Here’s how we handle PD at SBR. In August all teaching staff are asked to nominate their own PD goals for the year. The only constraints are that the goals should challenge the teacher and that they stress technology. These goals are reviewed and accepted by the director. Then in the following May, each teacher is asked to score his/her achievement of his / her goals, as exceeds expectations, meets expectations, satisfactory, or unsatisfactory. These self-assessment scores are then adjusted or confirmed by a management team. The score directly affects a small proportion of the annual salary increase.

This is our first full year of applying this PD system. Last year a similar program was trialed in the second semester, resulting in a flurry of video clips being uploaded to YouTube and a variety of technologies being tested. The tremendous success of the short trial bodes well for technology PD this year.

The rapid person-to-person spread of technology knowledge in Sekolah Bogor Raya surely fits the label viral professional development, regardless of the underlying financial motive.

13 – 15 November 2008

Daring to be Different – Leadership in the Extreme Future

I’ve just come from a meeting of the program committee for this event, which will be chaired by Ardina Utomo of Madania. The theme is the future of education. Regular visitors to this blog should be well aware of my interest in the future, especially future education. If we are to prepare children for the future, we must have some vision of what it holds.

YouTube has many different visions of the future and there must be hundreds of YouTube video clips describing the future of education. While I haven’t watched them all, my favorite is 2020 Vision, from Karl Fisch. In this video, he acts the part of a school administrator addressing the graduating class of year 2020, who started their schooling in kindergarten in 2007. His talk consists of a year-by-year review of major events in technology and in his school for the years 2007 until 2020. His review of future events (predictions) rings true, and it will be interesting to review this video again in year 2020.

School leaders are united in saying that they are preparing children for the future, but are they united in their visions of the future and how best to prepare children? To find out, join us in Bali for the ANPS Bali Leadership Forum. For information, contact the executive secretary at mail.anps@gmail.com.

What I encourage staff to do is to search their topic on the net. But don’t stop after a simple Google search. Go to YouTube and search for material; you might find material that you can use for directly teaching your students, or material that can be used to extend their knowledge, or material that is best used for teacher training. YouTube videos can be easily downloaded for distribution to students or for private study. After YouTube, try TeacherTube, where you might find lesson plans or student projects related to your topic, also in flv format like YouTube videos. And then there’s Teachers TV, with movies that can be downloaded in either Quicktime or Windows Media format.

You should not ignore the host of Powerpoint presentations available on the net. These are efficiently sought using filetype:ppt +your topic. Most of these can be downloaded for teaching material for students or staff. A number of quality presentations can be found in Slideshare.

For auditory learners or anyone who commutes to work from any distance, there are podcasts, which can be downloaded to your iPod or MP3 player, and listened to at your leisure.

There is one additional category of teaching material on the web, namely Shockwave Flash objects, which can be sought efficiently using filetype:swf +your topic. These are often great interactive learning materials for both students and staff, and they can be grabbed and downloaded.

As long as you acknowledge your sources and don’t try to pass downloaded material as your own, plagiarism is not an issue. However, Copyright infringement may be a problem. Nevertheless if you see great educational material on the net, I believe you should use it, and if that requires downloading it, do so.

There are several great compilations on the net, of which Marco Polo is highly rated for free lessons and downloadable materials.

Java applets are commonly used in science, but grabbing them is not as easy as grabbing Flash objects.

So, to summarize, In my opinion, you aren’t prepared if you only read textbooks. You should also check the net with
a simple Google search
a search for videos on YouTube
a search on TeacherTube for videos
a search for movies on TeachersTV
a Google search for Powerpoint presentations, using filetype:ppt
a search for presentations on SlideShare
a Google search for podcasts
a Google search for Shockwave flash objects, using filetype:swf

As an example, I show some of the material collected for a grade 9 unit on the periodic table. A Google search for “periodic table” returns some 4.5 million hits, including on the first couple pages several dynamic interactive periodic tables, such as www.webelements.com and www.dayah.com/periodic, as well as a great site for kids at http://www.chem4kids.com/files/elem_pertable html.

A YouTube search is just as productive, with more than 500 hits. Among them was a set of 120 videos, one devoted to each element in the periodic table (http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=periodicvideos&p=r). I downloaded about 40 common elements for student reference. I also downloaded the Tom Leher song The Elements. Then I burned the lot to CD and gave it to the chemistry teacher.

