In February I got to help write a course called Applications of Digital Literacy. As Jill, from Staff development, and I sat down to get things started, we discussed the fact that really we were developing a course that would hopefully be redundant in 5 years… because students by then would be coming out of […]
Category: education
Standards and Standardization
This image was inspired by Janet Abercrombie’s post Are We Confusing Standards with Standardization? Specifically the section: Clarification 3 If we agree that instructional standardization is unnecessary, we can maintain creativity and passion in a standards-based classroom. But we need to make a few paradigm shifts. Specifically, Look at the standards before we look textbooks or think […]
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Personalization and Responsibility
George Siemens wrote the Duplication theory of educational value about higher education, but I am going to share a quote from this with a couple adaptations for K-12 public education: “Let me posit a duplication theory of education value: if something can be duplicated with limited costs, it can’t serve as a value point for [public […]
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Inquiry Resources from CSS and the ConnectedEd Canada Conference
The ConnectEd Canada Conference was an overwhelming success! Here is the recipe for those who want to plan a conference: 1. Run the first day in a great school, with classes in session and with student tour guides. 2. Invite presenters who want to have a conversation rather than do a presentation. 3. Provide ample […]
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Connect Ed Canada
The first day of the Connect Ed Canada conference was spent at the Calgary Science School, (check out their blog). The highlight of the day was a full morning tour of the building with Grade 7 students Kristen and Julie, which I shared with Shelley Wright. I wish that I was recording Kristen when she […]
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BYOL vs BYOD
I’m a big fan of BYOL – Bring Your Own Laptop to school. The laptop is the new pencil… a tool necessary for an effective education today. I also think that a district-provided laptop, in public education, is not financially feasible. However, supporting families that can not afford to send their child to school with […]
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5 under-watched TEDxEDU videos
There are a lot of great educational videos out there. One of the best lists, that I go back to time and again, was built by Alec Couros and it evolved from a blog post to a wiki page: 90+ Videos for Tech. & Media Literacy. There… is… a… lot… out… there! As a result, […]
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Truly Questioning Everything
Yesterday I read a great post by Ira Socol: Question Everything. I love the Boeing 787 story, and the Guardian newspaper video commercial is one of those self-explanatory examples that I just know I’ll use in the future. Ira reminded me of my post: Question Everything that I wrote, while still in China, to start […]
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The Stickiness Factor
Stickiness Part I – The Lesson “Do you remember me?” “Yes, you taught me Math.” (Actually I was his Vice Principal that taught him ONE grade 8 Math integers lesson.) “What grade are you in now?” “I’m in my final semester of Grade 12” “That’s great! What are your plans for next year?” “UBC for […]
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Introducing the Inquiry Hub
Last night Stephen Whiffin, Sarah Husband and I formally presented the ‘Inquiry Hub‘ to Superintendent Tom Grant, the District Leadership Team, and our School Board Trustees. It is hard for me to contain my excitement at being able to share this project ‘out loud’! What was wonderful was how well received this was by our […]
