Lisa & Liz Presenting at Educon 2.4 There is always so much to think about on the way home from Educon. And this year was no different. As I sit home unraveling my experience, I am feeling a mix of emotions. As always it was wonderful to see my old Educon friends and meet many new ones. I attended some interesting sessions, presented an Encienda (20 slides, 15 seconds per slide), and presented a session with Lisa Thumann. Here are some of my take-aways. Boy is this a heady experience! Educon lives in the brain. It is a conference of ideas and ideas and ideas. Each session tries to think…
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Most Topular Stories
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Educon 2.4 Reflections 2012
The Power of Educational Technology29 Jan 2012 | 6:13 pm -
Introducing the Inquiry Hub
David Truss :: Pair-a-dimes for Your Thoughts1 Feb 2012 | 6:37 amLast night Stephen Whiffin, Sarah Husband and I formally presented the ‘Inquiry Hub‘ to Superintendent Tom Grant, the District Leadership Team, and our School Board Trustees. It is hard for me to contain my excitement at being able to share this project ‘out loud’! What was wonderful was how well received this was by our board members and everyone present. I think Trustee Judy Shirra summed it up well when she said, “I <heart> Hub”. This school will fit well with the new BCedplan and the future of education in our Province. It fits well with our… -
EduCon 2.4 Reflections
Practical Theory6 Feb 2012 | 10:06 pmWas it really just a week ago? For the fifth time, SLA invited its personal learning network to come spend three days to come to our funky little school and learn with us. As conference co-chair, I'd grown to lament that I never seemed to spend as much time learning as I wanted to at the conference. It was always a great learning experience, but for me, I always spent a lot of necessary time running the conference and trying to be a good host. This year, I was a lot less needed as the students and parents of SLA took care of everything. O.k. - it's quite possible that the difference was I was… -
The Week in Tweets for 2012-02-06
Bud the Teacher6 Feb 2012 | 5:15 amReviewing the writing we did together at #educon Interesting how people define "research" and "impact." Or don't. http://t.co/wALcdmaQ # Also looking forward to @jonbecker's coordination of some teacher research as an outcome of the session. Important. # @courosa @msstewart We're about to enable the Google Apps for Ed addon for Sliderocket – looks good. in reply to courosa # @msstewart @courosa @nwhyluckysgirl A couple of our teachers said the other version was more fully featured – but I don't have specifics. in reply to msstewart #… -
The Learning Network Blog: Test Yourself | Feb. 9, 2012
NYT > Education9 Feb 2012 | 1:03 amCan you choose the sentence that is punctuated correctly?
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The Power of Educational Technology
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Educon 2.4 Reflections 2012
29 Jan 2012 | 6:13 pmLisa & Liz Presenting at Educon 2.4 There is always so much to think about on the way home from Educon. And this year was no different. As I sit home unraveling my experience, I am feeling a mix of emotions. As always it was wonderful to see my old Educon friends and meet many new ones. I attended some interesting sessions, presented an Encienda (20 slides, 15 seconds per slide), and presented a session with Lisa Thumann. Here are some of my take-aways. Boy is this a heady experience! Educon lives in the brain. It is a conference of ideas and ideas and ideas. Each session tries to think… -
5 Things I Love about Educon
22 Jan 2012 | 1:40 pmAt my first Educon 2008 This will be my fifth Educon, and over time, my relationship with this conference has changed, from the freshman excitement of meeting everyone for the first time at Educon 2.0, to the highly anticipated sophomore year, when I couldn't wait to go back and see everyone, to my junior year, where the the familiarity of a place I know well led me to give some Educon advice, and finally my last year as a senior attendee I shared a bit of my disillusionment. And even though I should perhaps have graduated, I'm still committed to this extraordinary conference. Here are a few… -
My iPad Adventure
17 Jan 2012 | 12:22 pmFirst semester has just ended and I am finally taking a breath and a moment to blog. I know it has been forever. I've been in the thick of teaching 7th grade English and setting up an iPad pilot for our school. Both have been extremely time consuming. In this post, I'll focus on my iPad adventure and save my 7th grade English stories for another day. The Plan: We purchased 30 iPads this fall and have disseminated them to one faculty member in each department. In addition, we will be piloting 2 iPad classes starting in the second semester (next week). We have chosen a geometry class and… -
5 Things I hate about the Kindle Fire
19 Nov 2011 | 4:36 pmI was ready to love it. I put my name on the list the day it was announced. I waited and waited. When it finally shipped, I tracked that shipment like a hawk. Then it arrived. My school has recently decided to do an iPad pilot. We are deploying 30 iPads and budgeting for more next year. I thought the Kindle fire might just be a cheaper alternative. Well it's not and this is why. 1. Boy is it heavy! It is supposedly lighter than an iPad, but if you held one in each hand you wouldn't think so. It is shaped like a brick and feels like one too. I tried reading a book on it and my arms felt like… -
Marching Backward into the Future
24 Oct 2011 | 11:35 am“We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.” http://www.flickr.com/photos/derbaum/14504516/ - The Media is the Massage. An Inventory of Effects. McLuhan & Fiore. p74 Everything we look at is shaped by our experiences. We come from a 20th century perspective and it is incredibly difficult to imagine what the 21st century will bring. When I started teaching 20 years ago, could I have envisioned an iPod, a netbook, a Kindle? We had the beginnings of an Internet, but nothing like the global interactions of today. And yet it was my job to…
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David Truss :: Pair-a-dimes for Your Thoughts
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Introducing the Inquiry Hub
1 Feb 2012 | 6:37 amLast night Stephen Whiffin, Sarah Husband and I formally presented the ‘Inquiry Hub‘ to Superintendent Tom Grant, the District Leadership Team, and our School Board Trustees. It is hard for me to contain my excitement at being able to share this project ‘out loud’! What was wonderful was how well received this was by our board members and everyone present. I think Trustee Judy Shirra summed it up well when she said, “I <heart> Hub”. This school will fit well with the new BCedplan and the future of education in our Province. It fits well with our… -
The 5 Year Technology Plan
20 Jan 2012 | 5:33 amThe 5 year technology plan: Focus on your INFRASTRUCTURE! If you think you know what tools you will need in 5 years, you are probably wrong. If you are budgeting so that you buy sets of an item over several years, you’ll have a dichotomous challenge: the item will become both cheaper AND less desirable. If your infrastructure can’t support the technology you have, your technology is ineffective. If you don’t invest in a learning culture for adults, your ‘knowledge infrastructure’ will hold you back. The 5 year technology plan? Do this 5 years in a… -
A Conversation Starter
4 Jan 2012 | 1:31 amMy goal: Create a three minute video that tells it’s own story, using other videos. My hope is that this will invite further exploration, conversation and learning. Here is what I came up with: (Watch on YouTube) For ease of use here are the links. I hope that some rich conversations will emerge from watching them. http://2di.me/Trans4mEd1 – Alan November: Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom http://2di.me/Trans4mEd2 – Diana Laufenberg: How to learn? From mistakes http://2di.me/Trans4mEd3 – Adora Svitak: What adults can learn from kids… -
The COW is dead… Long live the POW?
