TheFlippedScientist

Again the media are writing reports on how technology is a major distraction in lessons and are being removed and replaced with textbooks. In this particular case, Australia's  Reddam House's primary and junior high school classes have used e-textbooks on iPads. The consistent feedback from the students has been that they preferred pages to screens. I would have to agree!  This prompted the school to announce that students should no longer use digital textbooks, and must revert to hard-copy versions instead. Sounds sensible. The problem I have comes from the other statements in that t eachers have also found the iPads were distracting and did not contribute to students' technology skills. As school principal Mr Pitcairn states: "[Students] could have messages popping up and all sorts of other alerts, also, kids being kids, they could jump between screens quite easily, so would look awfully busy and not be busy at all." As I have stated, technology is ju...

The 15th of March 2019. A date that will remain in my country's history forever. On this day 50 New Zealanders died in our nations worst mass shooting. I have been trying to process why this happened, how could this have occurred in my country? These things happen elsewhere in the world but not in mine.  How can I as an educator, help stop these terrible events from occurring? The common approach is to look at empathy and developing it in the classroom. Learning has to starts and end with the individual: What do I know, and how do I relate to the world around me? However, by focusing on empathy, this should, by design, result in personal and social change through a combination of self-direction, reflection, and positive interaction with ideas and the people who have them. However, with the development of AI and media, algorithms are reinforcing individuals preconceived values and ideas. This creates our bubbles.  The role of empathy in learning is based on...