Yesterday I was at a South Dakota high school giving a presentation on bullying, cyberbullying and social responsibility. The presentation went well, the students were attentive, I was wrapping up the presentation with Q and A. Midway through the question and answer session a young man in the back row asked if he [...]

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California has begun using open source, electronic, textbooks for math and science this school year. Some of the books reviewed were simply scanned textbooks but others make the jump into the 21st century with embedded links to movies, recent news articles, music files and more to enhance lessons and reading. Either the textbook company can [...]

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While looking at my Twitter posts today, I came across this one:  “Teachers who sell lesson plans online raise both cash and questions http://bit.ly/4f5izN (via Scott McLeod)”. My interest captured immediately, I read the article with fascination. Some teachers have chosen to sell the lesson plans they have created.  A few have used the money raised to [...]

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Dr. Rick Melmer presented an interactive session this past Friday at the Systems Change Conference that addressed what is working in Finland.
The major point that has stuck in my mind these past few days is that kids in Finland are not “tracked” until age 16. So when 15 year olds around the world take the [...]

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What would it feel like to live at the epicenter of the world’s most horrific genocide?  I’m currently reading Barbara Coloroso’s book, Extraordinary Evil, A Brief History of Genocide, which I got from Barbara at this last week’s Systems Change Conference in Sioux Falls. In the introduction, she details her visit to a genocide exhibit [...]

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You might think that you know all about project based learning, but technology has had a strong influence on how PBL can be accomplished, and reinvigorated a need for this student centered engaging approach to teaching.  Charlotte Mohling from Wessington Springs shared some ideas for how to incorporate technology-rich project-based learning in your classroom.
When implementing [...]

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Author Clayton Christensen takes a hard look at education in his book, and encourages educators to consider how technology can influence the ability of schools and teachers to address individual student learning needs. Innovations tend to spread when there is a need or interest for current “non-consumers” of a product or concept.  For example, the transistor radio [...]

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Babara Coloroso encouraged educators to focus on deep caring at her keynote presentation for the Systems Change conference this morning. Her message of teaching students how to think is a perfect fit for 21st century skills, and her placement of those skills in the context of establishing a society that can discern and act upon [...]

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