30 Dec 2011 | 9:26 amThis year has been quite transformational for me. I started the year Questioning Everything… especially the idea that we need to teach less and learn more. I’ve challenged late penalties, homework, and even AUP’s. I’ve talked about things becoming more open and distributed and I’ve even written an Open Manifesto. I’ve cautioned about flipping classes, I’ve seen a flip in my desired pro-d model… and now I’m flipping my perspective on C.O.W.’s: C.O.W. = ‘Computers On Wheels’, essentially a mobile cart which has a… -
Transforming Education – K12Online Conference 2011 Presentation
2 Dec 2011 | 7:35 amA few minutes into this presentation I demonstrate that I’ve been a fan of the K12Online Conference for 5 years now. So, it was wonderful to be able to participate this year and share a video of my own. [Link to K12Online video page] | [Link to YouTube version] I’d rather let the video speak for itself, than to go on about it here. I’ll just share that I really appreciate the time and effort people put into sharing their video interviews with me. I asked them 4 questions: Explore: Share your thoughts on the future of education . (Pie-in-the-sky look at exciting things…
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Practical Theory
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EduCon 2.4 Reflections
6 Feb 2012 | 10:06 pmWas it really just a week ago? For the fifth time, SLA invited its personal learning network to come spend three days to come to our funky little school and learn with us. As conference co-chair, I'd grown to lament that I never seemed to spend as much time learning as I wanted to at the conference. It was always a great learning experience, but for me, I always spent a lot of necessary time running the conference and trying to be a good host. This year, I was a lot less needed as the students and parents of SLA took care of everything. O.k. - it's quite possible that the difference was I was…
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Bud the Teacher
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The Week in Tweets for 2012-02-06
6 Feb 2012 | 5:15 amReviewing the writing we did together at #educon Interesting how people define "research" and "impact." Or don't. http://t.co/wALcdmaQ # Also looking forward to @jonbecker's coordination of some teacher research as an outcome of the session. Important. # @courosa @msstewart We're about to enable the Google Apps for Ed addon for Sliderocket – looks good. in reply to courosa # @msstewart @courosa @nwhyluckysgirl A couple of our teachers said the other version was more fully featured – but I don't have specifics. in reply to msstewart #… -
The Week in Tweets for 2012-01-30
30 Jan 2012 | 5:15 am@nawalnader That's backward. Funding after the student's done? How does a school start under that model? in reply to nawalnader # Reviewing district copyright policy. http://t.co/7z0v7Chc # Spent the day in training. Reaffirmed that working with video is hard. # Opportunity to build a blended learning school. Interesting. http://t.co/jtlTF4LT # @MrMacnology I love Hazel. Don't use it as much as I could but it's great. in reply to MrMacnology # @msstewart @jonbecker No problem. I got this. Just point me towards the audience. in reply to msstewart # First day in a couple of… -
#Educon 2.4: Talking Teacher Research
28 Jan 2012 | 5:40 amLater today, I’m honored to be joining my friends and colleagues Jon Becker and Meredith Stewart as we facilitate a session at Educon 2.4 on teacher research and professional development. Specifically, on how we can be critical, in a good way, in our choice and craft of professional development. Here’s the session description: # #edchat #RSCON3 #140edu #TEDx______ #edcamp____ # Many of the educators who participate(d) in the events listed above and others like them report that the events are/were perfectly wonderful; amazing even. Apparently, this social media-aided PD is more… -
Schooling That Isn’t School-y
27 Jan 2012 | 10:46 pmI sat in on a meeting today of the organizers of our school district’s Innovation Academy, a summer STEM enrichment program that’s a partnership between the district and IBM.1 # The DLC will be embedding a teacher research group within the Innovation Academy and its planning in order to see if the work they’re doing, and that students and district staff are enthusiastic about, has something to teach us about how we can make positive change in the classroom. # During the meeting, two statements really caught my ear and got me thinking about the work ahead. # The first was a… -
#DMLBadges for Teachers: We Missed Here, Too
24 Jan 2012 | 2:47 pmJustin Reich and I recently submitted a proposal to the DML Teacher Mastery and Feedback Badges Competition. And, like my recent submission to the DML Conference, it wasn’t accepted. # But that’s cool. I was curious about the process and I learned a bunch about the problems and opportunities of badges and badging. In case you were curious, below is the full text of the application. You can read the winning Stage 1 proposals on the DML Competition Website. # Teacher inquiry has long been recognized as a valuable way for teachers and students to critically examine their…
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NYT > Education
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The Learning Network Blog: Test Yourself | Feb. 9, 2012
9 Feb 2012 | 1:03 amCan you choose the sentence that is punctuated correctly? -
The Learning Network Blog: Feb. 9, 1943 | U.S. Defeats Japan at Guadalcanal
9 Feb 2012 | 1:02 amOn Feb. 9, 1943, the United States declared victory against Japan in the seven-month World War II campaign for Guadalcanal and nearby islands in the southwest Pacific. -
The Learning Network Blog: News Quiz | Feb. 9, 2012
9 Feb 2012 | 12:01 amSee what you know about the news of the day. -
School Aide Accused of Abusing Students in Videos
8 Feb 2012 | 10:42 pmThe aide, Taleek Brooks, 40, may have made the videos of sexual acts with students inside Public School 243, in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, law enforcement officials said. -
Virginia Home-Schoolers Make a Play to Join High School Teams
8 Feb 2012 | 10:36 pmA bill in Virginia would permit home-schooled students to play varsity sports at public high schools, raising concerns about fairness, recruiting and oversight.
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Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?
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Academic Alignment
18 Jan 2012 | 4:20 pm“Academic alignment” is a phrase that I’ve been using with increasing frequency to describe our efforts to maximize our use of instructional time at my school. Ira is someone whom I’ve admired for some time and whose work always engages and excites me and, while I’m not quite ready to rip the clocks off the wall, his recent post on undoing academic time hit my Twitter feed at exactly the right time. This year we have allocated larger blocks of time to 4 longer blocks; each is about 90 minutes long. In the past, the school operated on a 6-period day with… -
PhocuseD 2: I’ve been accepted to a PhD program. Now what?
17 Jan 2012 | 4:09 pmThe first thing you really have to do is start taking some classes and get familiar with the faculty. I had the good fortune to have had a good relationship with one of the Associate Professors on the educational leadership faculty. This helped immensely when I was getting started. The best advice he gave me was to identify a focus area as early in your program as you can and make sure that you tailor as much of your research as possible around this area1. I’m [obviously] interested in technology leadership. One of the “rite of passage” classes I was required to take focused… -
PhocuseD 1: What is this PhD thing really about?
10 Jan 2012 | 5:00 pmHere’s a confession: For the first year or two of my studies at CSU, I had no real idea what completing a PhD entailed. No one told me. It’s sort of like an exclusive club where no one really tells you the rules before you join. Let me give you the quick and dirty on what my program (and I believe many others in the US) looked like. The degree is 90 semester hours. That sounds intimidating until you learn that 30 hours usually come from your masters program and 15 hours are dissertation credits. That leaves you with about 45 semester hours of coursework to tackle. No small feat,… -
PhocuseD: A Preface
9 Jan 2012 | 8:25 pmAs of last August, I am officially a PhD Candidate1. The bulk of my (non-work) time since I presented my prelim to my committee2 in August has been spent working on what grad school folks refer to as the dissertation proposal.3 I completed this last month and am set to defend4 it in a few weeks. In the meantime, since I can’t actually start working on my research until my proposal is approved AND I receive approval from the IRB5, I figured I’d try to squeeze out a few blog posts. Since this PhD thing is what’s been consuming a significant amount of my time, that seems like… -
Back in Action
29 Aug 2011 | 5:51 amI can’t believe the amount of time that has elapsed since my last post in April. Here’s a quick recap of what’s been going on in my life over the last four months (four months!?!)… May saw some significant layoffs due to a RIF in my district. Not a lot of fun for a first-year principal who spent the entire year building culture. June was a great month for me as it was the second summer that I was fortunate to teach “Leadership & Ethics in Public Education” in the principal licensure cohort at CSU. July started with an amazing family road trip to see my…
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heyjude.wordpress.com
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A day in the future – the vision and the story
3 Feb 2012 | 8:01 pmA Day Made of Glass 2 is Corning’s expanded vision for the future of glass technologies. This video continues the story of how highly engineered glass, with companion technologies, will help shape our world. A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked, allows us to take a journey with the narrator for details on these technologies, answers to our questions, and to learn about what’s possible — and what’s not — in the near future. Love the vision and the possibilities for our schools! Meanwhile, great advertising! Related articles Is This The Future of Touchscreen Tech? New… -
Ten meta-trends impacting learning
31 Jan 2012 | 8:26 pmIn a world where libraries are completely reinventing themselves, where universities and schools are moving away from labs to BYOD, and where the focus of everything seems to be on mobiles —what will be the role of technology in the next decade? What do leading institutions need to be doing now to prepare? What are the strategies that will provide them the most flexibility? The greatest competitive advantage? These are the overarching questions that recently drove the discussions at 10th anniversary New Media Consortium Horizon Project special convocation and retreat. Over its decade of… -
The time for libraries is now!
