In too many cases, we bolt new technologies on top of current learning tools in the standard learning environment, which effectively means we give our kids a thousand-dollar pencil. Alan November In Alan November’s new book, he asks the crucial question: Who Owns the Learning? This well-designed title intentionally creates some cognitive dissonance for us…
Author: innovativelearningdesigns
We Are Launched!
We have launched. Today it is official. We have a new district website: SurreySchools.ca. You can see it here. But it is much, much more than simply a website. We have a place where schools can organize their staff bulletins, post key information and engage in on-going conversations in an electronic format. It is a…
Self-regulation and our “emotional wake”
I have a problem with self-regulation. This is not a true confession over my gambling, nicotine or drinking addition. I actually have none of those. What I do have is a problem wrapping my head around the concept of self-regulation. I am trying to understand it as an educator and as a parent too. As…
When Learning Hurts
Educators are asking each other the following questions: “How has this year and this learning journey been for you? What has been the most important thing you have done this year? What’s the best thing you’ve done this year?” I struggle to put it in words, to be authentic and to even share the real…
The Year of Wonder: Riding the Wave of Learning
My staff describe it as a “year of wonder.” Sometimes we call it a tsunami and just want to ride the wave without crashing. Other times we refer to it as a fire beginning to flame across the district. We consider it as seeding pockets of innovation we want to take root and spread organically…
Playing in the New Sandbox
I have been playing in a new sandbox. I have been trying out our district’s SurreySchools.ca site (click on graphic to make it larger). This is a new Sharepoint platform that is designed to bring people in our organization together and create some efficiency around our work. School districts like West Vancouver, Vancouver, Coquitlam, and…
The end of wonder and the age of whatever
I had the great fortune to be with the Surrey management team at a presentation by Michael Wesch. I have viewed his The Machine is Us/ing Us many times and I had no idea that this was the guy who made the video. That was a pleasant surprise as I simply love the style and…
Innovative Learning: School-Based Exploration
The real problem is not adding technology to the current organization of the classroom, but changing the culture of teaching and learning. Alan November Last week we announced the forty elementary schools that were awarded our Innovative Learning Designs Grant (ILD, Phase 2) for the upcoming school year. The ILD project is an opportunity for…
The Digital Foundations of Teaching & Learning
Recently we presented an in-service to the Board of Education on The Digital Foundations of Teaching and Learning: Preparing for a Future that is Here Today. An abbreviated slideshare is included below. We also showed some fabulous video clips but we will save those for another post. The presentation was anchored in a metaphor and…
Dropping the Gloves
It was one year ago today and I only did it because someone dropped the gloves. The Director of Information Management Services (@dj_turner) challenged me. How can you lead a portfolio with technology when you don’t know anything about social media? About Facebook, Linked in, Twitter, etcetera? It was something like that—perhaps not phrased quite…