Edina Digital Age Learning

Yesterday I had the pleasure of presenting at the TIES 2015 Conference on the topic of "Stop Looking At Squirrels," where I spoke about the need to avoid the "squirrels," or bright-shiny tools that may look cool, but don't really align with best practice regarding digital age learning. The slide deck is here: During the presentation, I asked the question: "Is Google Classroom a squirrel?"  Don't get me wrong, I think Google Classroom is a great tool for organizing Drive files and managing sharing! Google opening it's API for others to access and share data between systems is a BIG deal! AND...as of today, you can't track students by standard within Classroom, you can't organize units of content without a lot of savvy with Docs and Drive, and there is no parent access.  Note: After sitting in Andrew Stillman's presentation today on Growing Wings on Google Classroom , it may not be long before these shortcomings are no lo...

Carl Hooker spoke on Analog Leaders in a Digital World. Among other accomplishments, Carl developed the " SAMR Swimming Pool " Model, and I was excited to get a chance to meet him.  Bridget Driscoll,  the first person hit by a car, said she was bewildered by innovation. Do we want to be the ones driving or the ones hit by technology? When it comes to learning, these things are changing about learning: Who What When Where Who (Sorry, I was late to the session. If anyone wants to share this part in the comments below, that would be awesome!) What Analog: Published by experts Digital: Currated by everyone in the room Hooker noted how news has changed from waiting till the paper edition the next day to seeing news happen in real time on Twitter now. The same is true in education today, where CK-12, iTunes U and OER Commons are available now, rather than paying for a textbook that is out-of-date the day it's published. Not only will teachers be creating t...