Did you know that I’m an adult with braces? It was strange getting them on a year ago, but, oddly, I can’t envision not wearing them anymore. This is because my orthodontic experience so far has been so pleasurable and… educational. I want to tell you about my orthodontist, and why my dream is for our public schools to even replicate a teaspoon of what they do.* They are a family A family owned and run business, it feels like the Cosby Show living room. It’s hard to describe in words the warmth palpable in their offices. You couldn’t really even call it customer service; I would call it love. They are transparent All the work is done in an open office space surrounded by huge windows to let the sunlight pour in. That means you hear a conversation one hygienist is having with another patient a few chairs down, and you can see the doctor give his/her descriptive feedback and expertise to the kid in front of you. They are collaborative At my orthodontist, it takes the proverbial village to get your teeth straight. No one has any qualms about asking their peer to come on over and give a second opinion, nor do they fear negative evaluation of their worth as a professional. People are honest when unsure about next steps to take with your teeth. As strange as it is to lie below two or three people speaking clinically about your mouth, it is so refreshing to witness the openness and internal connectivity they have. We talk about networked learning all the time, and we celebrate when we achieve it. At my orthodontist, it’s just a way of life. They have a vision and enact it "[Our mission is to provide] the highest quality of orthodontic care, genuine service, and a fun, friendly atmosphere." You can read their clear and concise mission statement, and then you can see it in action. At my orthodontist, actions speak louder than words. They use technology (understatement) State of the art doesn’t cover it. I have never seen technology used like this before. Every patient ‘station’ has a computer which connects to the database of patient information. If it happens, you can read about it immediately on any device in the building. It’s assessment and evaluation taken to another level. Viewing my electronic file is like reading a digital story of my orthodontic journey. You also never see people getting angry with the technology, even though I’m sure their tech has as many hiccups as anyone else’s. And after all the digital awesomeness, it still comes down to a bunch of tiny elastic bands to get the job done. They have strong leadership You can see it, feel it, and admire it. Dear orthodontist, I want to be like you when I grow up. *In the interests of avoiding the impression that I’m giving a formal endorsement, I’ve left the name of my orthodontist anonymous.

We are going through a fairly hot debate in our district right now around specialized schooling. The discussion has centred on a particular arts-based (our only one) elementary school, but if you look deeply, it’s really a debate on public schooling in general. Essentially, the question is: Should public school districts offer specialized elementary schools (such as language immersion, arts, sports, technology, etc.) to students? One side of the debate contends that families need to be given choice in the public system. One size does not fit all, and we need to cater to multiple needs. Many proponents of this view use anecdotes of students that were disenchanted or marginalized in mainstream schools, and were subsequently rejuvenated (for lack of a better word) in the specialized ones. The other side posits that specialized schools leave us with less impetus to change what is wrong with our current system. Similar to arguments for universal healthcare, they contend that as long as people can opt out, there is no need to improve and evolve the status quo. Furthermore, the extent to which the arts, sports, gifted education, or technology is seen as a ‘specialty’ item shines a glaring light on their marginalization from mainstream schooling. Interestingly, both sides will defend the importance of equity in the issue. The pro side says it is inequitable that families cannot choose a specialized school for their children. The nay vista argues the inequity of having to, in some cases, audition or be first in line for these schools (also noting how SES correlates greatly with a family’s ability to do so). I’m likely not doing justice here to the nuances of the argument, so I’m hoping you can add your two cents or more. The reason I am blogging about this is because I myself am really on the fence with the issue, and am interested in sparking more discussion on it. What are your thoughts on, and experience with, specialized public schools? What is best for the greater good?

Love this mashup by Chris Wejr debunking myths on competition in schools:

Join Shannon Smith, Danika Barker, Lisa Neale and I at this year’s #nxnei as we discuss: Social Media in the Classroom - Teaching and Learning with Digital Technologies Today’s students are digital learners in a world of ever-available connectivity.  Many step into their classrooms every morning with powerful mobile devices peeking out their back pockets.  No longer a lonely drudgery, homework turns social as students increasingly connect to learn and collaborate. And yet, schools have been slow to recognize the potential afforded by social media platforms. Are tweeting, texting and facebook the new dog-eared cahier and time-honoured textbook? What are the challenges faced by educators keen to bring classroom learning into the 21st century? This panel brings together a group of innovative educators to discuss the use of social media and online tools in schools. We discuss the push for change within traditional public school models. Specifically, we will examine how social media and online tools provide learning opportunities that nurture the skills students need - creativity, critical thinking and a global perspective. Use the promo code NXNEirocks to get 10% off tickets here. I can’t wait to be a part of this event, and would love to see/meet you there.

