2¢ Worth

UK Florida educator, Mechelle De Craene, is experimenting with using the SIMS video game, as a method for helping her special needs students learn to express their stories. She says in her blog posting, The Sims 2.0 & Students with Special Needs.
My newest classroom-based pilot research project is coming along well. I am exploring […]

Diane Quirk, of “Technology to Empower Student Learning,” posted a comment on one of my rants about the mantra, “Integrate Technology.” I described how I was much happier with integrating contemporary literacy. But Quirk suggests in her comment that perhaps we should reconsider at integrate as well.
My initial response was that there may […]

OK, I’ve been reading through additional comments on my demand that we stop using the “T” word. ..and it occurred to me,
Why don’t we just tell all the teacher to find another job.
Now I do not mean to quit teaching and go take another job. Instead, we ask teachers to go to […]

Some bloggers find it easy to take one aspect of something that another blogger says and then launch into a tirade about it, and even insult the writer or speaker based on that one idea. I can’t do that. However, sometimes someone says something that causes such an itch along my spine, that […]

Much has been written lately about technology in the classroom — as to whether it is optional or even relevant. This conversation is understandable, given the time of the year. I ask myself two questions in reaction.

Can a teacher be a good teacher without using technology? A resounding “YES!”
Is a teacher who […]

A Randolph County, North Carolina teacher commented on one of my recent ethics posts, and brings up an interesting and frustrating aspect of teaching the ethical use of information to our students. The educator writes…
As a middle school technology teacher who teaches ethics my biggest problem is when I tell a child that downloading […]

I received an e-mail early this morning from the librarian at Wellesley College, an independent boy’s school in Wellington, New Zealand. They are planning for a new library, and he was asking for some impressions from a number of educators, with whom I was honored to be included.
Since I am teaching two workshops […]

One of the best parts of what I do is getting to attend education conferences all over the country — and occasionally in other countries. It is unfortunate that most teachers do not have the opportunity to attend conferences. However, a handful of school districts solve this problem by organizing their own local […]

I am working on a wiki page that is going to list a variety of New Story starter factoids that teachers and school administrators might use during the opening of schools and school open houses. I’ve drawn the items from a variety of sources, including the very fine “Did You Know” presentation slides that […]

Stephen Downes, an information philosopher (my characterization) and blogger, whom I respect greatly, has seen fit to criticize my recent entry, where I featured an Information Code of Ethics for teachers and students. I want to thank this Canadian academic for all of his criticisms and enormous contributions. Questioning blogs and even disagreeing […]