Two places I spend a lot of time in are schools and airplanes. What I’ve noticed after the time spent in these places is that cultures are pretty easy to identify. In Canada, the two major airlines, Air Canada and Westjet have very distinct cultures. I mostly fly Air Canada for a number of reasons and must say I’ve had very good experiences. However, if...

For many teachers, grading and assessment are the duties of teaching most would rather avoid. I get it. For many these things get it the way of learning in that they are contrived , mandated, artificial and time consuming. My personal evolution with assessment is well documented here but as I continue to tweak my workflow and process have to come see this has a...

It’s my pleasure to announce the publishing of Kathy Cassidy’s new book about primary learners. Kathy is a long time friend and colleague who I’ve long admired and watched her own growth as a connected learner and teacher. I was privileged to be ask to write the foreword which I’ll share here: In my personal journey with technology, there are...

I love this song. I love what Commander Hadfield has been doing as part of his mission. He’s done an outstanding job in bringing us into the world of space travel and along the way reminding us what a wonderful world we live in. I love lip dubs. I’ve been part of making a few. While they’ve been around for a while I think they represent the power...

  Weird title I know. Next week I’m speaking to a mix of educators and IT people essentially about how the boxes and wires folks can and should work together with the teaching and learning folks. The dominant narrative seems to be that often these two groups don’t get along all that well, mostly from teachers wanting to innovative feeling confined...

I once offered some year long PD on digital storytelling and in addition to an evaluation of the course after it was complete, I did a follow up evaluation asking them a year later if the learning they did was making a difference in their classrooms. I’ve said for a long time that if we really want to assess school we need to include evaluation and assessments...

Cross posted on The DEN blogs The other day I was in the middle one of my regular google hangouts with my teammates and my wife happened to be home over hearing the conversation. “I hate you”, she said in jest. “All your calls include lots of laughing, lots of encouragement and a bunch of new cool things you’re doing.” Yeah, that pretty...