Blog

A Beautiful Extraordinary Life

"Who doesn't want a beautiful, extraordinary life?" I think this video encapsulates the idea posed by CS Lewis that "something deep within the human heart breaks at the thought of mediocrity." Take inspiration from this video shared by my friends at http://www.created.education. They are exploring ways to empower individuals to achieve this goal by creating … Continue reading A Beautiful Extraordinary Life

If I Really Want to Change My Life…

Too often in education, I think, we focus on changing the measurable outcomes and actions of the individual. Not to discount the behaviorist paradigm, but actions must come from somewhere. In this video, Pico Lyer challenges our assumptions of what it takes to change a life. Perhaps it is not simply stuffing more information into the brain, but re-thinking our approach entirely.

Observations From a Technology Classroom

Selfies and Facebook hotties overwhelmed the imagination of students in the technology class. Those who knew how to use technology had no motivation to learn something new. Perhaps they did not know of the possible avenues. Those who did wish to learn found that technology did not necessarily function well to this end. The fans … Continue reading Observations From a Technology Classroom

The Abolition of Man – Part 1

Some of you might have read Parker Palmer's "The Courage To Teach" throughout your coursework. I did a review of that book in one of my classes and it raised a question about the difference between telling students the answer and having them discover it. Some teachers believe it is their responsibility to inform students … Continue reading The Abolition of Man – Part 1

Open Source Learning Tools

This TED talk by Richard Baraniuk outlines an idea of a "knowledge ecosystem" in which users become contributors and producers. Create, Mix, Rip, Burn - basically build upon the ideas of others to make learning bigger, more accessible, culturalized, and personalized. Click here to visit http://openstaxcollege.org where this process began and continues to grow.  

The Future of Education in 50 Years

In this second scenario, the university will become the center for the development of the individual as a holistic being who not only thinks and feels, but breathes and moves and loves and creates and will never be confined to a cog in the digital machinery of the information age.

Andragogy vs Pedagogy

Why do we try to differentiate adult education from child education? What if we flipped it around and tried to discover what was different in the child’s experience of learning? Would we simply accept the idea that children are less self-directed, or would we incorporate self-direction into their learning experience so they could become better learners? Would we … Continue reading Andragogy vs Pedagogy

Music & Memory

This piece was first published at http://www.listenlovelead.com on February 22, 2015. For a light piece of reading, check out this article at Psychology Today that provides an overview of some effects that music has on the brain. If you are really feeling like getting into the thick of neuroscience, the process by which the brain encodes memory, … Continue reading Music & Memory