Recent Articles & Posts
Ineffable Sadness
As parents, we gladly sacrifice so much of who we are for our children and their future. As educators, we give our lives to impacting kids positively, to helping them believe in themselves. We take so much care and effort to help kids grow and be … [Read More...]
Gov. Mark Dayton’s Vision for the Future of Education
Sometimes the contradictions in life smack you right in the forehead. This morning I was doing some work and casually watching my Twitter stream fill up with articles, comments, and debate about the potential of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to … [Read More...]
Read & Write Chrome Extension
If you work with students who struggle with reading and writing, Read & Write is a very cool and free Google Docs extension for the Chrome browser, which can be used on either Macs or Windows. The main feature of the extension is that it will … [Read More...]
World Language Learning Tech Tools
World languages present some unique challenges for teachers attempting to use digital resources, flip their classrooms, and teach online. Emilia Carrillo (@spanish4teacher) has organized a collaborative effort to put together a solid collection of … [Read More...]
IPhone Home Button Woes – Hardware or Software Problem?
So the nice lady at the Apple Store told me for certain that the problem with the Home button on my iPhone was most definitely 100% a software problem. "If it were a hardware problem, the button wouldn't work at all. Because it works sometimes, it … [Read More...]
SmartBoard Notebook App for iPads!
One of the biggest complaints I have against a SmartBoard is that in many ways the nature of the tool reinforces a teaching and learning style where activity is centered at the front of the room, and everyone else watches. SmartBoard activities, as … [Read More...]
What TIES 2011 Tells Us about Education: iPads and Google
The recent TIES 2011 Conference in Minnesota is the state’s largest K-12 educational technology conference, with a record-breaking 3100 educators in attendance this year. This year, in particular, attendance and session data offer a great lens for … [Read More...]
Virtual School Symposium 2011 Reflections
Wow! At this point last year, right after Virtual School Sympoisum 2010, I remember debating with Jon Fila, co-founder of MoodleShare, the value of attending Virtual School Symposium 2011. In all honesty, I was nonplussed with last year’s event. … [Read More...]
Course Design Tip: Focus on Task over Tool
I was reading some articles from the #edchat Twitter feed tonight, and an article by Christopher Dawson on Adobe Premier talked about the importance of building classes around tasks rather than tools. He writes: "I’d rather see a class on … [Read More...]
Replace, Don’t Add
Teachers are often so overworked that adding something new is impossibly challenging. A colleague of mine, Richard Ognibene, once told me, “In the real world, when you put on a new coat, you take the old one off first. In education, we often just … [Read More...]
