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Zak Malamed Interview: Belief in Student Voice
Zak Malamed, at the time of this interview, is a freshman at the University of Maryland, College Park. Zak is also the founder of an organization, and part of a movement called Student Voice. I caught up with Malamed in New York City. Here’s my interview with a 19-year old world changer, who is far wiser than his years. Ken Royal: Zak, How did Student Voice begin? Zak Malamed: I founded Student Voice unintentionally… all I wanted … Read entire article »
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Zak Malamed Interview: Belief in Student Voice
Zak Malamed, at the time of this interview, is a freshman at the University of Maryland, College … Read more »
Chris Lehmann Interview: Students as Active Agents
I recently interviewed Chris Lehmann, the founding principal of the Science Leadership Academy (SLA), Philadelphia, PA, and … Read more »
Addressing Student Disengagement
by Jim Wynn “It is increasingly difficult to reach those children who remain excluded from education.” Kevin Watkins, … Read more »
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Flipped, Blended, Disrupted Nonsense!
Where do these simple banners for teaching in this digital learning age come from? Certainly, they haven’t … Read more »
Classrooms as Digital Learning Studios
I love walking into a classroom that looks just a bit different than the way we see … Read more »
Thinking AR/3D Lessons
Here’s a lesson idea that would fit best at middle school and higher levels, but could fit … Read more »
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Chris Lehmann Interview: Students as Active Agents
I recently interviewed Chris Lehmann, the founding principal of the Science Leadership Academy (SLA), Philadelphia, PA, and one of the leading education voices for education, about what I’d see upon entering the Academy classes. The conversation went far beyond that, and turned into one that I think has powerful education-change ramifications. I believe it is worth sharing at a faculty … Read entire article »
Addressing Student Disengagement
by Jim Wynn “It is increasingly difficult to reach those children who remain excluded from education.” Kevin Watkins, Director of the Education for all Global Monitoring Report. Student disengagement continues to be amongst the top issues for the education community, regardless of whether it’s at the school, district or country level. The acceleration in the number of young people not in education, … Read entire article »
Learning Communities and Collaboration
A friend of mine, Jim Wynn, is a respected global education spokesperson at Promethean, and he recently sent me some very interesting research about the importance of community in the way learning happens. Most of us who have PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) understand that learning communities can be vehicles for change, because change, including learning change, cannot happen in a … Read entire article »
Contest Thanks Teachers with Trip to #ISTE13
If any individual or group should have a day of appreciation—it’s teachers! I figure if you were to break down teaching performances over a 35-year education career, where a teacher has just 5 classes a day for an 180-day school year, it would amount to about 31,500 teaching performances. I know it’s more. There are all those encore performances for … Read entire article »
ActivBus: A Field Trip That Comes to You!
I knew an Australian technology director, who planned regular field trips for his staff. He’d pack a school bus with all sorts of gadgets, and while holding a laptop like a picture book, would give a tech talk as they rode. He planned these tech tours to always stop somewhere for some picnic food and drink. At that time, most of … Read entire article »
Patrick Larkin Interview: Are Tablets Solutions or Problems?
Patrick Larkin, Assistant Superintendent for Learning, Burlington Public School District, Burlington, Ma, recalls a question someone posed to him: “Is the tablet an education solution, or an education problem?” His answer, and common sense approach to changing the school and learning environment is a professional development lesson for all. Enjoy my interview with Patrick Larkin, and learn why he’s become … Read entire article »
Prioritizing Education: Technology 5 Out of 7?
I recently had a unique experience. I had to prioritize 7 things necessary for me to do in order to have my students succeed. The 7 choices included a few about what students could expect, such as “My teacher cares about me as an individual” and “I trust my teacher to create lessons to suit my needs” as well as … Read entire article »
Google Glass: Exploring Education Possibilities
Google Glass, in the long run, may not be the next greatest “Thing” in education or anywhere, but it may start us thinking ideas beyond what we’ve been doing to what we could be doing. For me it is long overdue. There are some educators, with the spark of creative invention, who can light up a room with possibilities—and interestingly … Read entire article »
It Works! Show Me It Works!
I was pleased by something Jim Wynn, Chief Education Officer, Promethean said recently about interactive technology research. “It’s time to accept the evidence and develop policies to encourage a wider proliferation of these teaching and learning practices.” I think that really hits the nail on the head. Educators and administrators know when something works, when something helps students achieve better … Read entire article »
SXSWedu Is InBloom
I’ve been telling EdTech people to get to SXSWedu for 3 years now. It’s an interesting place with a mix of educators, education marketplace experts, and a lot of future-thinking tech people interested in technology, as well as the way students and educators use it. Individualizing that learning, offering ways of collaborating, and figuring out ways of assessing and using … Read entire article »
Reading Aloud: Are Audio Books Reading?
