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Knowing the difference between Twitter and LIFE
I read an interesting post in the Atlantic today about Chinese artist/dissident Ai Weiwei and his love for Twitter. I respect Weiwei for his courageous stand against the repressive Chinese government,...
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Teaching Students to Have Patience in the Presence of their thoughts
The above title is lifted from a line in a recent New York Times article by Verlyn Klinkenborg. He asserts that most of today’s students are not receiving the education they most need: learning how to...
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Are social media exporting big city restlessness to the rest of the world?
Are social media exporting big city restlessness to the rest of the world? That thought hit me as I watched Jena Wortham in a recent New York Times video discussing her struggle with her...
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MOOC’s and the Widening Gap Between the Haves and the Have-Nots
I have an opinion piece published today in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Authors usually don’t get to write their own headlines, and I’m never happy with the ones my pieces are given. I like the...
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Cell Phones in the Classroom: Distraction or Undervalued Teaching Tool?
I was recently interviewed on the Bam Radio Network, which is “the largest online education radio network for parents, teachers, administrators, journalists, policymakers, and anyone interested in...
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Is it appropriate for teachers to determine how students learn best?
If you listen hard enough to discussions about online learning or digital technology in the classroom, you’ll find significant philosophical differences underlying the different positions. In my recent...
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The Dying Art of Single-tasking
I read an interesting post by Canadian principal Cale Birk about the need for teachers to hold the attention of their students rather than complaining about them being distracted. My digital friend...
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MOOCs and the Mechanization of Education: Widening the Gap Between the Haves...
An abridged version of this essay was published in The Chronicle of Higher Education in October of 2012. Unfortunately it is behind a paywall and available only to subscribers. I am now at liberty to...
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Memory, Facebook, and the Narrative Unity of a Life
Reblogged from The Frailest Thing: Below are links to three essays in conversation with one another on the relative merits of Facebook as augmented memory. Jurgenson argues that expressing the “glad I...
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Online learning is an advanced form of learning which will propel top...
Cathy Davidson, who is a professor of interdisciplinary studies at Duke University and a respected voice today on the influence of technology on education and learning, had an article published in The...
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The Spark of Reading
Reblogged from huntingenglish: "Come on baby light my fire!" In education today there are few topics that receive the unanimous support of all educators like the value conferred upon literacy and...
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California dreamin’: The Age of MOOCs is here
You might know that I had an article published in The Chronicle of Higher Education three months ago that addressed the impact of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on the lower half of the student...
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Bringing students to life with memoir writing
Education Week has published my essay on how powerful a tool personal narratives can be in the classroom, especially for students who struggle to measure up to academic standards. This is a subject...
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"Irrational Exuberance": The Case of the MOOCs
Reblogged from Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan said in 1996 that the high-flying stock market was an instance of "irrational...
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How I became the owner of my 4th grade teacher’s magic chair
I went to my hometown this weekend because my 4th grade teacher (my literary hero/ pictured above) was being honored for her 50+ years teaching at St. Mary’s in Jackson, Tn. I had the privilege of...
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Teachers using faith instead of fear is key to students’ success
My first goal as a writing teacher is to get my students to care about their writing like never before, so I was jazzed yesterday when a student said to me “man, my 12th grade English teacher would...
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New research supporting my contention that MOOCs will broaden rather than...
I’m encouraged to see research that supports what I have been ranting and raving about: No matter what Bill Gates says, online learning is great for advanced students and unhelpful for struggling...
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Why I No Longer Use Groups in the Classroom
This is an article I had published last year in Education Week. It caused quite a stir. A recent New Yorker article entitled “Groupthink” takes a fascinating look at the concept of brainstorming....
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Somebody stop that idiot texting and driving before he hurts someone
When I was an undergraduate in the 80′s, I hopped into a friends Honda Civic to get something to eat. He buckled his seatbelt, and before he even started the car he turned to me and said “seatbelt...
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On Everything and Nothing & Reading and Not Writing
Reblogged from Writing Through the Fog: I have a Fear of Missing Out on the best links and stories of the day, hesitant of taking breaks from Twitter—of jumping off the moving train—because I feel it...
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