On TeacherTube close to 30 videos were found, mostly student work.

And on TeachersTV, there were several movies.

A specific Powerpoint search using the term filetype:ppt “periodic table” got more than 5,000 hits.

A search for presentations on SlideShare gave 200 hits for “periodic table”.

A Google search for podcast “periodic table” returned a surprising 90,000 hits. While many are not relevant, several excellent information sources were found, including www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/podcast/element.asp in which a leading scientist or author tells stories about the element in a five-minute broadcast.

And finally, a specific Shockwave flash search for filetype:swf “periodic table” found almost 900 objects.

More than 15,000 hits for the search java applet periodic table indicate that this form is actively used, but I’m still looking for a grabber.

Did I miss something?

Don’t forget to make sure that your teaching materials are up to date, reliable and age-appropriate. Teachers should document all teaching materials used to ensure continuity from year to year. And students should be encouraged to use the library, too, and to compare library resources with those available on the internet.

Water Storage
An additional 10 cubic metres of water storage was installed in series with our existing 18 cm of storage. With this added volume we can last a full day if PAM water supply is cut.

Clinic
A dedicated clinic was set up in the ground floor administration block.

Science Lab
Still under construction, this will house chemistry, biology and physics as required for SMA. Each sink area will be equipped with gas and electrical services.


Laptop Computers in SMP
This year all SMP students are encouraged to bring a laptop to school, and next year it will become a requirement. To accommodate three classrooms full of laptops, a number of changes are necessary; an electrical plug system that is safe and efficient; an ICT Acceptable Practices Policy to regulate use of our network and the internet; and altered teaching practices to optimize learning with computers. A more efficient wireless network is still under investigation.

Library
The library has a stock of new reading material.


PLANNED DEVELOPMENTS AT SEKOLAH BOGOR RAYA IN TA08/09
PYP Authorization
Our PYP authorization visit, expected around January – February 2009, will be the culmination of two years of intensive preparation.

Opening of SMA
Registration for grade 10 will start in November 2008.

Just as we finished greeting Mom, my younger sister, Kath, arrived from St Catharines. She is a practicing neurologist and a very serious birder. Since Kath had her car, she ferried us around, to a travel agent to attempt to arrange our return to Indonesia, and to a used book store to purchase for the school. Shortly before dinnertime my older brother Don drove up with his two ‘children’ Jamie, 32, from Montreal and Toby, 27, from Toronto. Don is a semi-retired professor of microbiology at Dalhousie University, Halifax, and an avid entomologist. We ate vegetarian-Chinese, and suffering from jetlag, we crashed early.
The next morning we were picked up by Kath and her significant other Fred, who is a retired secondary school English teacher. Everyone liked Fred and it is hoped that he becomes a permanent fixture in Kath’s life. After a delightful pizza picnic we retired to the common room for Tasha’s Concert for Grandma. Tasha played piano for an audience of family and a few of Mom’s friends, who were highly appreciative. It was decided to meet popular demand and repeat the concert on Thursday afternoon.

Tuesday Don picked us up and ferried us to York University, Keele campus, and University of Toronto, Mississauga campus, where Tasha investigated some options for university in two years time. Two years may seem like excessive lead time, but considering the huge number of choices and Tasha’s wide interests, it really is appropriate. We returned for supper with Mom, said our goodbyes to Don who will leave tomorrow, and crashed early.
Wednesday we were on our own. After a leisurely breakfast, we walked downtown to the one and only internet café listed in the yellow pages. After three days without internet I was starved for access. Before finding the café, we encountered the public library, with its free internet service. So I was able to delete all the accumulated junk mail. Then we bought some more books for the school, and visited Ian Barker, a former classmate (from elementary, high school and 5 years of university), who had just entered hospital for a deep vein thrombosis in his leg. After lunch we visited Mom, did a load of laundry, had supper at Tim Horton’s and walked back to our bed and breakfast by 7pm. Tasha is becoming famous with the retirement community, many of whom have said they are really looking forward to her concert tomorrow.
Thursday morning we set off for the Stone Road Mall by bus in yet another attempt to get internet access using my 3G modem. Failed again. Then it was back by bus to our bed & breakfast, and a walk to mom’s place for the big concert, which had been widely advertised in the residence. Tasha played for half an hour to an extremely appreciative audience and then answered questions about her music and her life in Singapore. Mom was so proud (I was too). Then we went for a walk in Riverside Park, fed the gulls and tried to feed the ducks and a lone Canada goose. After an early supper with mom, we crashed early.

