Gamification in Education One of the new, at least newer, aspects of education is Gamification. This is basically the use of games to teach, review, and intervention for the students. With the constant, exponential expansion of online and blended learning it was only a...
Politicians are increasingly using social media to engage with their constituents, and it has been said that President Obama skillfully used social media, particularly Twitter, to engage younger voters and win both of his presidential elections. As such, it is important when teaching about policy...
Painting a picture that was both harrowing and hopeful, Van Jones titillated the gathering of educators on the final morning of ASCD’s 2013 Annual Conference with both the peril and promise of tomorrow. In short, despite the copious challenges we find ourselves in today, we...
Quality technological leadership is very much aligned with effective leadership. The keys to success depend on being mission driven, employing the empowerment of others, communicating effectively, and cultivating a shared vision and purpose. A nuanced approach to staying on course and being open to change...
Social media has already revolutionized the college campus. Social media is far more than a slick website, to aid students in finding an online school, it includes all of the various forms of connection made possible by the internet, often with a heavy dose of...
In his best-selling book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell described how social change can occur dramatically and rapidly as it spreads contagiously from person to person – or, as we might say more than a decade after...
In this thoughtful Harvard Business Review article, Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson asks us to see beyond Jobs’s legendary roughness with people and appreciate the leadership qualities that made him one of the most successful innovators of our time. “The essence of Jobs, I think,...
Hall Davidson, Director of Discovery Education Network, had a session at ASCD's 2012 Annual Conference this morning on "Making Mobile Meaningful." You can connect with his slides here. Here are a few of the resources he shared for utilizing mobile devices students in and out of...
Universities everywhere are jumping on the distance learning bandwagon. Each year more and more courses are becoming available online. Even some high schools are beginning to offer online classes. On the surface, this sounds like a wonderful idea, but before pursuing an online degree, one...
We’ve heard the studies and statistics. Today’s students will likely change jobs X times in their adult lives. Creativity and critical thinking are prized by employers but not found in new hires. The world’s knowledge is doubling every X days/weeks/months. The current school structure is...
Technology is a dominating force in education, but twenty-five years ago, most classrooms didn't even have a single computer, let alone a roomful. With today’s students the most plugged-in generation to ever walk the earth, the value of technology is often taken for granted. More...
I really try not to rant in blog posts. (I do most of my ranting around the house where my dog greets it with a yawn before burying his head under a blanket.) But I’m growing weary of something that I’m seeing more and more. One...
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. ...
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,...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...