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"For the longest time, I was the project manager for 30 different projects. I would chart their progress and nag them about getting tasks done. Or I would set specific deadlines for the entire class. Over time, though, I realized that my students could learn how to manage their projects on their own. This is also why I believe in guiding students through a project management process. It's not perfect. Kids will still struggle to meet deadlines. Procrastination will still occur. But project management is a skill that improves over time. As students learn how to break apart tasks and chart their progress, they begin to think differently about their work. In the end, it becomes one of those life-long, transferable skills."

"The Faculty of Kinesiology, the Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre and the Integrated Concussion Research Program at the University of Calgary now hosts a massive open online course (MOOC) on concussion. A MOOC is a free, non-credited course open to everyone. The course aims to demystify concussion, clarify the role of those involved in the prevention and management of concussion, and support participants to implement a concussion management protocol adapted to their specific sport, school or community environment. The course aims to educate health professionals, parents, coaches, teachers, school adminstrators and sport leaders. Offered in collaboration with the Université Laval, the course is available in English and French."

"Concussions are a serious public health concern. One in five Canadians report a sport-related concussion in their lifetime and an estimated one in 10 youth sustains a sport-related concussion each year. To improve concussion prevention, detection and management, the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Calgary has developed a course for parents, coaches, teachers and administrators of school and sport environments, health-care professionals and those who have experienced a concussion.  "This course demystifies concussion and explains how everyone can play a role to prevent, identify and manage this type of traumatic brain injury," says Dr. Kathryn Schneider, PT, PhD, an assistant professor and clinician scientist (physiotherapist) in the Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre in the kinesiology faculty. "This program also demonstrates how a concussion management protocol can be adapted to the characteristics and resources of different sports and settings." A concussion management protocol is a detailed process that outlines how to prevent, detect and manage concussions in a specific context."

"As I work with aspiring administrators, I often am asked about potential interview questions that might be asked during the hiring process.   I offer a list of typical-and not so typical-interview questions that might be asked by panels who are considering school leader candidates.  Of course, a hiring decision often boils down to the right fit, so questions can vary wildly depending on the needs of a particular school or the district.  While this is not by any means a complete list, it does encompass a few examples of what kind of questions might be asked.   As they say, there is no "right answer," so I have tried to include a bit of rationale of what the panel might be thinking as well as a possible approach one might take.  "Fit" is also an important consideration for the candidate; remember, you are interviewing them as well (though it may not feel like it!) and need to be sure that you are prepared for-and aware of-the specific leadership role that is involved."

"Coding is the ability to write step by step instructions (programs) for a computer to understand to complete a task. The Hour of Code website has tons of ready to go online activities that get students to write code that results in a number of cool outcomes, such as making a monster dance, creating avatars, remixing music or making a game. When students complete these easy tutorials they learn these important skills- logic, problem solving, fitting puzzle pieces together, selection, instructional writing, editing, revision, and creation. Below are some great websites to find engaging coding projects that take an hour or less. Most require no registration! Just provide students with a quick introduction to the task on the projector and the link for them to get started. I would highly recommend doing the activity first. In the next post I will introduce you to unplugged activities, which get students to focus on specific coding skills you will notice in these activities, which include working with puzzles, providing good instructions, problem solving and algorithms."

"In an effort to prepare the next generation for the future, school and public librarians, as well as teachers and educators at community-run and for-profit camps, have answered the call to teach kids code. But many now recognize it's not enough for students simply to know how to write code. The capacity to build a product or solve a problem requires an entirely different literacy. With this in mind, the focus of coding education is shifting from teaching the specific skill of coding to teaching computational thinking-or the ability to follow a step-by-step process to solve a problem. Technology education programs from CSforAll to Code.org to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), as well as employers such as Google, all embrace this new context and focus. The future workforce will require a solid grounding in the discipline of thinking computationally, says Chris Stephenson, Google's head of computer science education strategy. She compares this moment to the epistemological shift that happened before the Enlightenment, when scribes guarded reading as a skill only for the chosen few."

"Recently, the world of virtual reality was shaken up when the popular Merge Cube by Merge VR dropped in price from $15 to just a dollar at many Walmart stores. When using specific apps, these cubes showcase different experiences as you rotate the block around with your hands. If you haven't held a Merge Cube yet, they're made of a soft rubber material that's comparable to a stiffer stress ball. (If you want to test out the apps first, you can print out a temporary paper cube.)"

"The Maker Rubric is a simple way to assess the progress and growth of a student maker. This rubric was specifically developed to measure any maker project they complete, whether its 3D printing, claymation, soldering, sewing, puppetry… whatever. It is also a way to, if necessary (dependent on how your school system values grades) assign a numerical percentage to a maker project."

"Another collection of good educational iPad apps specifically curated from iTunes App Store for high school teachers and students. These are apps to help students with chemistry learning from understanding the elements, molecules and atoms to exploring chemical reactions.They provide students  with activities, video lessons, simulated experimentations,  periodic tables and several other materials to boost their chemistry learning."

