According to an article in the Australian this morning, student demand is exceeding available spots in universities, with many universities in Queensland “struggling to keep pace with strong student demand, with the offer rate falling to 79 per cent, down from 83 per cent last year.”
Undoubtedly this is a really stressful time of year for prospective university students, but to me there is an important element to this discussion that needs to be highlighted.  This situation need not be a binary question of acceptance versus rejection.  Universities really need to …

In reading a recent post on the Tomorrow’s Professor blog regarding “Learning Through Structured Reflection,” I’ve been once again reminded of my passionate belief in the importance of leaving space and opportunity for contemplation and critical thinking in the learning process. Likewise the article has also reaffirmed my belief that the student blog should be as core a part of a curriculum as the text book.
The article argues:
“Making experiences into objects of reflection means simultaneously heightening their impact while attempting to understand them in connection with any number of …

[Disclosure: My family and I are part of the homeschooling community.]
A combination of a fairly feisty state of mind and George Siemen’s latest post on his Connectivism blog titled “Technologically Externalized Knowledge and Learning” has got me seriously riled up tonight – not at George mind you, but at the state of education as we know it.
In setting the scene for a discussion on “finding a cure for stale ideologies,” George discusses some of the issues with traditional views on learning, as well as some of the shortcomings of those …

As God as my witness this blog is not going to become single-mindedly dedicated to the exploration and advocacy of World of Warcraft. However given my interest in thoroughly tracking activities I’m engaged in and devoting ample time to reflecting on my experiences I wanted to document where I’m at in this whole interesting process.
One thing I’d like to reiterate at this point, as I mentioned on Twitter the other day, when I talk about “learning” I don’t just mean “school.” It’s a very important distinction to make, and …

In the wake of my last post I’ve starting thinking about the broad topic of virtual worlds and gaming and my attitude towards them. As surprising as it may sound, I’ve always looked at the topic of learning through virtual worlds and MMORPGs like World of Warcraft with a fair degree of skeptical interest.
These sorts of enviroments are a fascinating phenomenon to me, not necessarily from the standpoint of the environments themselves, or the experiences they help facilitate, but with the degree of engagement, dedication and time investment that people …