You can read the first part of this article here.

So in the first part of this series, I spoke about my history of using computers and other technology, as well as sharing some information about the amount of data I have created over the past five or six years. In this section, I'm going to go in to more specifics of what I currently use, and why I use it.

Firstly, I finished the last piece saying that I would explain why the amount of data I have created for school has dropped so much. Here's how: Plaintext. Almost everything I write now is written using plaintext files and Markdown, which lets me have platform agnostic, space efficient files that still have strong formatting. The smaller size of such files also helps when they are being synced using Dropbox. I used to do most of my assignments in Pages, but now that I don't do any Humanities subjects, I have little need for the features of a word processor. The files created by such programs is also much larger. For example, one of my english essays in plaintext format is 9 KB, while the same writing as a .pages document is 321 KB. While this still isn't a huge file, when you have hundreds of files it builds up. In fact the Pages version is over 3000% larger, which would make what was a 680 KB folder into a 24 MB folder.

To create these plaintext files, I've tried numerous different editors, both on iOS and OS X. I'm currently using Elements (iPhone), Byword (iPad), and the newly released Ulysses 3 (OS X). I also occasionally use Mou, Folding Text, Textastic, and Marked on my MacBook Pro.

While the smaller files are nice, the biggest reason for switching to plaintext is the future proofing it gives me. I am almost certainly always going to be able to open a .txt file, no matter what platform I may end up using, so I will be able to access all my notes. Other formats are proprietary, and thus more likely to become obsolete or incompatible with different operating systems, which would be somewhat of an annoyance if anything important was stored in those documents. My Dad just recently had to go through the process of converting old AppleWorks and ClarisWorks documents into PDFs or Pages documents because support for the older file types was dropped in OS X Lion. While this may not seem like too much of a hassle, when there are hundreds of documents it gets tedious.

When I moved to plaintext it was out of the aim to have the simplest, easiest to use method of writing and taking notes. When combined with Markdown, not only is plaintext simple, lightweight and future proof, but it gains powerful markup features while retaining readability.

While using plaintext has been an evolution of my process of taking notes and writing assignments, It hasn't by a long way had the biggest impact on my workflow and how all the technology I use interacts.

Getting Dropbox in 2009 fundamentally changed how I dealt with storing and using my files on a daily basis. I have almost every document I might need available, even if something goes wrong with my computer, which is great piece of mind when dealing with assessment work. This is the simplest level at which Dropbox functions for me — as a close to instant backup of what I'm working on. However, shared folders have been the greatest change to my workflow. I can easily share files with not only my classmates, but also my teachers. From beta testing a friend's SDD assignment which he put in our shared folder, to submitting a music assignment through the shared folder I have with my Music teacher, Dropbox makes it easier and faster to deal with information.

Dropbox and plaintext have been two of the biggest changes I've made my self, but I have also been impacted by various choices made by my school. In recent years, the greatest impact has been my school's move towards the cloud, and BYOD/BYOT (Bring Your Own Device/Technology) which has changed the way we communicate with and learn from our teachers.

The basis for this decision seems to be an aim to replicate the changes seen outside the school environment, which perhaps highlights how much of a gap there is between traditional teaching methods and the ways in which the rest of society has moved on, so to speak. In terms of the BYOD program, not much has changed for me, since I have been using a device for around 5 years in my classes. What it has meant though, is that teachers are integrating technology into the classroom further, because it is now an expectation that all of the students have a device on which they can complete any set work.

This often involves collaboration between students and teachers. Facilitating such collaborative learning is the school's introduction of Google Apps for its many different purposes. Personally, I don't use any of Google's services if I can avoid it, mainly due to the fact that they are an advertising company, which doesn't bode particularly well for privacy. I use a number of other services that I find to be better for various reasons.

