Incredible Sites you should know about: Update

Detailed here are some websites that will help you do things smarter, find information more readily, and provide some solutions that will make you safer on the Web. More updates are planned as COVID reshapes the way educators educate and how learners interact. 

1. Varsity Tutors: Celebrity instructors teach their favourite topics
2. Instructables: DIY How to make instructions
3. Duolingo Learn a new language for free!
4. Khan Academy Learn about anything here
5. Justin Guitar The best guitar lessons on the internet, and they're free!
6. MIT Open Courseware Open courseware from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
7. Investopedia It's new, it's improved and it has information and advice on subjects from the stock market to green energy to bit coins.
8. Quora Follow topics to find out more information and to get answers to your questions.
9. Information is beautiful You will look at information in a totally new and graphically appealing way.
10. Spreeder Free online speed reading software.
11. Project Gutenberg Get free eBooks here.
12. Code Academy Learn to code for free.
13. Anki Anki is a program which makes remembering things easy. Because it's a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn.
14. Memrise There are thousands of courses on Memrise - all free and all created by other members of the community. Courses are available in many languages, for many languages and other subjects. If we don't have what you want, join in and make your own!

iPads, critical search skills & other musings

Education and iPads is a wikispace set up by Jacqui Sharp. If you are wondering where to start with that pod of i-devices, this is an excellent launch pad.

In this time of change in NZ education, with a renewed emphasis on performance based on results, it's important to remember that we are still here to equip learners for multi-disciplinary approaches, collaborative learning and development.

Literacy and numeracy skills are vital core skills, but still core skills. The task is to put those skills to use effectively.  Critical Search Skills Students Should Know highlights "critical search skills students should know."



Recent announcements in New Zealand give me cause for concern for publicly funded education. The idea that decile ratings should be abolished and funding linked to results is a precursor to a two-tier education system; where schools in higher socio-economic communities will be "rewarded" for their results, while those in lower socio-economic areas will continue to decline as funding is shifted to "performing" schools. This article from Stuff suggests that Ms Parata is once again back-tracking.