Saturday, May 10, 2008
Here is an interesting piece from the Technology column in the New York Times.
Return of the Cellphones-in-Class Issue
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Thursday, April 24, 2008
A very interesting article on “teachers as learners.” What do you think?
http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2008/04/operationalizin.html
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Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Have you had enough of the 21st century videos??? I thought these both were good. What do you think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NzQqPH3JRw&
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yCB4i7GJuM&
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Sunday, March 16, 2008
This video is pretty amazing!
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Thursday, February 28, 2008
New York Times Technology Columnist David Pogue writes about the Internet and child predators, calling it mostly over-hyped by the media.
How Dangerous is the Internet for Children?
He suggest parents (and educators) watch the recent PBS Frontline program Growing Up Online. “In any case, watch the show. You’ll learn that some fears are overplayed, others are underplayed, and above all, that the Internet plays a huge part in adolescence now. Pining for simpler times is a waste of time; like it or not, this particular genie is out of the bottle.”
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Sunday, December 02, 2007
In his article, “The Steep Unlearning Curve,” Will Richardson suggests 10 things we need to unlearn. What do you think? Are there anymore things to add to the list?
- We need to unlearn the idea that we are the sole content experts in the classroom, because we can now connect our kids to people who know far more than we do about the material we’re teaching.
- We need to unlearn the premise that we know more than our kids, because in many cases, they can now be our teachers as well.
- We need to unlearn the idea that learning itself is an event. In this day and age, it is a continual process.
- We need to unlearn the strategy that collaborative work inside the classroom is enough and understand that cooperating with students from around the globe can teach relevant and powerful negotiation and team-building skills.
- We need to unlearn the idea that every student needs to learn the same content when really what they need to learn is how to self-direct their own learning.
- We need to unlearn the notion that our students don’t need to see and understand how we ourselves learn.
- We need to unlearn our fear of putting ourselves and our students “out there” for we’ve proven we can do it in safe, relevant and effective ways.
- We need to unlearn the practice that teaches all students at the same pace. Is it any wonder why so many of our students love to play online games where they move forward at their own pace?
- We need to unlearn the idea that we can teach our students to be literate in this world by continually blocking and filtering access to the sites and experiences they need our help to navigate.
- We need to unlearn the premise that real change can happen just by rethinking what happens inside the school walls and understand that education is now a community undertaking on many different levels.
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Saturday, November 24, 2007
I ran across this quote this morning…
“The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress.” ~Joseph Joupert
Hope you are all having a good holiday break!
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Monday, September 10, 2007
An interesting take on spending and 1:1 laptop programs. Anyone want to try to shoot holes in it?
The Last Back-To-School Sale Ever
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Monday, September 03, 2007
There are a number of PSSA data tools that we have access to such as eMetric and PVAAS. Those tools can provide us with lots of data. However, several administrators have contacted me about improving their Excel skills to better manipulate the data sheets sent out in July.
Here is a site that might be useful: School Data Tutorials. There are some useful video tutorials, broken up into nice sections. Be sure to check out one of the most useful but least used components of Excel: Pivot Tables. So much you can do with data!
Let me know if this looks interesting to you and if you’d like more help!
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Nice article on Microsoft’s High School of the Future located in Philadelphia.
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Friday, August 10, 2007
As educational leaders, we are forever involved in problem solving situations. If we are to become “serial innovators,” Matthew May suggests we need to overcome the seven sins of solutions.
- Shortcutting - leaping to solutions. Do you dig into the possible causes of the problem, or do you jump right to a solution?
- Blindspots What assumptions do you make when solving a problem?
- Satisficing Do you go with the first option that offers an acceptable payoff?
- Downgrading Do you choose a solution that gets you most of the way, then sell the upside and downplay the downside?”
- Complicating What cost and complexity do you add in trying to solve the problem?
- Stifling Do you dismiss the answers of others in favor of your own?
“To become a great problem solver, focus on asking the right question, not the right answer.”
You can read the entire article and find out how to eliminate or tame the seven sins.
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Thursday, August 09, 2007
Recent National School Boards Association study: Creating & Connecting//Research and Guidelines on Online Social - and Educational - Networking
Among the recommendations:
- Explore social networking sites
- Consider using social networking for staff communication and professional development
- Pay attention to the non-conformists
- Reexamine social networking policies
- Encourage social networking companies to increase educational value
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Wednesday, August 08, 2007
We seem to be hearing more and more of this thinking from all corners of the educational world.
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Tuesday, August 07, 2007
This from the Harvard Business School blog: How Will Millennials Manage? The millennial generation exhibits different kinds of traits and values than previous generations. How will education be impacted by this new generation of teachers and administrators?
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Thursday, July 26, 2007
The America’s Digital Schools Survey provides some interesting findings about trends in desktop vs. laptop, 1:1 computing, impact on student achievement, bandwidth, online learning, professional development, total cost of ownership, and technology peripherals.
What questions come to mind for you when you hear this kind of data?
America’s Digital Schools Survey
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