My View of the NCAIS Innovate Opening Panel

Last spring, I was humbled to be asked by Sarah Hanawald and Jason Ramsden to participate with my web cast partners, Alex Ragone and arvind grover, as part of the opening keynote panel for the North Carolina Area Independent Schools (NCAIS) Innovate Conference. The theme of this year’s conference is Igniting Innovation – Sparking Conversations about Learning in the Digital Age. Joining us were: Bill Ferriter – http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical/ Kelly Hines – http://keepingkidsfirst.wordpress.com/ Meredith Stewart – http://discovery.caryacademy.org/meredith_stewart/2010/02/always-learning/ The focus of our conversation was “Rethinking Teaching and Learning in A Digital Age”. Alex, arvind and I, pushed hard on the possibilities. On my end, I […]

Two TEDxNYEd Presentations Released

You can now access the two of the more compelling and entertaining presentations that occured TEDxNYEd on Saturday, March 6th. Both of these pushed and inverted assumptions, raising compelling questions and challenging the status quo. I am still trying to make my reflections on each of these dense presentation coherent to share with you. OpenessThe first was presented by Lawrence Lessig. For those who do not know, he is director of the Center for Ethics and a law professor at Harvard. Previously, he was a law professor at Stanford and one of the founders of Creative Commons. Larry's  presentation was […]

Technology, Cognitive Tools to Change A School’s Ecology

Pat Bassett, the president of NAIS, refered people to an article recently published in the Journal of Technology Learning and Assessment, "The End of Techno-critique." (http://escholarship.bc.edu/jtla/vol9/6/) This article presents research into the criticism of 1:1 computing. From the abstract: This article responds to a generation of techno-criticism in education. It contains a review of the key themes of that criticism. The context of previous efforts to reform education reframes that criticism. Within that context, the question is raised about what schools need to look and be like in order to take advantage of laptop computers and other technology. In doing […]

TEDxNYEd – Brain Dump 1.0

On Saturday, March 6th, I had an opportunity to experience and live the future conferences. For eight hours, TEDxNYEd provided an opportunity to focus on learning, education and transformation, rather than being at a conference focused on tools and skills. This difference is significant and should become the standard for which we aspire too. Technology needs to become an eco-system, not a thing. EduCon seemingly has the same focus, but so far, I have only been able to experience EduCon virtually, not in person. For both conferences, the focus is on starting and igniting conversations and creating plans for actions. […]