We’re going to the zoo in a week or so. The reading teacher and I decided we’d integrate a lesson for the kids to do while there.  I’m starting to think I can get the social studies teacher in on this act too.  I’m a big fan of integrated lessons; the kids are better able […]

Dr. Spike Cook is the principal of R.M. Bacon Elementary School (Millville, NJ) and co-host of the PrincipalPLN Podcast. Dr. Cook shares insight on his career and how the Summer presents opportunities to learn and grow.   Follow Spike http://twitter.com/drspikecook   House of #EdTech is sponsored by Audible.com. There are over 150,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or other mp3 player. http://www.audibletrial.com/houseofedtech   All links and shownotes at http://www.chrisnesi.com/2014/08/houseofedtech16.html   FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: cnesi4602 Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/mrnesi Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com  

Saw this recently on Twitter, filed it for later reference, wanted to get a blog posting about it up here. http://www.sciencebob.com/ is a terrific resource for elementary science project information, ideas and videos. My favorite sections? Experiments: …the Videos (which are especially great because they play via Quicktime; since YouTube is blocked in many schools, his channel will be, too): … and finally, his Experiment Blog, which has lots of great project ideas and things to think about: Our own 4th grade teachers Mrs. Gibson and Mrs. Shenkus found the Oreo Cookie Moon Phase post and will be trying that soon! This is just one of many science resources I plan to be showcasing here. Hope this helps! Mr. Jarrett

IF you care about accelerating the adoption of learning technology innovation, and IF you have a solution you would like to share with a community of post-secondary education practitioners that cares about solutions as much as you do, THEN I...

SUCCESS!!!  Several students and I downloaded the Yapp app I created for our field trip to the zoo this week.  In addition, a couple of our parent chaperones did too!  We took pictures and videos which are being uploaded, sent tweets to each other and interacted with each other as we wandered around the 35 […]

Try Something New! Do not be afraid of technology as a new school year approaches. Check out an awesome content curating tool called Pocket!   Follow Pocket http://twitter.com/pocket   House of #EdTech is sponsored by Audible.com. There are over 150,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or other mp3 player. http://www.audibletrial.com/houseofedtech   All links and shownotes at http://www.chrisnesi.com/2014/08/houseofedtech17.html   FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: cnesi4602 Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/mrnesi Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com  

Have to admit I’m normally not a big fan of resource lists, which this very nearly could be considered to be, but the visual organizational element of this Livebinder makes it different.  It’s a fine effort by Instructional Technology Specialist Tia Cooper! Click here to check out her resources!

Folks like Mike Caulfield, Bonnie Stewart, and Kate Bowles, deserve far more attention for their thinking and writing than what they are currently getting. It’s really not fair to lump them together, but they represent for me an intersection of humanity, tangible change, and deep thinking in education. Build your next conference around these three and I’m there. Just send me the registration link. A recent sampling of their thinking: From Kate: I really think the measure of our capacity to call ourselves a community relates to our responses in a whole range of situations for which there can’t be laws or even social demands, but only instinct….and that’s where I think we are with our transactions, our struggling social communities, our networks, the places and persons that we care for. At some level we have to accept that every side is circumscribed, every speaking position is taken, and every single thing that now can be said will trigger someone else’s despairing fury that this is the same old, same old, mounting up to what’s most wrong in the world. From Bonnie: Participation makes us visible to others who may not know us, and makes our opinions and perspectives visible to those who may know *us,* but have never had to grapple with taking our opinions or positions seriously…Participation enrols us in a media machine that is always and already out of our control; an attention economy that increasingly takes complex identities and reduces them to sound bites and black & white alignments. From Mike: But what I *know* I’m right about is that these problems exist, and they are serious. Minority voices are squelched, flame wars abound. We spend hours at a time as rats hitting the Skinner-esque levers of Twitter and Tumblr, hoping for new treats — and this might be OK if we actually then built off these things, but we don’t. We’re stuck in an attention economy feedback loop that doesn’t allow us silent spaces to reflect on issues without news pegs, and in which many of our areas of collaboration have become toxic, or worse, a toxic bureaucracy. We’re stuck in an attention economy feedback loop where we react to the reactions of reactions (while fearing further reactions), and then we wonder why we’re stuck with groupthink and ideological gridlock.

I have a special fondness for Flash. Having worked at Macromedia in the years before it was purchased by Adobe, and then staying with Adobe for a few years after the acquisition was completed, I came to know a fair...

I’m not gonna say a word.. just absorb what they’re saying.. . and then, if so moved.. comment.