I would like very much to go to the Siemen's STEM Institute this summer, though after today, I'm not sure they'd welcome me in their midst. I've spent hours wrestling with a Flip camera, MS Movie Maker, and and apparent conflict between the chip set in my laptop and the rest of the world (a chip with a chip on its shoulder), and may be disqualified for my inability to produce a simple two minute video broadcasting my Luddite qualities.I have a fine 1956 Futura typewriter sitting in my room, ready to type up a cogent argument for my presence. Which may just highlight the…
Selected by nashworld
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Most Topular Stories
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Siemen's STEM Institute: A Luddite Wants In
Science teacher6 Feb 2012 | 5:36 pm -
The year-long to-do lists and gettin'm done...
Blue Skunk Blog8 Feb 2012 | 3:48 amThis seems to be "accountability" week for me in the district. Bright and early Monday morning I met with my boss, the superintendent, to review my professional growth plan. Yesterday the District Media and Technology Advisory Committee met and by custom reviewed the department's annual objectives. (I link to the documents here not as models, but just to let readers know that I actually do practice what I preach on my day job. Both of these annual "to-do" lists are replete with tasks that fall smack in Quadrant II of Stephen Covey's "Time Management Matrix" (p. 151 of… -
Ideas I'd Like My Future Principal to Consider: The Schedule
The Fischbowl5 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… -
My first DE podcast
Ideas and Thoughts3 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… -
AP: First 10 States Granted Waivers From 'No Child Left Behind'
Education9 Feb 2012 | 4:05 amThe administration announced last year that states can apply to be exempt from some No Child requirements. The first 10, AP says, are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us
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Science teacher
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Siemen's STEM Institute: A Luddite Wants In
6 Feb 2012 | 5:36 pmI would like very much to go to the Siemen's STEM Institute this summer, though after today, I'm not sure they'd welcome me in their midst. I've spent hours wrestling with a Flip camera, MS Movie Maker, and and apparent conflict between the chip set in my laptop and the rest of the world (a chip with a chip on its shoulder), and may be disqualified for my inability to produce a simple two minute video broadcasting my Luddite qualities.I have a fine 1956 Futura typewriter sitting in my room, ready to type up a cogent argument for my presence. Which may just highlight the… -
The Dayton Street shuffle
4 Feb 2012 | 5:41 amThe superintendent of the Newark Public Schools system announced that the city state will close down seven schools; the fate of the students and staff has not yet been publicly announced. Ms. Anderson's attempt to go into specifics ended with her walking off the stage.I've spent some time in one of the schools--Dayton Street. I was involved with "The Rainbow Room," a school-based health clinic named by the students.Many of the kids come from a local housing project, where I once made house calls. It's a gritty neighborhood in a tough town adjacent to a beautiful park, and (shhhh...it's a… -
Elementary science lesson
2 Feb 2012 | 6:01 pmI love my Newton's cradle, and various versions have amused me for decades now. Harrod's popularized them as desktop toys way back when, but not because they're scientifical.They're just plain fun.They're also as obvious as the nose on a polar bear's face. Five balls banging against each other, in unexpected yet predictable and repeatable ways.Just don't use the words inertia or force, or, Zeus forbid, Newton's Third Law.Give a pair of children a Newton's cradle. Hold up a ball (or let one of them do it), and let it fall.Hold up two, and do the same.Have the children take turns… -
Imbolc
1 Feb 2012 | 6:33 pmAn Cailleach Bhearra wandered around back in the 10th century in western Ireland, eating "seaweed, salmon, and wild garlic" (my kind of woman), looking for firewood.If the day was bright and sunny, beware--she had gathered plenty of wood and was set for many cold days ahead. If the day was gray, she didn't bother, and she will make the days warm up again. Sound familiar?Imbolc again.The daffodils have broken through the earth. My words shrink as the sunlight grows.Groundhog Day has always been a favorite of mine.***We are trapped by words.This week my lambs are being tested. They sit silently… -
New Jersey versus General Ripper
31 Jan 2012 | 6:15 pmI realize that this is going to push me on wrong side of the angels, but really, folks, take a good hard look at the wheelsbefore jumping on any bandwagon. Even a stopped clock is right twice a year.Yep, a reprint, but New Jersey's under attack by do-gooding, mean-welling folk who need to find a new hobby, A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works.General Jack D. RipperDr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BombAh, March…
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Blue Skunk Blog
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The year-long to-do lists and gettin'm done...
