I’m afraid there are a lot of teachers who avoid controversies--talking about guns in the classroom just opens up a touchy subject ..... we, as educators, are obligated to help our students develop opinions that are based on objective facts.

I’m afraid there are a lot of teachers who avoid controversies--talking about guns in the classroom just opens up a touchy subject ..... we, as educators, are obligated to help our students develop opinions that are based on objective facts.
Fancy Projection Screens or Transformative Tools for 21st Century teaching? OK, I really come down somewhere in the middle on this question. Despite all the hype, an IWB is really only as good as the teacher using it. In a novice’s hands, an IWB often is just a glorified whiteboard, with electronic ink replacing stinky …
Check out this QR (Quick Read) Code. I scanned it with my iPhone standing next to Benjamin Franklin’s grave in Philadelphia last week. I was on a field trip with the ISTE SIGML (special interest group for mobile learning). We were using QR codes to discover interesting facts about Ben Franklin as we did a …
So what do petroglyphs have to do with twitter posts? Our spring break this early April was amazing. Normally, in Minnesota, spring break means late winter slush with melting snow and muddy trails. But this year was showing, spring was definitely in the air. I decided I needed a prairie fix. I'm attracted to the …
Continue reading Twitter Postings: Petroglyphs of the 21st Century
Provocateur Scott McLeod (otherwise known as Scott McLeod, Iowa State University associate professor and head of the Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education) came to the Minnesota Education media Organization fall conference to shake up the status quo. His provocative keynote challenged media specialist and librarians to examine the core of …
Do you have something to say? Want to share it with a larger audience? Blogging may just be your ticket. But how do you start? This is a question I recently faced as I started Cultivating the Educational Technologist blog. It’s a little bit finding your voice, identifying the tool you want to use, and …
Have you been thinking about doing something new and different with technology this year in your classroom or professional life? Are you daunted by the overwhelming choices of Web 2.0 tools out there? Should you start blogging—or using a wiki (whatever that is) or a Ning (now there’s a name for you)—or what about this …
In 2005, my then superintendent, asked me to come up with a vision for technology integration, and, "oh,by the way, present it in one month!" I was just 3 months into my current job as instructional technology specialist in Curriculum and Instruction, and, needless to say, I was a little overwhelmed. I came up with …
Continue reading Vision for 21st Century Learning Environment
(View the above video from the 10 minute mark to about 20 minutes to see how Chris Lehmann thinks technology is contributing to 21st century learning) 21st century learning is about so much more than just the hardware in the classroom. We can install the latest internet wired multimedia computer, connect it to a video …
Continue reading School 2.0: Progressive Pedagogy and 21st-Century Tools: Part 2