Despite my distrust as such for Google, many of their services do work quite well in education. In particular, Google Docs has been excellent for collaborative work in various classes. In Entertainment Industry, we have used Google Docs extensively, for study notes as well as quizzes created by our teacher. While this component of Google’s online services which is now a part of Google Drive is fantastic, other components are less so. I prefer to use Dropbox for storing and syncing my files between my computers, not that I would store personal files in a school account anyway, but this lessens the usefulness of Google Drive for me. The way in which Google has tried to straddle the offline and online use of files doesn’t work well for me, and my drive seems to be a convoluted mess. I can’t easily preview or edit files offline, and depending how they’ve been shared I may not even be able to sync them to my computer. As far as I am concerned that is completely pointless, and creates a stupidly overwrought workflow unless you stick with an entirely web based solution. And I can’t do that. Unless someone makes versions of Sibelius and Logic that work in a browser. Which isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Clearly, there are benefits and weaknesses to using completely cloud based solutions for certain applications. I like using native applications because they are more stable, faster, look better, and are more integrated than web apps. Using a service such as Dropbox as the backend for native apps, whether it is on iOS or OS X is my preferred method of syncing data between platforms, simply because it lets me experience the benefits of the better user experience of native apps, and syncing of cloud apps. While this method makes real time collaboration, a la Google Docs difficult, this single use case is not common enough to warrant switching to web apps entirely.

While I dislike some of the minutiae of the direction my school has taken, There are other decisions that have been excellent. The connection of 100Mbps fibre internet to handle the increased use of technology across the school has been a great decision. The WiFi network across the school has also been upgraded, both in terms of coverage and quality of connection. This coupled with the new fibre connection means that every classroom has a strong connection to fast internet, which is a huge improvement over the paltry connection we used to have, and ensures that internet speed is not a limiting factor for the use of technology in the classroom.

There are points of friction between the choices I’ve made and the decisions of the school, but for the most part they coexist happily, without hassle. I’m always reassessing what I use, in fact, I actually started using a new app (Ulysses 3) during the process of writing this article. Because of that I may well write again on this topic if I make any significant changes to the way I work.

I’m happy to announce that I’ve sold a majority stake in Instapaper to Betaworks. We’ve structured the deal with Instapaper’s health and longevity as the top priority, with incentives to keep it going well into the future. I will continue advising the project indefinitely, while Betaworks will take over its operations, expand its staff, and develop it further.

I've been using Instapaper since mid-2011 and it is one of my favourite services. A big congrats to Marco.

Whenever any app or web service gets sold these days, I feel a bit wary of its future, given the number of apps that have been 'sunsetted' after aquisition recently. However I'm sure Marco has made sure that Instapaper will continue for the foreseeable future.

Update: Marco was on 5by5’s Quit! and they talked more about why Marco sold it.

You know that an app is good when it manages to change your habits — especially so when it forces a change that might seem to be negative. I've always tried not to keep my phone with me constantly throughout the day, preferring to be undistracted and free to focus on the task at hand. And yet, a new app, which I love, has coerced me into taking my phone with me more and more, but not really using it more.

This is what Moves has done. I don't use my phone any more than I used to, but I now have it with me close to 100% of the time. Moves is a pedometer/activity meter that works silently in the background tracking how far you've moved during the day, whether it be walking, running or cycling. Integration with Foursquare allows it to work out the names of the places you've visited, and it even knows when you're in a car, train or bus, and takes these out of your daily tally.

Moves has a fairly terrible app icon, and because of that it is sitting on my second screen of apps rather than my home screen, but the UI of the app itself is really nice. Big colourful bubbles show your totals and react when you touch them, along with having a simple but effective loading animation. Each time you tap a bubble, it cycles through the different 'units', including Steps, Time, and Distance. The grey, patterned background is unobtrusive, and the chronological timeline of the day's activities is easy to understand.

Because Moves runs in the background all the time, it does cause your battery to drain a little bit faster, but I haven't run out of battery because of it at any point. I'm using an iPhone 4, so it may be worse on the more power hungry iPhone 5, but I haven't used it on there so I don't know.

In the three weeks that I've been using it so far, it has been quite accurate, save for one small issue that is probably somewhat of an edge case. During this time I have had two weeks at school, and one week on holidays without mobile reception or internet. I'll get to the issues arising from the conditions in the last week later. Because my school covers a reasonably large area, Moves often thinks I have moved to a different location during the day if I go from one end of the school to the other, which isn't an issue in terms of functionality, but does make the readout look messier.

