Martin Pluss

Hi all,

This year I have had the opportunity to go on a number of field trips. In the past I did this a lot as I was mainly a Geography teacher, though more recently I have been a bit school bound with the different ICT duties. I have been to Camp Kedron on the edge of Ku-ring-gai National Park, Dee Why and Collaroy Beach, Norton Street Auburn Mosque, Penrith Lakes/Warragamba Dam and Eastwood for a community study.

Recently I was on a Year 9 Fieldtrip to Eastwood. The focus was on the changing community. We started the day off listening to a residential real estate agent from Ray White Eastwood speaking about the changes in housing in the area and finished the day listening to a commercial agent now retired from the area.

All this was quite interesting. However, I found myself looking at other things and took a few photos. Eastwood is prone to severe flooding and a lot has been done to try and fix things but the suburb has three local councils Ryde, Parramatta and Hornsby so you can imagine how difficult it would be to get any sort of cohesive plan operational. While looking at the changes in housing I was looking at where the water went. I took three pictures of the same waterway at different points of Eastwood.

There is so much to see and learn if you can get out. How do we get children to investigate things around them without taking them on a field trip? Now and then I see my own children @11g and @15b being curious and looking at things in the world but they don’t see the themes, overarching concepts and patterns – let alone the historical dimension of the changes even in a few years.

Explore the Natural Geographer in you.

cheers Martin

Hi all,

The World is Flat Part E – Education

It is time for the next installment of the The World Is Flat.  It have been going on for months: click the following links for Part A, Part B, Part C, Part D.

In this section I woudl like to treat the education chapters of the book. This information is under the heading “The Right Stuff”.  The key for me was the simple equation of creating a situation where creativity and passion is greater than the intellectual,  This is expressed as quotients ie the the Curiosity Quotient (CQ) and the Passion Quotient (PQ) is greater than the Intelligence Quotient (IQ). 

The example  used is that  one should survey the students when you start university ( and perhaps even schools) and select the course and the teachers who have the passion and the curiosity, do those courses and the intelligence quotient will sort itself out. 

This is a powerful message and the students to a certain extend do this when they make subject choices at school. Does this idea work for you ?

cheers  Martin

Hi all,

I have mentioned Cloud Computing before. There is a bit more on the web about it now and how it functions and how we can use it. Now there are a few neat videos of people talking about it. This helps clarify ideas on how it can be used and how reliable it will be.

I have been reading the Horizon Reports that have been out for the past few years 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 and look forward to see if Cloud Computing gets a mention for 2009.

Here are a few of the videos:

Daily Motion: What the Hell is Cloud Computing

Definitive guide to Cloud Computing

What is Cloud Computing – thoughts from Web 2.0 Expo

cheers  Martin

You Tube Version
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=QxxoxplV2h8