.
Some recent learnings and thoughts:
* Just over a week ago, I presented a keynote to a group in Australia called ACPET (Australian Council for Private Education and Training). An umbrella group for a diverse range of TAFE and private training providers. A fascinating eye-opener for me, given that most of my work is with teachers of school students.
This means that I essentially focus on pedagogy (the art and science of learning for 4 to 18 year-olds). However, the people involved at this ACPET conference are into andragogy (the art and science of adult learning). Amongst many other things, I discovered that:
- Education has the highest value-added multiplier of any industry (0.94 compared to .47 for petroleum and coal products). This means that 94c in the $ stays in Australia when it is provided for international students.
- Education has just become the 2nd largest exporter in the country.
- 1 in 5 students in Aust is an international; and 3 in 5 come from East Asia and the Pacific
- These international students love to have an ‘Aussie’ experience; however, most of them don’t like the drinking culture (so don’t take them to the local pub)
- One neat quote: If education and training is the answer, then what’s the question?
- And, one that I’ve heard before, although it bears repeating (because I suspect that it’s pretty well true). “Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, except for bad news, which travels faster.” (Douglas Adams)
* Offered a keynote and a couple of workshops to an enthusiastic bunch at the Waimarino cluster in Tauranga on the Nth Island of NZ last Friday. I constantly marvel at my luck in being exposed to so many inspiring educators. And amongst others I met there:
- Sean Lyons, who works with NetSafe in NZ, had some neat points about cybersecurity. Including:
- 3 out of 4 students know how to circumvent filters
- Overreaction by adults leads to underdisclosure by students
- Research is the biggest driver of net usage by teenagers
- And I had to laugh at this quote: “My parents are happy for me to use a shotgun. But not FaceBook.”
* Lenva Shearing is one of NZ’s very switched-on ICT gurus. She has compiled some fantastic stuff on wikis. Can be found at http://gettingtrickywithwikis.wikispaces.com/
And just for the heck of it. Picked this video up from Craig Price, a Muppets obsessive, who is the principal of the superb Selwyn Ridge primary school in Tauranga in NZ. Have a look firstly at the school; and then find your way to this video. Kids love it (which probably means that you will too).
Recent Comments