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 …

In the wake of Friday’s Learning and Teaching Forum I’ve been experiencing a growing sensation that I’ve been unable to shake.  The best way that I can articulate it is to say that certain elements of the forum for me yielded a rude awakening to the realities of the traditionalist educational culture.  They also highlighted just how incredibly out of sync I am with elements of the wider academic community and in many regards have left me wondering where I go from here.
This is not to say that this …

Sometimes I wonder whether all the attention and energy I put into fighting the status quo in the education system, and the never-ending quest to affect change is making me antagonistic and cynical, even resentful and bitter.
When I first started blogging several years ago I was a very political, very liberal blogger. It was the era of the Bush Administration in the US and the Howard Government in Australia and there was a lot not to like about the state of affairs at the time. United States Foreign …

Several colleagues and I got into a discussion recently about learning styles, learning networks and their implications for use of technology, and it got me to thinking about my personal experiences, which I thought I might explore, document and share here.
Contemplation, Reflection, Blogging
Contemplation and reflection play a tremendous role in the way I approached learning, and blogs for me are a key way through which I reflect and contemplate.  The act of sharing these reflections publicly serves to help me focus my attention.  Somehow the idea that my thoughts will …

Cole Camplese is one of my favourite bloggers. Despite the fact I rarely comment on his posts (which is a habit I really should change), I find myself constantly challenged and inspired by the topics he writes about. One of the key reasons for this, I think, is he consciously and actively reflects on his own writing, his motives for doing so, and the trends and themes he recognises in the evolution of an idea (often times across several posts). He constantly demonstrates and models critical thinking …