As you sit back and watch the NBA’s playoffs or whatever sport grabs your attention at this time of the year, think for a moment about the talent of the people you are watching, and more specifically, when and how that was identified. For some it was obvious from an early age. For others, they […]
The Most Important Talent Search in the World Read More »
At the “commencement” session for our first cohort of Change Schoolers this week, amid some fun awards and the popping of a cheap bottle of champagne, I gave the final reading, a snip of something that I hoped would tie the bow on our work together. Naturally, it was about change. And not surprisingly, it was by
The Roots of Change Read More »
What were you doing four years ago? For some that might seem like a recent memory, while for others so much water has flowed under the bridge it seems like forever. For Will and I, it was a conversation over a great bottle of red that launched Modern Learners. One thing that all of us
It Really is Time to Change School Read More »
Last month, we missed a bit of an anniversary here at Modern Learners, three years of writing and making that total over 330 posts, 199 newsletters, a slew of whitepapers, podcasts, masterclasses and goodness knows what else. Add to that the recent addition of Change School to the Modern Learners “portfolio” and even I have
So Many Questions… Read More »
A couple of weeks ago, EdSurge ran a post that asked “Is Your EdTech Product a Refrigerator or a Washing Machine?” The premise was simple. If your product is like a refrigerator, the pace of it’s adoption in schools will probably be pretty fast since you can just “plug it in” to the existing infrastructure
Learning’s Lousy Adoption Curve Read More »
As we work through our busy lives, I’m intrigued by how readily we seem to accept so many of the assumptions that impact on that work. I don’t think for a minute that this is something we do consciously, but when you have so much going on in your life, you simply don’t have the
I came across an apt metaphor for change in schools a few months ago. An administrator told me excitedly that they had been giving students some say in ways in which their classrooms were outfitted, and that one class had chosen to use yoga balls to sit on instead of the traditional hard plastic (or
Yoga Balls in Rows Read More »
There are two planets in the Universe of Today, Planet Earth and Planet School. Planet Earth can seem a little crazy at times, but it’s connected, complex and in a constant state of change. It’s a cultural melting pot, and people are continuously communicating across more countries, more often in more mediums that we might
A Tale of Two Planets Read More »
Fourteen people in a room. All of them educators. 12 of them parents. How many of those 12 do you think told a similar story of learning for their kids in schools? If you said all 12, you’d be correct. And if I asked you to guess what that story was? You’d probably get than one correct
A Common Sense Argument Read More »
In a week when we have had more conversations with more changeleaders than Will and I might ever have imagined possible, it has given me cause to reflect. While the amount of interest we’ve had from leaders across the world who wanted to be part of Change.School has been a little overwhelming, it has, on
When you think about it, learning is a rather quaint, but deceptively powerful word which we continually use, abuse and misuse in our work almost every day. Yet we see it constantly trivialised and thrown about like confetti across so many different contexts it’s no wonder that it’s real meaning is then lost in so
The Only Skill That Really Matters Read More »
For those not yet totally overwhelmed by the information stacks and flows of the modern world, here’s a not so secret trick to pushing yourself over the edge. Login to your Google account. Go to Google Alerts Create an alert for “computers in education” Copy the RSS feed for that alert Paste into your favorite
How to Read “Tech in Schools” Stories Read More »
How often have you ever had to wait for a taxi that never seems to come, or in fact never does? And how do you respond to that prolonged wait? Frustration, anger? So, what was so different about Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp who, on a snowy Paris evening in 2008 also had trouble hailing
Dare to Re-imagine Read More »
A snowy start to the year can certainly slow things down a lot in the North of our planet, and below the equator, a sharp dose of summer will mean lying on beaches to enjoy the end of the summer vacation. So maybe we all did need a wake-up call to get us going this
Who is Paying Attention? Read More »
I’ve been trying to imagine the pothole filled ride that 2017 is about to deliver, and I’m not sure “buckling up” is going to do much good. I can’t remember a new year that augured so much uncertainty. You? My first instinct is to tie everything down, stick to the routines, make sure emergency measures
Our Resolution: Be Less Efficient. And Ship. Read More »