24 Jan 2012 | 2:53 pmEach new academic year brings me challenges, changes and excitement in ways that I often cannot anticipate. Once again our library shelves have been dusted, collections prepared, digital tools sharpened, and our motivation is running high. Yet the one point of predictability is that the learning landscape refuses to ‘be still’! When it comes to literacy, information and life-long learning, the pulsing energy of change powers the curriculum of learning throughout the year at breakneck speed. Before the year had hardly got underway there were already several indicators that confirmed… -
It’s Santa Claws time again!
22 Dec 2011 | 5:07 pmEnjoy the humour of this video - I couldn’t resist watching again! See you all again in 2012 with another year of blogging adventures together. Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for a wonderful New Year. Filed under: in Australia Tagged: Christmas -
Information abyss – in the era of global education
21 Dec 2011 | 6:40 pmThe more I look the more certain I am that I stand at the edge of an information abyss, rather than at the dawn of a golden age of information and life-long learning powered by the digital environments. Perhaps there are two sides to this: The good side encompasses savoring the growth of creative knowledge and nurturing the understanding for students engaged in the topic of discussion. In this way students can sometimes surprise and delight us with insights and even lead us in new directions taking the teacher mentor along with them. The bad side encompasses that information abyss that…
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EdTechTalk
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Teachers Teaching Teachers #281 - National Writing Project Teachers Ready to Celebrate Digital Learning Day on Feb 1 - 1.25.12
31 Jan 2012 | 6:59 pmTweet 61:56 minutes (14.18 MB) This conversation about #NWP teachers in the National Digital Learning Day continued the next day at NWP Radio - on Blog Talk Radio: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nwp_radio/2012/01/27/digital-writing-matters What are your plans for National Digital Learning Day #DLDay on February 1, 2012? http://digitalis.nwp.org/site-blog/what-are-your-plans-national-digital-lea/3369Enjoy this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, recorded a week before the big day.Paul Oh helped us invite this amazing list of guests. They are listed below, along… -
Teachers Teaching Teachers#280 - Walk Out Walk On w/ Deborah Frieze 2012-01-18
30 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amTweet 59:57 minutes (13.72 MB) On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers , we are joined by Deborah Frieze one of the authors of Walk Out Walk On http://walkoutwalkon.net We are joined by Chris Sloan, monika hardy, Jeff Lebow, Chad Sansing, Scott Shelhart, MaryBeth Hertz, Paul Allison, Kelsey ShelhartDeborah Frieze, and Ryan White More about Deborah from http://www.walkoutwalkon.net/authors: In 2001, Deborah Frieze walked out of her career as an executive in the high-tech industry. She was disillusioned by a business culture that emphasized… -
Conversations Episode 116 - Teaching Tolerance in School
29 Jan 2012 | 12:48 pmTweet This week, we discussed the idea of teaching tolerance, respect, and acceptance in school. How do we do this in our classrooms and how do we help parents understand what we are doing? We were joined by Amanda Marrinan. Chat: 20:01:29 marragem: Hi everyone! 20:02:24 connect2jamie: Good evening all! 20:02:56 Sheila: Ahh! Laminating done? 20:03:18 Sheila: Hi Jamie! 20:03:36 marragem: probably halfway through my laminating. I keep thinking of more things to do! 20:04:38 connect2jamie: Laughing *with* you! 20:05:12 Sheila: Hi PeggyG! 20:05:24 Peggy George: Hi… -
EdTechTalk21 #163: Al Pittampalli on the Modern Meeting Standard
27 Jan 2012 | 1:47 pmTweet EdTechTalk21 #163 Al Pittampalli on the Modern Meeting Standard January 25, 2012 Al Pittampalli, author of Read This Before Our Next Meeting joined us to discuss the Modern Meeting Standard. On Twitter, Al tags himself as a Meeting culture warrior. <Chat Trans> 20:55 minutes (9.63 MB) EdTechTalk21 #163 Al Pittampalli on the Modern Meeting Standard January 25, 2012 Al Pittampalli, author of Read This Before Our Next Meeting joined us to discuss the Modern Meeting Standard. On Twitter, Al tags himself as a Meeting culture warrior. <Chat Trans>read more -
Teachers Teaching Teachers #279 -Turning "Be You" into "Be Us" with Fred Mindlin, Chad Sansing, Kelsey, Rahul Deodhar - 1.11.12
23 Jan 2012 | 8:12 pmTweet 48:40 minutes (11.14 MB) On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers we are joined by: Chris Sloan, Monika Hardy, Fred Mindlin, Chad Sansing, Scott Shelhart, Paul Allison, Kelsey Shelhart, and Rahul Deodhar In addition to getting to know each other better, on this episode, we also brainstorm possible questions for Deborah Frieze's visit on the next episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers. Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast. read more
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Steve Hargadon
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Learning Instead of Teaching - Nicholas Negroponte
7 Feb 2012 | 8:54 pmThanks to Gary Stager for sending me the following video of Nicholas Negroponte talking about rethinking global education based on learning rather than teaching.The current experiment he describes in the video--to see if the millions of children in villages that have no schools can learn to read by themselves--should be married to 1) Sugata Mitra's work on social learning by groups of children, and 2) the education team I've heard that Amazon has looking at providing Kindles in similar circumstances.Still hoping I can get both Nicholas and Sugata on the FutureofEducation.com show for… -
This Week: "Unplugged Ed" Tonight; Empowering Teachers; Alan Blankstein; Free Conference Events Coming Up; Hacking Education with Audrey Watters
7 Feb 2012 | 12:37 pmTONIGHT:Join me as I talk tonight with Laurette Lynn, the "Unplugged Mom," about "unplugging from the conventional and artificial process" of traditional education. More details, with instructions on joining in the live session HERE.ANNOUNCEMENTS:Read the DMLcentral interview with me about about the process of rebuilding educational narratives , the value of thinking of education as a process, and the importance of engagement and empowerment for not just students but also teachers, administrators, families, and communities. And consider attending the DML Conference March 1 - 3 in San… -
Webcast: Building a Successful Online Learning Community for Librarians
7 Feb 2012 | 12:34 pmThursday, February 9, 20123pm ESTSteven Bell and John Shank, co-founders of the Blended Librarians Online Learning Community have invited me to join them for a live webcast event.In this interview session our first question will likely be “Steve, how do you manage so many projects simultaneously?” A review of his website reveals that Hargadon manages or participates in multiple online communities and produces several online interview series that feature leading educators and technologists. Hargadon is also recognized for launching the Library 2.011 Conference that was attended by over… -
Live Thursday February 9th with Alan Blankstein on Improving Individual Schools
7 Feb 2012 | 11:50 amJoin me Thursday, February 9th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com webinar with Alan Blankstein on his latest book, The Answer Is in the Room: How Effective Schools Scale Up Student Success. Citing wisdom from top educational experts and building on what is already working, Blankstein offers tools for finding excellence in schools, scaling these practices across learning communities, and transforming low-performing schools into high-performing schools.Date: Thursday, February 9th, 2011Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am (next day) GMT (international times… -
Live Today - Laurette Lynn on Unplugged Education
7 Feb 2012 | 8:03 amJoin me today, Tuesday, February 7th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Laurette Lynn, the "Unplugged Mom." A self-proclaimed pioneer of Unplugged Education, Laurette believes and actively promotes learning not only without school, but "without any systematized, institutionalized or prescribed methodology that isn’t specifically determined by our own organic, instinctual and natural drive to learn, grow and discover our world." To her worldwide audience, she blogs and podcasts about the value of “unplugging from the conventional and artificial…
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Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...