I was pretty impressed with the furthest distance I walked during a day at school — the furthest distance the app recorded was a touch over seven kilometres, or 11,588 steps. That day was unusual though and most days I have averaged between 5000 and 6000 steps, or three to four kilometres. As you may have noticed, I have a penchant for statistics, and this app gives you some interesting numbers to look at. Other than the bubbles showing total distances, individual segments can be selected and the app will show average speeds for those, and a map of where you went during that time period. It also allows you to look at weekly totals along with the default daily view.

The app also offers notifications with daily and/or weekly summaries, as well as notifying you of any records you may have broken. I have had it occasionally give me two notifications for the same day, which I'm assuming is just a bug. The notifications default to the most recent unit used in the app, whether that be Steps, Distance, or Time. While I'm sure that's meant to be a useful feature, I find it somewhat annoying as I often just tap through them in the app, but would prefer to be able choose one unit that the notifications always show.

During the week in which I didn't have phone reception or internet, Moves didn't seem to cope very well. While these circumstances aren't necessarily what the app is designed for, it would still be reasonable to expect it to still be able to record data. During periods without any internet connection, the app didn't do anything with the data, showing only a bubble for steps showing 0.0km, but once it received an internet connection the app did parse the information it received. It took the app a little while to get the week's worth of information sorted and it was slightly less accurate than normal, but once it did it was fantastic to see everything I had done throughout the week.

As a concept Moves isn't necessarily groundbreaking but the execution and the little UI features make the app so simple but useful. I've never used a pedometer or activity tracking app with any consistency before, but Moves just stays out of the way and does what it's supposed to do, letting you get on with enjoying being out and about doing all the other activities you love doing, rather than staring into your device at an avalanche of figures.

Moves is available on the App Store for free.

When I first saw a link to this article on Twitter, I was somewhat worried about what it was talking about. I assumed that it must’ve been talking about the introduction of technology and how that’s changing teaching methods. But it wasn’t.

Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy, experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort to fix what is not broken...

This approach assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly line than to the classroom. We have become increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven.

After writing all of this I realise that I am not leaving my profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists.

Gerald J. Conti instead discusses his grievances with the commoditisation of the education and why he is unable to continue working in such an environment. Although the article is from the USA, I believe that it is still very pertinent in relation to the current state of the Australian education system.

When I started school, the most technology we had in the class room was a PlayStation 1 console, which one of my friends brought in for show and tell. We didn’t even turn it on, although I think that was as much to do with the lack of a TV in the classroom than anything else. Occasionally our teacher would drag out an overhead projector and while she was setting up we’d make shadow puppets on the projector screen. Birds, dogs, people, we could make anything with shadows, telling stories until we had to actually learn something from our teacher.

Compare that to classrooms now, only 10 years later, with Projectors, TVs, Computers and all the kids with their own iPads. The possibilities of new teaching, both in terms of method and content are endless.

I’ve managed to bridge the introduction of technology into education in my schooling — certainly up until year 7 and 8 I used very little, other than the odd occasions I got to bring in Dad’s laptop to school, and using the computers in the computer labs. In year 6 I had an 18 MB (!) USB drive, the size of my thumb. Now I don’t even have a USB drive thanks to Dropbox.

The first computer that I had pretty much as my own was a Power Macintosh 7300/200 from 1997, running Mac OS 8. I played some weird wireframe game involving some form of tank like vehicle¹, and made some (terrible) drawings in ClarisWorks. My brother had an even older Apple Laptop, and we used to make documents for pretend businesses and send them to each other on Floppy Disks, to be filed or edited or some such.

By the time I started school (in 2001), my family had two blue iMacs — one for Mum and my brother, and the other for Dad and me. We would come home from school (my brother Matt is two years older than me) and play Nanosaur and Bugdom, instead of watching horrible kids TV shows like all our friends. Okay, I still watched the Wiggles and Hi-5, but they were cool... Or not. Anyway, as a family, we were essentially early adopters in comparison to most of our friends.

