Clash of Clans is an incredible game because it is a strategy based game. In Clash of Clans you build a clan and defend your Town Hall against others. I think that Clash of Clans is a great game because you have to work out a plan or you will go broke. The good thing about his game is that you will not be broke for long, as you can  purchase […]

Robots are becoming popular educational tools in Australia due to the inclusion of coding in the National Technologies Curriculum. “The Wyss educational robotics team is working to ignite a passion for science and technology among students at a young age by building robots that introduce the fundamentals of programming and controlling robots” (source) which retail for around $10! The Affordable Education Robot, better known as AERobot, can: – Move forward […]

Wesley Fryer discusses the topic of creativity and innovation in schools in relation to technology. Throughout the video he cleverly uses elements of nature as metaphors for innovative processes and concepts. The video does go for 43 minutes but it is an easy view.

Creativity doesn’t come naturally to everyone but it can be taught. According to Albert Einstein, ‘the true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but creativity’. This year I have gone back to using a range of higher order thinking theories/models such as De Bono’s Six Hats, Thinkers Keys, Blooms Taxonomy and Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. I have not only used them for programming lessons plans but I have taught them explicitly […]

Having just returned from a 10 day campervan holiday in New Zealand with my family and with no Internet usage, I thought I’d share the video below. Media overstimulation? I think there is something we can all learn from this video, including myself. Under the video I have embedded a unit of work which I wrote today. It provides resources for teaching students about their online life and how to […]

I have been progressing with my PHD studies and in between creating new technology based units of work for one of my other website: http://technologiesjvillis.weebly.com/ . Below I have embedded some teaching ideas which you may like to use: Towering high: Technology unit from Joanne Villis Designing Toy: Y2 Lesson Ideas from Joanne Villis Y5-6 Forces and Electricity Teaching Ideas J Villis from Joanne Villis   Data lesson ideas for Y3/4 […]

For my PHD I am focusing on the shared use of mobile technologies in primary education. What does this mean? Well, mobile technologies (ie, iPad, tablets, lap tops and smart phones)  are ideal on a 1:1 basis yet many primary schools can not afford this. Therefore I would like to find out if mobile technologies on a shared basis in primary education are working effectively based on teacher’s opinions. I would […]

I am meant to be researching for my PHD but at times I get a little distracted. Having noted this, distractions are not wasted  as I frequently find ideas for new units of work. Below are a few units of work for technology which are linked to the Australian Curriculum. Caine’s arcade technology lesson ideas for teachers from Joanne Villis Forces and materials teaching ideas JVillis from Joanne Villis Forces […]