Out of all the discussions around the purpose of school and the goal of education, no one argues that the idea of developing "life long learners" is critical. Some use the phrase in mission statements, others emphasize it less but I don't know anyone who doesn't value that concept.  Yet we do very little to achieve that goal.  One of my...

Cross posted on Tech & Learning I’m on a mission. In case you haven’t noticed, high schools often represent the most traditional, stagnant educational spaces. The very structure of that world from the segregated subjects, focus on content, credit acquisition, departmental/state testing all join forces to make change difficult. In our school...

Cross posted at the Huffington Post. Steve Jobs never believed in focus groups. Guy Kawasaki, who worked for Apple and Steve Jobs said, "Apple Market research is an oxymoron. If you ask people what they want they'll tell you "Better, faster and cheaper"- that is better sameness, not revolutionary change. Many other innovators have echoed similar...

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...