When I first started taking a computer to school regularly, back in 2008, I was the only person in any of my classes to do so. I used it to view PDFs of my textbooks in class and work on assignments in Pages, Keynote and Numbers². There was little in the way of tech support for using your own device, and the WiFi was patchy at best.

By the time I was in year 9, the use of computers at school had skyrocketed, but then My brother and I had a new toy to share — an iPad. We had one months before it was even available in Australia, thanks to some friends who were on holidays in America just after the launch and brought one back for us. It was amazing. To be able to take notes, view textbooks and work on assignments in such a small package was fantastic. During his HSC, my brother almost never took his computer to school³, using the iPad for everything that he might have once used his computer for.

I went back to using a computer more at school during this time, which was useful, since I really needed it for subjects like Music, and Multimedia, in which I was composing, editing photos, and making movies, and really needed software like Aperture, Final Cut Express, and Garageband. During Year 9 and 10 I amassed huge amounts of data related to school. Thanks to a short documentary we made about an event at school as a Multimedia project in year 9, I had more than 60 GB of video in archives and more in my schoolwork folder. These are the sizes of my schoolwork folders from Year 6 in 2007, through to Year 12 in 2013.

• 2007: 33.5 MB
• 2008: 160.6 MB
• 2009: 5.22 GB
• 2010: 14.37 GB
• 2011: 1.92 GB
• 2012: ???
• 2013: ???

I'll get to the last two years in a moment, but firstly this is a lot of data. Around 500-700 MB of each of these is textbooks, which are the biggest files I deal with on a regular basis now. I kept the text books in a different place in 2008, in a separate Textbooks folder, which I can't find, and I didn't have any digital textbooks in 2007.

So for 2012 and 2013, I have 362.4 MB of textbooks, total. This is much lower than previous years, Although that may be the lack of any Humanities subjects, which have traditionally been the biggest textbooks due to large amounts of big pictures. Maths textbooks don't have many images shockingly enough. The total size of all the files I have for both 2012 and 2013 is shockingly small.

In 2012 I had 38.7 MB for a total of 81 files. This is much smaller than previous years, but it has nothing on this year.

In 2013? 16.4 MB for 187 files. Of this, 9.9 MB is a single project (60 files) for music, which is a composition. Of the remaining 6.5 MB, 55% is taken up by two PDF academic articles about Hamlet. My actual notes from class? 680 KB! I could use that 18 MB USB to backup all of my schoolwork! I'll go through why my school work takes up so little space in another part.

Back in 2009, When I first got Dropbox, I very nearly subscribed to a paid account, because I wanted to store all of my schoolwork in Dropbox. I now have around 10 GB of space in Dropbox thanks to referrals and other means, but I wouldn’t need anywhere near that much space to easily fit all my work in it.

So that's a brief history of my use of computers at school. In the next part, I'm going to go through what I now use, and why I use chose those apps, services, and devices. I'll also go through some of my thoughts on the future of technology in education, and where I think things should be headed⁴.

John Gruber complains about something similar to what I was getting at a while back – that there seems to be a lot of definite language being used in media. In this case:

Apple has to act more like Samsung...

This is somewhat different, in that the other case was in terms of rumours, while this is almost a case of being wrong, but Apple has choices and it almost certainly won’t try and copy Samsung. That would be entirely contrary to Apple’s strategy over the past 10 years.

Twitter has been under heavy pressure from its users due to its decision to start tightening its regulations for 3rd party clients. This is certainly annoying – many people use these 3rd party clients – but it isn’t quite as misplaced as has been implied.

Twitter’s main competitor in the social space, Facebook, has had very little in the way of third party clients, and clearly hasn’t suffered because of it, passing the 1 billion user mark recently. This has allowed Facebook to have a consistent brand and design philosophy, ensuring strong brand recognition across platforms.