Friday morning broke wet, rainy with an enormous thunderclap. But by 10am the rain had stopped and soon the sun was shining. Tasha went downtown to buy souvenirs while I visited my friend, Ian, in hospital again. We met downtown for lunch, I discovered that Guelph’s sole cyber café had folded, so it was back to the library to check our email. Then we walked over the Douglas Street footbridge and up to Grange Street, Clara st, where I used to live, then along Metcalfe to King George public school which I attended for a couple years and on to Mom’s place, exhausted. We joined the seniors in a crossword puzzle activity, played a game of scrabble, and stayed for supper at Mom’s. Then we walked back to our bed & breakfast lodgings, which bye the way were ideally located at 66 Derry St., off Delhi, equidistant from the city center and Mom’s retirement facility on Metcalfe St. Both the beds and the breakfasts were excellent, and the proprietors very friendly.
Saturday, back to Stone Road Mall. I went to the Chapters book store. I got another bag full of books, while Tasha returned empty-handed from her shopping spree. Back to moms to find a suitcase for all my book purchases, then out for dinner. Monday morning we were up early for the Red Car limousine service to Toronto. Our first flight, 16 hours Toronto to Hong Kong non-stop, was followed by a brief stopover, then a 4 hour flight on to Jakarta. I think I spent more quality time this week with my Mom than any week in the past three or four decades. And it was great to meet up with the other members of my Canadian family. Of the whole bunch, only Mom has visited me in Indonesia, and that was about 23 years ago.
Mom’s friends, the seniors in her residence, are a lovely group of mostly women, who have survived their husbands. We visited them daily, and interacted with them in numerous ways. Some are ex school teachers, and others have travelled widely, and together they have a wonderful collective experience.

Thanks for the alert go to JTC’s blog post Learning Games to Change.

CO2FX

“CO2FX is a web based multi-user educational game which explores the relationship of global warming to economic, political and science policy decisions. The game is driven by a systems dynamics model and is presented in a user friendly interface intended for the high school user.

“About the Project
The Problem
Climate change, the gradual warming of the earth’s climate due to increases in green house gases, is a complex process. The ultimate solution goes beyond curbing the emissions of gases and entails the social, political, and economic factors that underlie our modern industrialized societies.
Our goal is to help students grasp the many dimensions of global warming. With funding from the National Science Foundation, we have created a prototype lesson that employs a novel approach to capture the complexity of the subject.”

“Our Approach
Our vehicle is a sophisticated web-based program with two interconnected components. The first is a dynamic model of global climate change that captures current thinking on the carbon cycle and fossil fuels. It produces estimates of the CO2 emissions in one or more countries over a period of 100 years. The model also takes into account social and economic variables such as development of alternative energy sources, taxes on carbon production, unemployment levels, and even public opinion.

Understanding even this relatively simple model can be daunting so the model links to the second component, a web-based interactive game that serves as the intermediary. In this game students assume the role of scientific, policy, or economic advisor in a selected country. Their choices in these roles, how they allocate budgets, determine taxes, and protect land, is interpreted by the game and sent to the model. The model uses these values to recalculate the state of the county and globe. When it returns new values the game uses them to trigger the kinds of events you would expect in the real world. Did your fossil fuel use drop? You may get a complimentary email from the country’s president. Did your carbon tax cause a sharp increase in unemployment? You may see a video clip from the “Action Newsroom” showing popular discontent with your actions.”

“Each role requires that students balance the needs of the job and the overall health of the country. The economic advisor wants to grow the GDP while the scientific advisor is trying to reduce dependence on fossil fuel and the policy advisor hopes to keep voters happy. Because the game allows for other countries, each with its own set of advisors, negotiations both domestic and global becomes an important path to eventual success.”

CLIMATE CHALLENGE
Earth’s future is in your hands
“A game where you are president of the European Nations. You must tackle climate change and stay popular enough with the voters to remain in office.

