Nocking the Arrow

Curiosity got the best of me. For the past few weeks, neighborhood kids by the dozens, maybe hundreds, are heading outdoors, riding their bikes, meeting friends for a walk. Eagerly walking their dogs without provocation. What is the cause of this activity, this wellness revolution? If you haven't heard about # PokemonGo , then you have been in perpetual airplane mode, or trapped beneath a large immovable object. At the urging of my kids, I downloaded the augmented reality (AR) app a few days ago and captured four Pokemon within a few minutes. I play a few minutes per day so that I can speak somewhat intelligently about the game if asked about it. I also find the learning potential of this very intriguing. Instead of getting on my soap box about the newest tech craze, I decided to ask local experts,  "Why do you think your teachers should play Pokemon Go?" My son, Trevor, 16, said, "Pokemon Go helps people learn about geography, relative location, distance, a...

It's a short summer because my district has adjusted our academic calendar to follow a collegiate semester model. Even though little of this if formally organized, I am still squeezing a lot of learning into the shortened summer break. Here's a summary of what I am reading, apps I am using for personal learning, and my favorite learning activity, traveling. Future Wise : David Perkins asks educational leaders to discuss current curricula to determine how schools will deliver "lifeworthy" learning experiences. " What is worth learning in school? " is the prevailing question raised by this book. Worlds of Making : Laura Fleming helps me develop a recipe for establishing a maker space in our newly remodeled media center. Particular attention is focused on school culture and addressing the "why" question of recreating learning spaces. Mindset : When I find myself slipping into patterns of " fixed-mindset-ness " Carol Dweck h...

When venturing out to world wide web, do we view the various landing points as tools or places ?   Many people consider Google search as a tool, but Twitter as a place. The key difference being we typically associate places as locations of social interaction and contribution. We establish residency by leaving traces of our identity behind as we move point to point. The longer we stay, and the more we engage with others, the further we move away from the visitor role towards residency. A few months ago, I wrote about mapping  Internet usage based on the research of White and Le Cornu . I found this mapping activity to be personally enlightening, and it also helped me have focused conversations about the places our learners are most likely to interact and share. Dave White explains visitors and residents are not separate classifications but rest on a continuum to help explain how people use the web and where places of engagement are likely to occur. The Internet mapping e...