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This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”
8 Feb 2012 | 9:07 pmI have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to post about in this blog but, just because of time constraints, have not gotten around to doing. Instead of letting that backlog grow bigger, I regularly grab a few and list them here with a minimal description. It forces me to look through these older links, and help me organize them for my own use. I hope others will find them helpful, too. These are resources that I didn’t include in my “Best Tweets” feature because I had planned to post about them, or because I didn’t even get around to sending a… -
“Round-Up” Of Good School Reform Posts & Articles
8 Feb 2012 | 8:49 pmHere are a few recent good posts on education policy issues: Getting Real About Turnarounds is by Diane Ravitch. I’m adding it to The Best Posts About Attrition Rates At So-Called “Miracle” Schools. New Hope for the Obama/Gates School of Reform is by John Thompson. I’m adding it to The Best Resources Showing Why We Need To Be “Data-Informed” & Not “Data-Driven.” Review of Assessing the Compensation of Public-School Teachers is from The National Education Policy Center. The ugly truth about “school choice” is from Salon. I’m adding it to The Best… -
Amazing Northern Lights Video
8 Feb 2012 | 8:28 pmI’m adding this video to The Best Sites For Learning About The Northern Lights: Aurora 2012 from Christian Mülhauser on Vimeo. -
NPR’s Robert Krulwich Provides Another Excellent Idea For A History Lesson
8 Feb 2012 | 8:21 pmLast month, I shared a column written by Robert Krulwich at NPR about talking about history “as lists” and how I was planning on using his idea in class. Today, Krulwich wrote another fascinating column titled ‘Rasputin Was My Neighbor’ And Other True Tales Of Time Travel about how because of age and circumstances there have been some extraordinary connections made between eras. I think it’s a “must-read.” However, he referred to an earlier column in today’s piece, and that’s what really caught my attention. In The Junkman And The Madonna,… -
Google Starts TED-Like Talk Video Collection
8 Feb 2012 | 8:02 amSolve For X is a series of TED-like talks that appear to be sponsored by Google. It’s described as “A forum to encourage and amplify technology-based moonshot thinking and teamwork.” Here’s a sample. It’s a talk by Nicholas Negroponte on students learning by themselves: I’m adding this info to The Best Teacher Resources For “TED Talks” (& Similar Presentations). Thanks to Open Culture for the tip.
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Generation YES Blog
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Why the (__noun__) won’t save/revolutinize education
21 Jan 2012 | 11:04 amWe’ve all heard how (__noun__) will save/revolutionize education. But unfortunately, it’s not going to have the expected impact. Some may use (__noun_) in an exciting, creative way, and will be able to say that their students are engaged at a new level. But many implementations of (__noun__) will be thoughtless, with opportunities for even minor impact buried under a host of systemic issues that can’t be solved by going shopping. Schools will adopt (__noun__) without a vision of what to do with it Schools will purchase (__noun__) without really thinking about how it fits… -
Announcing the Wolfram Education Portal
18 Jan 2012 | 5:27 pmFrom the press release: Wolfram Offers Next Innovation in Education Technology with Wolfram Education Portal Champaign, Illinois–January 18, 2012–Wolfram today announced the launch of the Wolfram Education Portal, providing teachers and students alike with a new way to integrate technology into learning. The Wolfram Education Portal, available at education.wolfram.com, comes equipped with dynamic teaching tools and materials such as an interactive textbook, lesson plans aligned to the common core standards, and many other supplemental materials for courses, including… -
Beyond Pink and Blue
9 Jan 2012 | 9:19 amIn “Beyond Pink and Blue” on the blog site for The Nation magazine, author Dana Goldstein writes about children and gender norms. She quoted me for a part of the article about tinkering, and how that kind of hands on learning helps students grasp scientific concepts. Sylvia Martinez, an expert on educational technology, has written about how all children need to reinforce math and science concepts through “tinkering”—interacting with the physical world, as opposed to just learning at their classroom desks. (For example: collecting water samples to test pH levels, or… -
BETT 2012
9 Jan 2012 | 2:19 amI’m heading to London this week to take part in the BETT 2012 conference in London. This is the largest educational technology conference in the world and I’ve been wanting to check it out for years! I’m presenting a session on Friday – Tinkering: A New Model of ICT and STEM Learning Yes, I know it says “new” – but it’s not. Poetic license, I guess I was worried that things have to sound new to get any notice. However, I’m hopefully presenting a new look at old-fashioned learning. I’m combining some of my existing resources about… -
A decade of decline in online youth victimization
16 Dec 2011 | 10:38 amIt’s not the headline that’s going to make the national press. Ho hum, young people aren’t perverts or helpless victims. But here’s another slice of non-sensationalistic reality about what parents and teachers SHOULDN’T flip out about… From the press release - “A new study from the University of New Hampshire Crimes against Children Research Center finds declines in two kinds of youth Internet sexual encounters of great concern to parents: unwanted sexual solicitations and unwanted exposure to pornography. The researchers suspect that greater public…
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Moving at the Speed of Creativity
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I made a song with GarageBand on my iPad
8 Feb 2012 | 9:38 pmHi, I just made a song with GarageBand on my iPad and I wanted you to hear it. Take a listen… Glass tune 1.m4a Listen on Posterous Sent from my iPad Posted via email from wesley fryer’s posterous I made a song with GarageBand on my iPad originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on February 9, 2012. -
Embed a MP3 Audio File in a WordPress.com Blog Post
8 Feb 2012 | 4:07 pmWordPress.com is a good, free blogging platform, but it can be trickier than Posterous to get rich media (like audio and video files) embedded in posts. Unlike Posterous, which lets users directly email audio and video files to a site where they are automatically converted to an “embedded form,” with WordPress.com you need to post your audio and video files to ANOTHER website and then use (for audio) a special code so it will be embedded. (If you purchase a WordPress.com space upgrade you can directly upload audio files, but free WordPress.com sites can’t.) In this post… -
Face the Facebook: Implications and Consequences for Educators Using Social Media by Colin Webb
8 Feb 2012 | 12:33 pmThese are my notes from Colin Webb’s (Noble Public Schools) presentation, “Face the Facebook: Implications and Consequences for Educators Using Social Media” at the February 8, 2012 Oklahoma Technology Association / Encyclo-Media Conference. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. I WANT TO EMPHASIZE (FOR THIS SESSION PARTICULARLY, BUT FOR OTHER SESSIONS I BLOG AT CONFERENCES) THAT MY NOTES REFLECT WHAT I UNDERSTOOD THE SPEAKER TO SAY. BY BLOGGING THESE NOTES I AM NOT SAYING OR IMPLYING THAT I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING THE PRESENTER HAS SAID. The official session description… -
Harnessing the Digital Landscape by David Warlick
8 Feb 2012 | 10:07 amThese are my notes from David Warlick‘s presentation, “Harnessing the Digital Landscape” at the February 8, 2012 Oklahoma Technology Association / Encycl-Media Conference. David maintains the fantastic website “Landmarks for Schools” and blogs at 2¢ Worth. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. The official session description was: Never before have the walls of our classrooms been so transparent. The Internet- digital cameras- audio recorders- editing software- and an emerging global conversation are combining to redefine the classroom. This presentation… -