“Why make a game about climate change?
Currently there is a growing consensus amongst climate researchers that Earth’s climate is changing in response to manmade greenhouse gas emissions. The main debate amongst scientists is focussed on the amount of climate change we can expect, not whether it will happen. With the current level of debate in mind, the BBC decided a game might be a good introductory route into climate change and some of the issues this creates for governments around the world.

The producers’ primary goal was to make a fun, challenging game. At times it was necessary to strike a compromise between strict scientific accuracy and playability. For this reason, Climate Challenge should not be taken as a serious climate change prediction.

Wherever possible, real research has been incorporated into the game. This document describes the scientific sources used to create Climate Challenge and some of the compromises made by the producers. These sources are a good starting point for someone interested in learning more about climate change. This document also describes some of the compromises the producers made for the sake of playability.”

Game focus and aims
“Apart from the primary goal of creating a fun game, Climate Challenge’s producers aimed to:
• give an understanding of some of the causes of climate change, particularly those related to carbon dioxide emissions.
• give players an awareness of some of the policy options available to governments.
• give a sense of the challenges facing international climate change negotiators.
Players must respond to catastrophic events caused by climate change as well as natural and manmade events, which may or may not be linked to climate change. This aspect of the game is meant to give some idea of what could happen as the Earth’s climate changes and also introduce the unpredictable nature of some natural events.”

Authored by sekolahbogorraya. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/2008/06/22/good-gaming-co2fx-and-climate-challenge/feed/ http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/2008/05/27/learning-science/ http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/2008/05/27/learning-science/#comments Tue, 27 May 2008 07:37:51 +0000 sekolahbogorraya http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/?p=121 by David Booth

When I was three years old, according to my mother, whenever I saw a caravan (trailer, in US English) being pulled behind a car I would say “Look! A caravan pushing a car!”

This little story is one my mother likes to tell, as mothers usually do. But it illustrates very well how children learn about the way the world works. To a three year old child without any concept of cars having engines that produce a driving force (while caravans do not), it is perfectly reasonable to deduce that the caravan is pushing the car just like people push shopping trolleys. Hardly surprising, then, that until comparatively recently in human history scientists imagined that the Sun, Moon and planets circled around a stationary Earth because, again, the hypothesis appears to fit the observation.

Today I understand that it is the car that pulls the caravan just as physicists understand that the Earth rotates and orbits around the Sun, but in both cases a strongly held belief had to be replaced with another. Children learn about how the world works in the same way that human civilization has accumulated, revised and reformulated theories and hypotheses that make up science as we know it.

Science teachers have just a few short years between kindergarten and high school graduation to pass on scientific knowledge that took centuries for humanity to understand, so we use what we might call teaching methodology to speed up the process. A very quick way to get students to regurgitate facts and numbers about science is to teach them how to memorize those facts for long enough to answer questions that test memory recall. The problem is that facts memorized in that way are forgotten almost as soon as the test is over, and students may graduate from high school without the understanding of scientific concepts that they will need later at university.

A few years ago we heard a lot about ‘learning by discovery’ in science education. The idea is that by performing their own experiments and investigations students will discover for themselves how science works. However, science teachers soon realized that without guidance, and some structure, provided by the teacher there was a tendency for students to retain their original naïve concepts (like mine of the caravan pushing the car) because those concepts could explain their experimental observations. If you believe – incorrectly - that cold water rises to the surface, then seeing ice form on a freezing pond will only reinforce that misconception.

I guess that we science teachers learn about teaching science in much the same way as our students learn science themselves. Science teachers are still learning how to teach science more effectively, and we still have a long way to go.

Authored by sekolahbogorraya. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/2008/05/27/learning-science/feed/ http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/2008/05/21/whats-in-a-name/ http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/2008/05/21/whats-in-a-name/#comments Thu, 22 May 2008 01:37:12 +0000 sekolahbogorraya http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/2008/05/21/whats-in-a-name/ What’s in a name? Take mine, for instance, STOLTZ. I‘ve been told by nearly every German I’ve ever met that it means pride in German. So it must be true. But, no, it isn’t according to online German dictionaries, Stolz, a common mis-spelling of my name means pride. Stoltz, itself, is meaningless.

