12 videos to spark educators' thinking

If you’re like me, you have trouble keeping up with all of the great videos that are out there. I love it when others help me separate the wheat from the chaff.

For my column this month for the School Administrators of Iowa newsletter, I listed a dozen videos that I thought would help spark educators’ thinking about the changes that are occurring around us. None of these are videos that we already have used in the technology leadership training that we’ve done statewide for principals and superintendents.

School leaders and/or educator preparation programs could show these videos to practicing or preservice administrators and teachers, school boards, or community members to maintain a heightened sense of urgency for change. I usually recommend to administrators that, every time they’re face-to-face with a group, they show a video or share something they recently read or learned. They also could, for example, assign one of these videos as ‘homework’ ahead of a meeting. The important thing is to keep sharing how our world is changing and to keep discussing what it means for our educational practice.

Here’s my list, in no particular order:

Sir Ken Robinson, Changing education paradigms (11 minutes)

Sugatra Mitra, The child-driven education (17 minutes)

Clay Shirky, How cognitive surplus will change the world (13 minutes)

Chris Anderson, How web video powers global innovation (19 minutes)

Dean Shareski, Sharing: The moral imperative (25 minutes)

Henry Jenkins, TEDxNYED (18 minutes)

Daniel Pink, Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us (11 minutes)

Dan Meyer, Math class needs a makeover (12 minutes)

Jeff Jarvis, TEDxNYED (17 minutes)

Lisa Nielsen, Response to principal who bans social media (4 minutes)

New Brunswick Department of Education, 21st century education in New Brunswick (6 minutes)