"Predicting the future is easy. It's trying to figure out what's going on now that's hard" (Dressler, 2005)
Over the past six months, I have been teaching courses on social media and education technology against the backdrop of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the social unrest sparked by the killing of George Floyd on May 25th. In both tweets and posts, students have woven these two forces of change into our weekly topical… Read more My Own White Bias
It has been over a month since I last blogged … a combination of finishing up a proposal development course with five doctoral students and updating my social media course. So Derek’s book came along at a good time. I just finished Intentional Tech: Principles to guide the use of educational technology in college teaching,… Read more Mindful and Intentional Tech
A little over a month ago, I blogged about my current top tools for learning…though, in reality, they were a combination of tools for learning and for teaching. Jane Hart is now out with the compiled list of top tools for learning for 2019 – the aggregate Top 200, the Top 100 for Personal and… Read more Top Tools for 2019
Many have been bemoaning the final loss of the Martian Opportunity Rover, which lost contact last June and was officially declared dead this past week after 15 years roving the Martian landscape. One could say that we lost Opportunity…but it really is a story of what we gained. It was designed for a three month… Read more Opportunity Lost
This past week, we started the Winter term of Northeastern’s EDU-6323 – Technology as a Medium for Learning. I have twenty-some students from a mix of K12, higher ed, health education, and corporate training in this Masters level course. In addition to work in our course LMS, we also are tweeting to the hashtag #EDU6323.… Read more Working the Future in EdTech
Today is the start of my Northeastern class EDU-6323 – Technology as a Medium for Learning. It also provided an interesting lesson in edtech! I spent several weeks in December setting up the course, which I have taught before…shifting some readings, condensing a week on video and adding a week on AR/VR, and re-recording my… Read more Thanks Wayback
I always tell my students this…and some may even believe it – but one reason I love teaching in this digital age is that being a teacher is less about expertise as it is about facilitating learning…and that includes my own learning. So I tell my students that I learn as much from them as… Read more The Next Disruption
My wife and I had lunch today with my partner from VCU days – Bud Deihl and his wife, Susan. One of the things that came up in our conversation was the negativism that seems rampant today. Bud asked if I had anything optimistic to bring to the conversation. It was an interesting question, because… Read more An Optimist in a Pessimist World
For the 12th year in a row, Jane Hart is once again asking professionals to vote on their own top tools for learning. I always look forward to Jane’s call for votes…as it provides an opportunity for me to reflect on my own use. Last year’s compilation can be found here. My post last year… Read more Tools Retrograde
Last week in EDU6323, we explored formal and informal learning management systems, using our Facebook closed group to discuss the efficacy of areas like Facebook for learning rather than the time tested Blackboard. A good discussion…but after I suggested that maybe the answer was not “LMS or Facebook” so much as “LMS and Facebook”, one… Read more A Plethora of Websites