A week ago I asked for your help identifying model 21st century schools. Although I knew of a few schools or districts that were good models of what the new learning paradigm […]
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Okay, I don’t know if this is a great idea or a dumb one but I thought I’d roll it out and see (the Twittersphere seemed to like it a […]
This year I started writing a column in the SAI Report, the monthly PDF newsletter put out by the School Administrators of Iowa for its members. With SAI’s permission, I’ve […]
From Mike Sansone: I once asked a teacher what would happen if they treated their students like customers, with a design philosophy of customer experience in mind. The teacher was […]
The elementary principals here are collectively rearranging their schools’ schedules to create a unified literacy block every morning and greater opportunity for teachers to have common planning time. In order […]
Yesterday Ben Grey highlighted an issue that often arises when educators think about technology initiatives: If a public school teacher writes a grant for technology, but the district can’t sustain […]
I was disappointed to read recently in the Des Moines Register that Kalona Elementary School here in Iowa is discontinuing its Arabic language program due to lack of funding. Not only is it […]
Incumbents very seldom invent the future. – Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, in Dinosaur at the Gate
Which schools are good models that others could (should) visit to see what a new educational paradigm might look like? This is the #1 question I get asked when I […]
Yesterday was Episode 4 of 4 Guys Talking, the new ‘talk radio’ podcast series from CASTLE. We spent the entire time talking about 1:1 laptop programs. Our first 50 minutes was spent […]
Tomorrow is Iowa State University’s first-ever symposium for the new ComETS group here on campus. Modeled after a similar group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, ComETS is an attempt to bring […]
A pilot study at Ohio State University has found that Facebook users in college have lower grades and spend less time studying. I pieced together the following chart from the […]
This is a long overdue post that Episode 3 of 4 Guys Talking, the new ‘talk radio’ podcast series from CASTLE, is now available. As usual, our conversation ranged a […]
I’m pleased to announce that Jeff Mao, Learning Technology Policy Director for the State of Maine, will be our first-ever official guest at 4 Guys Talking. Jeff will be joining […]
I’ve probably watched this video clip of Paul Potts a dozen times and I still choke up when I see it [click on picture to see video]: Now Britain has […]
Some brilliance from Sue King over at LeaderTalk: I have said, “We must be explicit about what we want students to know, understand and be able to do.” What some […]
Larry Ferlazzo blogged yesterday about PostRank’s list of the top education blogs as measured by “engagement.” I think PostRank has the potential to be a really useful tool but right […]
Neither Todd Seal nor Dan Meyer agree with my assertion that teachers should be able to identify at least 10 good web sites for their classes. Todd says: I’m typically looking […]
TIME has a new article out on the use of Web 2.0 tools by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Apparently Intellipedia, a classified version of Wikipedia, has been “transforming […]
I greatly enjoyed Clive Thompson’s recent Wired article on netbooks. For years laptop manufacturers have been giving us more and more powerful computers: bigger hard drives, more memory, faster processing […]
[cross-posted at LeaderTalk] As we all know, we are in the midst of a massive economic downturn. Every month is accompanied by reports of additional, large-scale layoffs. People are losing their jobs in […]
Recently I was interviewed for The Chronicle of Higher Education‘s article on academics who Twitter. Here’s my portion of the story: n n 8. Scott McLeod,an associate professor at Iowa State […]
Here’s a graph that’s probably only of interest to me but I thought I’d share it anyway. If you’re really interested, you can view the live graph. I’ll update it at […]
This seems like a seemingly simple question for teachers: Could you identify 10 excellent web sites for your grade level / subject area? Ideally, of course, teachers would know 10 or […]
FYI, Episode 3 of 4 Guys Talking is today at noon Central. Follow the link to the live Internet stream, which also includes the call-in number if you want to give us a ring!
If you haven’t visited this blog’s actual web site lately, I’ve been tweaking a few navigational items. Probably the biggest change is that I added a horizontal navigation bar up […]
I found out recently that my local school district now allows students to bring their own laptops from home. I think that this is GREAT (even while simultaneously understanding the […]