school life should become more like real life

envision schools report...

on laptops - maine - the only state where all middle school kids have laptops. cost - per the last 5 years - for everything, maintenance, etc $250 each

on pbl - (project based learning) - from a kid: it allows me to explore the rest of the world - rather than select pages from a book....

ira socol's comment about cell phones

ira's comment in regard to banning cells in the classroom was so spot on - i'm posting it here:


My mobile is my computer, my note-taking platform, my reference guide, I often load my books onto it. It is my assistive technology in many ways as well, and you are not taking it away from me because you can not master contemporary classroom management.

All around the world - outside of North America - the modern mobile is being embraced as the greatest tool of education. Imagine, the world's greatest library in the palm of your hand, plus the perfect way to engage with the teacher, with classmates, to make the backchannel an essential part of the learning environment. A word processor - a voice dictation word processor if you'd like - a camera capable of converting text into speech - a GPS device - a calculator. Yes, what might any of that have to do with making school work for most students?

So, here are my mobile phone rules:

(1) Keep it out, on your desk. That way, if you've forgotten to silence the ring, we're not waiting for you to find it in your backpack.

(2) If you need to talk, go outside. No big deal.

(3) Have it on all the time - we'll be using it - polleverywhere, todaysmeet, SMS questions to people out of the classroom, sharing links, putting important notes in our calendars.

And with those simple rules, and engaged teaching - "look that up, would you?" "please share that?" "can you text your friend and ask?" "really? everyone knows? everyone text three friends and ask them." We have no problems.

The phone of today is the essential learning and communication "container" (to use Alan November's term). If we are not using it in schools, if we are not teaching best mobile practices to our students, we are failing them.

It is that simple.

http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2007/12/dont-hang-up-on-your-students-futures.html

http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2008/04/technology-and-equity.html

http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2008/11/bringing-back-channel-forward.html

http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com/

battling cell phones....really?

gosh - if we only realized....the things we are asking for are in the room with us. free to us. being wasted on and adding to triteness.

take a look at this post, especially the comments from ira socol.

i keep hearing november - ....who owns the learning...

funny - the more we give it up - how the trite conversations on their phones diminish. they become too busy using it to learn.

respectfully - notice - when we don't give it up - how trite our battles are.

gosh - if we could only listen to students more. it's not about them being disrespectful, it's about them being disengaged.

innovation as simple as this

an adorable display of innovation - and celebrating life with meaning.

their goal - a wedding that would be unforgettable.
i think they got it.

can you imagine the roadblocks - going against tradition and all... how ever did the make it through -....?

did you see sad faces in the audience? watch again...the faces before...the faces after.
did you see movement in the audience? again - before...and after.
the audience embraced the wedding.

let's take this energy into our every day.
at home - at work - at play - .....even at school.


@prettylikedeer - thanks for finding spark out there and sharing it with others...

we can all learn from acumen and the blue sweater

learning how to help others - is learning how to learn.

jacqueline novogratz has learned so much - through helping so many. her insight is keen from experience. you can learn from her in talks like this one.... and books like this one....

her ideas will not only continue to rid the world of true poverty - but also rid the world of other impoverished sectors, ie: public education.

in her book, she tells a story of the blue bakery (ch 5). it could read as a how to manual.... for business, for ed..., for....

in ch 12 jacqueline writes about the genocide, "if we have learned anything, it is the horror that can happen when people don't think for themselves, but instead follow authority blindly."
she writes about the potential technology is allowing for change in developing countries - like none other in history. but that the process of "helping" has to be completely redefined.
i can't help but see a relation to education in these words.

my biggest take away:
in helping others - not only do we learn what's important - but we feel a sense of purpose and belonging - something we all crave. what jacqueline shares - is a way to make our giving - not only helpful to us - but helpful to the receiver. money is nice, it's needed, it helps - but the true essence of helping others is empowering them to help themselves. so that they can then be about helping others. now there's a cycle worth riding.


find a great summary of the blue sweater at readitfor.me.

who should own the learning?

two minute talk from alan november - when asked - the significance of web 2.0 and learning 2.0.

as long as schools own the learner, teachers give hw and teachers give tests and teachers control the curriculum, web 2.0 has no chance to have an impact on learning 2.0. on the other hand if we decide that students should own the learning, and students should co-design the curriculum, and design own hw......it's ridiculous to have any teacher say - put your books away - we're going to have a test now - based on memorization...just flies in the face of 2.0... there would be so much we would have to change in the culture to be serious about 2.0...

i want to be serious about it. let's get serious about it.

tests drive us...are we driving kids to a dead end?

been thinking a lot about alternate tests lately.

tests seem to drive just about everything in public ed. per seth godin - are we spiraling to death - giving up the ghost to charter schools - online courses - and anyone else taking a stand against standardization?

