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excerpt on teaching critical thinking "What are the right kinds of questions to ask? In figuring out what questions to ask, it's really helpful to look at Bloom's Taxonomy. Bloom's begins with a knowledge-based question such as, "Who was the first president of the United States?" To answer that question simply requires knowledge. That's just a first step. Next you want them to be able to evaluate. So I push teachers to look at the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy that involve the analysis and evaluation type of questions. That's when you're pushing kids' thinking. For instance, if you ask, "To what extent was George Washington successful as the first president of the United States?" that's a much higher-level question. It requires a student to evaluate, to create a set of criteria for what makes someone a great president, to possess knowledge about George Washington, and to evaluate his performance against that set of criteria. I suggest that teachers really think about questions that hit four specific criteria. Questions should be open-ended, with no right or wrong answer, which prompts exploration in different directions require synthesis of information, an understanding of how pieces fit together be "alive in their disciplines," which means perpetually arguable, with themes that will recur throughout a student's lifetime and always be relevant be age-appropriate

interesting column and short video explaining the Tubric for building driving questions

"The relationship between innovation and learning is about finding a relationship between what is familiar and what is strange. Creativity and imagination are both maps that allow us to do that. Imagination is a quality we all have, and it is an unlimited resource. The goal of education, training, and innovation spaces is to create and structure an environment where imagination can flourish. Those environments need to possess three qualities: A Space to Ask "What If" In order for imagination to flourish, there must be an opportunity to see things as other than they currently are or appear to be. This begins with a simple question: What if? It is a process of introducing something strange and perhaps even demonstrably untrue into our current situation or perspective. The imagination has to reconcile what is imagined within the boundaries of what is actual and therefore must understand how the world would have to change in order to make what is imagined a reality. Tools and Technique to Re-Imagine Context The work of imagination only has a payoff if it can be put into practice. That means that the context needs to be shaped and articulated in a meaningful way. In the 21st century we are surrounded by tools that allow us to reshape and re-imagine context all the time. From social network sites, to video and music distribution, to web design and production, we are surrounded by opportunities not just to create new content, but literally to transform the context in which that content has meaning. A Network of Imagination Imagination can only flourish when there is a networked collection of people to share that imaginative vision, embellish it, and develop it. What we have elsewhere called "networks of imagination" are shared tools of communication and in some cases co-presence that allow groups of people to construct those imagined realities in practical and concrete ways. Today's networked technology is more than just a conduit to communicate info

""Describe your preparation for and participation during discussion: note-taking, responding to e-mailed discussion questions and prompts, office hours, addressing or raising questions during discussion. How would you like your own participation to change, develop, or continue?"" I encounter a version of this "you didn't inform us" from students and teachers who can't find items in the top two topic blocks of their community. I don't know how to redesign the community to achieve more clarity. Maybe the answer lies in having "open office hours online" to offer digestible (i.e., not too long) explicit orientations to the community.

Great ideas for using simple questions to prompt interaction on the Youth Voices Page or other Facebook group pages

CRAP Test questions for distinguishing between legitimate and less-than-legitimate information C--Currency R--Reliability A--Authority P--Purpose/Point of view

Interview with MIT's provost L. Rafael Reif and Anant Agarwal, director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by Jeffrey R. Young, Wired Campus, Chronicle of HE, February 6, 2012. Like the idea of "karma points" mentioned below because it suggests something less than a formalized badges system (easy to implement), and gives high school students an understanding of altruistic behaviors that get some light and fun recognition, and new terminology. Excerpt: "Q. You refer to what's being given by MITx as a certificate. But there's also this trend of educational badges, such as an effort by Mozilla, the people who make the Firefox Web browser, to build a framework to issue such badges. Is MIT planning to use that badge platform to offer these certificates? Mr. Agarwal: There are a lot of experiments around the Web as far as various ways of badging and various ways of giving points. Some sites call them "karma points." Khan Academy has a way of giving badges to students who offer various levels of answering questions and things like that. Clearly this is a movement that is happening in our whole business. And we clearly want to leverage some of these ideas. But fundamentally at the end of the day we have to give a certificate with a grade that says the student took this course and here's how they did-here's their grade and we will give it to them. … But there are many, many ways the Internet is evolving to include some kind of badging and point systems, so we will certainly try to leverage these things. And that's a work in progress."

Acclaimed as one of the most exciting books in the history of American letters, this modern epic became an instant bestseller upon publication in 1974, transforming a generation and continuing to inspire millions. A narration of a summer motorcycle trip undertaken by a father and his son, the book becomes a personal and philosophical odyssey into fundamental questions of how to live. The narrator's relationship

provocative article, March 10, 2011, about asking one question about your work: You know you've really done your job when [what happens]?

Website for using social media to create a ladder of engagement to inspire people to take action and change. The question for MCNC is how to create a ladder of learning engagement through the SLI I-Lab.

Smart Scholars was a grant program sponsored by the New York State Education Department. This page includes information for participants. See the Questions and Answers from the Field link to learn more about the program.

The Alice Project--a 10th grade honors English tour of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with students reading the Annotated Alice and publishing their questions and reflections in real-time online.

When is the right time to move to a new social media tool? Seems like there has to be a critical mass before making the switch? For those already active on Twitter, for example, it seems rather daunting to try to recreate that network on Google Plus. I'll speak for myself here: I follow a lot of educators on Twitter; I have a lot of educator followers. I've tried to find folks on Google Plus and add them to my "ed-techies" circle, but that's easier said than done. I've also been added to Circles by educators I don't yet follow on Twitter, and then I feel like I should add them there too. For the time being, it feels as though I need to cover my bases and work with both networks, but I'm not sure if that's sustainable.