Family history tells vague stories of my great grandparents on the Stoltz side immigrating to the US and then Canada from Alsace-Lorraine, an area of France or Germany depending upon the year.

While researching myself, I stumbled upon The Stoltz Name in History, which is “a customized book offering a unique blend of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary about the Stoltz name. The book is just one of an entire series of family name books in the Our Name in History collection. Each book in the collection is printed on demand and is compiled from hundreds of millions of records from the world’s largest online resource of family history, Ancestry.com. This particular book follows the Stoltz family name through history and makes the perfect gift for your family members and anyone interested in the Stoltz name. In the book you’ll find out about where people with the Stoltz last name originated. You may discover the countries and ports they left behind, the ships they sailed and more. You’ll get a better idea of where people sharing the Stoltz name settled and where they may reside today in the United States, Canada, England and other countries. You’ll get all this information and much more in your Stoltz family name book. If your last name is not Stoltz, then check out our collection of nearly 300,000 family name books to find other available names in the series.”

Skipping ahead to modern times, a google search for Stoltz uncovers lots of us. But the most famous of all is Eric, a Stoltz movie star, best known for his role in Anaconda. “Anaconda (1997) is a horror film. The plot centers on a film crew for National Geographic who are kidnapped by a hunter who is going after the world’s largest anaconda, which is discovered in the remote jungle. Though a modest box office hit, the film was critically panned”.

Me with a python

Eric with Anaconda

Snakes on planes; snakes in schools… (Stick with me; I know where I’m going with this.)

After Eric’s hit with Anaconda, another snake movie emerged. According to Wikipedia, “Snakes on a Plane is a cult high concept, horror-thriller feature film starring Samuel L. Jackson. It was released by New Line Cinema on August 18, 2006 in North America.” But Snakes on a Plane was not the hit that Anaconda was.

Snakes in Schools has not made it to the big screen yet. In fact, filming just started in grade 2 of Sekolah Bogor Raya last week.

The point of bringing snakes to school is to teach kids that not all snakes are poisonous, and to teach them some basic biology. Key to this exercise is not transferring our irrational fears to children. An adult who hates or fears something can easily transfer that feeling to a child. Respect for snakes is understandable, fear is irrational.

Last May we had a minor invasion of snakes at our school. In the space of one month three snakes were found at school, two of them poisonous species (a banded krait and a banded Malayan coral snake, according to Ibu Mumpuni, herpetologist at LIPI). One was a harmless tree snake that lost its footing and fell out of a tree near the lobby. Our action, to immediately remove the snake habitat and that of its prey, the dense plant undergrowth, appears to have been successful; not one snake has been seen since.

And so ends this rambling post that goes from stoltz to snakes to school landscaping.

Authored by sekolahbogorraya. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/2008/05/21/whats-in-a-name/feed/ http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/2008/05/18/a-year-in-guangdong/ http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/2008/05/18/a-year-in-guangdong/#comments Sun, 18 May 2008 12:07:05 +0000 sekolahbogorraya http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/2008/05/18/a-year-in-guangdong/ After teaching for three years in Indonesia, I wasn’t expecting severe culture shock when I moved to a school near Guangzhou in southern China. I was mistaken. I found China to be as different from Indonesia as it is from my own home country, the UK.

Arriving in China from Indonesia one of the first things that hits you is the modern infrastructure. Guangzhou has a brand new and efficient airport, express highways and toll roads, and an underground Metro system that shames many European capitals. The fast and effective response of the Chinese authorities to the recent devastating earthquake also shows modern China at its best. Many people owe their lives to good road, air and rail links that allowed rescuers and aid to reach the affected area without delay.

Once I got used to the modern infrastructure, however, I found there were aspects of life in Indonesia that I missed terribly. One of these aspects was access to information. Yes, I know we all complain about the volume of trashy Sinetron on Indonesian TV, but at the same time we can rely on the news programmes to keep us updated of local and world events as they happen. Until you have lived for a while without an independent news media it is difficult to appreciate how valuable an asset it is.

