A starting point...

A blank page is always terrifying. I never know where to start. So, deep breath and off I go.

Why create a new blog? Good question. Aren't there enough people self-indulgently blogging about their work, their lives and any miscellaneous idea that pops into their heads? We live in a networked world, one where at the click of a button or the swipe of a finger we can tell the world our troubles. Without any filters we can sometimes share too much. But just as there exists negativity in some circles about the over-sharing that happens in social media, there are others who recognise the power of social media to make connections. I guess that is at the heart of this new blog of mine - a desire to make connections with colleagues around the world on areas of common interest.

So what's this blog going to be about. Well, I'm an academic at an Australian university, helping to prepare the next generation of teachers, for both primary/elementary and, to a lesser extent these days, secondary schools. My main focus, but not the only one, is on the integration of digital technologies (what we used to call ICT) into the classroom. My teaching and research centres on questions of what does effective integration of digital technologies look like? How can we better prepare new teachers in integrating digital technologies in ways that move beyond a ‘tick the box’ approach? How can I harness digital technologies in my own teaching so that I am modeling approaches that could work for my students in their own classrooms? So this blog is about that journey – sharing the approaches I take to my own teaching, the experiences of my students and some of the projects and research I participate in that relate to teaching teachers about and with digital technologies. I hope that whoever reads this blog talks to me about my work and about their own work, so that ideas can flourish, develop, become enriched.