Look at Me Now! Changing the Face of Professional Development
8 Feb 2012 | 9:03 amThese are my notes from Dawn Danker-Pearce and Kathy Davis, “Look at Me Now! Changing the Face of Professional Development” at the February 8, 2012 Oklahoma Technology Association / Encycl-Media Conference. Dawn and Kathy are with Yukon Public Schools. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. The official session description was: Is it hard to get your teachers excited about attending training? Do they dread PD Day in your district? Join this session to hear how Yukon Public Schools changed the face of their PD model by implementing some foundational strategies and introducing an…
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The Thinking Stick
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Flipping History
6 Feb 2012 | 8:11 amBy Stefan When most people think of the flipped classroom model or reverse instruction, which ever term you like best, they automatically think videos, screencasts, and when you get down to it lecture based instruction.But that doesn’t have to be the case. In fact every time I have helped a teacher flip their classroom in the high school it has never involved videos. Instead it involves students actively finding information, making sense of it, and then coming to class ready to discuss with the teacher what they have learned, what questions they have and, what it is they still don’t… -
Why I still want MS and HS to have a Laptop
30 Jan 2012 | 5:02 pmI received a tweet a couple days ago asking why I still believed laptops, in this case MacBooks, are the right choice for middle school and high school students. @jutecht Why did you select iPads for the primary and MacBook Pros for Middle and Hi? I'd love to hear your strategy! @cindybrock — Bradford G. Saron (@bradfordgs) January 26, 2012 Now before I begin, let me state that I firmly believe a 1:1 (one computer per student) program no matter what the connected device (device connected to the Internet) is better than no 1:1 program at all. If a school can only afford an iPad for ever… -
Too Many Projects Not Enough Time
26 Jan 2012 | 4:34 pmI can't believe how time is flying by this 2nd Semester. It's our last 6 months in Thailand and of course when you want time to slow down so you can fit everything in it does just the oposite. No excuses, I haven't made the time to blog lately and find myself sitting here at 6am in the van on the way to school with a moment to reflect. What I've been up to: School: All of a sudden the last two weeks have been packed! Our school is hosting the regional basketball tournament and this year we're going to try and live stream the games as well as have… -
Fully Online COETAIL Program Begins Feb. 5th
12 Jan 2012 | 5:49 amI am proud to announce that working with Buffalo State-SUNY we are now offering a fully online Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy (COETAIL) Program to International Educators. This is a special program that only International Educators (Educators working at recognized International Schools) can apply for. I can't believe it's been four years since we started this program at ISB and three years since Kim Cofino and I took it on and expanded it to other International Schools. At the moment we have 5 Cohorts running (a total of about 100 educators)… -
Tanzania, Kilimanjaro and Obama?
6 Jan 2012 | 1:16 amJust over 24 hours off the plane from the most amazing trip to Tanzania. As my wife and I prepare to transition back to life in America in June, we figured one last fantastic trip to Africa was in the cards....so off to Tanzania we went. Climbing Kilimanjaro Jumping at the Summit I'm proud to say that all four of us in our group made it to the summit some 5,895 meters (19,340 feet) above mean sea level. It was one of the most mentally challenging things I have ever done. Physically it wasn't that hard of a 5 day hike to the summit, but the mental aspect on summit day of walking for 6…
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21st Century Collaborative
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Teach.com – a resource for new and aspiring educators
30 Jan 2012 | 6:45 amTeach.com is a comprehensive educational web resource dedicated to discovering, discussing and encouraging great teaching around the world. With America’s need for more great teachers, particularly science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) teachers, Teach.com provides current and aspiring teachers an easy-to-navigate map outlining the steps to become a teacher, including information on teacher salaries, teacher preparation and certification requirements for all 50 states as well as information on teaching abroad. The site also profiles great teachers from around the country and… -
Why is it Important to be a Connected Educator?
15 Jan 2012 | 12:56 pmTim Holt ask several folks to create a 1 minute video of why its important to be a connected educator for a project he is doing. Here is what I shared with him. -
Wax on…Wax off and other lessons learned
28 Dec 2011 | 10:10 amMen are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.” James Allen “Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.” Arnold Bennett “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Anais Nin Three Lessons Learned I learned a lot this past year about myself, about life, and about business. In fact, the older I get it seems the less I know and the more questions I have. I remember being so sure of everything,… -
Congratulations, winners!
1 Dec 2011 | 11:55 amA hearty congratulations goes out to our three winners of the Connected Educator book drawing! Your comment was chosen via the random number generator and we’ll be sending you information about your prize shortly. I look forward to hearing any feedback you may have about the book and hearing how you’ll utilize your learning experience that you take away from it. If you’re so inclined, I’d love for you to write a review of the book on your own blog or on Amazon. If you do, I’d be happy to feature it here, tweet a link to your site out, to get you some more traffic… -
An interview, plus win a signed copy of The Connected Educator
22 Nov 2011 | 10:47 amWhat a whirlwind month it’s been! My book was published and I’ve been traveling quite a bit. One of my favorite stops was for my presentation at the Solution Tree authorspeak2011 conference to kick off the release of my book: The Connected Educator – Learning and leading in a digital age. Learn all about the book, join a book club, get a free webinar and more Interview of the Month Speaking of the launch of the book, I am honored to be Larry Ferlazzo‘s Interview of the Month for November. Larry and I came to know of each other through the Teacher Leaders Network and…
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Dangerously Irrelevant
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We need to stop arguing over which factory-age solutions we should try
6 Feb 2012 | 4:13 amTrace Pickering recently sent me a slide deck that's definitely worth viewing. Trace is a wonderful systems thinker. His slides do a nice job of describing historical shifts in American society and the concurrent changes that were necessary in American education. As he notes about our current era, We seem to be stuck … arguing over which factory-age solutions we should try without fully understanding the implications of the context we are in and the new functions we need education to perform. Trace's slides are embedded below. He's kindly made them available with a Creative Commons license. -
Digital Learning Day: The aftermath
2 Feb 2012 | 5:51 amWell, yesterday was Digital Learning Day. By all accounts, it was a busy day across the country. Lots of conversation and high-profile events and demonstrations of students doing cool stuff with technology... Should every school day be Digital Learning Day? Nope. We still need down time from these electronic and virtual spaces of ours, times when we experience the joy of human connection, nature, solitude, reflection (and all of those other things that people say I should be experiencing!). But, nonetheless, we definitely need 'more digital, more often' in most of our primarily-analog… -
Announcing our new School Technology Leadership courses: Get a graduate certificate, Master’s, or Ph.D.
