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Everyone should have in their lives at least one teacher who finds the spark that starts the bonfire. ‘What we have decided to do at Deakin University, with the Victorian Council of Deans of Education, the Victorian Department of Education and the Victorian Institute of Teaching, is to undertake a large scale research project to examine the ‘value-addedness’ of teacher education. ‘We want to first define what the value added nature of professional, properly trained teachers might be, then we want to work out ways to measure it.’ Deakin University, June 2009

In today’s college classroom, it seems that more students have laptops than don’t. In many lecture halls, professors see several of their students typing away all class long. But some professors have to wonder: how many of them are taking notes, and how many of them are checking Facebook. The Chronicle of Higher education, 26 June 2009

Patricia Easteal, a University of Canberra legal academic, has accepted a ‘virtual sabbatical’ at Britain’s Durham University in what is believed to be a world first. Easteal will attend staff meetings taking place in Durham, teach students and turn up to morning coffee breaks, all without leaving her home in Canberra. She will also participate in a face-to-face sabbatical with the University of Melbourne’s law school. The Australian Higher Education, 24 June 2009

Associate Professor Tony Herrington (Education), Dr M.G. Michael (Informatics) and Dr Katina Michael (Informatics) recently presented at the inaugural AUPOV09 national conference with its focus on wearable computing or mobile e-learning technologies. UOW News, 25 June 2009