It might just be me, but my Facebook, Twitter  and other social network streams have been chock full of articles about ‘fake news‘ since Trump became President elect of the United States. I”m not sure if everyone is being bombarded by this in the same way, but I am. I know that the topic has been in the news – particularly as many are claiming that Facebook played a powerful role in shaping the outcome of the US election; however I also am aware of the fact that everyone’s social media streams contain different information – according to who they...

I have been meaning to write a blog post on the role of Emojis in communication and literacy for a while, and what better day to write it than on World Emoji Day. Yes, Emojis, those little pictures that animate texts and Facebook posts have an official day to celebrate them, and today is that day. Emojis have been around since the late 1990’s. Emerging from Japan, Wikipedia tells us the word emoji comes from Japanese e (絵, “picture”) + moji (文字, “character”). The apparent resemblance to the English words “emotion” and “emoticon” is just a coincidence. Lots of people...

Everytime you learn something new, I believe that you are stretching. Stretching your mind to take in a new concept and build connections (neural and otherwise) around it, stretching your body and building muscle memory that enables automaticity and strength. Without the stretch, you aren’t making the connections, and without the connections, learning hasn’t happened. Education does not equate to learning. Many attend educational activities and learn little or nothing. This may be due to a multitude of reasons. It may be that the individual is merely attending and not participating in the learning (they are physically there, but mentally elsewhere).  It may...

Do you know a person who, completely by themselves, can  build a 747? Everything from the metal shell, the comfy (??) seats, upholstered in company fabric, the plastic tray tables, the tyres for landing, not to mention the complex electronics and massive engines required to run it? Of course not – no one on earth could hold all of this knowledge in their heads, nor possess all of the skills required to build it. The same goes for almost all of our transport today – cars contain not just engines but also computers, trains are complex creations, and ocean liners; ...