Thank you for bringing John Palfrey to the school last night. He was fabulous, and he spoke directly to issues facing my family and our children – PDS parent. It was election eve for the parents and community discussion. And an election day workshop for PDS teachers and colleagues from other New York independent schools. The pictures above are of…
Digital kids in a digital world. What’s to worry about? Here is a short interview with John Palfrey author of Born Digital. Hear him in person at PDS on November 3rd. (NYSAIS on Tuesday November 4th.)
In a time of crisis and turmoil it is sometimes valuable to turn to the past for reassurance. So: – worse things happen at sea – we’re in it together – nobody died – we all have to do our bit – if it’s got your number on it – keep smiling through – and – that great bromide and…
“Social Networking: does it bring positive change to education?” This is one of the questions posed by The Economist magazine. Here is a link if you have a view, or if you want to understand more about the issues, or participate in the debate. Their first debate focused on technology and education, the second on university recruiting, and the third…
Year two of the lower school Take One Picture project* and the picture is (drumroll please): Fantasy Castle with Men on Zebras by Squire Vickers. Vickers was the Chief Designing Architect of the New York subway system from 1906 to 1942 and an avid painter. Engineering fascinated him and he saw the massive structures of modern cities as feats of…
Ten Trends: educating children for tomorrow’s world An article in the Journal of School Improvement a while back examined ten major trends and looked at the challenges they present for schools. The author, Gary Marx, begins with this ringing statement: The status quo is a ticket to obsolescence. Why? Because the world around us is in motion, changing at dizzying…
Within the past 50 years, we’ve seen our country move from an industrial economy to an information-based economy. Now, early in the 21st century, it appears we are shifting to an innovation-based economy, one that requires what the psychologist Robert J. Sternberg calls “successful intelligence,” a three-point foundation of analytical, practical, and creative skills. In other words, the measure of…
What’s next for computers? Here’s a demonstration of a multi-touch interface. Pretty amazing.Imagine the classroom or the workplace where everyone has access to this technology.
In an earlier post, I mentioned the prescient Marshall McLuhan who saw decades ago that we were living in an era of connectivity and communications In that interview, he commented that most of us think in the past. For artists, he says, it is different. They live in the present, they think in the present, and it can be terrifying.…
Take a look at this fascinating video about web 2.0 from Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. The machine is us. The machine is using us. The machine will not stop. According to Professor Wesch we’ll need to rethink a few things including: copyright authorship identity ethics aesthetics rhetorics governance privacy commerce love family ourselves.…
“It is easier to change the course of history than to change a history course”. “Proposals for change in schools are often met with a thousand points of no“ Liz, Julie and I are at the NAIS annual conference in Denver. We were joined by Trace who gave a great presentation yesterday. (On that, more later). The theme of the…
The one thing about which all educators are in agreement is that yesterday’s education no longer suffices for today. The rate of technological change and the development of new information is so great that educators scarcely know what to make of it all, let alone how to get it taught; next week’s scientific discovery can make last week’s textbook obsolete.…