Engaged Learning Does NOT Look Like This

I came across this posting on a school's Facebook page the other day. Am I the only one who is sad by this photo, and the accompanying caption? I don't see a single engaged student in this photo. On the contrary, I see a lot of body language that denotes the complete opposite of engagement.

What message does this post send to students, parents, community members? What message does it send to you?

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SAMR Sort: Getting Teachers To See the Bigger Picture

A couple months back I attended an executive briefing about digital learning and our 1:1 initiative. During the briefing, we were led through a SAMR sorting activity. Eight different classroom projects were shared with us. We had to sort the projects in to the SAMR level we thought it best fit. We then had to defend our decisions. It was an enlightening experience. Back at the district, my ed tech team decided to recreate that opportunity for our students. Using ISTEs Student Profiles for learning as a guide, eight K-8 grade scenarios were created. On Tuesday, teachers attending the "New to Classroom iPads" professional development completed the sorting activity. It led to fabulous discussions about looking at learning from different perspectives. Teachers commented that most of the lower level activities could have easily been modified to advance in SAMR level. With so much focus on using technology meaningfully in the classroom, activities like this one ...

Creating Wonderspaces

Jordan inside the "Daydream v2" exhibit. On Sunday, my daughter and I attended the Wonderspaces exhibit in San Diego. It is described on their website as " a pop-up museum of extraordinary experiences." Each of these experiences was given their own space in which to reside so that each piece could speak its own voice, without the presence of the others. "The Last Word" exhibit As we explored the 16 unique experiences, Jordan and I experienced a range of emotional reactions to the art. In some, we were completely awestruck. In others, we were perplexed. At others, raw with emotions. And in some, we felt playful. "The Last Word," consisting of hundreds of pieces of rolled up paper, allowed participants to leave their "last word" to someone... a way to "recapture what was never uttered" ( website ). This opportunity to peer into the soul of others silenced my mind, and opened my heart to the emotional plight of oth...

Technology has NOT Over-Promised Anything

I get so many daily emails with tech digests that I hardly ever go through them all. But today, my last day of work before Spring Break, I had a little extra time on my hands so I thought I'd read through all my "junk" email. And hidden at the bottom of one of my emails was this gem of a quote: We have mistakenly believed that giving teachers and students new software or a new box will help fix education, but the technology has over-promised and under delivered. – Larry Ferlazzo I would like to politely disagree. I don't think technology has ever promised to do anything. It's just a tool. People may have promised that these tools will revolutionize education, but people tend to make a lot of promises that aren't filled. People are the only fix to the problems in education. People who are willing to have tough conversations about the sad state of affairs many (but not all!) of our classrooms are in today. People who are willing to ackno...

Igniting Awe in Learning

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