Recently I have found myself thinking why are these kids acting this way on social media? It is not what I would have done when I was their age…Shut the front door – what was I thinking!? Like the first signs of a cold, I knew that I was becoming out of touch – so the...

Something about the words COETAIL Final Project 1 sends a shiver down my spine, rekindling anxiety that I haven’t experienced since sitting down for my final object-orientated programming exam, in which I had to write pseudo code – good times then. Maybe if COETAIL...

I do enjoy re-reading Bloom’s taxonomy, learning about digital taxonomy for the first time, and also discovering other new material along the way. Yet despite these new readings, I have my own theory about learning theories... in that one size doesn’t fit all. I agree...

I thought that I would go for something relaxing for my goal here – which was to say yes to the question my principal posed – design your first yearbook; from top to bottom, the whole thing – and then some. A bit of context may help describe the learning curve...

A few years ago, whilst in a spit and saw-dust gym that I used to frequent pre-Crossfit days, this guy walks in with all the correct gear for heaving lifting; squat shoes, knee straps, hand chalk, and support belt. He then saunters over to the squat rack, puts on a...

Without research, we stagnate. Without research, we may keep our vision, but we risk not keeping up with what is relevant. With research, we create new learning pathways for ourselves, which lights the fire within. With this fire, we can light the path and learning...

A Screen to Hide From or Platform to Project From? I try to be the same offline as online, in as much as I can. However, as has been addressed perhaps in thousands of comments, blogs, vlogs, articles, and books – assuming a different online persona gives us confidence...

I just found an app that you can plant trees in! I like trees, they look pretty, particularly the ones in Shanghai called London Plane trees. Anyway enough about that and more about the app itself. Essentially it is a focus app. It helps you direct your attention...

Here we go, three ISTE Standards, of the student kind, on which I have based my own COETAIL learning goals on. These are: Digital Citizen / Empowered Learner / Global Collaborator ISTE Standard: Digital Citizen My COETAIL Learning Goal: Is for me to create a learning...

Should your students learn to touch type? Yes – in my opinion. It helps them get things onto the computer much quicker! It helps to develop their fine motor skills, as they are searching for the correct keys to use according to the challenge/game on the screen. I...

Filters, labels and undo send – these are three of the handiest little Gmail features available, helping to organize your inundated inbox. Use filters to guide your emails like little homing pigeons into labels; which you can colour coordinate too! And then there is...

The concept of this game is really quite simple. You control a large robotic claw, which you use to pick up crates and place them in a specific place and order. That’s it! What a great and easy way to introduce coding concepts. And that’s what I love about this app;...

Three years ago, when I first came to Cambodia, I wanted the students to learn about QR Codes, in a fun and practical way. Before embarking on this perilous lesson plan one of my colleagues asked me who uses QR Codes anyway and therefore why should we teach it – good...

Do you have safe search engines at your school? If not then try out the two listed in this review, I have tried and tested these with students ages 5-9. They are very easy to use for your younger students and quite safe. Safe as in you won’t get any nasty surprises...

It’s fair to say that there are not many digital citizenship (written in 2018) books suitable for year 1s/kindergarteners. So DigiDuck makes quite a splash in this area; even though it has been out since 2012! This book attempts to inform the user to think twice...

A Discovery I only just came across this coding app a couple of weeks ago whilst traveling in Bali. I have since tested out all the levels and introduced it to Year 1 & 2 students. I love this coding app – and so do my students! Yet another app that can get your...

Coding for Kids Rather than having kids consume code by playing, get them to learn how to code, and from an early age! I can still remember my first-ever coding lesson. I was sitting down at an old IBM computer that had Turbo Pascal installed, the year was 1996. It...

What Is Digital Citizenship? This is a question that I feel all educators and parents need to ask themselves – given that our kids are spending so much time online. How are we preparing them for how to behave appropriately when they use the internet? What are the...