You can’t stop the… learning?
Coming to the end of a very hectic half term week where my ‘to-do’ list is appearing strangely complete. As part of my resolution to try new things this year I decided to visit London and see the musical Hairspray. Most of the children I’ve spoken to think it’s brilliant – nearly as good as High [...]
Finding time…
Another half term arrives and once again I wonder where time is disappearing to. The reason is partially because the past half term has been so short and yet so jam packed with things to do. I was hoping to read the above three books over half term: Critical Literacies in Action, Desirable Literacies (co-edited [...]
Learning to Tweet or Tweeting to Learn?
After initially being sceptical I have now been bitten by the Twitter bug and hence my lack of blog posts recently. I think part of the reason is Twitter is easier than blogging. You provide a short snapshot of what you are doing and click update – that’s it. It’s interesting to view your timeline after [...]
Rise of the new literacy practices…
One of my favourite television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has finished its current run in America. The general word on the internet is that the show won’t be renewed and the current season was the last. I find the reaction by fans on the internet to this news to be very interesting. Obviously [...]
Fighting the Web 2.0 battle…
I have been enjoying the new series of The Apprentice on BBC1, which has at its core the need to be proficient with communication, language and literacy. If you cannot communicate effectively, for a range of purposes and audiences, you quite simply fail. Above is a picture of Margaret Mountford, one of the senior advisors, who is dismayed at [...]
Changing formats…
I’m really pleased with how this blog has turned out and I definitely think that moving it away from the main MLI site gives it a unique identity and more scope so that I don’t always have to talk about literacy theory. I also think it looks more like a blog now! I have taken [...]
Out with the new… and in with the old?
Over the past few weeks I have had tremendous amounts of work to complete and little time for reflection. It isn’t until you manage to catch a quick breath that you realise how you miss appreciating the little things in life. I have just finished watching the ’100 Greatest Scary Moments’ on E4 and I [...]
UKLA International Conference 2009
I will be presenting at the UKLA International Conference in July, held at Greenwich University. I will be speaking as part of a symposium with Lynda Graham, Angela Colvert and Jackie Marsh about teachers and children shaping digital worlds. Here’s my abstract: Multiliteracies and meaningful learning contexts in the primary classroom Martin WallerPrimary School TeacherLead [...]
Influences of expression…
Two blog posts in one day. The reason… on Friday night I had the pleasure of watching Cirque Du Soleil: Quidam at the Newcastle Arena and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. This is not a traditional ‘circus’ with random disjointed acts and a faint smell of sawdust. Quidam contains a [...]
Consumers or Producers?
I first started video editing when I was fifteen. One of my first big projects was to rework the video introduction of the TV programme Survivor to include teachers for my school intranet. On reflection this practice links with Barbara Comber’s work on critical literacy (Comber, 2001). She talks about subverting texts and redesigning them for real-world [...]