Bank Failure?

As we watch the markets and bemoan our losses, I always wonder if I should feel badly or positively about the changes.  I always have this unfortunate feeling that the little guy loses and the big business wins regardless of the corrections to the market place.  I have started to read the Guardian as a [...]

Canadian Copyright Law

The Canadian Government has tabled a law which addresses the new environment for information sharing.  It is unfortunately not a very good one according to many accounts, M. Geist, Digital Copyright Canada, James Bow.
So although I am simply a citizen.  I have written my MP and the PM and Mr. Prentice to state my views.

Dear [...]

100 Miles

Since I finished my Master’s work, I have had the chance to read for fun!  What a novelty!  I love a good read and it seems that I’m not that discerning as to quality.  I like a page turner such as One for the Money and a Giller winner such as Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures.  [...]

Children’s Culture – bias and sterotyping

Each text has a point of view and angle.  Non-fiction will take a particular stance on a subject.  Children’s literature tends to portray the world as a simple place, a happy place, a homogeneous place, a stereotypically diverse place, a place of constant obvious values and hope.  What does it mean if this is the [...]

Childhood – appropriateness and censorship

What do we let children read? When do we let them read it? I am a regular censor of the materials I let my own child read and particularly watch on T.V. I have done this censoring deliberately to frame the world for my child in the ways I believe will make [...]

A colonial brain trying to be post-colonial

I have been attending Congress 2007 and am trying to process some of what I have taken in there. I have attended quite a number of workshops but most of them have carried a similar thread about the importance of telling stories, hearing stories, writing stories and talking about stories, particularly our own stories [...]

Environment, technology and making a difference

I really want an ipod, well an mp3 player. I have been thinking about it for a year or so now. The last time I really thought about it I decided that the cd players and tape players that mostly sit dormant in the t.v. unit were probably still sufficient to the task. [...]

Technology, pedagogy and the real story

Is there a learning advantage to using information and communication technologies in school? Quite often we hear the refrain that more computer technology is necessary for schools. The costs of the equipment alone can be a staggering portion of the educational budget. On top of those costs are the software licensing and [...]

Free Speech?

When I first began to think about setting up my blog, I had to contemplate the public nature of the format and the impact that could have on my work life and my personal life. These wonderings take sharper focus when I hear news clips of folks who’ve lost their jobs due to the [...]

New Times: Big Dreams

New times talk always makes me a little wary. I wonder about the baby and the bathwater. Colin Lankshear and James Gee have written extensively on new literacies and new times. Both of them advocated for schools and educators responding to the changing literacy environment and both of them caution against schools [...]