My name is Ross Parker and I am Director of Technology, Pedagogy & Assessment at International College Hong Kong. I am passionate about making learning a positive, anxiety-free process centered around personal transformation. This requires re-imagining school as a place where adult-adult relationships create a culture of trust, respect and shared purpose.
As an ICT teacher by training, I aim to offer learners a balanced view of technology in general, whilst encouraging individuals to understand, use, demystify and build computer technologies. An essential part of this is helping students, teachers and parents to understand the many and ancient connections between technology and being human.
I am the founder of Gibbon, the open source school platform, through which I have also developed the Free Learning pedagogy. With Free Learning, I aim to give students the freedom and agency to find their own passions, the support and encouragement to develop understanding and skills, and the intellectual tools and curiosity to make up their own minds about life. I believe that education should focus on learning to learn.
As a public speaker, I have presented at conferences and workshops around the world, as well as participating as a panel expert and as a regular on Hong Kong’s RTHK Radio 3.
These pages are my digital home: a place where I can gather my thoughts, lessons, units and resources, and make these available for others to use.
Encompassing all my work is a belief that I am lucky to be in the position I am in, and to have received the education that I have. I believe that knowledge is a right, not a privilege, and that what I know I do not own but merely curate. From this comes a desire to share my knowledge and content with others so that they may also use it to further their learning and that of others.
Firstly, I would l ike to say well done on a great blog. I had a quick look around and noticed you have collected a few links in your delicious bookmarks space. One the of the great challenges that I am myself facing is the chaos of collecting and organising my teacher resources. Am only in my first semester of Masters and already having trouble finding things again. You used the blog well as a central respositry not only for your resources, but also an effective space to “reflect”, as I have discovered as teachers we are encouaged to do this often. Keep up the good work!
Diana Walker
Thanks Diana! You captured the spirit of the thing perfectly. The next phase is to start the collaboration section, where students can engage in learning activities together. All in good time!
Hey Ross,
Just wanted to say thank you for all the help you have given me. You really have helped me to overcome my dilema with technology. Thanks to you i can now create an awesome animation that is interactive. Your a really great teacher, and from first hand experience i can say that your future students are going to be very lucky. Again, thank you so much for being patient and taking every lesson step by step. I really appreciate it.
Cheers,
Sarah
Sarah, thanks for your kind words. I am glad I was able to help out. Just email me or ask a question here if you ever need any help. You might be interested in looking at the guide on how teachers can create a digital hub for teaching and learning.