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Shifting Conversations
With over 200 posts, our Shifting Conversations blog is where we reflect on the work of teachers and leaders to create a new narrative for schooling and education. Add your voice to the conversation. And sign up today to receive the Modern Learners weekly newsletter with curated, relevant content along with our Shifting Conversations blog.
Shifting Conversations Blog
Is College a Risk? The Modern Learners Podcast #21
Is it now riskier for some people to go to college right out of high school than instead to take some time off, do apprenticeships, or create a unique path to expertise? That’s the question that Seth Godin asked in a recent podcast, and the core of this week’s Modern Learners podcast conversation between Bruce […]
The Urgency to Unlearn
“Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.” ~Mark Twain It’s been over a decade (yes…a decade) since I wrote one of my most commented upon posts ever (ah, those were the days) titled A Steep Unlearning Curve. One of the nice things about having 15+ years of thinking and reflecting archived online is being […]
Modern Learners Podcast #20: Norms for Learning – An Interview With Brett Jacobsen
What norms do you have in your school, not just for behavior, but for learning? In most schools, norms exist, but they are not as clearly articulated as these five at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School outside of Atlanta, Ga.: Start with questions Assume the best Fail up Share the well Have fun Those norms form […]
Why This Time is Different
During one of our regular Roundtable discussions in Change School this week, one of our school leaders asked a very interesting question. “Given the number of books that have been written and papers that have been presented around school change over more than 50 years by some very well informed and esteemed writers, why has there […]
Your Cheatin’ Tech
First, some context for the 19th episode of the Modern Learners Podcast: Kids cheat in school. In high school. In college. Do a quick Google search and you’ll find all sorts of research that bears this out. Ask a kid, and even if he doesn’t admit to it himself, he’ll most likely roll his eyes […]
The Global Refrigerator Door
It’s been a long time since I’ve written about tools, but today, I’m writing about tools. Tools that I use, or am learning to use. Tools that I think change the conversation when it comes to what we do in classrooms. Tools that make my learning world so different today from what it was even […]
ISTE a Wrap!
Last week, one of the premier edtech events in the world took place in San Antonio, and it was our good fortune (Bruce, Missy, and I) to all be in attendance at the ISTE 2017 conference with about 16,000 others. In this podcast, Bruce and I reflect on the love/hate relationship we both have with […]
Where Have all the Powerful Ideas Gone?
For a few days last week, the world’s biggest edtech event, ISTE in San Antonio, made me confront some harsh realities. Late on the third day, as I sat listening to our colleague Gary Stager’s ISTE session on the 50th anniversary of Logo, I was reminded of just how painfully incremental our adoption of computers […]
AR, VR, AI, and BS: The Modern Learners Podcast, ISTE17 Edition
Greeting from San Antonio, where Bruce, Missy, and I are gathering for our second Change School retreat, our first Change School Social, and, of course, the mammoth #ISTE17 conference where something like 17K educators from around the world are getting the latest about technology and how to (or how not to) use it in the […]
Commence Learning
I had the great privilege of delivering a commencement speech at a small school in New Jersey last week. It was the first speech I can remember that I wrote and read verbatim. Thought I’d share it here for posterity and, hopefully, to spur some thinking. Please read it as if you were an eighth […]