Category: schoolreform
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A Short, Strange Trip into the 21st Century, Part 1 (guest post by Clay Burell)
Prologue: A Remembrance Before I was sentenced to twelve years of forced labor at this modern invention called “school,” I had a couple of years of toddler freedom to explore the vast wonders of my small world. A particularly magical place was my father’s closet. A costume gallery of shirts, pants, coats, ties, and suits…
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Learning should be an invitation, not a mandate
Marc Prensky, in his recent article in the Feb/Mar issue of EduTopia, “Programming: The New Literacy,” makes a persuasive case for helping learners of ALL ages master a key element of the new literacies of the 21st century: Programming. The following paragraph near the end of his piece really caught my attention: Our machines are…
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Why Celebrate Oklahoma Voices Matters
Today was day one of our first Celebrate Oklahoma Voices 3 day workshop for educators in 2008. The project team is facilitating five of these workshops during spring and summer 2008 at different five locations in our state. Of all the topics I have addressed in professional development workshops over the past two years, digital…
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Oklahoma Students: Modeling Digital Education and 1 to 1 Learning
Following on the heels of some rather dispirited posts last week, I was happy to read the headline of the print version of this Sunday’s Daily Oklahoman newspaper: “Reading, writing and iPods? Howe school erases boundaries.” The article is excellent, but I think the video (“Howe students in the classroom”) is even better: Howe Public…
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Technical troubleshooting and tinkering are essential skills
Like it or not, technologies are a part of our lives today and show no signs of completely going away. While I resonate with those advocating for more time spent outdoors in unstructured environments, dream of working for hours in my own garden someday, and often have new-Luddite sentiments about a variety of topics relating…
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Podcast228: Pedagogic Crimes Against Students
Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs indicates the perception of a safe environment, along with basic physiological needs, are pre-requisites for the development of higher order needs eventually culminating in self-actualization. This podcast focuses on our ethical obligations as moral educators to speak out and take action when pedagogic crimes are taking place in our schools…
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We have so far to go…
I spent quite a bit of time this evening exploring some websites of different schools here in Oklahoma, and I was struck by just how FAR we have to go to realize a dream of engaged, participatory, hands-on, project-based, non-traditional education in our state and in our nation. Of course one shouldn’t judge an entire…
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The Future is Unwritten by Miguel Guhlin
These are my notes from Miguel Guhlin’s OTA 2008 keynote, “The Future is Unwritten.” In my free time, I serve as instructional technology director for San Antonio ISD All resources from today’s session: http://snipurl.com/ota2008 My core values #1 share more In New Zealand last year, Jenny Litchfield – has a face that tells a story…
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We Are The Revolutionaries
These are my notes from a presentation titled “We Are The Revolutionaries” on February 2, 2008, at the Oklahoma 2008 State Superintendent’s Social Studies and Fine Arts Conference. The theme of this year’s conference is, “Revolutionary Matters.” This presentation by Beth Howard and her students from Mark Twain Elementary School in Tulsa Public Schools has…
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A contrary view of education and NCLB
Warning: Political rant about education ahead! Education was a major theme of the “State of the Union Address” shared by the current U.S President this past Monday night. Unfortunately, many of the assertions made during the speech are contradicted by the experiences and observations I’ve made working in our midwest schools during the past 13…