"The term learning engineering was coined more than 50 years ago by Herbert Simon, a Nobel Laureate and Carnegie Mellon professor. Today there is renewed interest in the discipline, which merges scientific methods and engineering principles with learning. A new Guild Research report, Learning Engineering: A Primer, by Ellen Wagner, PhD, explores how learning engineering is expected to impact L&D. It may be of specific interest to instructional designers, who may already be incorporating or honing some of the skills that learning engineers require."

"Truth Decay - the diminishing role that facts, data, and analysis play in political and civil discourse - appears to result, in part, from an increasingly complex information ecosystem. Technology, in particular, offers continual access to information of varying quality and credibility, information that can blur the line between fact-based evidence and opinion. Not everyone is equipped with the skills necessary to navigate such uncertain terrain. The purpose of this report is to describe the field of media literacy (ML) education and the ways in which ML education can counter Truth Decay by changing how participants consume, create, and share information. One limitation of this research base arises from the variety of ways that literature defines and measures ML outcomes; while a multiplicity of viewpoints can be beneficial, it also presents challenges in terms of aggregating findings across studies. Despite this, the authors describe existing evidence that ML could be a useful tool for combating Truth Decay. They also provide an inventory of ML offerings available to the public. Finally, the authors make suggestions for moving forward, with the specific recommendation that professionals in ML and related fields strengthen their communication and collaboration, considering where there are opportunities for a common approach to researching ML. The authors recommend that policymakers and practitioners increase participation from diverse constituencies in scaling ML efforts"

"Here are some great questions for starting a conversation. There are a lot of random conversation starters to get you started and then conversation questions listed by topic. You can start with the random questions or find a topic that interests you. There's no right place to start, just scroll down to wherever you want and get started! There are tons of ways to use these questions. I find that the most rewarding way is for everyone to pull up this list of conversation starters on a phone or tablet, and then take turns letting everyone choose a question to ask the group. Remember don't be afraid to delve deeply into the conversation. Answering the specific question isn't the goal, having an interesting conversation is!"

The evidence is mounting and the narrative around education is shifting towards a story centred on long-life skills, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication. Success in the future seems to be connected closely to one's capacity to innovate, to problem find and to make strategic decisions when confronted by unique situations for which we have not been specifically prepared. 

"In today's 24/7 digital world, we have instant access to all kinds of information online. Educators need strategies to equip students with the core skills they need to think critically about today's media. We teach foundational skills in news and media literacy through our Digital Citizenship program, specifically through our Creative Credit & Copyright and Information Literacy topics. Built on more than 10 years of expertise and classroom testing, these lessons and related teaching materials give students the essential skills to be smart, savvy media consumers and creators. From lesson plans about fact-checking to clickbait headlines and fake news, we've covered everything. To learn more about our approach, read the Topic Backgrounder on news and media literacy."

"You've read about the Holocaust in books and seen it portrayed in films. But it's another experience entirely to walk through the site of a concentration camp in virtual reality, led by a survivor who lost his entire family there. The Last Goodbye, which debuts at the Tribeca Film Festival this week, follows Pinchas Gutter as he makes his final pilgrimage to Majdanek, a former Nazi Germany extermination camp in occupied Poland. It's a trip he's made many times, but this one has a specific purpose: to capture his account of the Holocaust so we never forget that it actually happened. "

"Below is a selection of some good Mac apps curated specifically for Music teachers. These are applications you can use to help you with songwriting and editing on Mac, designing new sounds, processing audio, building synthesizers, recording digital audio, and many more. Check them out and share with us your feedback in our Facebook page. "

There is growing interest from schools in the Maker Movement and Maker Education but with this have come some subtle misunderstandings about what it is all about. For one the modern maker movement is all about the mindset of the maker rather than developing a set of specific skills for making. The second confusion stems from a belief that the maker movement is all about the tools and the makerspace and that as such it involves large budgets.

"o help get your school year started off right, I've pulled together a list of the top eight iPad apps I have found useful for meeting the needs of ESL students in the classroom. Of course these iPad apps are also useful for other students, but I have tailored this list more specifically to the needs of the ESL students."

"Available as a web-based tool or an iPad application, Padlet allows teachers and students to create virtual bulletin boards where collaboration, reflection, publishing and sharing of information can occur. As a synchronous learning environment, Padlet supports interaction, sharing, and collaboration in real-time or as an asynchronous learning environment allowing students to learn at their own pace and time. When using Padlet, users can display information in a wide variety of file types, including: links to Google Docs, display images of student work, text, audio reflections, and videos from the camera roll or YouTube. Padlet's formats  allow for a more customized experience for users. A mind-mapping format called Canvas provides the opportunity to move sticky notes to facilitate the creation of mind maps. Users  create visual connections among concepts, facts, and thoughts while providing a way to organize and synthesize information. Recently, I've begun to use Canvas as my "go to" mind-mapping tool. The Canvas format enables teachers and students to work collaboratively across devices and settings while helping learners to see relationships between concepts.  Canvas gives students a way to visually represent their thinking while providing teachers insight into a student's understanding of a specific concept or idea."