Click here to check out the ‘Google+ Manual’ I created as a resource for innovative educators in our board to get connected. Feel free to use it for your own purposes.

Mike Stories are stream-of-consciousness oral stories we tell in our family. It all started over a year ago when Janet was trying to console Jackson after some sort of skinned knee or such incident. She sat our little boy on her lap and told a story about a little boy named ‘Mike’ (everyone in the family knows it’s Jackson but we all suspend disbelief). We now have close to a hundred Mike Stories in our iTunes library. The kids listen to them every night as they go to bed. I’ve thought about sharing them on a blog, or putting them in the iTunes store as a podcast, but have resisted doing this because I just can’t see how anyone else could find these random stories of ours interesting. They are often nonsensical, and full of so many in-the-know jokes to be utterly irrelevant to anyone who doesn’t use our bathtub. Besides, perhaps it’s one of those things that are just for us. Some of our titles include: Mike’s Rainy Day Mike Meets Winnie the Pooh Mike Goes to School Mike’s Trip to the Chinese Mall You get the idea. Esoteric really doesn’t cover it. If you’re looking for a new project/activity to do as a family I highly recommend this. Apart from being massively (and unexpectedly) gripping for the kids, we’ve also seen the impact they are having on literacy. Because of our Mike Stories, my children think it is normal to be authors of texts. They don’t see themselves only as consumers, but creators as well. In addition, you wouldn’t believe how much Mike Stories are enhancing my children’s vocabulary, understanding of narrative, and oral speaking skills. The greatest thing of all being that serendipity really brought all of it on. We didn’t plan this. There is no curriculum. We just go with the flow. It’s more jazz than classical. Bring some spice to your bedtime routine and try this out. It’s pretty cool when your kid says his favourite author is a member of his own family, and when you collectively develop a whole parallel narrative to the life you lead together.

Thank goodness I follow people like Michelle Solomon and Carlo Fusco for alerting me to the following videos of Danah Boyd talking about the extent and implications of our society’s culture of fear. My mind was spinning for days after hearing some of her synthesized ideas. And click here for an interview with Danah Boyd.

A few people have asked me for this graphic I made a while ago, so here is a new, high resolution version of it. Share and share alike:)

Quite possibly a must-discuss in our classrooms…

CC licensed photo shared by flickr user Vox Efx A post from one of my student’s blogs: Life is crazy. As young students we put too much pressure on ourselves to get good marks, in addition to keeping up good looks and sports and a social life. It can all be very tiring and sometimes frustrating. We sometimes wake up at 5am so we can straighten our hair or even study (I know I have done that before) or we wake up at 6am and skip breakfast so we can make it to school on time. Sometimes we just need to say forget this and just go have fun at the movies or something. We just need to let it all go. We are still young and we don’t need the pressure right now. We will obviously be under more pressure when we get older and have a job and kids to take care of. Right now as young people we just need to have fun. We need to have memories of our childhood growing up. We don’t want memories of missing parties because we had to study or missing out on the movies because we had a project. Don’t get me wrong you still need to have your assignments done on time but we have to put less pressure on ourselves. Me, I know I have gotten called before to go to the movies with some friends but I had to say no because I had to work on a project. Now I wish that I had had the time to go to the movies with them. I wish I hadn’t missed those laughs. We must have a balance of fun and education. Most of us are scared of making mistakes but making mistakes is the number one way to learn. It is like riding our bike for the first time. We are scared to go because we don’t want to fall but once we get going and our parents let go we realize that it is not so bad. We are soaring on our own. We are scared to make a mistake mainly because we don’t know what comes next, but once we make the mistake and learn from it, most of the time we don’t make it twice. It’s bad for the moment. That is all. If you think about it we can be compared to airplanes. When we are kids we’re backing up, we get older and we make it to the runway preparing for take off, then we grow up to be adults and the plane takes off, we are soaring on our own hoping everything is right. We can’t plan out how we want to turn out. We can’t plan our lives. We can’t guarantee that the plane will fly smoothly. We will be given speed bumps in the air but we have to learn to deal with them and in the end it makes us stronger. We know how to deal with it the next time. Don’t get frustrated every time you make a mistake, just learn and remember that the mistake is preparing you for take off. We are young and we are learning. We are young, waiting to fly.

