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"Twenty-first century curriculum has certain critical attributes. It is interdisciplinary, project-based, and research-driven. It is connected to the community - local, state, national and global. Sometimes students are collaborating with people around the world in various projects. The curriculum incorporates higher order thinking skills, multiple intelligences, technology and multimedia, the multiple literacies of the 21st century, and authentic assessments. Service learning is an important component. The classroom is expanded to include the greater community. Students are self-directed, and work both independently and interdependently. The curriculum and instruction are designed to challenge all students, and provides for differentiation. The curriculum is not textbook-driven or fragmented, but is thematic, project-based and integrated. Skills and content are not taught as an end in themselves, but students learn them through their research and application in their projects. Textbooks, if they have them, are just one of many resources. Knowledge is not memorization of facts and figures, but is constructed through research and application, and connected to previous knowledge, personal experience, interests, talents and passions. The skills and content become relevant and needed as students require this information to complete their projects. The content and basic skills are applied within the context of the curriculum, and are not ends in themselves. Assessment moves from regurgitation of memorized facts and disconnected processes to demonstration of understanding through application in a variety of contexts. Real-world audiences are an important part of the assessment process, as is self-assessment. "

"At the other end of this educational theory spectrum is the idea of instructivism. Instructivism, by this name or any other, has been around for many years and has formed the basis of the American, among others, educational system. Based on behaviorist theories, Instructivism, sometimes referred to as Direct Instruction incorporates a teacher-directed, carefully planned curriculum, with purposeful teaching at its core. It follows two basic assumptions. First, the purpose of instruction is to help the learner understand and interact with the world; and, secondly, learners should be directed by instructors who make the decisions about the content and sequence of the learning (Margules, 1996). The instructors would base these decisions on professional training and scholarship. According to Fosnot, 1996, ". . . the instructivist, or behaviourist, approach is to pre-plan a curriculum by breaking down a subject area (usually seen as a finite body of knowledge) into assumed component parts, and then sequencing these parts into a hierarchy ranging from simple to more complex," (in Malibar & Pountney, 2002). This approach is more of teacher as "sage on the stage," than as a facilitator of learning. Even further, "according to instructivist principles, learning flows in a mostly unidirectional path, proceeding from the knowledgeable authority (teacher), or from instructional content, to the passive learner," (Diaz& Bontenbal, 2000). Not only is the teacher the authority, but the learner is also passive and merely absorbs the content. For students, there is little room for self-discovery and reflection. In instructivism, real world situations are not the models of instruction, nor are there modifications made for individual learning style; the lecture, in its different forms for primary, secondary and tertiary, is the primary mode of content delivery. Students are aware of expected learning outcomes, and outcomes are easily assessable. Further, students are rewa

Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos and videos to the world, securely and privately show content to your friends and family, or blog the photos and videos you take with a cameraphone.

The amount of time people now spend on social networking sites has soared to six hours a week - that's up more than 80 per cent in a year, and the longer we spend online, the harder it is to connect with the real world. Psychologist Arthur Cassidy says that friendships forged via social networking sites and messaging services are different to those we make in the real world.

This is very much a talking point for PIE, what can students learn from social networked learning approach with guidance from an informed teacher on the pros and cons and what to do if something is not right within a social networking context

"onnectivism: a theory for learning in a world of growing complexity"

Thanks for this Stephan - but would you believe it - I handed in my uni assignment on e-learning last week!!!! This would have been great. Still a good read. Thnx.

Thanks Kathy glad ot was useful ;>

Future Tense is essential listening for those interested in exploring the social, cultural, political and economic fault lines arising from rapid change. The weekly half-hour program/podcast takes a critical look at new technologies, new approaches and new ways of thinking. From politics to media to environmental sustainability, nothing is outside its brief. Future Tense explores the issues and provides critical analysis, offering an insight into how our world is changing and how we in turn are learning to adapt., ABC Radio National, ABC, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

"Once a man has made a commitment to a way of life, he puts the greatest strength in the world behind him. It's something we call heart power. Once a man has made this commitment, nothing will stop him short of success."

A tool for checking foreground & background colour combinations to determine if they provide good colour visibility. Determining "colour visibility" is based on algorithms suggested by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): "Two colours are considered to provide good colour visibility if the brightness difference and the colour difference between the two colours are greater than a set range." The range suggested by the W3C is > 125 for colour brightness and > 500 for colour difference.