8 Feb 2012 | 3:48 amThis seems to be "accountability" week for me in the district. Bright and early Monday morning I met with my boss, the superintendent, to review my professional growth plan. Yesterday the District Media and Technology Advisory Committee met and by custom reviewed the department's annual objectives. (I link to the documents here not as models, but just to let readers know that I actually do practice what I preach on my day job. Both of these annual "to-do" lists are replete with tasks that fall smack in Quadrant II of Stephen Covey's "Time Management Matrix" (p. 151 of… -
9+ things that will disappear in our lifetime
6 Feb 2012 | 2:52 amMy buddy Ian Jukes forwarded me an email with this list with commentaries by Plinio Granado. I love such speculations and having just dropped our cable TV service and our land telephone line (not because we couldn't afford them, but because we weren't using them), the e-mail resonated with me. I agree and look forward to most of these things "going missing." Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come ..... The Post Office. Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble… -
BFTP: A father-son chat
5 Feb 2012 | 7:16 amA weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post March 15, 2007. This was reincarnated as a column that can be found here. My son Brady who draws the skunks for this blog is about to have one of his drawings published by a national journal. My fatherly advice to him... Dear Son, I am very proud that a national publication has asked to publish your work. I have always been proud of your wit, skill and creativity, and it is wonderful to see it recognized by the editors of a high quality magazine. But it is… -
Frustration with administrative tech skills
4 Feb 2012 | 3:54 amIn response to my blog post "!2 Signs Your Tech Leadership is Obsolete," (Dec 19, 2011) a tech consultant in New York writes: I'd have to take exception to some of the things contained here although they are a good start. I've worked as a consultant in 5 area schools in the last 12 years. I currently work at a school as the TD but the problems in most schools are the people at the top. My Superintendent, Business Official and Principals wouldn't know the difference from a wireless connection and a wired connection even if they were standing in the middle of a room using an iPad w/ no cables. -
It's time we stopped offering classes on ...
2 Feb 2012 | 5:16 pmI've been using a word processor since 1982. That's 30 years. About half my life. Longer than many of you have been alive. Can't we stop offering classes to adult educators in "basic word processing"? I've been using e-mail for since 1992. You do the math. Can't we stop offering classes to adult educators in "e-mail basics"? Our district has used the same web host, electronic gradebook, and student information system for over 5 years. Can't we stop offering classes to adult educators in "how to create a webpage," "how to enter your grades," and "how to take attendance"? Teachers have had two…
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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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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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Education
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AP: First 10 States Granted Waivers From 'No Child Left Behind'
9 Feb 2012 | 4:05 amThe administration announced last year that states can apply to be exempt from some No Child requirements. The first 10, AP says, are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us -
White House: 10 States Get Education Waiver
9 Feb 2012 | 3:20 amThe move gives long-sought leeway to states that promise to improve how they prepare and evaluate students. The states are Colorado, Florida,Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us -
Detroit Schools' No. 1 Mission: Getting Kids To Class
8 Feb 2012 | 1:53 pmDismal attendance rates have put Detroit Public Schools at risk of losing vital state funding, so the city has launched an assault on truancy. Attendance agent George Eason says, "If we see that the parent is willfully ... not sending the child to school, then we will take every means necessary to enforce the law."» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us -
Milestone At University Of Michigan: Muslim Chaplain
7 Feb 2012 | 10:43 pmEven though the number of Muslim students pursuing higher education is growing, very few colleges have Muslim chaplains. This semester, the University of Michigan became the first public school with a Muslim chaplaincy, but the position is privately funded to maintain a separation of church and state.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us -
Meaningless In Missouri? Not In Santorum's View
7 Feb 2012 | 12:22 pmFormer Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is looking for momentum as Republicans caucus and vote in three states on Tuesday: Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado. And dissatisfaction with front-runner Mitt Romney in Missouri could point to a potential opportunity for President Obama in the fall.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us
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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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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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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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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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blog of proximal development
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Assessment for Learning
7 Feb 2012 | 7:02 pmCross-posted to: GETIdeas.org Whenever I think of assessment in the classroom, I am reminded of a rubric I created a long time ago to go along with a short writing assignment for my grade eight Language Arts class. You can see it below. Many would agree that rubrics are excellent tools — they show the students exactly what the expectations are and the scale we’ll use to assess their work. True. However, as a young teacher many years ago, I used this rubric alone and nothing else. I did not have an assessment and evaluation strategy to support my students and learn from my classroom… -
Article 26
10 Dec 2010 | 9:45 amTake a close look at the photograph above. What do you see? School courtyard? Teachers? Children? Let me tell you a little about what I see when I look at this photograph. This is East Africa. The photograph was taken a couple of years ago, at an elementary school in a small town. I was standing inside the school’s staffroom, looking out the window at the school’s playground. At first glance, there’s probably nothing extraordinary about this photograph: it looks like it’s recess and the children are enjoying their time away from their desks and textbooks. There are two… -
Thoughts on Assessment
20 Feb 2009 | 9:41 amMy presentation at EduCon 2.1 helped me conceptualize some of my thoughts and research efforts on assessment in the 21st-century classroom. My interest in assessment emerged out of my research on blogging communities and adolescent literacy. The student participants in my study engaged in writing and reading through a variety of complex and rich interactions. They posted their own work on their blogs, commented on the work of their peers, linked to each other’s work, and initiated numerous conversations in the class blogosphere. My biggest challenge as a teacher-researcher was to figure out… -
The Virtual Classroom Project Continues
17 Feb 2009 | 9:00 amI am delighted to report that the Virtual Classroom Project that I started last year on the island of jokaydia in Second Life is back in full swing. An Australian educator, Annabel Astbury, has been selected to be Educator-in-Residence on jokaydia until the end of February. Her residency was launched on February 1st at the jokaydia mini Unconference (you can download the audio recording of the sessions here). Annabel (SL: Annabel Recreant) has been busy creating a very unique project. As a teacher of history, she is interested in creating a virtual learning space where visitors can learn… -
Imagining Better Conversations
17 Jan 2009 | 7:57 amA few days ago Will Richardson shared on his blog a conversation that he’d had with his daughter. I found his post to be very discouraging and, unfortunately, indicative of what often masquerades as education in many classrooms. I thought about this conversation for a long time and then decided to try to re-write it based on my ideas of what young people in 2009 should be doing in English class. The part in blue is the original conversation from Will’s blog. The remaining part is my idealized view of what should have happened: Heard while driving home from Tess’s basketball game…
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Beyond School
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Confessions of an Edtech Apostate
8 Feb 2012 | 12:18 pmI’m more and more telling students to close their laptops unless needed — and finding them less needed more and more. Asia Times Online goes there — put on your pearls and prepare to clutch them, edtech evangelists! — in How America made its children crazy: At a showcase classroom in Arizona’s most wired school district, Matt Richtel reported, “A seventh-grade English teacher roams among 31 students sitting at their desks or in clumps on the floor. They’re studying Shakespeare’s As You Like It – but not in any traditional way. In this… -
American Novelists Too?
