Igniting Awe in Learning

My daughter, a high school junior, recently keynoted an ed tech fest. Because I feel odd talking up my progeny, I'm going to copy/paste a write-up shared in her district Superintendent's newsletter : "she shared her school experiences with technology and challenged the teachers in the theater to provide a wide array of technology-driven opportunities. She emphasized that students need to be prepared for a digital world and our schools are an essential part in that development." There was a lot of great feedback from the teachers that participated, but in an effort to make the conversation global, I'd love to hear what you have to say as well.

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?

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 ...