May 2013
3 posts
“Scientists have another name for failure: data. Expecting that your first stab...”
– At the 2013 99U Conference, Stanford Technology Ventures director Tina Seelig, author of inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity, echoes Neil Gaiman’s timeless advice on failure and the creative life.
A wise woman once said it even better.
Also see Steve Jobs on the fear of failure.
(via...
Will: "You Don't Need to be Taught in Order to... →
willrichardson:
Seymour Papert:
The role that the computer can play most strongly has little to do with information. It is to give children a greater sense of empowerment, of being able to do more than they could do before. But too often, I see the computer being used to lead the child step by step through…
April 2013
8 posts
“1. Associative orientation: Imaginative, playful, have a wealth of ideas,...”
– Norwegian researchers find the 7 characteristics of highly creative people. Pair with John Cleese on 5 factors to make your life more creative and Ira Glass on the secret of success in creative work.
Particularly interesting and counter-intuitive is #6 – but then again, we do know that emotional...
“The human mind is capable of being excited without the application of gross and...”
– The folly of sensationalism: William Wordsworth on the news … in 1798. (via explore-blog)
Will: "Why School?" - The Movie (?) →
willrichardson:
(Note: If after reading this you want to help, please fill out this interest survey. Thanks.)
So here’s the question: You think our little edu-network could make a movie? Like, a REAL full-length documentary feature? As in the next (and better) “Waiting for Superman?” One that kids had a big…
The Edge
The Edge: a sudden unplanned flight of fancy
“Come to the edge,” he said. They said, “We are afraid.” “Come to the edge,” he said. They came. He pushed them … . and they flew. Guillaume Appollinaire
‘Who reaches
A future for us from the high shelf
Of spiritual daring?’ Allen Curnow ’Landfall in… View Post
Watchexplore-blog:
Awakening, the first episode of PBS’s MAKERS series on the women who make America, explores the birth of the women’s movement and Gloria Steinem’s legacy.
March 2013
7 posts
Will: Announcing: Raising Modern Learners! →
willrichardson:
I’m really excited to announce a new undertaking that my good friend Bruce Dixon from Melbourne, Australia and I are launching today: Raising Modern Learners (RML).
As the proud owner of two teenagers (where’s the handbook?), I’ve been more and more drawn to the question of…
Alfie Kohn is coming to Poughkeepsie Day School →
No Struggle, No Progress: Fighting for the Schools... →
brianpjones:
This is an edited version of a talk I gave on Wednesday, March 6, 2013 in Harlem. I was speaking alongside educator and parent activist Diana Zavala.
We are in a critical situation. Public education is under a sustained attack, and in some cities — New Orleans, Detroit, Philadelphia — is…
No Struggle, No Progress: Fighting for the Schools... →
brianpjones:
This is an edited version of a talk I gave on Wednesday, March 6, 2013 in Harlem. I was speaking alongside educator and parent activist Diana Zavala.
We are in a critical situation. Public education is under a sustained attack, and in some cities — New Orleans, Detroit, Philadelphia — is…
February 2013
4 posts
Our RISD: Design + Conquer →
ourrisd:
A great article in Saturday’s National Journal – called Design and Conquer in the print edition and The Art of Techhology online – supports RISD’s efforts to focus national attention on the value of art and design to innovation and the economy.
More specifically, the story by Ron Fournier…
Will: Other Questions for Teachers and Principals →
willrichardson:
Valerie Strauss:
Nine in 10 principals (93%) and teachers (92%) say they are knowledgeable about the Common Core.
Nine in 10 principals (90%) and teachers (93%) believe that teachers in their schools already have the academic skills and abilities to implement the Common Core in their…
January 2013
5 posts
Will: The Problem with "Personalized Learning" →
willrichardson:
James Paul Gee:
People who never confront challenge and frustration, who never acquire new styles of learning, and who never face failure squarely may in the end become impoverished humans. They may become forever stuck with who they are now, never growing and transforming, because they…
Will: A "Behaviorally Different Species" of... →
willrichardson:
Ben Williamson
In the traditional conception of school, the learner was invoked as a docile individual who turned up to school to be instructed in a core canon of curricular content and codes of behavioral conduct. Now, in our digital times, the learner is being reimagined as a more active,…
Will: Future of Learning(?) →
willrichardson:
This post informed by, among other posts/sites:
McGraw-Hill to Debut Adaptive E-Book for Students
Google Now
Knewton
So, tell me if I’m missing something here:
Before too long, schools will figure out how to put technology into the hands of every student and teacher, whether…
“I don’t believe in market research. I don’t believe in marketing the way it’s...”
