As the births of living creatures are ill-shapen, so are all innovations, which are the births of time.

The teacher should “take his seat not on a platform or pulpit, but on a level with the rest.”

What to do until we all have all the support, resources and direction we wish

we had

Not about bits, bytes, speed, or keeping up It’s going to happen anyway

The Dumbest Generation

The Dumbest Generation◦ http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/gallery/dumbestg

eneration/ Is this how we think (or should think) about

our students?

Three Golden Ages◦Renaissance Florence◦Elizabethan England◦America’s Founding

Dumbest Generation◦Problem of decontextualized learning

Three Golden Ages◦ Innovation/Experimentation◦ Tradition

Struggling for Balance Between◦ Experimentation

Innovation Need to know 21st century skills

◦ Tradition Baby/Bathwater How good can we be at predicting what matters

1 Willing to fail2 Objective for kids & for you

Big pictureSmall excuse

3 Gather resources & allies4 Small bites5 Lead by example (Brag)6 Ask for more

Life experience.◦ Psychiatric Aide – Geriatrics Ward◦ Purchasing for manufacturing◦ Financial Services◦ Poison Control◦ Sales, Marketing, and Data Processing (VP)◦ Industrial Computer Sales◦ And at 43 an educator

Computer Skills OJT◦ Paper tape to a teletype 1969◦ Commodore 64 -1983◦ Cobol Coding – Late 80s◦ Personal Computing◦ Client Server Networking – 1990◦ No games or breadboards at home

Social Studies 1994-1995

English 1994-1995

Long Term Sub Spring 1996 English – Freshmen, Freshmen SpEd, Poetry,

Creative Writing

Home Office – used LC III School Lab – Disk & Printer

Got the lab whenever we wanted Did a little troubleshooting, but it basically

worked Writing, and re-writing, and re-re-writing And rethinking everything I thought I knew

about teaching writing

District Technology Coordinator 1996-2003

140 PCs 70 Macs 5 servers eMail Website District Office

Staff Development Class in Field

Engineering Tutorial in Poli Sci Information

Systems Umpire Baseball &

Softball

State of NH Dep’t of Ed – Co-founder NHEON http://www.nheon.org/

TERC – Mathematics & Science Education http://www.terc.edu/

2003 Dir Inst Tech High School◦ Teach Comp Sci◦ Ass’t Coach Softball

2005 Dir Inst Tech K-12◦ Teach Ethics

2007 to Present add Dir Info Systems◦ Teach Ethics◦ Remember to breathe

1 Willing to fail2 Objective for kids & for you3 Gather resources & allies4 Small bites5 Lead by example (Brag)6 Ask for more

Not plan to fail◦ Have Plan B

Choose to teach something you already do pretty well◦ Don’t pick a central curricular component for your

first try Low stakes

Why is this essential? Why not next year? Tools of their time

◦ Don’t teach harness making when tractors are cheap

Have a big rationale Choose a small objective

Liberal from Latin liberalis – appropriate for free people

Quadrivium (where 4 roads meet)◦ Mathematics, Geometry, Music, Astronomy

Trivium (where 3 roads meet)◦ Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic

RhetoricInformation Technology

Logic Computer Science

GrammarInformation Literacy

Information Literacy◦ Incorporates Media Literacy◦ Use the Big 6◦ Learn from librarians

Algorithmic Thinking How tools are designed and deployed Return of what was lost in the 1950’s &

1960’s

Laptop one example of a generic tool Use technology as a tool Presentation tools Web tools Data collections

InformationTechnology

Computer Science

Information Literacy

PhilosophyLogic

Problem Solving(Tactical)

Innovation

For students & for you◦ For them, so they’ll tell the story◦ For you, so you’ll have the energy to do it

Wetware – people to help you Software/Applications/Web Tools Hardware Read grants Use district & state resources (sometimes

waiting to be asked – outreach funding is first to go)

People like to be asked◦ Community◦ Corporate◦ Former students◦ Parents◦ Other staff

Exploit the free resources Go to the sessions today Don’t resolve to be an expert

Don’t start with the year long portfolio Know how and where the backups are Have Plan B

Success draws resources Don’t wait to be discovered Showcase the kids work Know your teacher’s room culture Be willing to brag Present at conferences

Offer to help write grants• Send proposals to conferences

• Read Grants

Comes from everywhere Distributed computing leads to Distributed

Learning Requires Distributed Leadership