Watching kids boarding the school bus dressed as Dr. Seuss characters has me applauding, again, the whole idea of reading aloud to kids. It has EdTech ramifications as well, which I’ll talk about later, but I personally know that reading aloud, daily, to students makes a difference. As a fifth-grader, I was a non-reader. That changed in my 6th year … Read entire article »
iTEC Project: Learning Innovation Without Boundaries
If you’ve ever taught, you know how easy it is to get stuck in your own classroom world—and never see what’s happening outside of it. If you asked me, a short time ago, when I was teaching students in my science or computer lab classes, what teachers in Lithuania, Turkey, or Hungary were doing with education technology, I wouldn’t have … Read entire article »
STEM Process: Know The Steps?
I remember helping students understand why following the steps of the scientific method was important in my life science classes—all the time holding them back from those experiment materials. “Why can’t we do the experiment now?” The excitement for experimenting of 1st graders and 7th graders is very similar—just the body sizes are different. What starts out as frustrating, and … Read entire article »
Inverted or Flipped Education
The wonderful thing about looking at teaching with technology through older eyes, if you’re lucky, is that you actually see better the urgency in much younger eyes. I think there certainly is a time for patience, but when you reach the point when you understand how quickly life passes, you begin to encourage and cheerlead for a bit more speed. The … Read entire article »
ICT Move to Computer Science More Than A Makeover
I’m following the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) to Computing and Computer Science, National Curriculum change the UK is headed for in 2014. There may be some correlation to Common Core Standards in the states, but the UK curriculum has some real computing clout to it, going a bit beyond suggestions of computer and Internet use. “At the core of computing … Read entire article »
New Tablets Responding to Classroom Demand
In March 2012 I wrote Reverse The Presentation in an effort to point the way digital classrooms should head, especially in light of the abundance of tablets, laptops, and handheld devices heading into classrooms for teachers and students. A year later, those devices are making their way into classrooms in incredible numbers, and that influx shows no signs of slowing. I … Read entire article »
Professor John Hattie Pressing Education’s Fast Forward
“What a kid needs is not more… he needs different,” says Dr. John Hattie. At the time, Hattie was talking about student retention, but his words make sense in many areas of education, including education technology. Professor John Hattie has been Director of Research at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Australia, Professor of Education, University of Auckland, New Zealand, and … Read entire article »
Many Hands Touching Digital Mysteries
At BETT13, in London, a friend of mine asked if I had met Ahmed. I hadn’t. “You have to see Digital Mysteries,” said my friend. So he calls Ahmed over. Ahmed, it turns out is Dr. Ahmed Kharrufa (see him in video at end of post). Now, it’s the end of a very long day, and I’ve been carrying a … Read entire article »
Collaboration Is Such An Easy Word to Say
I’ve heard the word collaboration used a lot lately. But what does it really mean? Collaboration is more than sitting students in a group at a table, device, or large sheet of poster board with colored markers. That’s just grouping, and something educators have always done for everything from field trips to choosing sides for games. There’s nothing new there. … Read entire article »
IWBs, ActivTables, Tablets, Touch Marvelous With Win8
I might not have given Microsoft’s Windows 8 a fair shake. Initially, I was one of those grumpy long-time users crying about losing a start button. I shouted aloud, “What are they thinking? Who, in his right mind, would want to give up Windows 7—it actually works!” Having lived through Vista, and maintained my beloved XP—longer than my favorite sweatshirt, … Read entire article »
Listening to Educators at BETT 2013
At BETT 2013 in London, I had a great opportunity to speak with educators from the UK, as well as other parts of the world. It’s interesting that most of them have no problem with more than one language, and it’s amazing that most of them have the same concerns, wishes, and request as educators in the states. For example, Pip … Read entire article »
BETT13 An Education World’s Fair
I’ve joined an education company called Promethean, recently, so I had a great opportunity to see what the world has been talking about for fourteen years—it’s BETT—the British Education Training and Technology show in London. That also gave me a chance to meet with and talk to educators, and edtech supporters on a global level. I’ve always thought global, probably … Read entire article »
BETT Is Where Dorothy Should Have Landed
I think modern day Dorothy would have preferred BETT13 and London to landing in Oz and visiting The Emerald City. 1st though, I’d caution her to lift those ruby slippers high, because all of BETT’s a stage—with most education and education tech exhibits raised a few inches higher than the rest of London. If your toes get caught, landing on … Read entire article »
Time for Global Learner Voice
Education Fast Forward (#eff6 on Twitter) is a worldwide education and Student Learner Voice movement I’ve been following and sharing with students, educators and administrators. They run regularly scheduled global debates co-moderated by students. The latest debate, #EFF6, takes place January 28, 2012. It will be live streamed 11 a.m. (GMT), so make sure to check your time zone difference. … Read entire article »
