Worth Reading...

Wanted to share articles, resource and videos that I came across this week.


1. What School Can Leanr From Google, IDEO and Pixar (McIntosh)- article to stimulate thinking about the way school is structured and whether the current physical environment is conducive to creative and innovative endeavors.

A community about to build or rehab a school often creates checklists of best practices, looks for furniture that matches its mascot, and orders shiny new lockers to line its corridors. These are all fine steps, but the process of planning and designing a new school requires both looking outward (to the future, to the community, to innovative corporate powerhouses) as well as inward (to the playfulness and creativity that are at the core of learning)

 2.  The Smithsonian's EdLab-

The EdLab is a place for educators to explore and establish new media practices for their classrooms. We provide workshops that put teacher in the creative role, solving missions, working in teams, and exploring digital and analog (non-digital) tools. We emphasize learning from failure, using the right tool for the job, building 21st century skills, and empowering teachers and students to make a difference in the world.

 3. Failing to Notice What We Fail to Notice (Connected Principals)- lesson for both teachers and students

I think that it is vital to ensure we take the time to actively put the ego aside, let the defences down, and do some self-reflection. Maybe time for my own reflective “inquiry?” 

4. Making the Case For Student Control of Devices (Gliksman)-  I wanted to share primarily because of the excerpt provided below.

Our desire for con­trol­ling the use of tech­nol­ogy is emblem­atic of a deeper prob­lem. Top-down insti­tu­tional con­trol isn’t a work­able model in an era where the mar­ket­place requires grad­u­ates to have skills for learn­ing any­thing, any­where and at any time. Fol­low­ing instruc­tion is impor­tant but there’s also an urgent need to develop per­sonal inno­va­tion — the sort of flex­i­ble, cre­ative thought and action that’s required to deal with a world of tumul­tuous change. Inno­va­tion requires that we open the metaphor­i­cal class­room win­dows and doors. Instead we still feel more com­fort­able keep­ing them closed. Is it about con­trol or are we more con­cerned with effi­ciency? Are we mak­ing deci­sions based on their needs or ours?

5. Design Thinking: not just for Design and Technology Class (McIntosh)-Design Thinking father Tim Brown blogged a while ago this great pleading from some of Britain's best designers and design educators for Government and schools to heighten the importance of design, technology, design thinking and prototyping skills through the vehicle of engineering subjects such as design and technology.

6. Is the skatepark a Professional Learning Community (Dr. Tae)