Posts by Rob Stowell
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Paul, Yamis, Jackie, Deborah, Ben- and others: thanks so much for your comments, wisdom, and insights. I’m feeling a little humbled- and learning a lot! :-)
(Not feeling any better about this educational thuggery- but better about humankind.) -
Hard News: Media7 will soon be Media3, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
So where do I get this Free Sky access then?
Prime?!
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Anyone else get the creeps when the "New Zealand Initiative" is allowed (eg on RNZ this morning) its self-described role as ‘an independent think-tank’.
We know it’s taken something from the New Zealand Institute. But probably not, for example, its funding. that’s more likely to come from its other parent- the Business Round Table.
BRT are quite entitled to have an opinion on education- or anything else- but they need to own it. They are undoubtedly aware that much of the public perceive the BRT ‘brand’ as toxic. Shopping their ideas around as the ideas of ‘an independent think-tank’ is dishonest.
We haven’t forgotten what an ‘independent social policy think-tank’ the Maxim Institute was …
(Joined the mailing list for the ‘NZ Initiative’- which seems to have lead, almost inadvertently, to my first ‘tweet’- asking them where their funding comes from. If anyone else wants to join in, an small tsunami of such requests on twitter might be interesting :) -
Did it strike anyone else as a sort of ‘up yours, we’re still the boss’ to teachers- who were seen to have won a very public victory over class sizes?
ETA: on a ‘meta’ analysis (and related to Josh Marshall’s ‘bitch-slap’ theory of politics) if you can forget about the content (which is destructive etc etc) there’s an underlying message of ‘we’re still in charge’ that might play well to the ID of some core National voters. Less about policy than a message about power and ’control’ after a perceived set-back?
Stupid, off-the-cuff, and deeply counter-productive to NZ education- but also the inevitable result of the ‘national standards’ idiocy, which has thrown away a great deal of our education money (and good-will) into a system that has failed world-wide, where-ever it’s been tried…
Angry, yes, surprised, sadly no :( -
Hard News: Media7 will soon be Media3, in reply to Chris Waugh,
all online all the time with no geoblocking and no licencing to other channels
If it’s content that’s generated by the channel, they can. But for, eg, TV3, that’s pretty much only news and current affairs. anything else- licencing hell :)
(Eg NZ on Air would probably not agree- kills any possible future revenue stream dead. And obviously not going to fly for content bought from another provider- without massive payment.)
Youtube: not only are channels free- you can make (tiny!) amounts of money from them. So that’s a reasonable option, I’d think, for any channel generating its own programming, which wants to increase viewers, and possibly make tuppence here and there. Youtube/Google are aware of the limitations of ‘short-view’ programming- people get lots of opportunities to leave- and actively courting longer, more ‘professional’ (tv-like) content. Hence putting US$100m into new start-up channels.
Not necessarily working that well, though…
ETA:Sky has confirmed it is in preliminary talks with TVNZ about the Back Benches programme moving from TVNZ7 to Prime.
Great news too! Even though I dislike the role of Sky in NZ television market, and suspect the deal will involve NZ on Air paying the entire production cost, while Sky/Prime reaps the advertising benefits and 'kudos' for 'sponsoring' a local show...
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Great news :) Deserved and we are the better served for it!
(Not ready to give up on Save TVNZ 7- even if it has to become 'Remember TVNZ 7' it's built a very strong following. We'll be considerably poorer (and crosser) when the switch is flicked off.) -
Cracker: Audience wanted for lively TV discussion, in reply to Martin Roberts,
David Mackay calculates an average of 13kWh/day in Britain for a person who can find 10 square meters of equator-facing roof. That will go some ways towards powering your house, but will never cover 100% of our energy needs.
Sounds pretty good to me! And that's Britain... (We use about 7 Kwh a day, but it's a small part of our energy use- doesn't include cooking (mostly gas) heating (mostly wood-burner) or water heating (solar and wood-burner).
FWIW it cost about $6k for half a kva of solar in 1998 when we moved here; a few years later we doubled that, and it was about the same. Now half a kva of solar can be had for about $2k, mostly I think because China had moved into it in a big way.
Solar hot water was a much better bet until recently- surprised that's changed, but pleased to see PV come down so much. -
Not sure where this came from- but it captures that ‘never say sorry’ attitude…
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Rapid and relevant individual feedback (1) and direct instruction (2) ... are both dependent, to some degree, on class size....
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The nation was offered a dud deal and didn't swallow.
Cut $170m from teachers' salaries. Give you back $60m in professional development initiatives and call it an increase in teacher quality...
Not only is it not fiscally neutral- it was exchanging something concrete we had (teacher:pupil ratios) in exchange for something that *might* mean an increase in teacher quality (and that of principals- a fair bit was aimed at 'leadership training') - but it might also have little or no effect.
Teacher quality can certainly be improved. But you need to get a good grasp of what works- and the Nats big 'carrot and stick' (get rid of *bad* teachers, and bring in performance pay so *good* teachers get more) is so wide of the mark it's hard to know what they are aiming it.
It's the sort of simplistic scheme that can work in a sales office... If you don't understand that most teachers are motivated differently (and often work best cooperatively) you're very unlikely to ever push the right buttons.
(The new primary curriculum pushed a lot of them- it had teachers excited, and was the envy of most of the world. Then National Standards- a drab testing regime that had failed in the US and Britain- pushed it into the background. Cue woe and gnashing.)
