I was excited and then frustrated today. Yesterday I read about the changes Google was making to Gmail. Changes that when I read said to myself “That makes sense, that will work for me”. Then today I opened my inbox saw the pop-up that said I had gotten the upgrade and clicked continue. I then went on to struggle figuring […]
Over the past couple of days I’ve had one simple question that I can’t get out of my head. Why do we believe that every teacher having a computer on their desk will benefit teaching and learning, but giving one to students wouldn’t? It’s a simple question isn’t it? I mean….when I started teaching in 1999 I walked into my […]
If you haven’t heard, Amazon has announced the Kindle DX. A 9.7 inch Wireless reading device with a larger screen made for reading textbooks and newspapers. Now this is all great news for technology and e-books. But as I listened to the TWIT podcast episode 194 they talked about what this device really is about. More important than the […]
Napster was started in June 1999 and for many marked the beginning of an era of free digital music. For the next 10 years the music industry would try to stop people from downloading free, and what they claimed to be, illegal music. In January 2009 the largest online music store in the world, Apple’s iTunes, announced it will offer […]
(As you can tell from Kim’s recent post. Systematic change at all levels is on our mind at ISB) How much time to we spend helping our community understand the changing landscape of learning? If we want to change the system, then we need to be prepared to change the whole system. We need to help our school communities understand […]
(What follows is the thinking of many people that I have the pleasure to work with every day. It is my hope that I can put into words, for myself, how we are trying to bring systematic change to our school in hopes that you might be able to use a piece of it to bring change within your organization […]
This morning before leaving for work I was enjoying a cup of coffee with The Thinking Chick (the new nickname for my wife by my colleagues). We were discussion a video created by one of Chad Bates‘ students in class. Me: “It’s a great video! And think how much more she’s going to remember about Excel. Way more then she […]
To often I hear educators make remarks about change. Either about that it’s too much, too fast, too often, or the more famous one, “Here we go again.” For some reason, some educators do not see the I in change. The school can change, teaching can change, students can change, as long as I don’t have to change. How do […]
I’m going to remix some ideas from Gapingvoid. I do encourage you to read the entire post with an eye on education. It seems to me that in any school, large or small, you can divide the people into three broad categories. 1. The “Changers”. These are the educators who use their work as a platform to “Change The World”. […]
A recent conversation with my wife about NECC, my frustrations with schools and education in general led to this. Me: I don’t know….I just don’t think it’s going to change. Wife: Of course it’s not going to change. People don’t change unless they have to or are forced to Me: I know…and we (the educational community) can’t do either Wife: […]