1 Feb 2012 | 10:48 amShort version We're relaunching our online School Technology Leadership courses and programs today! Woo hoo! (This is all pending final approval by Faculty Senate) Long version It's Digital Learning Day here in the U.S. As I said in my guest post for the event: We ... need school leaders who can begin envisioning the implications of these [new technology-suffused, globally-interconnected] environmental characteristics for learning, teaching, and schooling. We need administrators who can design and operationalize our learning environments to reflect these new affordances. I also said: If… -
Keeping Students Engaged in a 1:1 Project-Based Classroom [guest post]
29 Jan 2012 | 3:55 pmImage approved for copy by Creative Commons. Source: http://bit.ly/vYUkXB When laptops first arrived in my classroom, I worried about classroom management. How could I create an environment where students used their computers as tools rather than toys? I was worried for nothing. The following are suggestions for keeping students engaged in a project and accountable for their time with computers: Students make a plan. Students are most tempted to open widgets, games, and social chats when they are faced with a blank screen and have no plan. Much of the time, students think they have… -
Flawed, ideological, non-peer-reviewed studies should not rebut decades of anti-retention research
29 Jan 2012 | 8:41 amIowa Governor Terry Branstad's recent remarks about retaining 3rd graders confirm both the potential positives and the many negatives of in-grade retention in elementary school. First, the potential positives: in-grade retention sometimes leads to short-term (1 to 2 years out) - and maybe even mid-term (3 to 5 years out) - academic gains. The peer-reviewed research shows that these test score gains occasionally occur when you force kids to repeat 3rd grade, partly because 4th grade test scores look better when low-achievers have been removed from the grade cohort and partly because retained…
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A Difference
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Too Big To Know #edbookclub
25 Jan 2012 | 1:29 pmImage by dkuropatwaHow'd you like to know "how our concept of knowledge is changing in the age of the Net"? (John Seely Brown quoted from the dust jacket) Since I first heard David Weinberger say: "The smartest person in the room is: The Room!" I've repeated it often. I've seen it in action. In his new book Too Big To Know he fills in a few more details about this. The room is "smartest" as a function of the networked connections between all the people in it, and out of it, via the internet. I hear echoes of George Seimens and Stephen Downes in that. Anyway, the book was published on 3… -
The Difference Between Curriculum and Pedagogy
2 Jan 2012 | 9:57 amThere's a difference between curriculum and pedagogy. Curriculum is all about what we teach. Pedagogy is about how we teach it. There's also a difference between knowing how to do something and understanding what you're doing. In mathematics there are all kinds of "how-to", or computation skills, that kids learn and promptly forget right after the test; sometimes they forget before the test. The thing is though, it's difficult to forget something once you understand it. by dkuropatwa A few weeks ago I was part of a panel on the Richard Cloutier Reports show on… -
How would you plan a reunion?
31 Dec 2011 | 11:29 pmHow would you plan a reunion with a bunch of people you're terribly fond of, many of whom you've never met face-to-face, who you touch base with only occasionally and live in places scattered across the globe? A few years back I lead a group of about 120 teachers in a year long immersive professional development experience around leveraging modern technologies to foster deep student learning. This was for Will & Sheryl's Powerful Learning Practice in their 2nd year of operation. We did some cool stuff together. Stuff like this game of Presentation Tennis: That grew grew out of a… -
Narrative Matters
25 Oct 2011 | 4:56 pmLast night a group of Manitoban educators got together to talk about teaching and learning and how that learning takes flight when we take advantage of new opportunities offered by technology. The evening was framed around having the six Manitobans who participated this summer in something called Unplugd, talk about this uniquely Canadian educational summit: 36 of us wrote a book in a weekend. Anyone who's spoken to me since I got back from Unplugd knows what a transformational event it was for me and that I've really struggled with figuring out how to share what happened to me in a remote… -
The Character of Test Questions
4 Oct 2011 | 10:57 pmImage by rwillia532 via Flickr In my math classes a typical test is modeled on the character of test questions students will see on their final exams: multiple choice, short answer and long answer. In a grade 10 math class, what we used to call Applied Math 20S, a multiple choice question might be: A factory makes tents. The cost of running the factory is $300 per day plus $50 for each tent made. What is the total cost (C), in dollars, as a function of the number of tents (t) made? (A) C = 350t (B) C = 50t + 300 (C) C = 300t + 50(D) t = 300 + 50C I like this question because…
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Cool Cat Teacher Blog
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Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 02/09/2012
9 Feb 2012 | 2:33 amFlattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds Book Review - YouTube Aaron Maurer shares his video review of Julie's and my new book. It may not be news to you, but to hear this review moves me beyond words. tags: education news flatclass flatclassroom BBC News - A Point of View: Mourning the loss of the written word Is the written word gone? Is it lost? I know fore me, I have a cross pen and waterman with beautiful ink. I still write in my journal and I still write letters, although I have to admit, not as much as I used to. This is a great post to share and use for reflection and debate in your… -
Elearning and global competency #flatclass #globaled 02/09/2012
8 Feb 2012 | 5:31 pmCool Cat Teacher Blog: K-2 Project Forming Now We're forming our first K-2 Flat Classroom project. Here are the details. tags: education flatclassroom globaled flatclass Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. -
Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/08/2012
8 Feb 2012 | 11:31 amSuperhero Unit - comics in the classroom - Resources - TES there is a reason that this resource is going viral over at Tes. This masterful set of lesson uses comic books with a wide range of writing activities: short story, informative, biography, and comic strip. You have lesson plans and instructions for how to use this. Use comics to teach biographics. Many teachers groan about teaching nonfiction. I love this. tags: education teaching writing composition engchat Mr Thorne Does Literacy mr. Thorne is out of the UK. He has great phonics lessons. Yes, he has a british accent, but you could… -
K-2 Project Forming Now
8 Feb 2012 | 7:42 amANNOUNCING! Flat Classroom K-2 project ‘Building Bridges to Tomorrow’ Note: As part of our mission, we are piloting new projects with our Flat Classroom certified teachers running as lead innovators. Our goal is to make global collaboration simple and part of what we do. We had kindergarten teachers saying they are ready and we believe them. This is a pilot project this semester and teachers may want to be a bit more proficient as this is in "pilot" mode and lots of innovation, discussions, and working out best practices with K-2 will happen at this point. Press release, February 7,… -
Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/07/2012
7 Feb 2012 | 11:31 amHackasaurus Mess around with web pages. This is from David Warlick's post on Educon that I posted as part of the daily news. You're not REALLY changing the page but changing it locally on your machine, but is is still a lot of fun. There are also links to using this site to teach how to make websites. tags: education teaching html webmaster webdesign bestpractices technology Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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Ideas and Thoughts
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My first DE podcast
3 Feb 2012 | 11:09 amI have a heart for podcasting. Steve Dembo and Bud Hunt captured by attention way back when as they casually recorded themselves as they drove home from work. I loved the raw, authentic, casual nature of those recordings. So Steve and I have talked about doing stuff with Discovery and we both share the philosophy of "just do it". So here's how this podcast was born: As you'll tell from the podcast, this was not rehearsed and it was pretty much uncensored. I hope it can be something where I learn more about the awesomeness of Discovery and you can too. Can… -
Understanding the Digital Divide
3 Feb 2012 | 5:35 amI need to be careful. A new job and new learning gives me plenty of excuses not to write. My mind is occupied with all sorts of things that make it challenging to be be reflective sometimes. Writing and blogging has been a critical part of my own growth as an educator and I have no intentions of that changing but I need to force myself to write. This might be one of those occasions. Last week I visited two dramatically different conferences. FETC is one of the larger educational conferences you'll ever attend. While numbers have decreased significantly from the first time I attended… -
A Tweet For Customer Service
22 Jan 2012 | 4:51 pmWhile what I'm about to share is pretty common place, i still find it fascinating largely because so many people and businesses haven't figured this out. Friday I left for Florida. Delta lost my luggage. This is the first time I've ever had my luggage lost. According to stats, airlines are 99.5% effective in getting people their luggage to the intended destination on time. I wasn't too worried. After all, I had my golf clubs which was really most important given I had a tee time the next morning. I knew my luggage was in trouble because it never showed up in… -
Should teachers own their learning?
