It’s a casual throwaway line. You can listen to us anywhere that you get your podcasts… It is a radical statement. It is a political statement. It is a technical architectural statement. Because what it represents is a system that was designed to let anybody run their own podcast, and to be able to consume it without regard to one company controlling it… I have … Continue reading Anywhere You Get Your Podcasts
I kind of fell into the world of personal learning networks. I didn’t know, back in 2005, that I was curating a group of professionals with whom I would exchange ideas, or that it would become the most valuable professional learning experience of my career. I just knew that there were interesting people talking about challenging ideas, and that the things they were struggling with … Continue reading Asynchronous Learning Networks
I started this blog experiment 15 years ago. I was looking for a way for my teachers to quickly and easily share information with students. They wanted web sites. We didn’t have a good way of doing web sites. WordPress seemed to fit the bill. It was easy to set up quickly without a big learning curve. The blogs looked nice, and worked on any … Continue reading Reflecting on Reflecting
I’m struggling with the idea that the best place for kids is in school. Maybe it’s because my most robust, most meaningful, most memorable learning experiences didn’t happen in school. I’ve written in the past about my experience with personal learning networks, and how the concept of meaningful professional growth seems to contradict the credentialing process. You can learn valuable things, or you can get … Continue reading Introverting the classroom
About a week ago, we were having a discussion on Slack about the upcoming state educational technology conference. I’m sitting this year out. A couple members of my personal learning network weren’t happy. The conference isn’t necessarily about learning. It’s more about bringing technology to education than focusing on student-centered learning enhanced and supported by technology. Jeremy said that’s not the point. The conference is about … Continue reading Focused Presence
I recently attended EdCamp NEO, hosted in the fantastic new Paradigm facility at Mentor High School. I’ve been to about a dozen EdCamps now. It’s always fun to watch the schedule evolve as the event goes on, and people create the conversations that are most relevant to them. This event had about 100 people, which is the perfect size for an EdCamp. All of the … Continue reading The Scheduled Unconference
This is an excerpt from a post I wrote in February, 2008: In the fall of 2005, I had read about podcasts, and was very interested in them. I drive 40 minutes each way to and from work every day. If I could find some good podcasts to listen to in the car, I could really improve how I was using that time. If I … Continue reading Remembering Bob Sprankle
I’m a believer in personal learning networks. I’ve often said that I have learned far more from my colleagues than I have from any graduate course or workshop or conference. I’ve connected with people from all over the world, exchanging ideas, debating instructional approaches, and uniting in finding the best ways to leverage technology to improve learning and best meet students’ evolving needs. The technologies … Continue reading Are We There Yet?
You didn’t go to Grandma’s house without eating. There were always baked goods: cookies, coffee cake, donuts. As soon as you sat down, she’d put on a fresh pot of coffee and start cooking. What can I make you? Want a sandwich? Macaroni and cheese? She would start going through the icebox and pull out everything. Have some braciole while I fry up some zucchini. … Continue reading Feed the Hungry
It would be easy for a self-proclaimed educational technologist to claim that technology is an indispensable component of modern education. It’s not. What do you really need to teach a child how to read? You need a child. You need a willing teacher. It’s helpful to have a book. Everything else is superfluous. When I visited Remba Island in Lake Victoria five years ago, I … Continue reading The Role of Technology in Education
Several people have asked me recently about building personal learning networks. They’ve seen the promise of networked learning. They understand that connecting and collaborating with other professionals on common goals and challenges can be beneficial for everyone. But how do you find those people? In my case, I took the slow road. I blogged. I read others’ blogs and commented on them. I listened to … Continue reading If You Come, They Will Build It
The two-week break in the #change11 MOOC has given me an opportunity to catch up a bit, and to reflect on the experience so far. It’s now sixteen weeks since the start of the course, which has included thirteen weeks of content, a week of introduction, and a two-week winter break. According to Stephen Downes, the course has 2,000 registered participants. The course web site … Continue reading What’s not to MOOC?
Taste of Tech 