CC licensed photo shared by Flickr user Shelley Panzarella It seems the honeymoon is over with iPad devices in education. Whether it’s people questioning the efficacy of turning a personal device into a shared tool, the complex ethical dilemmas Foxconn presents us with, or the sheer consumerism and corporate lust that the words ‘iPad rollout’ imbue, the critics are many and mostly intelligent. As someone who has been lucky enough to use iPad devices with students since pretty much their release, I feel the need to briefly address and delicately admonish those that express perhaps the greatest criticism of iPad use in classrooms: it’s a consumption, not a creation, tool (you never hear this criticism of books). After using the first generation of iPad with students for a year, I agreed with this point. That’s because, in 2011 (yes waaay back in 2011!) iPad apps were mostly consumption and game based. It also had no camera. As a result, we spent most of the year using the devices for a small degree of creative activities, but mostly as dummy terminals to the internet, connecting to our social media tools. 2012, equipped with iPad 2s, has been a far different story. The constant and exponential improvement of apps, coupled with the camera (integral, because it allows you to use it as a tool for capturing live learning), has turned it into a different device. I would describe our iPad 2s now as shared, digital scrap/sketchbooks. In fact, my students mostly use them for creation. Apps such as Sketchbook Pro and iMovie, while incomparable in capability to their desktop counterparts, are not silly little apps. They may be comparatively ridiculous for your average professional graphic designer, but are just what the doctor ordered in a classroom that values simple, embedded digital storytelling. On a daily basis, you will see my students using an iPad to: mind and concept map draw pictures make movies film learning as it happens make music create presentations make animations play games read research make calculations use manipulatives (come back to me next week after another of my students discovers something new). When people say that the iPad is not a creation tool, it’s mostly because those of us who write this stuff are coming from the perspective of the experienced, advanced desktop/laptop user. Based on that, everything mobile is a disappointment. What is more, I’ve noticed a trend that those who point out its lack of creative potential have often never used it for creative endeavours themselves. In fact, I myself hardly use my own iPad 1 for anything other than reading my RSS feeds. That doesn’t mean I cannot see its value for classroom use. The iPad presents us with a host of limitations for classroom application; perhaps that’s a good thing. I loathe the fact that this post could be interpreted as an endorsement of a product. Nevertheless, I’m not going to hide the fact that I absolutely love using the iPad with students. It’s not my own personal favourite device, but I’m a big fan of its classroom application. So, are we witnessing a natural backlash against the proverbial popular kid in school, or are iPad devices really bad for education? What do you think?

The student who made a Lego QR Code in my class has struck again in the below video. It made all of us in class laugh our heads off so I thought I’d share it this oddly wintery Monday morning.

Here’s the trailer for my very first keynote presentation on BYOD at the Waterloo District School Board on Saturday, April 28. Be there or be square.

Inspired by Michael Hickox’s amazing Lego stop-motion videos, as well as Common Craft’s In Plain English series, and armed with the new iStopmotion for iPad, here are just three examples of the awesomeness that is transpiring in my room.

I had too much fun working with leaders and instructors in the amazing Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada on web 2.0 tools they could use with the young people in their after school programs. Check out the ‘Xtranormal for Beginners’ resource I made for them and the world. Below are just two examples my beginners were able to produce in just an hour. I just love Xtranormal!