10 Jan 2012 | 8:36 pmWhat if school districts and school administrators trusted teachers to let them direct their own PD? What if the ideas of personalized learning and students owning their learning was applied to teachers? These are questions I ask as I wonder about the ways in which schools and districts attempt to support teacher growth. In the same way schools have a hard time empowering students to own their learning, districts struggle with letting teachers own theirs. I'm not aware of any district that truly embraces the notion of personalized learning. Districts all seem to feel the need or… -
1461 and counting
1 Jan 2012 | 8:49 amIt's been nearly 1,500 days in a row that I've been taking a photo a day. I don't think I've missed more than an handful of days over that time. I continue to learn and find it now to be truly be a part of me. I don't ponder whether I'll keep doing it, I have no reason not to. It's not a chore anymore. As I've mentioned often, it's a mindfulness that has taught me a lot of things. Each year I tried to add something to challenge myself. 2008, was my first crack at it so I kept it pretty basic. 2009 I tried to create one word titles for each of my photos…
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danah boyd | apophenia
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World Economic Forum: More than Meets the Eye
29 Jan 2012 | 7:16 pmI spent the last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. When my friends (y’all) learned I was going, some were supportive while others were horrified. A few called me an outright traitor. Given how much mythology there is around this event, I want to take a moment and briefly share my own experience there. If you read news articles about WEF, you get the impression that it’s a high stakes event where many of the world leaders gather to discuss governance and finance. (Journalists especially love to highlight when said leaders snicker or snark at one another.)… -
How Parents Normalized Teen Password Sharing
23 Jan 2012 | 1:24 pmIn 2005, I started asking teenagers about their password habits. My original set of questions focused on teens’ attitudes about giving their password to their parents, but I quickly became enamored with teens’ stories of sharing passwords with friends and significant others. So I was ecstatic when Pew Internet & American Life Project decided to survey teens about their password sharing habits. Pew found that one third of online 12-17 year olds share their password with a friend or significant other and that almost half of those 14-17 do. I love when data gets reinforced. Last… -
We need to talk about piracy (but we must stop SOPA first)
17 Jan 2012 | 6:51 amMuch to my happiness, the internets are in a frenzy about the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (aka SOPA). Congress is currently in recess, but the House announced a hearing on the potential impact to the Domain Name Service on January 18 and everyone expects the Senate to begin discussing a similar bill “PROTECT IP Act” when they return to DC on January 24. There’s a lot to these bills – and the surrounding furor – and I’m not going to go into it, but I recommend reading the actual bill and Open Congress info, the Wikipedia article, EFF’s blog,… -
Nancy Baym, Kate Crawford, Mary L. Gray to Join Microsoft Research
12 Jan 2012 | 7:19 am::bounce:: I am *ecstatic* to announce that Nancy Baym, Kate Crawford, and Mary L. Gray are all joining Microsoft Research New England in Cambridge, MA. See Jennifer Chayes’ announcement. ::bounce:: Three years ago (this week), I joined Microsoft Research to help integrate social scientists and computer scientists. I have known about and admired MSR since my undergraduate days when I was studying computer science. From the perspective of a researcher, it seemed like heaven-on-earth. As I slowly shifted disciplines, I was saddened to think that I had moved myself away from MSR so I was… -
I am Generation Flux
10 Jan 2012 | 11:05 amI love talking with smart journalists. When they’re good at what they do, journalists can really prompt me to think deeply (and differently) about issues. Nothing makes me happier than coming out of a discussion with a journalist with my brain on fire. My conversation with Bob Safian from Fast Company did precisely that. I left that chat high as a kite with all my synapses buzzing. The funny thing? I didn’t know why he was asking all of those interesting questions. Then, a few weeks later, I was asked to do a photoshoot. And that too ended up being way way way too much fun.
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The Fischbowl
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Ideas I'd Like My Future Principal to Consider: The Schedule
5 Feb 2012 | 9:59 amWe have a problem with time. Specifically, the way we allocate it in schools. As Chris Lehmann points out:Our schools are structurally dysfunctional places which, therefore, makes teaching and learning much harder than it needs to be, so that teachers -- and students -- have to succeed despite the system, rather than because of it.As long as high school students have to travel to eight different classes where eight different teachers talk about grading / standards / learning in eight different ways, students will spend far too much trying to figure out the adults instead of figuring out the… -
Tools I'd Like My Future Principal To Consider: Twitter
1 Feb 2012 | 2:50 pmFrom the article Meet Your New PD Tool in Scholastic Administrator magazine:"I really think anybody who doesn't spend a little time building a personal network is doing themselves and their school a disservice. If we're not modeling this stuff for our teachers and students, then I don't think we're doing our… -
Discussing Little Brother with Cory Doctorow: Take Two
30 Jan 2012 | 8:01 pmAnne Smith and Maura Moritz's students will once again be discussing Little Brother with author and blogger Cory Doctorow. A different set of students had this opportunity two years ago and it was a great experience (see that post for more details on the bigger picture of the unit), so we're really looking forward to this.If you're available at 8:30 am Mountain Time on Tuesday, January 31st, feel free to join us in the live stream or the live blog. Mr. Doctorow will be responding to our students' questions live via Skype from London (the stream will be a not-so-great quality webcam-based… -
Crowdsource My Basement Design
29 Jan 2012 | 12:06 pmOkay, so this is kind of a silly post that I actually don't believe will generate anything, but I thought it might be fun anyway. We're about to finish our basement and I am not a very visual person, so trying to picture what it might look like is difficult for me. I'm sure we'll get lots of help with that from the contractor and most likely will go with one of the designs they come up with, but I thought it might be fun to see if I could tap into the wisdom of my small crowd.We currently have a "full," unfinished walkout basement with a wood floor (with some crawl space underneath). We've… -
Quotes I'd Like My Future Principal to Ponder: Participatory Media Education and Civic Education Are Inextricable
23 Jan 2012 | 5:37 pmFrom the article titled "Head of State" in the print edition (subscription required, although if you are in a school you most likely have access to it through one of your library subscription services) in the November 7th, 2011 issue of Time magazine:Whereas US Envoys once filed secret cables to Washington late at night, Clinton has pushed her ambassadors to expand the use of Twitter and Facebook - State now has 192 Twitter feeds and 288 Facebook accounts - and her daughter Chelsea calls her TechnoMom. "We are in the age of participation," Clinton said at her husband's charity even in New…
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Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org
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#FlippedClassroom Webinar Reminder #tcea2012
8 Feb 2012 | 7:44 pmAre you going to be participating in The Flipped Classroom webinar being held at 6pm CST ? Join the Webinar here: http://goo.gl/rDRey February 9 at 7pm ET, 6pm CT, 5pm MT, and 4pm PT Flipit View more presentations from Miguel Guhlin. A bit of an overview: Not sure about flipping your classroom? Join us in a conversation with teachers and thought leaders who have flipped their classroom, presented about it, and love sharing!! This is the conversation to join where you will learn about how you can flip your classroom, tools teachers use, and some examples. Barbara… -
MyNotes - What Content Are You Filtering? #tcea2012
8 Feb 2012 | 6:14 amDuring the TCEA 2012 System Administrators' Academy, I had the opportunity to Bryan P. Doyle (Bastrop ISD) share his enlightened perspective regarding content filtering. A recurring theme of the TCEA 2012 SysAdmin Academy continues to be the inevitability of the changes rushing at K-12 schools, fueled by powerful personal technologies and people's seemingly insatiable desire to be connected anytime, anywhere. My favorite quote of the session comes from Gail Lovely, whom I ran into at the TCEA 2012 Web 2 Lounge around 7:50am this Wednesday morning "Censoring doesn't protect students, it… -
MyNotes - What the Future Holds #tcea2012 #ipads #edchat
8 Feb 2012 | 4:04 amThe Education EcoSystem...reminded me more of a universe and mademe ask, when will it contract and implode? ;-> The following notes were taken at the System Administrator Academy held at the TCEA 2012 State Conference. The keynote speaker was Bill Rust (Gartner Group) who shared some eye-opening statistics. The most compelling point was the need for system administrators to change their perspective regarding up and coming technologies--such as mobile learning via BYOD/BYOT, tablet based computing including the "force of nature" iOS, free open source, and others whose time has come. What… -
MyNotes - iOS Headaches #tcea2012
8 Feb 2012 | 3:44 amWhat a phenomenal presentation by Chris Nilsson (Lamar CISD in Texas) on iOS implementation. It's well worth reading the notes, if you're reading this prior to Thursday at TCEA2012 conference, attend Chris' session on the subject. His presentation was the subject of lunch table conversation, it was that informative and relevant to what Districts are doing in schools! Here are my imperfect notes on his preso: iOS Headache? Get a Grip on Your Devices iCafe.lcisd.org Chris Nilsson - cnilsson@lcisd.org - @chrisnilsson Director of Instructional Technology/Staff Development at Lamar CISD Lucky to… -
@BigMarker Adds Recording and Offers Free Premium Communities (Giveaway - Time-Sensitive)
8 Feb 2012 | 3:44 amA big announcement from BigMarker.com that you'll want to read is shared in this blog entry! Some time ago, I wrote about my experiences with BigMarker.com. My complaints were as follows: No recording capability. This was terrible because while BigMarker.com could be used in much the same way as Elluminate, recording stuff was just a no-go. BigMarker.com was too slow for desktop sharing, although it worked fine for slideshows, whiteboard, etc. And, in an email suggestion to them, I also asked for Moodle 2.x module/block integration. Earlier today, I received the following announcement...note…
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PrincipalsPage.com Blog
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My Daughter Hates School. I Did Not See That Coming.
