Our Blog
20 Jan Your students are teaching without you
Anthony Salcito, “Vice president education” of Microsoft says: “Your children are learning without you” during his keynotes. I even go further: they are teaching without you. Just search on YouTube and you’ll be amazed how many meaningfull content is shared by kids today.When I was approached to talk about what moves me in education, that was exactly what I wanted to talk about.
09 Jan Future of KlasCement ensured within department of education.
It felt like it was the first day of school when I traveled to Brussels to for the first time. My first day in the impressive buildings of the Ministry of the Flemish Community in stead of our small office in Ghent. Because after long negotiations it’s finaly official: KlasCement is now part of the Agency of Education Commounication. Now the project I have worked for, since over thre years in one of the official projects next to Klasse (a magazine for teachers published by the government), Maks and Yeti (magazines for all Flemish speaking children at schools), and more.
02 Jan Designing my first app
A while ago I got an invitation to attend a “Virtual Academy” about App-development. We would use the Touch Develop platform by Microsoft to get an idea of what development is and to invent an app ourselves. Curious as I am I took on the challenge. The fact that the best app-proposals will be developed with the help of Microsoft developers helped to convince me as well.
01 Jan Have a great 2013
The start of the new year is an ideal time to look back at what has been and what will come. That the tablet hype may go stop (though I expect not), that technology may be considered normal and that social and bottom up also find it’s way into education. And may I also express my wishes for 2013?
19 Dec What I learned from TED talks for teachmeets and edcamps
The ten commandments for a TED-talk tell speakers what makes a good TED talk. Use Humor, tell a story instead of a dry presentation, don’t sell from the stage. Nothing surprising at first sight. But maybe there is something to be learned for creating a teachmeet or edcamp session?
12 Dec Partners in Learning Global forum: you moved me
The Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum is about “learning” and “meeting people”, I said against the camera pointing at my head. And I immediately felt like a vacuum cleaner salesman that repeated an imposed marketing line . Because the experience in Prague, with hundreds of teachers from all over the world was so intense [...]
04 Aug A challenge for Partners in Learning
I’m the luckiest ICT-coordinator in Belgium. My principal invests in ICT as much as the budget allows him to. But most importantly I get to work with colleagues that want to innovate, try new things, are not afraid of technology and use ideas in a creative way. When I launched the idea of using qr-codes to link their worksheets to our online project videos on Jonatan Academy, I immediately got some nice responses from colleagues. They say our school is like a high speed train of innovation, but they can’t wait to try out the new technology.
09 Aug The balance between Microsoft, partners and learning
To be invited by Microsoft in America was a chance that I could not pass. Yet there was a typical Flemish mistrust somewhere deep in me. Because just like many other teachers I am wary of interference of the business world in education. I was very curious if the emphasis in this Microsoft Partners in [...]
08 Aug Follow the guide through the Microsoft Partners in Learning Institute
After we got an explanation about the possibilities of Bing Maps for use in the classroom, I planned to put the agenda of the Microsoft Partners in Learning Institute on Bing maps. This is very simple actually. I can imagine how me you could do this in lessons of geography, history, … But even for [...]
01 Aug Our we teaching our children to be chefs or kitchen helpers?
During the first day of the Partners in Learning Institute we talked about the so-called 21st century skills. In teams composed of people from all over the world we ware debating about this subject. About 21st century skills, however, has already been said and written so much that it was difficult to come up with something new. I discovered a lovely metaphor that was a common thread through our conversation.
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