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No longer is newsletters, calendar of events, e-mails and other one-way communication enough for schools. Great school communities inspire great conversations.

“Everything I blog also shows up on Facebook, Twitter, School Website, and Google Plus – it’s not hard to have things post simultaneously.” Remember, a hardcopy is still necessary for some families.

It is important to diversify your PLN. Put people around you who cause you to think differently. People who are straightforward and willing to connect in uncomfortable conversations. Those who say what they mean and mean what they say

Students at Manor New Tech typically complete nearly 200 projects over the course of their high school experience, with each project lasting about two to four weeks.

"How can we use mathematics to design and use a Dobsonian telescope?"

he rubric often includes time lines and information on essential elements of successful final products (for example, if a report may be produced as a podcast rather than a paper, the rubric specifies minimum length for the podcast).

You market, and your students share, books using social networking tools like Shelfari, Good Reads, or LibraryThing.

Your students blog or tweet or network in some way about what they are reading

You review and promote books in your own blogs and wikis and other websites. (Also Reading2.0 and BookLeads Wiki for book promotion ideas)

Used mindfully, how can digital media help us grow smarter?  My years of study and experience have led me to conclude that humans are humans because we invent thinking and communicating tools that enable us to do bigger, more powerful things together.

etter than anyone else, he helped me to understand the importance of attention as the ultimate, finite, precious resource, one which must be constantly attended to, strengthened as a muscle, husbanded for our productivity.   “When it comes to the interacting with the world of always-on info, the fundamental skill, on which other essential skills depend, is the ability to deal with distraction without filtering out opportunity.”

Rheingold’s chapter on Attention offers valuable suggestions for strengthening our mindfulness by using meditation, goal-setting, “intentionality,”  and other tools to become more metacognitive and more intentional about how we concentrate in the times when we choose to do so. 

Secondly, tools shape behaviours. Tools shape cognition. Tools shape societal structures in both intended, and unintended, ways.

Anthony Aguirre, in The Enemy of Insight, suggests that “information input from the Internet is simply too fast, leaving little mental space or time to process that information, fit it into existing schema, and think through the implications”. (

“Important issues fade from focus fast, and while many of humanity’s challenges get more complicated, society’s ability to pay attention to complex arguments dwindles. Sound bites and attack ads work well when the world has attention deficit disorder.”

Institutions should be teaching students about the importance of context in online communications, the fluidity of privacy, awareness of nuance, and the power of community-building through social media.

Students are learning and growing in tandem with faculty and staff. In the near future, judging someone’s social media postings from their pre-college days may be significantly reduced.

Social Justice Teacher Preparation Technology Integration Networked Learning Twitter Parents as Partners – Building Learning Networks Posted by Shannon Smith on 2/20/12 • Categorized as Best Educational Practices,Distributed Leadership,Parental Involvement,Twitter 5 "fist bump" cc by Mark H. Anbinder on flickr Many schools are beginning to use social media to send out information to parents. Examples include twitter feeds and facebook pages. These initial forays into social media are a first step. They provide parents and the community with greater access to information regarding the school and the learning happening within its walls. A key facet of school leadership is developing relationships, both within staff and also with families and the community. This relationship building must include seeking feedback and listening. Most of this work is done face to face, through school events or outreach programs and even through informal conversations in the hallways or at drop off or pick up time. We live in a time w

I am less and less convinced that adults will be able to fundamentally change how school is done.

The thinking has changed

We are part of an environment filled with respect, creativity, collaboration, connecting, thinking, learning, and one of CHANGE.