A few years ago, our superintendent scheduled an administrative meeting to discuss potential changes to our health care package. The fifteen-minute meeting was scheduled for late afternoon. There wasn’t a lot of doubt before the meeting that there would be very little “discussion.” The “potential” changes meant that the superintendent was recommending to the board of education that administrators pay a greater portion of their … Continue reading It's About the Social

On July 6, 2009, we started the first week of workshops with teachers at Liwa Primary School in Cape Town, South Africa. We had spent the previous couple days learning as much as we could about this community. As a result of apartheid, many of teachers and learners lived in informal housing — shantys that were built with whatever materials they had on hand. Crime … Continue reading Zac’s Keynote

In his breakout session at our March 5 inservice program, Zac Chase started with one question: What do you want to learn today? The session became a conversation between the presenter and participants, highlighting some online resources, some new ideas, and some different perspectives. The topics discussed run the gamut from overcoming the challenges of time to finding useful resources for classroom projects to figuring … Continue reading Teaching in Our Teens

This year, like most, there were lots of sessions at the eTech Ohio Educational Technology Conference about new technologies. There was a definite theme to many of them: overcoming the taboos of technology. In our schools, cell phones have been governed by a variation on “don’t ask, don’t tell.” We know that nearly all of our middle- and high-school students have them. They bring them … Continue reading No Fear

We see that the world has changed. We’ve been listening to the buzzwords for a decade now. Online learning. Digital citizenship. Web 2.0. Personal learning networks. Social networking. Data-driven decision making. We have to prepare our students for a world we can’t imagine. We have to re-invent our industrial age skills. If Rip Van Winkle woke up today and visited a school… blah blah blah. … Continue reading Helplessly Hoping

Last weekend, I was struck by the difference in approach between ISTE and Educon. Last month, ISTE announced their “Top Ten in ’10,” which identifies their ten priorities for boosting student achievement and closing the achievement gap. They start off the list this way: Establish technology in education as the backbone of school improvement. To truly improve our schools for the long term and ensure … Continue reading Education, !Technology

The problem started because a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. It was 1999. I had a new job. My predecessor had ordered a new server, which arrived after I did. I didn’t know the first thing about setting up or running a server. But I had web access, and I had some help, and before I knew it, the students and … Continue reading In Search of Egg Baskets