I'm going to be spending much more time this year focusing on supporting teachers with writing. While I don't have an extensive background in teaching writing outside of most classroom teachers, I am a writer. After a 1,000 blog posts, a few "traditionally" published articles, nearly 50,000 tweets, 100+ podcasts, 100+ videos and thousands of...

Reading Seth Godin is a little bit like attending a fancy, high end reception..not necessarily a full meal but lots of juicy, interesting little items to snack on. Like this one: "How long did it take after the birth of blogs or Twitter for you to begin speaking up? Before this, you had no cheap, easy, allowable way to speak your mind to the world. You...

Cross posted at Tech Learning Saying technology is “just a tool” can be a very dangerous statement. I understand that when people say this, they’re simply trying to point out that technology is a peripheral that enables us to do the things we want to do better than before. I can agree with that concept but the problem with this thinking is that it...

I had the privilege of presenting to 150 high school teachers in Elk island Public Schools on Friday. Keeping participants active with limited technology and  moving beyond table discussions to experience some of the themes I wanted to explore was a good challenge for me. Fortunately, I was able to work fairly closely with a great leadership team from the...

Cross posted at Education Debate I’ve been a strong advocate for shifting school’s narrow focus of writing to include more contemporary forms like video. It’s clear this skill is going to be essential for our students to communicate in a YouTube world.   Two years ago I wrote a post about the Best Job in the World. My argument centered around...

I respect Gary Stager's opinion. He pushes my thinking. That's what he did for me here: Why would you Skype someone involved “in the process?” What process? Who? State legislators? What are they likely to tell a student that can’t be found out in a book or article? The connections you speak of, now matter how much you yearn for them may be...