8 Feb 2012 | 10:48 amI got a couple of critical responses to my use of Louis CK as an example of Americans having limited knowledge of the world and its history. In retrospect, I should have anticipated the “he’s a comedian, not a historian” response — though maybe I did just that by showing a comedian in that post whose joke was based on a much more highly informed understanding of world history than Louis CK’s own history-based joke (if we’re joking about time-travel into the past, we are joking about history, however well- or ill-informed). And I grant that the… -
Why People Attend Church, but Skip School
6 Feb 2012 | 2:22 pmPreachers don’t assign homework? 3 Comments At February 7, 2012, AMA wrote:Better opportunities for catching up on sleep!At February 8, 2012, cburell wrote:Tee hee. :)At February 9, 2012, Victoria wrote:But lots of people do skip church! Plus, if you decide you don't agree with the doctrine or environment of the church you've been attending, you have every opportunity to 1.) find another one more in keeping with your own style, or 2.) drop out of religion (organized or all) entirely. -
Comedy, Race, and Louis CK’s Blind Spot
6 Feb 2012 | 1:01 pmJokes that educated people can make, and that uneducated people won’t get: It’s interesting to compare this Indian-American guy’s perspective with that of Anglo-American Louie CK — a clearly smart (and NSFW) guy who somehow seemed not to learn about world history in his American education. Watch, and notice how narrow his definition of “the world” is when he imagines time-traveling as a white man: If he’d gotten out of his time capsule anywhere but Europe (or America), odds are he would have been not deferred to, but laughed at. One reason the… -
Chinese Communist v. American Capitalist TV, cont’d: Jon Stewart Weighs In
27 Jan 2012 | 2:18 pmMore on the problem of “freedom of expression” in Western television programming and the Chinese Communist Party’s move to reduce the influence of American-style programming (trash TV) in favor of more socially healthy content: John Stewart nails so much that is troublesome about unregulated American television in the first clip, and the popular Chinese drama “Bu Bu Jing Xin” (“Startled with Each Step”) I wrote about earlier this week is embedded afterward as a pretty compelling alternative form of TV that entertains without bottom-feeding. First,…
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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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Drape's Takes
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Is there a future for open education beyond privatization? #utpol #utleg
25 Jan 2012 | 8:09 pmThe Utah State of Office of Education (USOE) announced today that “it will develop and support open textbooks in the key curriculum areas of secondary language arts, science, and mathematics.” They also encourage “districts and schools throughout the state to consider adopting these textbooks for use beginning this fall.” This is clearly a major victory for proponents of open education and a move laden with tremendous potential! That said, I have mixed feelings about the announcement – or more specifically about the timing and readiness of districts across our state to transition… -
Refining Purpose for 1:1
3 Jan 2012 | 8:32 amFor me, there are four key reasons that schools should transition toward 1:1 technology access for students: Broadband, social networks, and mobility have spawned a new kind of learner (Waters, 2011). Children expect different things out of life today than we did in our youth and as a result, technology is a very important (and fully anticipated) part of their experience. Failing to produce the kind of learning environments that are tailored to those of the rising generation will be the hallmark characteristic of defunct schools in this and future years to come. In its ubiquity, the Internet… -
Teaching, By Humans
28 Sep 2011 | 5:00 amI love this by Dan Meyer, and dare you to spend twenty seconds reading his sarcastic take. Direct instruction encompasses far more than mere lecture, videos can only go so far to teach, and some lessons are best learned by pedaling. Too bad too many look too hard for that ever-elusive silver bullet. -
Look Before Leaping #iste11
28 Jun 2011 | 11:54 amI took a picture this morning, of a guardrail strategically placed between buildings at the Philadelphia Conference Center. I think the whole guardrail idea is fascinating. Imagine what was happening before the rail was there...Narrow enough to easily walk around, this safety feature prevents people from quickly but dangerously dashing out into traffic - because of their natural desire to quickly reach the other side. It's not that people want to walk right into traffic; but more that they may not realize the dangers present, especially when their focus on the end-goal might be so… -
The Continuing Shifts of Online Writing, Reading, and Thinking
23 Jun 2011 | 6:22 amWill Richardson announced this week that he has "decided to pretty much bring [his] run at Weblogg-ed to a close." Instead, he'll be using Tumblr to facilitate his sharing and provide a space for him to disseminate his thoughts. Being one of the first to join the educational blogging scene, I see Will's abandonment of traditional blogging as a clear marker for the beginning of the end of long-form educational blogging. While I don't think blogging will disappear entirely, I have noticed and experienced a substantial shift in how people prefer to collaborate - and even share deep thinking. I…
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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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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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nashworld