CC licensed photo shared by Flickr user gem fountain Some of you who read this blog may know that I’m passionate about the vital role that parents must play as stakeholders in the process of transforming education. Last night I co-facilitated a humble little workshop for my school community entitled 21st Century Learning: Parents as Partners. I won’t bore you with the details of the entire hour and a half, but I do want to share with you some quick takeaways that have been sprinting through my mind ever since. Parents are insecure about their levels of competency with new and emerging technologies. They are afraid that their children know more than them (where have we heard that before?), and wish that they could learn more, develop their own skills. Parents are mystified as to what their children are doing online and with their gadgets. Parents know that the world is different than when they were young. They know that their children’s paths, especially in regards to their careers, will not resemble their fathers’ and their fathers’ fathers’. Parents understand that we live in exponential times, and that, in our current era, a fancy $700 gadget feels old in a year. They know that you may be an expert today, but a dummie tomorrow. Parents know all this because they themselves are living it too. They just aren’t sure what this all means for learning and education. Parents are confused by the mixed messages we send as educators: grades are important, but, no, they’re not; competition is healthy, but we need collaboration; technology is needed, and it’s a menace and a distraction; etc. Parents want their kids to become resilient, patient, self-actualizing, passion-driven, mentally and physically healthy grown ups in a complex world in which they themselves are struggling to do the same. Parents are terribly unsure about what role(s) they should play in their ‘Facebooky-Tumblr world’ (a parent’s awesome term). To end this post, I wanted to share with you an analogy I used for which I received wonderful feedback. CC licensed photo shared by Flickr user 1.7ou ! (Les chiquitos) Think of the world online as a massive, completely public, seemingly unending forest full of amazing, and sometimes scary, surprises. You would not send your child into these woods alone when they, and perhaps even you, are unfamiliar with its terrain. Should you then watch surreptitiously, behind trees, and pounce when bad things occur? No, because that’s not how you build trust, and, besides, you’re almost contributing to the idea of unseen, mythical dangers lurking. So you walk alongside him/her. You hold hands. You don’t pretend to be an expert of all the plants, animals, and weather you encounter, but you do ask good questions and model a sense of wonder. You help each other when knees get scraped, and branches get tripped over. You use tools to navigate this forest, some of which you have brought with you, others that you will find, and still more that you will literally construct using materials and resources found on your way. Ultimately, your goal is to release that responsibility gradually onto your child. Soon, they will be able to traverse the woods by themselves, with friends, and - gulp - even strangers. If the internet is a forest, then you need to walk it together. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: We need to build real partnerships with parents in our school communities. A truly great education system won’t exist in its absence.

It started after I watched this~ My students were inspired by data coming to life like this~ And then they went on their own explorations, asking questions, surveying, collecting, agonising, regretting, analysing, concluding, reflecting, and wanting to do it all again~

I’m not trying to be disingenuous here; I truly believe it because I see it with my own eyes everyday.

Loved this quick tweet from @ktenkely so much, I thought I’d Phosterize it:)

I’ve been busy making posters for the start of the school year…

As some of you may know, I am what we in our district call a Learning Centre Classroom Teacher. In other words, ours is one of many open classrooms that accept visitors from stakeholders to come learn from and with our class as we venture through the landscape of contemporary pedagogy and learning. One of the things people are often struck by in my class is how we do ‘paperless’. My response has become a standard one: We are paperless in the sense that students and I don’t use paper to submit and return assignments, but we use paper everyday in the process of learning, to collaborate and think. Paper is an absolutely essential tool for learning; we shouldn’t try to eliminate it just for the sake of it. The most vital pieces of paper in our class are our individual sketchbooks, something I call the Thinking Book. Yes, we have smart phones; sure, we have iPad devices; and indeed, we have a few MacBook Pros. But, perhaps standing head and shoulders amongst the rest are our beautiful, hardcover sketchbooks. Here are just a few pages from last year’s books. I find them so much more beautiful than ‘final product’ pieces of work. This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I got interviewed by the great Doug Peterson about various #edtech stuff. Check it out here.

If there’s one myth which I am perturbed by, it is the one that goes something like this. Well, you know, getting technology in there is going to be great for those disengaged, behavioural boys… There are so many things wrong with this stereotype of our metaphorical wild animals suddenly being tamed at the sight of a touchscreen, but I’m going to focus my attention on one in particular. In my experience using social media and web 2.0 (SMW2.0) tools with students since basically their inception, I would say that if it favours or holds a bias towards any one identifiable student demographic at all, it would be our introverts. Before writing this post, I had a glance back at what you might call my own data. In the past two years, I have introduced and guided nearly 200 adolescent students in the use of Google Apps for Education, Voicethread, Animoto, Bitstrips, Prezi, Today’s Meet, and other well known SMW2.0 tools. All of them have had the ability to not only complete assignments and projects mandated by myself as their teacher, but also to take initiative and create, post, respond at their leisure 24/7. I went through my list of 184 and started by tagging each based on the results of a survey I had them complete from Susan Cain’s website: Extrovert Introvert Ambivert (difficult to identify as only one) I then compared this information with another where I assessed their engagement with SMW2.0: 1 - Exhibiting little engagement, rarely posting even when teacher required them to do so. 2 - Exhibiting some engagement, usually when the teacher outlined a specific task to accomplish. 3 - Exhibiting significant engagement, posting frequently. 4 - Exhibiting a high level of engagement, posting most frequently, to the point where we learn about skills, ideas, and aspects of their personality that are rarely shown outwardly in class. Here are the results of my mom ‘n’ pop research: What do you think this says about social media and introverts? Cross posted at Stephen Hurley‘s awesome blog Teaching Out Loud. Also check out my conversation with Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts, as well as her take on Why Gadgets are Great for Introverts.