"Tread Softly on My Dreams" - Sir Ken Robinson at TED 2010

He's back. Sir Ken Robinson spoke again at TED earlier this year. Entitled "Bring on the Learning Revolution" Sir Ken makes another passionate case for transformation of education systems - not just a reformation of them.
He talks of "dislocation",
He talks of "how do you innovate fundamentally?"
He talks of how we "are enthralled by the linearity in education" and how we take this for granted.
I recall hearing him speak at a conference on the conditions for growth to flourish in Death Valley in the US a few years ago. He makes this point again in this talk.
And he concludes with a very poignant quote from a Yeats poem - hence the title of this post.
Enjoy the 16 minutes.

Selling a product to people that don't want it - the future of maths in schools?

"I sell a product to people that don't want it but are forced to have it by law." These are some of the opening remarks of Dan Meyer, a maths teacher from New York. In an 11 minute TEDx talk he goes into his method for making math problems more meaningful and realistic for students. He makes the case that text books and their approach to problem solving are "buying you out of your obligation" to be a successful maths teacher.
This short video is worth the look - and if you are a math teacher and you have access to some technology in your classroom, then try and take up the challenge. It might be worth it - especially for those who struggle a little.



You can get an idea of some of the stuff Dan has tried from his blog - the general address is here.
For some specific approaches to curriculum try this link.

iTunesU as a resource for schools

I guess I've always had a soft spot for Apple - they do make some of the coolest kit around. And so too, their software. Take iTunes for example. Sure - everyone uses it for music and maybe for iPod games, but increasingly it is serving as a resource for all manner of educational material for anyone to consume. A large number of universities have used iTunesU for some time now, but over recent years a growing number of K-12 institutes have added resources that you might find valuable.


According to Apple iTunesU is ..."The world’s smartest download.
Discover iTunes U and never stop learning. Download lectures, discussions, language lessons, audiobooks, podcasts and other opportunities for enlightenment — all from top universities, museums and other cultural institutions around the world. So whether you’re a college student or a student of life, learn for free with iTunesU.


This post just gives you the instructions to find some K-12 content and download it. Have a good look around - there is some good stuff here that you can use tomorrow,

Gapminder Releases Desktop Version

Hans Rosling's awesome visual statistics on the Gapminder site just got more accessible for everyone. The most requested feature on their web site was a desktop version for those times when you don't have the web or can't rely on it - like in a classroom, or for a presentation. Well, they've just released a desktop version which is just brilliant - probably even easier to use than the web version.

Here's a quick map looking at CO2 emissions since 1820 - interesting graph to track by the way.

The easy to use help file looks like this

If you haven't seen Gapminder, you should. It is a great discussion starter for mathematics, statistics, philosophy, geography, social sciences, science ...

And if you haven't seen Hans' TED talks - they too are just incredible. Here's his 2007 talk I've referred to before ..