5 Feb 2012 | 2:27 amThe Evil Spawn has officially announced she doesn’t like going to school. By officially, I mean she said it in the car when we were traveling back from yet another evening of supervising an athletic contest (as the child of a school administrator… she was born into the family business of sports supervision). Her statement was short and to the point. "Dad, I don’t want to go to school anymore." This led to my rebuttal which was a long-winded rambling sometimes incoherent monologue about how hard I work and did she realize there are days when I don’t want to… -
NAASP Principal Leadership Magazine: Discipline.
4 Feb 2012 | 1:18 amWhat’s better than the February 2012 edition of Principal Leadership? The February 2012 digital edition. It includes my take on discipline. Remember: Discipline is what you do to a student. It’s what you do for a student. I wish I had invented that saying, but I didn’t. I stole it. Which is where I get all my best ideas. Enjoy the magazine. -
AASA: Best of the Blogs.
2 Feb 2012 | 11:08 amSchool Administrator Magazine. February 2012 edition. Best of the Blogs by Superintendents. Not sure how PrincipalsPage made it, but I’ll take it. Click here. -
Change.
31 Jan 2012 | 1:26 amEvery school faces it. Many people don’t like it. Some even fight it. Change. My favorite qoute: “Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have – and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up." (James Belasco and Ralph Stayer, Flight of the Buffalo, 1994) -
College Professors and Twitter.
29 Jan 2012 | 11:37 amThis is a bad sign. I have over 5,300 followers on Twitter. Why? I assume they have bad taste and not enough hobbies, but that’s another blog. Most people seem to follow because occassionally I will comment on education topics (mostly I provide updates on Buddy the Dog, my new TV show, and express my anger that our next President may be named Newt). My followers include college students, teachers, principals, assistant principals, superintendents, and parents. I just about forgot… nearly 73% of my Twitter followers are hardcore gangbangers who are doing time in federal prison…
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Holy Kaw!
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8 historical figures who ate disgusting things
8 Feb 2012 | 11:26 pmBefore you read this article, you may have thought your dog had the grossest eating habits ever. But Fido's penchant for poo is nothing compared to some of these sickos highlighted in Cracked. For example, Victorian scientist William Buckland: He didn't just stop at the meat of animals, either. While on a visit to St. Paul's Cathedral, a strange mark was found on the floor. A debate broke out as to what the stain could possibly be, at which point Buckland got on his hands and knees, licked the stain and confidently announced it to be bat piss. But the craziest thing Buckland ever did, at… -
5 explanations of why teenagers act the way the do
8 Feb 2012 | 11:22 pmUnderstanding the teenage mind could be a life's work. For those of you who don't have that kind of time, however, Mental Floss gives five things that could explain the mind of the teenager. For example, parents, have you ever wondered if your teenager is somehow getting dumber? Parents of teens often wonder what happened to the bright child they used to have. How can someone go from getting A’s to getting C’s when they seem to be doing the same amount of work? Once again, changes in the brain are to blame. While the merits of IQ tests are debatable, scientists used to think IQ… -
Surviving the loss of a star employee
8 Feb 2012 | 11:16 pmSome groups have stellar members who carry the team. That's all well and good until that member leaves. Then what? This Smartblog video will help you answer that question: Full story at Smartblog on Leadership. Top news for leaders. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Disneyland circa 1957 [video]
8 Feb 2012 | 11:14 pmThis video was shot in 1957, less than two years after Disneyland had opened. The footage is newly restored and ready to take you to the happiest place on earth as it was in its early days. Full story at Mental Floss. All the top Internet videos in one place. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
People unplugging their TVs during the Super Bowl
8 Feb 2012 | 11:08 pmThere's no faster way to ruin an American's day than to unplug his or her TV during the Super Bowl. Think we're exaggerating? Take a look at these folks go form 0 to 60 in less than a second, all thanks to Jimmy Kimmel's latest Challenge. Full story at Jimmy Kimmel Live. Top sports news. Permalink | Leave a comment »
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ReadWriteWeb
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Groupon's First Earnings Call Missed the Mark, But It May Not Matter
8 Feb 2012 | 9:28 pmToday in its quarterly earnings call, Groupon reported that it did not meet fourth quarter expectations. The company posted a $43 million loss, or $0.08 cents per share. Despite the loss, Groupon's revenue in the fourth quarter 2011 grew 194% to $506.5 million, up from $172.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. In fact, the fourth quarter 2011 was the company's first quarter of operating profitability since it opening international operations in the second quarter of 2010. This brings everyone back to the same question: Is the daily deals model a real, legitimate business, or is it just a… -
Daily Wrap: January's List of Apps You Need to See and more
8 Feb 2012 | 6:00 pmDan Rowinski rounds up the best apps, in our opinion, of January 2012. This and more in today's Daily Wrap. Sometimes it's difficult to catch everything that hits tech media in a day, so we wrap up some of the most talked about stories. We give you a daily recap of what you missed in the ReadWriteWeb Community, including a link to some of the most popular discussions in our offsite communities on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ as well. Sponsor New iPhone, iPad and Android Apps for January 2012 In what is surely a labor of love, Dan Rowinski combs through the mass of apps released… -
Stop Saying "Finally"
8 Feb 2012 | 5:50 pmFIIIINALLY! Google released a Chrome beta for Android! GODDDDD. What took them so long? All the Ice Cream Sandwich users have been waiting, like, FOREVER! Finally, Tweetbot for iPad came out. I've only been asking them for, like, EIGHT MONTHS! Jeez. Apple fiiiinally released iTunes Match after a whole month, and it didn't even work right! Listen to how this sounds. How do we, the tech bloggers, get away with headlines like this? Where do users get off complaining impatiently about updates to a service that costs them $2.99? Or a free service? Let's have a reality check. Remember how awesome… -
10 Ways to Win Over Writers
8 Feb 2012 | 5:00 pmAs a PR person, product developer, CEO or whatever, you're probably more interested in getting noticed by the media than developing a relationship with a particular writer. That's one way to go about it. Then there's that old-fashioned "building a relationship with a real person not a robot" idea. You know, treating people like people and taking the time to get to know them. Oh right, yeah, forgot about that. Writers, like artists, are sensitive to ideas and people. But not every writer will get you or your product - and in the tech world as in any world, each writer has their own… -
Nginx Continues Growth, Adds Commercial Offerings
8 Feb 2012 | 4:30 pmAccording to the Netcraft Web Server Survey for February 2012, Nginx was "the only server to experience a non-negligible market share increase this month" by picking up 0.27 percentage points. Good news for the upstart Web server, just as the brand-new company behind Nginx takes the wraps off its commercial packages. Nginx has had quite the growth spurt over the past year. In February of last year Nginx had 7.57% of the market, or about 21 million domains hosted with Nginx. Microsoft had 20.04%, or about 57 million. Apache was at 60.10%, with more than 171 million domains. Sponsor…
