One of the experiences that I will not be able to attend this fall is the National Summit on Re-imagining the Design of the K-12 Library which will be held September 23-25, 2011 at the Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia. Organized by Laura Deisley, Director of 21st Century Learning at Lovett, and Christian Long, this event promises to be challenge notions and begin to guide participants towards solutions that they can begin to implement in their own buildings. The advisory team is very impressive and includes librarians Helene Bowers, Buffy Hamilton, and Joyce Valenza, technologists such as Lucy Gray and […]

During the dog days of July, between the time the old year has wrapped up and the new academic year begins in earnest, I like to take some time to pursue some of my own learning. This past April, I learned more about the power and potential of Google Apps Scripts. Google Apps scripts lets you create scripts in Google Spreadsheets and Google Sites to automate and amplify the capabilities of the apps. Example apps include being able to create reservations systems, event management complete with the ability to create calendar events and then sending confirmation emails, and the ability to pull calendar events and create new announcements in sites.

Wonderful examples of Apps Scripts are…

In October, I first dipped my toes into the Web 2.0 world by beginning this blog. Even though my audience is firmly entrenched near the far right-hand side of the long tail. But I am not necessarily writing for an audience. Instead, I write for myself as a way to allow some of the idea fragments which are bouncing around in my head an opportunity interact, and combine with each other. It allows me a chance to reflect on both my personal and professional practice, celebrate failures, and acknowledge successes. In part because of what I have learned previously about the sheer act of […]

During the #isedchat this past Thursday, June 30th, I posted the following in reply to a post by Matt Montagne Adults want comfort, but expect students to go into discomfort zone, Are we hypocrites? Since the twitter chat on Thursday, this phrase has been bouncing around in my head.  On many levels, I do believe that as adult mentors in the learning environment called school, that we ask far more of the children than we expect of ourselves. This imbalance does not seem right. When a student enters kindergarten, they are full of wonder. They are naturally curious an love […]

As I awaken very early on Saturday morning for which ISTE begins, some of my thoughts are gaining clarity for me. Is this ISTE once again going to be a call to action, a call to a Revolution? If so, what will be the call? I think this as this is the third time that in my memory that the conference has been in an Eastern pre-Revolutionary War town steeped with such history. In 1994, I was at NECC in Boston. It was the first indication that this concept called the Internet was becoming available to all and I signed […]