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Conversations On An Instructional Gap
27 Jan 2012 | 3:57 amA Conversation In 2007, a then virtual-only colleague asked whether it was, “okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher?” NETS-T provides one standardized, big-picture perspective. Many others speak of new literacies unleashed by the reach of the Internet. A few have mentioned “big shifts” that define the changes and challenges to educators in rather recent history. At the other end of the spectrum, the Edu-Twittersphere offers up a litany of “gotta be using” tools on a nightly basis. Here’s the problem from where I see it: we have a gap. On Sunday, the… -
Incorporating Words Into Images
30 May 2011 | 8:53 pmLiterally Most would agree that “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Perhaps strangely, allow me to make the case that sometimes there is also value in distilling those thousand words into a scant few. This little post is a bit of practical sharing meant to point to two things: a cute little iOS application, and a few quick examples of its practical use. Oh, and really, I wouldn’t be doing it here if it wasn’t worth at least a handful of words as well. Once upon a time, I enjoyed doing the occasional “check out this fancy new tool” post, particularly for… -
Searching For a Royal Spring
17 May 2011 | 11:22 amDisclosure number one What kind of an idiot would dissect ten George Brett rookie cards and paste them onto the outside of his baseball-themed “Valentine’s Day” box at school? I suppose it depends on whether or not that idiot was a primary grades student or not. A kid that would do such a thing is either really into the Royals, or really a bit twisted. I’ll let you decide that, but I’m glad the hobby of collecting baseball cards never really entered the “business” realm for me like it did for so many of my friends. If it had, I’d really curse… -
Another Thousand “Whoa” Moments
25 Apr 2011 | 7:59 pmDefining whoa A whoa moment is somewhat akin to the recently ubiquitous aha moment. And yet, there are important differences. Trolling online definitions of the “aha” moment generally returns descriptions of sudden comprehension or the “flash of insight related to a problem.” If I could be trusted to launch my own five-cent definition, I’d loft the “whoa” moment for your consideration. Allow me to stitch together a few words in defense (offense?) of such an idea… whoa moment |wō| exclamation Informal in usage. Used to indicate a scope of… -
There’s No Week Like EdWeek
25 Mar 2011 | 6:28 amPlay along? Repeat the title in your head a few times. Did you get an odd desire to click your heels together? If so, it would be understandable. If you truly believe in the sentiment that “there’s no place like home,” then you would be directly channeling one of the main themes of this post. What might the others be? Personally, I love to travel, but I also love home-field advantage. Also: I love to learn. Follow below as I briefly highlight an exciting upcoming week of learning for local educators… one that even includes a day where folks from our wider region are…
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The Edublogger
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The Educator’s Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons
9 Feb 2012 | 10:15 amLately, we’ve been hearing more and more about digital copyrights and fair use in the news and online – particularly with the whole SOPA/PIPA uproar that recently swept the web. Also, we on the Edublogs support team have been getting more and more complaints and official requests to remove copyrighted content that users have placed on blogs. The legal jargon with respect to digital copyrights can be confusing – especially since different countries have their own laws and regulations. With this post, we hope to dispel a few myths and pull together a complete list of… -
Picasa Slideshows: Giving Parents a Glimpse of School
7 Feb 2012 | 6:51 amThis is a guest post written by Janet Moeller-Abercrombie. Janet teaches at an international school in Asia. She is the author of Expat Educator and a contributing author of 1 to 1 Schools. You can follow her at @jabbacrombie. A parent once remarked, “You do so many great things at school. I wish I could be a fly on the wall and watch my child in action.” One of the easiest ways to give parents a glimpse of school is to give students a camera, access to Picasaweb, and a blog. Give students a camera. Each week, one or two students are given the classroom job of photographer. The… -
Add SpeakPipe to Your Blog to Get Audio From Students
3 Feb 2012 | 12:13 pmLast week, we got a question at Edublogs from Larry Ferlazzo asking if he was able to add SpeakPipe to his blog. We had never heard of the new service – but it turns out, as Larry shares here, he certainly could! SpeakPipe is still in beta, which is a way for the company behind the service to allow for it to be used, but they are open about the fact that their might be a few bugs or missing features. What this does is place a nifty “Send Voicemail” button on the side of your blog where visitors can make a recording which is then emailed to you. You can access the mp3… -
3 Major Problems With Apple’s Education Announcement
19 Jan 2012 | 6:12 pmYou probably have already heard about the big announcements from Apple today and how they plan on changing the world of education as we know it. While you won’t find a bigger fan of technology in education than me, as I read through all of the different news articles and blog posts about this announcement, something just didn’t sit right. Here’s why… Rant #1 – You Don’t Own Your Content Most of the concerns I have with the announcements made today revolve around the iBooks Author app. This fun-looking application is marketed as a way for educators to make… -
Travelling Toy Bloggers – Coming to a School Near You!
