Confession from a bully

In Junior High, (Grade 7 to 9), I was a shrimp. At the end of Grade 9, I stood at 4’11” or just under 150cm tall. There were, in a graduating class of over 250, just one boy and one girl in our grade that were shorter than me. They were both quite popular. I […]

Moodle Schmoodle and no point to Sharepoint

I love the scene in Shrek where Shrek explains to Donkey that, “Ogres are like onions, they have layers”. It’s a great analogy that plays upon itself since Donkey interjects guesses as to what this means, adding unnecessary layers to the conversation. Often, technology adds layers of complication by the nature of adding something new […]

Thinking about change

This was inspired by reading Chris Kennedy’s post by the same name. Chris starts his post: “With all the discussions swirling around personalized learning, and school reform, I have been thinking a lot about change, and how we do it right.” In my comment, I said: I think that the need to learn the tool […]

An expectation of openness

On a recent post about empowering students, Gary Kern asked me a question in his comment: What are your thoughts on the structures and changes needed for teachers, especially at the older grades, to be able to foster higher levels of participation in their learning? What we really need are structures that both develop (and […]