I used Twitter very briefly in 2009 via the website and Twitterrific for Mac, but didn’t use it regularly until Tapbots released Tweetbot in April 2011. The entire identity of Twitter that I experienced was the Tweetbot interface. I understood exactly how it worked, and where different pieces of information about users and individual tweets could be found. For Twitter, a user in my situation is an issue. I was essentially using Twitter as a ‘dumb pipe’ for content consumption, and communication through the Tweetbot interface.

Of course, much of Twitter’s identity and functionality has come from third party developers - the use of a bird came from Twitterrific’s Ollie , and ideas such as @ replies and retweets were first created by users rather than by Twitter itself. Because of this seeming involvement in the creation of what Twitter is, this group of users (who happen to also be the ones who use 3rd party clients) feel strongly about the product, and how it works. Twitter is in a unique position in that there are a huge group of users who care deeply about the product, and its role as a communication and marketing tool, rather than simply using the product as it has been conceived by its creators.

Due to this proliferation of 3rd party clients, Twitter was, and is in a somewhat difficult position, in that its brand awareness is diminished by the many different interface designs and feature sets that dilute the core feature set. Clearly, it isn’t a good position to be in, given that Twitter needs to make money. So how does Twitter move closer to the model that has worked for Facebook, Instagram and others? By introducing interface guidelines and pushing people towards their own official apps.

Herein lies the major source of friction in the situation. Twitter’s apps just aren’t as good as third party offerings. They lack features of third party clients, look somewhat dated, have horrible usability, and are generally inferior to the third party clients that users are being pushed from. While there will always be resistance, if Twitter wants to get people to use their own apps to refine and build their brand image, they need to offer an alternative to the 3rd party apps that competes for features, is easy to use, and they bother to update. If Twitter does that, then users won’t have any need for third party apps and will use what Twitter provides.

So due to these reasons, Twitter’s locking down of their ecosystem appears to be bizarre, but if they just put some directed effort into their own apps, the whole situation could be controlled much more easily. The purpose behind their action is entirely rational, and to be expected given their need for income, but the execution has lacked, leading to the barrage of ill feeling towards them.

Andy Ihnatko recently wrote a trio of articles about why Android is now his platform of choice. While these articles show the great many ways in which Android has caught up to, and in some cases surpassed iOS, there are some comments which seem to be somewhat flawed.

Swipe-style typing also makes the phone easier to manage one-handed. I can search for a name in my contacts without even slowing down my walking.

The Galaxy S3 is better for one handed use then?

The GS3 is indeed slightly larger than the iPhone 5. ...The iPhone 5 is narrower, and unlike the SG3, my thumb can span its entire keyboard without any stretching or shuffling.

Ah, but while the iPhone is narrower and thus easier to type on with one hand, The GS3 is easier to type on one handed. Wait, what?

So the Galaxy S3 is easier to use one handed because you can’t easily type on it, but this is better than having some buttons (that you don’t need to press to actually type or enact a search with) a bit far away on the iPhone 5.

Further, after saying one handed use is a benefit of the GS3, one-handed use isn’t actually important to you.

...one-handed operation isn't the defining element of my mobile computing experience.

So why is the Galaxy’s ‘better’ one handed use a benefit of the device for you, since this article is about your use, and your thoughts, not what suits the general population?

I find the constant swirling of rumours about technology products to be quite annoying, but MacRumors have taken the rumour-mongering to a new level. Not content with saying a rumour might happen, they're now proclaiming that these rumours are fact. (emphasis mine)

The iPad 5 case is slimmer than the fourth-generation iPad case, which supports rumors that the next iPad will share design similarities with the iPad mini, most notably featuring smaller side bezels.

The back of the case depicts an extra hole, which is for the microphone. The current fourth-generation iPad's microphone is located at the top of the device, but Apple has relocated the microphone to the back of the iPad 5, as noted in leaked photos of the rear shell of the device.

How do they know with complete certainty that it will have design similarities to the iPad Mini, how do they know that the microphone has been relocated to the back? Parts may have been leaked, but how often have they been wrong before?

Until the device is released, none of this is definite, so add a qualifier. perhaps "It will supposedly..." or "Apple has apparently...". These changes may well turn out to be true when the next iPad is released, but they aren't yet.

