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Asking "why" and looking outside the walls of our schools may lead us to different visions and new directions.

Are we preparing students for 20th century testing or preparing them for life? Ask "why".

Back in 1999, when there were still a few people muttering that the Internet was “just a fad”, the science fiction writer and visionary Douglas Adams wrote an article expressing amusement at the way the mainstream media considered the Internet something odd, and slightly sinister: …you would think we would learn the way these things work, which is this: 1) Everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal; 2) Anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it; 3) Anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really. (Adams, 1999)

Connected devices should inject new opportunities, knowledge, data, influencers and thinking into our debates and add value not distraction.

The question of student distractibility is worth further exploration.

Technology does not need to be a part of every aspect of our lives. We need to learn when it is the best tool, when it plays a part on the sidelines and when it is best left out of the equation.

lecture, it is a quick, easy, efficient, and almost fool-proof way to get information directly from you to your students

isn't really any deep interaction

referred to as the "flipped classroom". I would outsource the delivery of lecture to video

Any one of these web tools that a freshman in high school learns today will most likely not exist or will be replaced by something better in 8-10 years when that freshman graduates from college. However, if teachers change their approach to focus on transferable technology skills (i.e. the NETS-S) it will make the integration of technology more meaningful and prepare our students with skills they can take with them in the future.

CBC documentary

it is essential that there is a purpose, and pedagogic purpose to the activities we do with technology

f we stand a chance of having students ‘unplug’ themselves willingly and engage in ‘deeper thought’ more often than ‘superficial thought’ in their leisure or work, they must understand why deeper thought is more important, and why it is better to put it before the ‘rush’ and instant gratification of technology.

Technology is the driving force behind most of the education innovation. It is impacting not only what we can do as educators, but it is also changing how we approach learning. These innovations may have not all reached the education journals yet, but they have been presented and are being discussed digitally and at great length in social media.

Information from technology may be easily accessed, but it is not yet a passive exercise. It requires effort and an ability to learn and adapt. These are skills that all educators have, but many may not always be willing to use. The status quo has not required educators to use these skills in a long time. Using these skills requires effort and leaving a long-standing zone of comfort in order to learn and use new methods of information retrieval.

They need to be the life-long learners that they want their students to be.

I liken BYOT to BYOP (bring your own pencil).  Imagine if students had to share pencils provided by their school or only had a couple of 40 minute periods per week where they were allowed to use pencils.

When was the last time you wrote an essay? When was the last time you read one other than for grading?

We need to reframe our conversation about writing from one based on polarities of analog versus digital to one about purpose, passion and relevance.

Social media: The haiku of digital writing

Call it the “learning paradox”: the more you struggle and even fail while you’re trying to master new information, the better you’re likely to recall and apply that information later.

second group was directed to solve the same problems by collaborating with one another, absent any prompts from their instructor.

the second group “significantly outperformed” the first.

they are understanding a complex text and making sense of it within the context of their own lives.   No parent wants more, no teacher does, than for kids to be able to not just "read" Shakespeare but to understand why his work still speaks urgently to the present, why it is worth taking the time to read all that odd English from another time

We are not responsible as educators unless we are teaching not just with technology but through it, about it, because of it.   We need to make kids understand its power, its potential, its dangers, its use.  That isn't just an investment worth making but one that it would be irresponsible to avoid.

counteract the New WWW's potentially harmful impact on youth, educators must use technology to create learning experiences that are real, rich, and relevant.

Next will come 4G, in which data rates are expected to be 100 times faster than those in this first 3G wave. As the delivery platform of broadband content and functionality shifts from computer to personal device, we will be surrounded by a multimedia aura that accompanies us wherever we go

The plan is that you'll use your phone to spend money everywhere, all the time.

Why kids hate school — subject by subject

Some questions to consider before embarking on your journey to personalize learning: Why do you want to personalize learning for your learners? What problems or needs have you identified in your school, organization and/or community? What data can you show that demonstrates the need to personalize learning? What does teaching and learning look like now? What are stakeholders beliefs about learning and change? Why is it critical for your organization and/or community to change now? What challenges or obstacles do you envision as you move to personalizing learning? What do you envision for your personalized learning environment?

Ask yourself, "What do I remember as the most rewarding and inspiring experience in school?

Yes, you need knowledge of the periodic table to do chemistry, but you don't need to memorize it if it's on your desktop -- electronic or otherwise. What matters is the ability to do something with the elements in the periodic table.

schools become relevant once more: in teaching our children to evaluate and use that information in ways that are important and meaningful and to satisfy their fundamental human desire to construct solutions for the world full of engaging and pressing problems they will inherit.

t “most teachers” just don’t put in the effort to incorporate technology into their instruction. I would have to agree, but I think it’s important to ask, “Why should they?”

Or do they?… Are their colleagues telling them they have to? Are their administrators telling them they have to? Are the parents telling them they have to? If not, then they don’t have to learn it.

I believe it is our responsibility as educators to integrate technology into instruction as much as we are able to