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Knowledge is power - but how do you plug into new ideas when organisational budgets are flipping the switch on PD?  There is a wealth of opportunities that won't cost the earth or force you to travel it to be found online - and there's more to explore than MOOCs and webinars. 

Today I had the pleasure of joining over three-hundred educators for a day of learning and sharing. That this was a Sunday and that the event was organised as a free event for educators by educators speaks volumes of the quality and care that educators bring to their role. 

This year is the fiftieth birthday of Harvard's Project Zero, a research project designed to explore the nature of thinking and learning and from this suggest pedagogies which align with what we know about the mind. For its birthday celebration Project Zero shared insights from its five decades of research with presentations from Howard Gardner, David Perkins, Shari Tasman, Steve Seidel and Daniel Wilson. The presentations revealed the changing nature of the work of Project Zero from its early days and focus on arts education to its current position as a research organisation with broad interests across education but with a focus on thinking, understanding and the workings of the mind.

A recent post by George Couros (author of The innovators Mindset) posed an interesting question about the role that culture plays in shaping the trajectory of an organisation. The traditional wisdom is that culture trumps all but George points to the role that individuals play in shaping and changing culture itself. Is culture perhaps less resilient than we are led to imagine and is it just a consequence of the individuals with the greatest influence? Or, is something else at play here?

As schools and organisations move to remote education, there are potential gaps in our professional learning of which we should be aware. While many of us are discovering fresh opportunities for online and remote professional learning through podcasts, webinars and online courses, one of the most significant aspects of our professional learning has been curtailed thanks to social distancing.

This research paper contains information about various alarming and sensational, but out-of-date, false and/or misleading 'statistics' concerning the prevalence of 'child pornography' material on Internet Web sites, etc., which appeared in Australian media reports/articles, government agency reports, etc., in 2008 and 2009.

The Merit Protection Boards is an independent statutory body established to hear grievances; appeals and reviews from employees of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (Victoria).

"The ACCE is the national professional body for those involved in the use of information and communications technology in education. This includes educators who teach computing / information technology subjects as well as all educators who strive to improve student learning outcomes through the powerful use of ICT."

A national professional body for ICT and eLearning in Education.

SCAMPER is a strategy that can be used to assist students to generate new or alternative ideas. It is a tool to support creative, divergent thinking. SCAMPER is an acronym for: substitute, combine, adapt, modify/magnify/minify, put to other uses, eliminate, reverse/rearrange. What is its purpose? SCAMPER is a thinking tool that helps students to ask questions about a concept, text, or idea that require them to think beyond the obvious. It can help develop critical thinking skills and creativity and is a useful cooperative learning tool and a great stimulus for role play. In this post from Litemind, Lucciano " ....... presents a complete SCAMPER primer, along with two free creativity-boosting resources: a downloadable reference mind map and an online tool that generates random questions to get you out of a rut whenever you need." In this very comprehensive post Luciano note only explains the terminology associated with SCAMPER but also lists suggested questions as well as "Trigger Words".

3D Topicscape Student Edition (SE) is FREE computer software that can help you organize your study and find information later. It is also a flexible way for you to sort out your thoughts and approach on a new project even before you have collected any files or information. It is a valuable study tool, especially when researching on the Web.

CREST is a programme for schools run by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation that aims to promote Creativity. By adding creativity to our science lessons we can move past boiling water and encourage students towards serious scientific and technological discovery.

Schools like any large organisation by and large run on meetings. Recently we have implemented two very different styles of meeting that target different needs and have allowed us to be effective, reflective and creative.