19 Jan 2012 | 2:55 pmNote: This post was written by Sue Wyatt, who lives in Tasmania, Australia, and is the fearless leader of the Student Blogging Challenges. In 2011, I went on a fantastic holiday (vacation) in Canada and U.S.A. for 11 weeks. I drove about 10.000 miles in an automatic car on the wrong side of the road without using a GPS or mobile phone. I visited about 25 different classes arranged by 12 teachers in my PLN. I didn’t write a blog about my experiences though. “What!”, you say, “Yet you are writing here about blogging?” Mr. Davo Devil eating dessert! Instead of me writing the blog, I…
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New Scientist - Online News
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Today on New Scientist: 9 February 2012
9 Feb 2012 | 10:11 amAll today's stories on newscientist.com, including: face-stealing robots, the latest Higgs revelations and how the zebra got its stripes -
Stock trading 'fractures' may warn of next crash
9 Feb 2012 | 9:10 amA strange feature of high-speed trading could be used to create an early-warning system of future 'flash crashes' in stocks -
What the latest LHC revelations say about the Higgs
9 Feb 2012 | 8:34 amDespite having no new data, the world's largest particle smasher has released fresh analyses shedding some light on this most wanted of particles -
Domestic life of birds
9 Feb 2012 | 8:29 amPhotographer Sharon Beals creates an intimate portrait of birds' nests from across the US -
Face-stealing robots at Kinetica Art Fair
9 Feb 2012 | 8:17 amThis year's experimental art fair features a giant, colour-shifting neuron, a menagerie of moving sculptures
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New Scientist - The Human Brain
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Mind control could be future of warfare
7 Feb 2012 | 9:28 amWars may be fought through manipulation of people's minds, and technology such as mind-machine interfaces, warns the Royal Society -
Zap your brain into the zone: Fast track to pure focus
6 Feb 2012 | 3:23 amWhether you want to smash a forehand like Federer, or just be an Xbox hero, there is a shocking short cut to getting the brain of an expert, says Sally Adee -
Clint Eastwood helps reveal secrets of brain evolution
5 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amBrain scans of humans and monkeys while they watched a cowboy movie show that areas that are functionally similar aren't always in the same place -
Weak will comes from tired mental muscles
1 Feb 2012 | 7:21 amSelf-controlled people have better lives – but for the rest, lack of willpower is more like physical fatigue than moral failure, says Roy F. Baumeister -
Orchid children: How bad-news genes came good
1 Feb 2012 | 3:11 amThe set of genes that help create our most grievous frailties may also underlie our greatest strengths – and sometimes the choice is settled in childhood
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Mind Hacks
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goCognitive 2.0
4 Feb 2012 | 5:30 amWe’ve reported before on the Univeristy of Idaho’s goCognitive project. It’s a enticing collection of videos and demonstrations, including many guest spots by the glitterati of cognitive neuroscience. The site has more free video content in cognitive neuroscience than before – and it is more easily accessible as well. Check it out -
Dressing psychologists as wizards in court
4 Feb 2012 | 1:53 amFrom overlawyered.com we hear that in 1995, New Mexico state senator Duncan Scott introduced a legislative ammendment providing that When a psychologist or psychiatrist testifies during a defendant’s competency hearing, the psychologist or psychiatrist shall wear a cone-shaped hat that is not less than two feet tall. The surface of the hat shall be imprinted with stars and lightning bolts. Additionally, a psychologist or psychiatrist shall be required to don a white beard that is not less than 18 inches in length, and shall punctuate crucial elements of his testimony by stabbing the air… -
A treasure hunt for the mysteries of mind and brain
21 Jan 2012 | 6:22 amI’ve published a couple of free ebooks recently: Explore your blind spot shows you how to reveal the gap we all have in our visual experience of the world, and discusses what it means about consciousness that this gap is kept hidden from us most of the time. Control Your Dreams, co-written with Cathryn Bardsley and illustrated beautifully by Harriet Cameron, tells you how to have lucid dreams, those dreams where you realise you are dreaming and can take control over reality. Both books are written as treasure hunts – travel guides, but for exploring inner space. When you start… -
The peak experiences of Abraham Maslow
19 Jan 2012 | 4:48 pmThe New Atlantis has an in-depth biographical article on psychologist Abraham Maslow – one of the founders of humanistic psychology and famous for his ‘hierarchy of needs’. Maslow is stereotypically associated with a kind of fluffy ‘love yourself’ psychology although the man himself was quite a skeptic of the mumbo jumbo that got associated with his work. The association is not so much because of Maslow’s focus on self-actualization, a goal where we use our psychological potential to its fullest, but because of his association with the ‘human… -
Gimme Shelter
16 Jan 2012 | 5:44 pmThe Rolling Stones launched their career in a social therapeutic club, designed to help troubled youth with communication skills. The club became legendary in rock ‘n roll history but its therapeutic roots have almost been forgotten. Eel Pie Island is a small patch on the River Thames famous for the underground club that earned a place in 60′s history for hosting the cream of jazz bands and rock n’ roll outfits. Less well known, is the story of how the club was created as a therapeutic environment to help troubled youth. Its place in music history has been recounted many…
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Brain And Consciousness Research
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Prejudices? Quite normal!