At my school in China all students in the junior and senior high school units were expected to have a laptop computer for schoolwork. They had been following that policy for the previous two years. All of our classrooms had wireless internet base stations for the students and all had big screen TV monitors and a sound system that the teacher could use during lessons. There was something missing, however: large parts of the internet were not available because those websites were blocked or filtered at local, regional and national level by what has become known as the ‘Great Firewall of China’. Information is one of the most valuable commodities in the modern economy but from what I saw China is not doing its best to educate the nation’s youth in how to use and profit from that commodity. I think that is a pity.

The ‘one child policy’ which has been in place since 1974 in China means that almost all of my high school students (and quite a few of the teachers) had no brothers or sisters. The policy was implemented to counter a population problem at the time, but its effects are far-reaching. Imagine a class of 25 students who have been the centre of their parents’ attention since birth and who have never had to share anything with brothers and sisters. Imagine the pressure for success placed on those children because they represent the parents’ one and only chance for the next generation of the family. Imagine a world where all new parents were themselves only children, too. Perhaps surprisingly, very few of my students behaved like ‘little emperors’ and most seemed to emerge from this unique form of childhood perfectly well, but after teaching Indonesians and Europeans I found the effect of the one child policy was still very noticeable.

Once you can see past the pot-holed roads and creaky public services, Indonesia actually has a lot going for it as a place to live now and in the future. I’m glad to be moving back to Indonesia, and Bogor in particular, after my year in China though I’m grateful for having had the opportunity to experience life in a very different type of society. I remain very impressed by the technological and economic achievements that I saw in the new China and I hope that the citizens of Indonesia can find a way to enjoy the benefits of economic development while at the same time keeping hold of all the good qualities that make Indonesia special.

David Booth joins our science dept after a year in China.

Authored by sekolahbogorraya. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/2008/05/18/a-year-in-guangdong/feed/ http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/2008/05/12/reflecting-on-my-first-year-of-blogging/ http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/2008/05/12/reflecting-on-my-first-year-of-blogging/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 10:57:22 +0000 sekolahbogorraya http://sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org/2008/05/12/reflecting-on-my-first-year-of-blogging/ I started blogging in the middle of May 2007. In this post I reflect on my experiences after one year of blogging.

First, I’ll deal with questions about why I started blogging and why I have continued. I started with some rather naive ideas about communicating with a captive audience of clients, students and staff. With over 400 kids in the school at the time, I expected a couple hundred parents would be keen to follow my every word. Was I ever mistaken! It didn’t take me long to realize that no-one, not even my staff, was reading my blog. Since by that time, my blog was directed primarily towards staff and parents, the observation that they were not reading it, was perplexing, to say the least. Was it due to their slow adoption of RSS, lack of interest, ignorance or fear of web 2.0?

To stimulate parents to read my blog, I essentially quit producing our regular newsletter and continually promoted the blog as a source of information. At this point in time, I really don’t know if this approach has been successful in influencing parents. My ability to influence staff is much stronger, and so their professional development (PD) priorities were realigned to focus on technology. (If I played it right, I could almost equate successful PD with reading my blog.)

In less than six months, focusing PD on technology has lead to a spectacular increase in staff use of web 2.0 technologies, which will eventually affect their classroom activities, and a noticeable, but less spectacular increase in blog readership. For instance, one year ago a search of Youtube or Classroom 2.0 for Sekolah Bogor Raya would yield no hits, whereas now it yields several hits, with the number growing actively. In the cases of both parents and staff, I firmly believe the poor or slow adoption of RSS is the main reason for continuing low readership.

So, despite the lack of readers, why do I continue to blog? Simply because I am passionate about learning, and I learn far more from blogging, including both reading and writing (with its forced reflection), than from any other form of professional development. Others have cited the same reason. A heartfelt thanks is in order to all who contribute to the blogosphere.

Another reason for blogging is to market my school, which has succeeded at least in terms of increasing traffic to our website. I had hoped to start conversations about Sekolah Bogor Raya, which could provide opportunities for word-of-mouth advertising, since word-of-mouth advertising is perhaps the most important form, especially for schools. I am somewhat amazed by the slow realization by most Indonesian National Plus Schools of the potent marketing opportunity offered by the internet. One exception is Sekolah Global Jaya, whose innovative executive principal, Richard Henry, has recently started podcasting. Congratulations, Richard.

This post has rambled a bit, but maybe that’s just the nature of reflection, following ideas wherever they take you.

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