funny - i think we have really accomplished a lot in ed. i work with a lot of brilliant teachers. but perhaps we've failed at the most vital point of learning. the tweaking of ourselves, continually revising the ongoing rough draft of our thinking. and worse yet - i think that's the big piece we haven't passed on to the kids. they think assessment is all about one test at the end. their success lies in a one time shot. no wonder test-anxiety has become such a popular attribute. no wonder cheating makes sense to a lot of them.

so how could we assess to create meaning? to create an attitude that assessment/revision is as vital to learning as breathing is to living.

some thoughts on ways to find what needs tweaking (aka alternative assessments):
1) what you find when you google a kid. this would encourage projects that live on rather than getting trashed after they are graded.
2) what kinds of questions the kid asks - are they rich, or trite
3) how everyone else is doing. we know we learn more when we teach - so how are the others in this kid's community/pln (in class and/or online) doing? define success by how well a kid has brought others along - by who he hangs with
4) how the others view him/her. of the things this kid publishes - how many hits does he/she get... etc...

maybe we should quit trying to taxi kids so much. (public vs audience)
if we just drove our own car better - by continually learning and tweaking ourselves - via plns.... maybe they would glob onto that.

what we do says so much more than what we say. especially to kids

network no longer scam only

growing up for me - when you heard "network" - it registered as "scam" - using others to get rich quick.

today - we see the good side of networking.

the teacher's dilemma - inability to tailor learning environments to 100+ kids... now can come to fruition with the use of personal learning networks. (plns)

wieman speaks of expert individual tutors.
christensen speaks of tailored modules - kid-centric/created.

because of the web - we are now able to create communities/public that can differentiate to the nth degree for our students. gosh - let's not miss it.

richardson advises on best practices with pln's for students. we need to model how to create/experience them:
1) safely
2) ethically
3) efficiently

any educator not involved in at least one pln (whether or not online) - give it a shot. i'm thinking it's the change you are looking for. it was for me.

together we are more.

no more zombie schools

turning zombie organizations around. how do you create real value?

learning in public - bringing others along - authentic value.

getting out of the way

oh the places they'll go.
cameron teaches us - how kids can teach themselves - how helping others is how we all learn best.

public vs "public"

might we turn public school into public school?

it's leadership day 2009

hello *adult leaders in education ....
*kids will lead too - but they mostly just need us to get out of the way.
they're the lucky ones - needing simply to learn. we have the difficult job of unlearning first.

i believe that on this day - and everyday - bill strickland would encourage us to look like the solution, not the problem.
please join me in initiating/continuing conversations and action about the following in regard to school.

1) focus
learning how to learn
2) audience
too many differences to describe, common thread - each one has value
3) leader role
remover of roadblocks, risk taker, expert individual tutor
4) supplies needed:
individual web access

we feel fine

open, wait a bit then start clicking.

twitter wall

allows for more conversation, sharing of opinions, focus on the point of what you are saying...
ongoing-ness.
nice video - showing how it works.

people and story telling at the core

the story of self in order to tell the story of us.


let kids tell their stories for their peers, let them comment on it, and record everything.
the point of this exercise for the kids is to learn how to tell their stories, not just to themselves but also to others

our journey is completely unique for each of us...
that journey is the text from which we can teach...
learning how to draw on that text in order to interpret others...

job of leaders, to introduce new behavior in groups in a credible fashion...

story is about making connection so that is huge
then the leader says, ok - so what are the connections,...where did"this guy" get his sense of hope from....

the thing about story telling - it's iterative..

then leader says - what did you find most helpful in telling your story..

one guy said - telling my story helped me find out what the moral of my story is

telling a story 1) initial moment 2) bridge moment 3) now moment

stories all revolve around choices

story is: protagonist -> choice -> outcome -> moral

the anatomy of a successfull school year

brilliant post by steven devijver.

unbox your thinking

article about change in ed

must see video (esp educators/students/parents) (ok - everybody)

video here:
will richardson at 0c09

my notes here:
key word - "with"whom they learn - rather than "from" whom they learn
the bu
from a content standpoint - ed doesn't need us
from a learning standpoint - totally needs us
how to use media to connect - are you teaching diigo? wikipedia? (gets 1/4 mill edits/day)

mit has free open coursewhere for all courses

very cool video

click here

This music video was shot for Sour’s ‘Hibi no Neiro’ (Tone of everyday) from their first mini album ‘Water Flavor EP’. The cast were selected from the actual Sour fan base, from many countries around the world. Each person and scene was filmed purely via webcam.
(this about this video via alec couros)

the teachers made me feel small

check this out if you haven't yet.
be sure to not just be awed by his talent - listen to his words.

amazing what we do to people.
amazing how some people respond.