8 Feb 2012 | 11:00 pmPsychologists of Jena University have been working on a prevention program for children, designed to reduce prejudice and to encourage tolerance for others. But when is the right time to start? Jena psychologists Dr. Tobias Raabe and Dr. Andreas Beelmann systematically summarise scientific studies on that topic and published the results of their research in the science journal Child Development. -
Hearing metaphors activates brain regions involved in sensory experience
8 Feb 2012 | 11:00 pmNew brain imaging research reveals that a region of the brain important for sensing texture through touch, the parietal operculum, is also activated when someone listens to a sentence with a textural metaphor. The same region is not activated when a similar sentence expressing the meaning of the metaphor is heard. -
Believing the impossible and conspiracy theories
8 Feb 2012 | 11:00 pmDistrust and paranoia about government has a long history, and the feeling that there is a conspiracy of elites can lead to suspicion for authorities and the claims they make. For some, the attraction of conspiracy theories is so strong that it leads them to endorse entirely contradictory beliefs, according to a study in the current Social Psychological and Personality Science. -
Appetite accomplice: Ghrelin receptor alters dopamine signaling
7 Feb 2012 | 11:00 pmNew research reveals a fascinating and unexpected molecular partnership within the brain neurons that regulate appetite. The study, published by Cell Press in the Jan. 26 issue of the journal Neuron, resolves a paradox regarding a receptor without its hormone and may lead to more specific therapeutic interventions for obesity and disorders of dopamine signaling. -
Mechanism sheds light on how the brain adapts to stress
7 Feb 2012 | 11:00 pmScientists now have a better understanding of the way that stress impacts the brain. New research, published by Cell Press in the Jan. 26 issue of the journal Neuron, reveals pioneering evidence for a new mechanism of stress adaptation and may eventually lead to a better understanding of why prolonged and repeated exposure to stress can lead to anxiety disorders and depression.
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Information Literacy Weblog
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How to make Google behave
9 Feb 2012 | 8:17 amExcellent new powerpoint from Karen Blakeman, as presented at a seminar for UKeig seminar yesterday, with lots of up-to-date information and tips. http://www.slideshare.net/KarenBlakeman/how-to-make-google-behave How to make Google Behave View more PowerPoint from Karen Blakeman -
Professor Diane Nahl leads discussion on information literacy article
8 Feb 2012 | 5:36 amWhat: Centre for Information Literacy Research Journal Club, led by Professor Diane Nahl, University of Hawaii, USA (Adra Letov in SL: she is centre in this picture of the January 2012 Journal Club). Everyone is welcome!When: 22nd February 2012 12 noon to 1pm Second Life time (this is the same as USA Pacific time, 8pm UK time, see http://tinyurl.com/7q9388f for times elsewhere)Where: In the virtual world, Second Life, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/106/208/30/ You need a SL avatar, and the SL browser on your computer, to participate. Details: Diane leads the discussion of:John… -
Developing your teaching skills: 23 March; Cambridge
7 Feb 2012 | 3:57 pmA CILIP Career Development Group East of England Division event: Developing your teaching skills; 23rd March 2012 (afternoon); Cambridge University Library, UK. "Take your teaching skills to the next level with this stimulating half-day event. This participative course provides the opportunity to share teaching experiences, develop skills, and ensure you meet users' learning needs" Talks include:- adapting your teaching to fit different learning styles (by Suzanne Griffiths and Clare Humphries, University of Cranfield)- engaging users with interactive teaching sessions using the Cephalonian… -
LOEX registration open 10 February
6 Feb 2012 | 3:27 pmRegistration for the LOEX (information literacy) conference will open February 10, 2012 at 1PM USA Eastern time. The conference takes place May 3 - May 5, 2012 in Columbus, Ohio, USA and always books out VERY quickly. http://www.loexconference.org/Photo by Sheila Webber: Duck on ice, duck in the water; Sheffield, February 2012 -
National Libraries Day #nld12
4 Feb 2012 | 2:08 pmToday is the United Kingdom's National Libraries Day "a national celebration of libraries, librarians and library staff." There is a website at http://www.nationallibrariesday.org.uk with news about events around the country. The logo shown here,by richhawk57, is available under a Creative Commons License.
