Do you ever wonder if you could be working on something more important than integrating educational technology? Obviously, there is enormous value in helping instructors discover more learner-centered approaches to classroom and online teaching. Change has to happen. There are no doubts about that. We’re not going backward and the world needs people like us [...]
I know I may not do things the way everyone else does. I don’t follow the research. I don’t follow the trends. I look for patterns. From a cacophonous blur, I pull at a tiny thread and follow it, until it disappears, or leads to resolution. As I wade through [...]
This has been the most active week this blog has ever seen. On the 16th, one month after I was dropped off at the airport in Saskatoon, leaving behind my new friends but carrying fond memories, I felt like I needed to share some of my latest intuitions. The thoughts didn’t translate well to words, [...]
I realized, on my drive home, I never see anyone talk about disconnecting from networks. We all talk about the importance of connecting and building networks, but what about letting go? Sometimes people announce they are taking a break. We react with compassion. Sometimes we try to get them to change their minds. Really, it’s [...]
Learning is the future of education. Students need to develop an awareness of how they learn. By student, I mean every human being with whom we come in contact. Students are not just the people we enroll in our classes. Parents, baby sisters, grandparents, neighbors, service workers and executives are students. [...]
If you don’t keep your mind open to new experiences, you are in the way of learning. If you take more than you give, you are in the way of learning. If you use your voice to tear apart learning metaphors, destroy other people’s ideas, or make personal attacks, however passive aggressive, you [...]
Imagine a classroom with upper elementary school students all in one learning space. There are smaller areas with chairs, some with pillows, bookshelves and boards, the usual stuff. The teachers move between the students and know the students from multiple levels. Students know teachers from other levels. The older students are each partnered with a [...]
I spent part of my weekend doing my mandatory parent volunteer work for my 7 year old daughter’s grade 1-3 Montessori class. I had been prepared to simply write them a check, when the teacher contacted me because I “know about computers.” She said she had typed up the students’ US President reports in a [...]
Friday I moved to a new office and it made a huge difference in the way I approached my work. Here’s the hallway outside my old office:
It was in a long building, with short hallways crossing it. There were only a few classrooms and I had to keep my door closed because of [...]