– Massimo Vignelli (via explore-blog)
“Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. I think a lot of what people call...”
– Aaron Swartz, 1986-2013. + (v: nedhepburn)
December 2012
4 posts
Watchexplore-blog:
Remarkable Harvard visualization of the rise of modern publishing across Europe after the invention of the printing press. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it follows a similar pattern to The Republic of Letters, mapping the distribution of the Old World’s intellectual elite.
(↬ @robinsloan)
November 2012
4 posts
VANOPOLIS: THE FUTURE OF SCHOOL ASSESSMENT IN BC →
vanopolis:
You are invited to the Great Schools Teach-In: How Should We Assess Our Schools?
Saturday, December 1 10 am to 12:30 pm–coffee from 9:30 Simon Fraser University Surrey Campus (Surrey Central Sky Train) 250 – 13450 – 102nd Avenue
Program: 1. Alfie Kohn, outstanding…
Kingston's Queens Galley soup kitchen halting... →
amedio3k:
Some of you may remember the fundraiser I did this past summer for my 30th birthday. Well, I need your help again. The Queens Galley needs your help. The Queens Galley is a soup kitchen/food pantry located in Kingston, NY. But it’s so much more than that. The QG is the only organization in the region that serves three meals per day. They operate on the philosophy that people have...
“The trouble with a cheap, specialized education is that you never stop paying...”
– Marshall McLuhan (via explore-blog)
: Why I Unfollowed 5,000 People →
tonybaldasaro:
I don’t even pay attention to this column. This is like the Mississippi River. Tweets flow so fast, I can’t read ‘em all.
I was pointing to my “All Friends” column on Tweetdeck in front of a group of 50+/- twitter newbies who came to see my presentation at MassCUE on why they should be on…
October 2012
2 posts
September 2012
2 posts
July 2012
2 posts
Will: The Five Percenters →
willrichardson:
Andrew Hacker of Queens College, writing in today’s New York Times, ends a must read essay titled “Is Algebra Necessary?” with this:
Yes, young people should learn to read and write and do long division, whether they want to or not. But there is no reason to force them to grasp vectorial…
Will: The Five Percenters →
willrichardson:
Andrew Hacker of Queens College, writing in today’s New York Times, ends a must read essay titled “Is Algebra Necessary?” with this:
Yes, young people should learn to read and write and do long division, whether they want to or not. But there is no reason to force them to grasp vectorial…
Co-operation vs. Competition (vs. Collaboration) →
willrichardson:
Finnish educator and author Pasi Sahlberg writing in yesterday’s Washington Post:
Many reformers believe that the quality of education improves when schools compete against one another. In order to compete, schools need more autonomy, and with that autonomy comes the demand for accountability….
June 2012
6 posts
“You once described the inventor’s life as “one of failure.” How so?
I made...”
– Sir James Dyson on invention and failure, corroborating the creativity isn’t a Eureka! moment so much as persistent iteration and trasformation.
Also see other famous creators on the fear of failure.
(via explore-blog)
1 tag
4 Reasons Why Our School is Not the Real World
Poughkeepsie Day School – it’s just not the real world.
Of course it’s not. And – thank goodness for that. And here’s why.
1. The Future: Schools work with children and young people whose lives are ahead of them. We need to be ahead of the curve and working to make things better not reflecting the status quo.
Real world? Why would we want to set our sights so low?
2. Conduct. And the...
5 tags
WatchAnimated film to illustrate the empowerment marketing book The Story Wars by Jonah Sachs of Free Range Studios.
May 2012
35 posts
Will: Two Questions →
willrichardson:
It may be simplifying things way too much, but I find myself returning to two basic questions that seem to frame the change conversations were having, in my mind at least:
1. What can technology do better than we can when it comes to educating kids? 2. What can we do that technology can’t?
I…
Will: The Khan Iceberg →
willrichardson:
From USA Today:
Love it or hate it, Khan Academy is part of a looming tech-education iceberg, says Victor Hu, head of education technology and services for Goldman Sachs. He says that from 2002 to 2006, venture capital firms put $300 million into about 50 tech-ed deals; since 2007, $2 billion…
6 tags
The Farm that Kindergarten Built
An early morning visit to the kindergarten on Friday was a chance for a guided tour of the farm. It’s a magnificent project now complete - a capstone to a year of exploration, research, discovery and creation. And the children are proud to show their work and point out their individual contributions. And a grand farm it is too with barns and sheds, plenty of animals, and a house with garden...