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THE NATIONAL CHILDREN'S BOOK AND LITERACY ALLIANCE
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Presidential Trivia of the Week
8 Feb 2012 | 4:12 amLearn and Have Fun Sharing Presidential Trivia with the Young People in Your Life In honor of this year's presidential campaign, the NCBLA is posting three presidential trivia questions each week. Why not test your knowledge? You can share the questions while driving to basketball practice, during a Scout meeting, or while finishing the family chores. This Week's Trivia QuestionsAmericans in primary states have been inundated with TV commercials promoting--or denigrating--all of this year's hopefuls for the Republican nomination. Which presidential candidate was the first to promote… -
In Case You Missed It!
7 Feb 2012 | 4:43 amChildren's Lit Expert Maria Salvadore Discusses Extensive Appeal of Multicultural BooksIn the Reading Rockets.org blog article titled "We're all hyphenated Americans," children's literature expert Maria Salvadore shares a recent teaching experience in which a group of parents recognized the value of reading multicultural books to their children. Salvadore says, "What this suggests is that books introduce readers to myriad people of all backgrounds — even in homogeneous communities. Children need to see themselves and meet others. These books must have a universal appeal, an emotional… -
Celebrate Presidents' Day Throughout February!
6 Feb 2012 | 4:31 amLibraries, Websites, and Books Offer Engaging Learning Opportunities During Presidents' MonthPresidents’ Day is February 20. How can we share stories of the American presidency with our children? Check out the following resources for multiple ideas to help you and the young people in your life take a closer look at all our presidents. Visit a Presidential Historic Site or LibraryMore than twenty states boast presidential birthplaces, historic homes, libraries, and museums. The NCBLA's educational website OurWhiteHouse.org offers a comprehensive guide to finding these fabulous… -
February is Black History Month
3 Feb 2012 | 3:50 amCelebrate African-American History with Books!Share the inspirational story of how slave Frederick Douglass found his way to freedom one word at a time in Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass by Lesa Cline-Ransome and illustrated by James E. Ransome. This picture book biography chronicles the youth of Frederick Douglass, one of the most prominent African American figures in American history. Douglass spent his life advocating for the equality of all, and it was through reading that he was able to stand up for himself and others. Award-winning husband-wife team Lesa… -
Presidential Trivia of the Week
1 Feb 2012 | 4:15 amPresidential Trivia Questions to Share with Your Class, Family, or Friends!In honor of this year's presidential campaign, the NCBLA is posting three presidential trivia questions each week. Why not take a few minutes to share these trivia questions with your family, class, or group of young people and see what they know?! This Week's Trivia QuestionsWho was the only presidential candidate to ever be elected by a unanimous vote? Which president considered himself to have been a "sissy" as a child, having said, "If there was any danger of getting into a fight, I always ran?" Which…
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Shanahan on Literacy
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Free Phonics Stuff (Phree Fonics Stuph?)
26 Jan 2012 | 12:29 pmA mother is doing her marketing with her 5-year-old in tow. She stops by the magazine rack and sees some children's workbooks aimed at teaching phonics. She pages through one of them and drops it into the grocery cart. This kind of scene plays out daily across America. Mothers want their kids to do well in school, and in grade 1 being able to read is "doing well." (It is no accident that so many grocery stores, drug stores, etc. sell such workbooks.)Such materials help kids to see the match between letters and sounds and a lot of kids like "playing school." I'd be hard pressed to say that… -
Cyndie Shanahan on Disciplinary Literacy
20 Jan 2012 | 10:16 amCyndie and I published an article about disciplinary literacy in December: Analysis of Expert Readers in Three Disciplines: History, Mathematics, and Chemistry. This is the study in which we had historians, mathematicians, and chemists doing think alouds while they read, and from this we were able to compare how these experts from different disciplines read. Upon the publication of the study, Cyndie was interviewed about this work and that interview is available to you through the Voice of Literacy, a site I have lauded before in this space. I thought she did great and that you might find… -
Disciplinary Literacy is NOT the New Name for Content Area Reading
12 Jan 2012 | 12:56 pmRecently, Cyndie and I published a study on disciplinary literacy in the Journal of Literacy Research (Shanahan, C. Shanahan, T., & Misichia, 2011). In the study we report on our efforts to identify the special nature of literacy in three disciplines. We looked specifically at history, science (chemistry), and mathematics.The study was based on the theory that it would be useful to account for such information when teaching students to read. The idea is that if students were taught to read history in a way that corresponds to how historians read they'd be better equipped to handle such… -
Parent Involvement
3 Jan 2012 | 5:39 pmA friend of mine, Alfred Tatum, and some of our graduate students at the University of Illinois at Chicago developed a guide to encourage parent involvement in their children's learning (supported by Tavis Smiley). They gave me permission to post a copy of it for your use on my blog. One of the best parts of this guide is that it supports parent involvement not just in the early grades, but through high school. That is absolutely correct! Parents can play a specific and direct role in their children's learning. I hope you find it useful. -
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is (Please)
1 Dec 2011 | 8:32 amLast year at this time, I published an entry encouraging charitable donations to organizations that give books to children. It seemed to have been a popular blog and so I'm republishing the list of organizations that do that. This information was drawn from Charity Navigator and I limited the list to organizations that support literacy, particularly for poor children. The organizations that I selected all spend more than 80% of their funding on their programming, and provide books or services on more than a local basis (there are many terrific local organizations, too). Any organization on…
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Box of Crayons
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Practical Coaching Series: Essential Interviews with Coaches You Need to Know About
9 Feb 2012 | 2:00 amIt’s International Coaching Week – hurrah! Much as I love professional coaches – hey, I am one after all – my real passion is about making coaching just a regular part of the way we work. In particular, how can you as a busy manager and leader use coaching more often to increase the focus, impact and meaning of the work you and those around you do. Peter Block, a man I constantly hold up as a deep influence on my work, said it best: Coaching is not a profession. It’s a way of being with one another. Indeed. I’ve had the good luck of interviewing some… -
Feedback is a Gift (but not in that horrible fake way you’re thinking)
7 Feb 2012 | 2:44 am“Feedback is a gift” Man, I hate that lyin’ stinkin’ statement. At least, I hate it when it’s offered up from the person giving it to the person receiving it. Certainly, having another person’s perspective on what’s going on can be useful and enlightening. But often what we’re given in feedback is a hellish cocktail of Data-free prejudice My reality is better than your reality This is a command but I’m calling it feedback And for some reason we’re supposed to be grateful for this download of … stuff that in fact often tells us… -
Will one of these five be your deathbed regret?