I thought I might compose some of my thoughts on the current situation in education in New South Wales. This is a meandering discussion of how I've experienced education in New South Wales, and some of my qualms and joys gained from these experiences.

My Chemistry teacher is a huge advocate of using technology for education¹. His Moodle page for our preliminary HSC Chemistry course is wonderful. There are past papers, worksheets for homework tasks, various pages for each topic full of video and images, and forums, quizzes and image uploading tasks for all the modules of the course. This really is what education should be about. Having access to shared resources, communication channels and clear information available whenever you need help.

This of course, isn't standard across all subjects. However, other technology is still coming into education. The use of devices such as iPads and Laptops are giving more interactivity to our learning, allowing easier access to resources, and, in Physics, we've been using the excellent Soundbeam app to look at waves and how they can be changed, without needing to use the oscilloscope. It means we can all look on our own devices (iPads, iPods, iPhones) and look at the signal at the same time rather than having to crowd around the single piece of equipment we normally would use.

One of my favourite uses of technology is what we use in Music. We use Dropbox extensively to share documents, music, assessment information, feedback, and submission of assessments. It just works (At least when the school's internet works²). Each member of the class has a shared folder between our teacher and themselves. Within that we have all of our work for each topic, allowing us to get feedback as we do things, and get resources quickly. If we are composing for example, our teacher can listen to our work and suggest changes or check on our progress diaries to see what stage we are up to. This constant feedback network means that we can move faster through our work, without the limitations that normally exist in ease of communication between students and teachers.

Content creation is increasingly becoming a part of school in all subjects, whether it be science, Art, Geography or Music. Group tasks seem to be a common theme with the creation of content. Making a website about a global conflict in Geography or making a video about the functions of one of the body's systems in Science. This form of learning - collaborative and interactive - lets you develop a better understanding of the topic by taking your own path and finding answers.

While open ended learning may be difficult when you are first exposed to it, it allows the student to tailor their own learning to discover exactly what they want to know. Asking your own questions can lead to a greater level of focus, because the answer is what you want to know. Not what your teacher wants you to know, not what the government determines you need to learn. What you want to know. That's powerful. I love knowing the answers to my questions - I love asking questions; and that's where there can be an issue.

Having time for yourself, and exploring your own ideas and thoughts.

Our current eduction system in Australia is based around (like many other countries, I assume) a syllabus that defines what content must be taught and when that must happen. Currently, there is some work taking place on this, as a national curriculum is being introduced, supposedly next year, to align all the states and ensure that the same topics are being covered everywhere. However, new learning methods do not seem to be addressed. In fact, one of the great components of New South Wales' curriculum may vanish. Many subjects have Extensions that can be taken in Year 12, while English and Maths have Extension 1 and Extension 2 courses that start in year 11 and 12 respectively, offering flexibility in the level that can be studied. These extensions also give a good platform for university courses in the same areas.

I do Extension 1 Maths. I'm planning on doing Extension 2 Maths. However, I wasn't sure whether I would do Extension 2 at the end of year 10. Now, having done Extension 1 for six months, I want to at least have a go at Extension 2. Under the new curriculum, this can't happen. You will choose four units or two units at the end of year 10 and start whichever you choose in year 11. For some past HSC (Higher School Certificate) candidates, Four units has been too difficult, while they have wanted more of a challenge than Two Unit presents. That's where Extension 1 (Three units) comes in. Perfect for someone interested in Maths, and with a good inclination for Maths but not necessarily interested in doing a degree focused heavily on Maths. The Extension 1 courses in both English and Maths are great if you are good at either subject as they are an excellent way to get another good mark towards your ATAR, helping you achieve a higher mark, perhaps allowing you to get into the course you are interested in.

Four units in either subject (I will focus a bit more on Maths as that is what I'm going to be doing) is a higher level again over Three Unit, predictably, and isn't necessarily something that would be done just to boost your marks (however some do still do it solely for that reason). Extension 2 is normally done if you really like Maths and have an aptitude for it. You get into more abstract theories such as imaginary numbers³ which will probably only interest you if you actually love Maths. I'm not planning on doing a degree in which highly complex Maths is required - Architecture - but I'm sure some level of complexity may manifest itself in more complex design work. I'm doing extension Maths as much for the fun (shocking!) as I am for the knowledge and marks it will (hopefully) get me.

