Remote Access

Those Formerly Known as the Audience

(This post is a response, a build on, and my thoughts in response to reading this excellent piece of writing by Dean Shareski - I hope you have read what he has to say on this topic.) In the five years I have been blogging in my classroom, I have seen ...

Subject Matter Networks

The other day, I picked up a tweet from Mark Oehlert. He was at a conference and a speaker mentioned moving from "subject matter experts" to "subject matter networks." I was stuned for a moment thinking about the power that this idea has. This is, of course, in the simplest terms ...

Infringing Copyright

I received an email from wikispaces today that read as follows: "Hi, We received a DMCA notice from Martin Treasure Director of TravelSmart Ltd (contact details below) indicating that a file hosted on your wiki infringes on his copyright. The file in question is located on this page: http://creativecities.wikispaces.com/Florence+Italy+-+Sara According to his claim, the ...

A Simple Thanks

Disclaimer - this post has absolutely nothing to do with education. Three weeks ago I thought I had trouble. I was struggling in my class with a challenging class of 29 grade seven and eight kids. My house was upside down due to renovations we were doing and it seemed as ...

Calm Before the Storm

When I was a kid growing up in Snow Lake, there were about 2 100 people here. Over the years (the last 5 or 6 especially), changing technology in mining, the globalization of the industry and falling base metal prices have all contributed to falling fortunes for the town. In the ...

Contstructing Knowledge

I'm heading to Austin Texas in a few weeks to keynote Tech Forum Southwest. I was in Chicago for Tech Forum in April and truly enjoyed the format and the day that I was fortunate enough to spend there. Besides the fact that I'm expecting great conversations again and great ...

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

One of the perks of writing this blog that I rarely take advantage of is the free stuff that I get offered to me. It is rare the week that rolls by without an offer in my inbox for new software or a new product. But this one I couldn't pass ...

Wanted: One School, Two Jobs

We're thinking that it might be time to move on. My wife and I have been teaching in Snow Lake for thirteen years through all sorts of ups and downs; but we are thinking of leaving. We are looking to move our family somewhere new and this post is the beginning ...

Helping to Grow a Community

Helping a new classroom community to grow and take shape in a classroom is different each and every year. Much depends on the variables: the age of your students, their technology skills, your community context and need among others. There are many things to consider. Each community needs to be ...

Growing Global Perspectives

We have more information, but less news. We have more information, but we understand the world less and have less perspective on global events than people in the past. An information age paradox. Alisa Miller in this 4 minute TED Talk explains how this has happened: This is frightening. We live in a world ...