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 […]
Category: instructional design
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The 5 Year Technology Plan
The 5 year technology plan: Focus on your INFRASTRUCTURE! If you think you know what tools you will need in 5 years, you are probably wrong. If you are budgeting so that you buy sets of an item over several years, you’ll have a dichotomous challenge: the item will become both cheaper AND less desirable. […]
A Conversation Starter
My goal: Create a three minute video that tells it’s own story, using other videos. My hope is that this will invite further exploration, conversation and learning. Here is what I came up with: (Watch on YouTube) For ease of use here are the links. I hope that some rich conversations will emerge from watching […]
The COW is dead… Long live the POW?
This year has been quite transformational for me. I started the year Questioning Everything… especially the idea that we need to teach less and learn more. I’ve challenged late penalties, homework, and even AUP’s. I’ve talked about things becoming more open and distributed and I’ve even written an Open Manifesto. I’ve cautioned about flipping classes, […]
a meaningful shift
Before: There was a built in validity (not necessarily accuracy) in opening up and reading the information in an encyclopedia. And now: Can the same be said of a web search? Whose job is it to check validity and accuracy now? Before: We watched along as our teachers played dry, (usually humourless) documentaries as we […]
The Pro-D Flip
Since writing my 3 Keys to a Flipped Classroom blog post, I have been reading many great contributions to the discussion around flipping classrooms. Last week I was commenting on Lisa Nielsen’s thoughtful post Five Reasons I’m Not Flipping Over The Flipped Classroom and something occurred to me… I have flipped my Professional Development! I’ve […]
The ‘flipped classroom’ WEBINAR
[Thursday June 16th Update! ARCHIVE: Did you miss the webinar? Watch it here! (65 minutes) Be sure to read the comments too! Want to continue the discussion? Look over the resources on the webinar wiki page and then click on the Discussion tab at the top!] Scott McLeod has invited me to participate in a […]