For the first couple of chapters of Warren Berger's wonderful book A More Beautiful Question, I was selfishly angry and jealous. So much of his writing seemed straight out of my own mind and thought process, starting nearly three decades ago; why had I not written this book myself? Why did I not have the [...]
Is it the natural end of a somewhat off-the-grid vacation on tropical islands and rain forest pathways? Or is it that my friends around the world care deeply about education and that the themes of our times are universal and pressing? Some of both. In the last two days, as I wind down this wonderful [...]
I have never visited an educational institution more steeped in tradition than the US Military Academy at West Point. The Academy is a keeper of traditions of which all of us would be proud, and that many of us would do well to emulate. But, over the several years that I have worked and visited [...]
I arrived on the grounds of USMA West Point in the late afternoon and found my room in the Distinguished Visitor’s Quarters, a renovated three-story Victorian near the parade grounds and overlooking the mighty Hudson River. Cadets walked home in pairs, trios, and small groups, or jogged down the road in full gear or shorts [...]
The great thing about traveling across time zones is that you lie awake at night and think about stuff. Last week Melinda Kolk of Tech4Learning interviewed me for an article she is going to write about my new book, #EdJourney. She told me about a teacher in a school she works with; I think it [...]
As I coordinate speaking events related to the release of my new book, #EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education, with my work with schools and school associations around the country, I am trying to make my travel as efficient as possible. Am I coming near you? Right now my fall-spring calendar looks something [...]
I am so happy to announce that my new book, #EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education, will be published by Jossey-Bass, a Wiley brand, in early September. It has received some wonderfully generous comments from a range of educational thought leaders. Since completing my solo 89-day, nationwide tour of 64 schools, I [...]
This is the kind of response that will jumpstart a new kind of design-based collaborative thinking at your school...and sure makes my day! From one of the 28 school teams engaged in our 9-month NBOA/OSG hybrid collaboration on imagining and building a more sustainable future. (If we run the program again next year, I think we [...]
Check out blog by Thomas Steele-Malley on development of interdisciplinary programs; very rich in links to those schools who are leading the way. In particular, this video about a group of schools in Wisconsin, Interdisciplinary Learning Collaborative, is a treat. It reminded me of my visit to Meridian Academy in Boston. What a great idea: [...]
I was a latecomer to the formal theories of education and learning; in my formative years I never read Dewey, Piaget, or Bloom. I am still convinced that I coined the term “problem-finding” one afternoon in 1985 as I ran our two dogs on a sage-covered hillside; certainly I had never heard it used before [...]