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Critical Transformations: 15 Tools
Major seismic shifts can transform educators, and by proxy, instruction. However, more often than not, it’s just the opposite. Here are 15 implementable small steps that lead to transformation.
Continue reading...Engaging Your Stakeholders with Podcasting
7. March 2010
Educators feast on hope. We hope to make a difference. We hope students will become life-long learners. We hope it won’t take too long to grade that stack of assignments we’ve been neglecting all week. We hope the students bring us our favorite candy the day after Halloween. Mostly, though, we hope to find curricular [...]
Continue reading...11 Olympic Resources to Bring the Games to Your Classroom
9. February 2010
Here is a collection of links to resources for bringing the Winter Olympics into your classroom. Twitter hashtags: #Olympics, #Vancouver, #WinterOlympics, #Vancouver2010, #OlympicGames, OG2010, #WinterGames Olympic dot org, the official website of the Olympic movement. Videos, looks ahead, looks behind, peeks into the workings of the IOC. This link connects to the Vancouver porthole. Resources [...]
Continue reading...i-Gadgets, Accessories, & Apps We Might (Never) See
1. February 2010
I keep waiting for Steve Job’s introduction of Apple’s iGadget line, supposedly already in prototype production. According to rumors I’m making up and circulating, the iGadget line is intended to be a complete lifestyle suite of gadgets, accessories, and apps to improve our i-lives. I secured this incomplete list of products from my imagination. iWipe: [...]
Continue reading...Plate Tectonics Power Point
20. January 2010
With the recent Earthquakes (and ensuing devastation in Haiti), a number of teachers are working to help their students make sense of the events — both from humanitarian and geographical perspectives. A good friend of mine, Dr. Todd Albert, a climatologist and geography professor, created this power point presentation on Plate Tectonics a few years [...]
Continue reading...The Pulitzer Center — Relevant Learning, Authentic Engagement
16. November 2009
Where do you point your students for news? Fox? NBC? NPR? NY Times? CNN? When you want something a bit different, something less corporate, where do you look? Media Matters? The Daily Show? Indy Media? Rush? Huffington? Crooks and Liars? What if you want ground-breaking, objective, mixed media journalism with a global perspective, that creates [...]
Continue reading...Cornucopia of Primary Sources Links: The National Archives
14. November 2009
In a fantastic session at NCSS Annual Conference, a couple of education specialists from the National Archives and Records Administration presented a small sampling of the incredible wealth of primary source materials available for free. From Nixon’s resignation letter to Regan’s landmark Berlin speech (his speaking copy!), they employed resources that can bring history alive [...]
Continue reading...Social Networks in the Social Studies: Promise & Potential
13. November 2009
Do standards influence quality of instruction? No doubt. Do other teachers’ practices have a larger influence? You bet. Many quotes by dead famous people suggest the potential of surrounding yourself with people who you respect and who inspire you. Doing so as teachers however, can be a challenge. Most teachers find themselves isolated by four [...]
Continue reading...Google Custom Search Refines Research Skills
23. August 2009
Teachers train students to find what they need without sifting through results on millions of sites.
Continue reading...Janine Benyus on Biomimicry
12. August 2009
Janine Benyus showcases some innovative breakthroughs in science and engineering thanks to biomimicry, which seeks to emulate “Nature’s best biological ideas to solve human problems”. It is a fascinating and enlightening peak at an emerging trend built around the simple essential question, “How has nature overcome this obstacle?” The ensuing discoveries invariably lead to more sustainable [...]
Continue reading...Documenting the Digital Generation
23. July 2009
The George Lucas Educational Foundation recently launched an exciting new website — Digital Generation – which offers a wealth of videos which will be relevant to anyone who wants to better understand the new media literacies, participatory culture, and young people’s online lives, themes which recur here with great frequency. I have been looking the [...]
Continue reading...Participatory Learning vs. De-schooling, De-skilling, and De-valuing
15. July 2009
In another outstanding video from Edutopia’s Educator page of the Digital Generation Project, Henry Jenkins, participatory media guru and Director of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program discusses “this new media landscape” and its implications for learning, teaching, and integrating media literacy. He challenges us as educators and participants in media to look beyond “natives vs. [...]
Continue reading...Digitally Diversifying Instruction
14. July 2009
In a world where our students are increasingly surpassing our skills in understanding and utilizing technology, Vicki Davis, aka @CoolCatTeacher, has found a way to harness their enthusiasm and potential to help inform her teaching. In this video from Edutopia’s Digital Generation Project, Vicki Davis connects her students to the world through a deft use [...]
Continue reading...Transformer: Is Technology an Autobot or a Decepticon?
8. July 2009
Pop Quiz (Complete the following sentence with the answer you think is better than the others): Technology is Good. Bad. Indifferent. Transformative. All of the above. If you picked 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, you’re right! Congratulations! Nice work! By itself, technology is neither good or bad. In fact, when sitting on a shelf [...]
Continue reading...10 Principles for the Future of Learning
2. July 2009
I daydream the future of schooling will include a teacher like this. (It’s too late for me, I know, but I cross my fingers for the sake of my daughter.) Yoda aside, who better to daydream the future of learning with than the good folks at MIT? With minds on the front edge of theory, [...]
Continue reading...We Feel Fine, Really.
2. July 2009
In this short clip from Sputnik, Jonathan Harris describes the workings of his website, We Feel Fine, which explores global human emotions in a unique and integrated (and English) format. As educators, we should take note. Part computer scientist, part anthropologist, part visual artist, and part storyteller — Jonathan represents the next generation of thinkers [...]
Continue reading...Integrated Living. Separated Learning? (Part 2)
26. June 2009
(You can read Part 1 here) In such an integrated world, where the reverberations of problems and solutions ripple far beyond their localized sources, we must learn to think in terms of systems (called systems thinking), to see beyond compartmentalized events, and work with others from diverse backgrounds and cultures toward common goals. That’s a [...]
Continue reading...Integrated Living. Separated Learning? (Part 1)
24. June 2009
I marvel at my phone. It surfs the internet, finds my e-mail, lets me twitter, takes calls, and gets along well with my computer. It’s a calendar, a stopwatch, a newspaper, and a means of distracting my daughter when she needs distracting. It’s the height of integration (for now). So many systems amalgamated. So many [...]
Continue reading...Or Is It About the Technology
9. June 2009
(This article is cross-posted on Keeping Kids First and Edurati Review) A few weeks ago, I published a series of my thoughts on 21st century learning and teaching in a post titled “It’s Not About the Technology.” For a tech integrator and enthusiast like me, it was almost uncomfortable to articulate these ideas independent of [...]
Continue reading...Recent Videos 
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Oil Spill Estimate
Pick your level of gush: NOAA’s super-conservative-we-just-publish-what-BP-tells-us or the Dr. Doom expert analysis. Either way, it’s not looking good. It’s looking goo.
- Open Letter to the Teacher Who Said "I Hate Technology."
- The Folly of Rubrics and Grades
- A Teacher's Field Guide to Parents
- Reviewing Cathy Vatterott's "Rethinking Homework"
- Shift Happens. (Even in Schools?)
- Marion Brady: Thank YOU. I hope I didn't leave the impression th...
- Marion Brady: I've done consulting work twice for the Gates Foun...
- Sharon Elin: One important parent type that could be added, in ...
- Jessica Horton: Marion, I love this piece, but I don't know if I a...
- Adam Burk: Thanks for this post, making the necessary highlig...
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10. March 2010
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