Many districts today struggle with finding the right tool for the right job, in teaching and learning there are different jobs; with the advent of PARCC, a computer given assessment, the need for schools to acquire new technology is great. There is vigorous debate about what that tool should be. If you do any reading along this line you know people are passionate about their choice of device. Honestly the device is last thing to be considered. Just…
I am tired of talking about standards, assessments, averages and classifying students. I don’t want to read about combating bulling and tolerating differences. I want to celebrate the individual and all their “quirkiness”. It is the people who did not fit the mold, who are not average or, more importantly, those who did not see themselves as one of the crowd who have made the biggest impact in art, science, business and literature. I spent most of my life trying…
Next week is Computer Science Education Week, and to celebrate many are participating in an Hour of Code. The focus is to identify how computers and code is almost everywhere from the obvious mobile devices to your toaster and microwave and to “demystify” code. Some one needs to create these devices and develop code. yet computer science is not taught in many schools. The hour of code has activities for student as young as 6 and even activities that do not…
One man’s truth is another man’s fiction. Wikipedia starts off with a pretty good definition of truth then goes on to a lengthy discourse on the philosophy of truth and its relative nature. It is one of those funny terms we all know what it means yet we don’t seem to be agree on what is true, just watch the nightly news. When we teach our students Information Literacy and help them to become better researchers and users of information…
My son is a gamer he plays all types of games (card, board, live action and computers). He knows he wants to do “something” with computers when he heads off to college in a couple of years. To help him figure it out he is taking a course on The Foundations of Game Design at our community college. He is particularly intrigued with the design of games; what motivates the player to keep going, strategy, scoring and leveling. He recently…
Welcome back to school! Those of us in the world of formal education are now deep into the process and our summers of relaxation, professional development and planning have morphed into the daily work of teaching and learning with our students. As we begin our new school year I would like to encourage you to watch a talk by Ken Robinson on How to Change Education from the Ground Up. Many of us are dealing with changes in curriculum as we…
I had an opportunity to attend BLC 2013 in Boston for a day. I always learn something while I am there, either in a session or conversations in the hall. Below is a summary of the notes I have from the event. Thursday Keynote Dr Weinberg Title of talk “Why hasn’t technology changed education?” Dr.Weinberg contents that is has not changed education but it has changed learning. What goes through my mind, then education and learning are not connected. The…