“We are living in the middle of the largest increase in expressive capability in the history of the human race.” Clay Shirky
I can’t help but notice the startling contrast between the world inside school these days and the world outside of school. Outside of schools, students are talking about music they’re producing, online communities [...]
For those of you with weak stomachs, you might want to sit down before you read this one. Chicago Public Schools have recently approved a district-wide policy that prohibits teachers from contacting students through cellphones, non-CPS email, Facebook, Twitter, blogs or any web site created off the district’s network. Here is the pdf of the [...]
I just returned from a short trip to Sacramento to visit my mother (who turned 70 this year – happy birthday, Mom!) and my stepfather, Dale. They live in a duplex in the South Land Park neighborhood of California’s capitol city.
Not long after moving there, Dale found a small community of like-minded people at the [...]
Here’s a UStream video of a wonderful presentation from Chris Lehmann, Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA. He gave a talk at the FCC National Broadband Planning Workshop yesterday (8.20.09) in Washington, DC. Here’s his blog entry about the talk (which includes a draft of his notes). Inspiring. [...]
I’m in Oxford, England this week, attending a science visualization conference. There are scientists from many academic traditions (chemistry, computational science, cognitive psychology, physics, astronomy, computer science, and biology), gathering to ponder the questions related to how we visualize our science.
The five-day meeting is structured with sessions in the morning and evening, afternoons are free [...]
I just returned from a participatory media workshop that I organized for a group of high school biology teachers at Washington University in St. Louis. They were there for the summer institute portion of a very special masters degree program called the Life Science for a Global Community, funded by the NSF. These 30 teachers [...]
So, I’m sitting in Logan airport, waiting for my flight to St. Louis and my eye is captured by a mother with a gorgeous little boy, wearing Elmo slippers. They are waiting for the same flight. In his restlessness, the boy wanders over to a bank of pay phones and his Mom patiently attends him, [...]
I’ve been thinking a lot about “21st Century Skills” lately. Mostly because the publisher of our high school biology program wants my coauthor and I to add a section to the front-end of the textbook on the topic. Seems a bit ironic to put such content into a print medium, but that’s ok. People will [...]
I’m always looking for good student media project examples from clever teachers and, lucky me, I hit the jackpot this week when I met Larry Schmidt. Larry is a high school English teacher in Minnesota who teaches online courses for EdVisions High School. EdVisions sounds like a pretty interesting idea….to quote their web site, it’s [...]
Have you heard about the transforming building? I just love this story. This building in the photograph above, was designed by the Dutch architect, Rem Koolhaas, to shift its shape to fit the desired use. Each of the four sides within the structure’s tetrahedron contain a different shape, better suited to a specific venue. When [...]
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