What will the classroom of the future look like. With MOOCs, iTunes University, and other surrogate content providers changing the nature of how information moves, the classroom will need to be different. I certainly believe flipping will be a major component of the future. But the teacher will only be obsolete if they make themselves [...]

Could I function in my classroom without my computer?  I don’t think so.  I use it every day, all day, in every class.  All my materials are digital (and so far I have only printed 120 sheets of paper for my 85 students in just over a month of school).  This means that I’m on trajectory [...]

Without a doubt, the single most revolutionary idea I have heard in nearly 20 years of teaching is the flipped classroom (reverse instruction) model. Embodied in any “revolution” is the promise and terror of that word. Destruction and Recreation all at once. Om, Shiva! Ugh!!!  I just lost four paragraphs!!!!!  Technology giveth and technology…[Read more]

I have been thinking about the semantic debate that Jennifer has noted regarding the descriptors of “integrate”, “embed” and her addition, “camouflage” as ways of “infusing” ( ISTE language ) technology into education.  The constructivist underpinnings of this desire to empower students with the tools to make meaning are noble and encouraging,…[Read more]

I honestly don’t know. I find most talk of IT integration to be alternately high-minded and clueless. What is one to make of “Model Digital Age Work and Learning” if the meaning of these terms is still open for debate? We’re currently working at a school that has eagerly gulped down the 1:1 Digital Kool-Aid and [...]

For several years now I have shown the 1995 film Dead Man Walking to my students towards the end of our unit on ethics. We’ve already discussed the ethical theories espoused by Plato, Aristotle, Bentham, Kant and Mill and as I know most are heading to the US for university, I ask if they know [...]

Evolution has programmed us for visual acuity, especially when it comes to movement. Listening has never triggered our reptilian fight or flight alertness as any lecturing teacher with any self-awareness has known. And as our students are increasingly weaned on hyper-kinetic levels of movement, we must acknowledge this and differentiate…[Read more]

I have taught a unit on media literacy within TOK for several years now.  While the IB doesn’t include visual literacy in the TOK diagram and syllabus, it is such an essential application of critical thinking in today’s highly mediated world.  Neil Postman, of whom I have written about before, is our key text for [...]

I first heard about Garr Reynold’s Presentation Zen book from our IT Director at school.  He leant it to me and I read it cover to cover in a single sitting…that’s not so impressive as it’s got a lot of pictures and “negative space.”  It is one of those bellweather books that represents (hopefully) a paradigm [...]

I found the Frontline Digital Nation video fascinating.  I am planning on attending (and now so are Kristin and Dan) the Learning & the Brain Conference in San Francisco in February which will focus on “iGENERATION: HOW THE DIGITAL AGE IS ALTERING STUDENT BRAINS, LEARNING & TEACHING”.  Several of the key figures in the Frontline video are…[Read more]

Our rationale for revisiting the US AUP document was manifold. The original document looked as if it had been cobbled together quickly from a variety of sources. It was wordy, repetitively redundant, tonally variant, too long, negative rather than positive, and ultimately, lawyer friendly but not very student friendly. We decided that there was…[Read more]

Thanks to a tip from Dan Long, I saw Sugata Mitra’s TEDTalk on “New Experiments in Self Teaching” . Mitra has spent the better part of the last 20 years experimenting with educational technology and it’s impact on teaching and learning.  His conclusions are quite profound and speak to a significant paradigm shift in the way our [...]