That brings me to another point. Learning needs to be about enjoyment and fun. If learning is fun, then you can connect with the content more easily, and reduce procrastination. When you procrastinate you are (from experience) avoiding doing something boring or irritating by doing something fun. Hopefully you aren't just avoiding thinking hard about something. If learning about something is fun, you are more likely to just want to do it. I've found that to be one of the best things about Music as a subject. I love composing and would happily do it in my spare time. Heck, I even do it to procrastinate from other subjects! But I'm doing work when I do it, just as practicing my instruments is now school work. Making your leisure activities your school work has its benefits because it gives you an outlet that isn't a 'waste' of time in so much as it still counts towards your future tertiary education.

However, it is important not to make your leisure activities stressful through this application of weight to them. Especially in creative pursuits - Art, Music, Dance - This feeling that it counts for something and is worth marks can stop it from being an enjoyable activity. And you really need to have outlets from school work. So you need to be careful that all your outlets don't become part of your school education.

For the most part, sport isn't assessed in terms of your ability in a specific sporting event - subjects such as PDHPE and SLR look at sport as a whole - which means it can be an excellent release. Sport is great as an outlet because it makes you physically tired and lets you forget about other things while you do it. I cycle a bit and I've found it to be really helpful to take my mind of other things and just ride. I often go with a friend which is great fun because you can experience it together or at least have some good time to chat. I also love to get outside and ride to different places to look at my surroundings - interesting houses, gardens, landscapes - which I think helps clear my mind of school work.

I'm sure my lower level of talent at cycling is really a good thing given the purpose it has in my life. I'm not likely to get into competitions and have to go anywhere for it, but I'm good enough to be able to have fun and enjoy doing rides.

My school has a broad range of extra - curricula activities such as bands, choirs, sport teams, and academic teams and honours groups. I participate in four bands, two choral groups, a varying number of sporting teams (Season dependent) and I'm currently in the only honours group available to me - Leadership. All of these things give me great enjoyment and make every day at least a little different to the last. I do all these activities for essentially the same reason. I love it. I love interacting with others through music, I love to work together with my friends in a sporting team and I love to learn about new things. All these activities fulfil my want for more.

This drives back to my discussion about education and its purpose, outcomes, and techniques. Convincing people to yearn for information, knowledge, and understanding is what needs to be done, while still providing some direction. Open ended learning comes to the fore here. If students are simply asked to research a broad topic, with a focus on one element - Discrimination in Australian History for example⁴ - it gives students the opportunity to learn about something that relates to them or they are passionate about, while still ensuring they learn about something deemed important. I don't think that Australia would be willing to adopt this somewhat radical system at this stage, because of the risks that certainly are involved in major change. I would love to find out how this would work, but does a specific syllabus giving minute details on each and every topic that must be learnt fulfil this need? No. However, it is easy to assess on a large scale.

And I think that is what this comes down to. Comparisons between students, teachers, regions. The government just wants statistics, and the universities want effective, standardised criteria by which to rank students. But is assessing people based on a specific criteria the best way to determine who will fit a tertiary educational course? It does mean everyone does the same test so it must be fair mustn't it? Not necessarily. People have strengths and weaknesses. So perhaps that's what electives are for. Not quite. Each elective still has stringent criteria for what must be taught, and generally speaking, there is not enough time within the two years over which the courses are taught for extra material of interest to each student to be slotted in, and then it would be 'impossible' to assess. Not really impossible, just harder and less standardised across various educational institutions.

Education appears to be turning into a production line, creating easy to compare students with the same knowledge, information, and skills. A great society needs to have diversity, and education needs to be the start of that: learning to be different, thinking for yourself and finding your own interests. This world has a few challenges facing it. We need to innovate. We need to see what is possible. We need people who are willing to be different, people who aren't fighting anything to be different, but accepted because they are different.