3 Feb 2012 | 2:50 amMy friend Dave just sent me this fascinating article from the Guardian newspaper. Bronnie Ware, an Australian nurse working in palliative care, recorded people’s regrets as they were dying and has shared the top five. 1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. 2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. 3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings. 4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. 5. I wish that I had let myself be happier. Well. That shakes me up. How about you? -
“Coaching is available to all of us…” [Great Work Quote]
2 Feb 2012 | 3:09 am“Coaching is available to all of us and is not a profession but a way of being with each other.” ~ Peter Block I’ll admit it right away. I’m a Peter Block fanboy. His books – from Flawless Consulting to The Answer to How Is Yes - are deeply influential on my work. (Community even made me cry a little. And yes, it’s a business book.) So when Peter wrote these words as a blurb for my first book Get Unstuck & Get Going on the stuff that matters, it was a little like Mozart saying to someone, “that’s an OK piece of music.” Very very… -
Tune in to Michael tomorrow
1 Feb 2012 | 8:59 amIf you’d like to listen to my dulcet tones and my Aussie-English-American-Canadian accent combination, I’ll be talking on Write Now Online radio tomorrow (Thursday 2nd) at 2pm Eastern/11am Pacific. You can listen in here http://www.blogtalkradio.com/writenow.
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NYT > Most E-Mailed
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Katherine Boo on Her Book ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’
9 Feb 2012 | 10:57 amKatherine Boo, the author of “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity,” lets a story of poverty tell itself. -
California Housing Market Braces for Facebook Millionaires
9 Feb 2012 | 10:50 amThe Bay Area and Silicon Valley expect the windfall from the Facebook stock offering to make their in-demand region even hotter. -
‘Full Metal Jousting’ Gear. No, It’s Not Tinfoil.
9 Feb 2012 | 10:49 amA skeptic finds out that wearing a 60-pound suit of armor like the kind used on the History channel’s new series “Full Metal Jousting” is not for the faint of ... anything. -
Is This Living Room Big Enough for My TV?
9 Feb 2012 | 10:10 amHuge televisions, once an expensive oddity, are now the affordable norm. -
Op-Ed Columnist: The White Underclass
9 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amWe need a national conversation about the dimensions of poverty or a chunk of working-class America could be calcified into an underclass.
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Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
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Meme Animals: Interspecies OMNOMNOMS!
9 Feb 2012 | 11:00 amCan we have dinner together? Yes! Of course we can! Love cute animal memes? We’ve got a ton over here! -
i meen boops
9 Feb 2012 | 9:00 ami wuv ur boobs i meen boops ai resentz dat remark… LoL by: ljg52843Picture by: Unknown -
GIF: I Meant to Do That!
9 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amLove cyoot and funneh animal gifs? Check out our brand new gif site! -
Cheezburger Is Getting a Makeover!
9 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amUPDATE: Forgive us! We forgot to mention that we will be implementing a new and improved voting system on our sites sometime in the future. It is still true that, starting Monday, our sites will not have voting buttons, but expect to see the voting function return to our front pages in the future! Cheezburger is getting a makeover! When you visit Cheezburger on Monday, Feb. 13, you will notice things look a bit different. Some of the changes include: – Voting buttons will no longer appear on Front Page LOLz. If you love a piece of content, we encourage you to “Post It to Your… -
CAMOUFLAGED MOBILE MISSLE
9 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amCAMOUFLAGED MOBILE MISSLE DEFENCE SYSTEM READY TO TEST SIR! dese r wepponz ob moose destrukshun! LoL by: StinkyrayPicture by: Unknown
