Just posted a new podcast on the idea that our kids need more opportunities to engage in “productive failure”, or “failure to succeed”. The idea is taken from the engineering design process, and it focuses on the premise that high level problem solving will lead to many failures before it achieves success. I would very [...]
New Podcast: Failure to Succeed
May 17, 2013 · 1 Comment · 21st Century Skills, creativity, innovation, podcasting
Tags: creativity·design·edtech·engineering·failure·innovation·learning·problem-solving·success·teaching
1:1, Certainly
April 5, 2013 · No Comments · 1:1, 21st Century Skills, Educational technology, implementation, leadership, professional learning, Teaching and Learning
We are exploring some options for our district’s future student technologies right now. We have a significant need to increase accessibility for our students, but I’m not sure what that means, exactly. Does it involve a 1:1 program? Perhaps buying large numbers of wireless laptop/tablets and carts? Labs? iPads? Chromebooks? Laptops? Oh, my! Lots of [...]
Tags: 1:1·edtech·iPad·laptop·learning·planning·professional learning·students·tablet·teaching
Matador Innovators Team
February 28, 2013 · No Comments · 21st Century Skills, collaboration, creativity, Educational technology, innovation
Put 17 or 18 very bright, energetic, and creative students into a room with a variety of technology tools, give them some real-world (or out-of-the world) challenges, and watch their minds get to working. That is the basic idea behind a group I’ve started in our district, the Matador Innovators Team, or MIT. And, yes, [...]
Tags: 21st Century Skills·creativity·edtech·innovation·invention·Makey Makey·MIT·Picoboard·robotics·Scratch
Teaching Kids About Copyright and Fair Use
January 15, 2013 · 1 Comment · 21st Century Skills, creativity, Educational technology, images/video, Teaching and Learning, Web Tools
Copyright was the topic of a recent discussion I had with a group of educators, so I felt inspired to create a couple of resources addressing the topic. I hope you find them useful. The podcast is an overview of Fair Use and some tips and tools for teachers to use to teach students about [...]
Tags: advanced search·copyright·Creative Commons·digital citizenship·fair use·google
2-Minute Tech Challenge #3: iTunesU
December 17, 2012 · 5 Comments · 2-Minute Tech Challenge, podcasting, professional learning, Teaching and Learning
This edition of the 2-Minute Tech Challenge is all about a great and often ignored tool that is on most teachers’ desktops: iTunes. Specifically, it’s about iTunesU, which is an amazing collection of lessons, lectures, demonstrations, and other resources on just about any and every topic imaginable. Elementary teachers can find math lessons on basic [...]
Tags: 2-minute tech·edtech·ITunes·iTunesU·learning·podcasts·teaching·video
Wordle Done Right
December 12, 2012 · 4 Comments · 21st Century Skills, Educational technology, Teaching and Learning, Web Tools
Wordle has been a staple for countless teachers for several years now. Students create word clouds with words they’ve listed to describe themselves, traits of literary characters, examples of metallic elements, planets, etc. While there is nothing inherently wrong with any of these projects, they completely negate Wordle’s most powerful ability–the ability to analyze and [...]
Tags: critical thinking·education·rigor·teaching·web 2.0·Wordle
