This has been a super-busy fall for me – beginning with helping launch another learning year – our 13th! – in SelfDesign, and extending to attending the Holistic Learning conference in Ashland Oregon, leading a couple of SelfDesign retreat-workshops for learners and families and giving various presentations. Whew! This coming week I’m excited to be […]
No School? No Problem … Here’s How to Keep Learning Your Way!
In the face of the present education stand-off in British Columbia, I thought I would contribute 25 cool learning ideas that kids can do, starting right now! 1. Build a fort 2. Learn some biking and boarding tricks. While you’re at it learn to ride a unicycle 3. Learn a skill you’ve always wanted to […]
Leading Workshop at Holistic Learning Conf., Sept. 19-21st
I am now teed up to lead a workshop and breakout session at the ‘Soul of Education‘ conference, scheduled for Sept. 19th – 21st at Southern Oregon University, Ashland, Oregon. Subtitled ‘Nourishing the Soul of Education‘, the conference promises to provide many exciting insights into Holistic Learning. You can find out more about the conference […]
RE – “Urban Legend” that Self-Directed Learning is Effective
Yikes, I just caught up to a paper published last year in Educational Psychologist, “Do Learners Really Know Best? Urban Legends in Education” (link here). In this paper the authors focus on three themes they mark out as “urban legends”: i, that there exists a new generation of “digital natives”, ii, that learners have specific […]
“It’s time to Support Personalized Learning” (essay)
Self-Directed Learning expert Dr. Maurice Gibbons (emeritus professor, Simon Fraser University, Faculty of Education), has posted an essay of mine on his stellar website. Titled, “It’s Time to Support Personalized Learning,” (found here), the essay provides a sound and research-grounded basis for supporting PL in K-12 learning programs and schools. I’ve covered some of the […]
Daydreaming classed as new disorder – April Fools! (not)
What do Einstein, Nobel prize-winning scientist Barbara McClintock and Sir Isaac Newton have in common, besides being extraordinary scientists? They were diligent daydreamers who intentionally dropped into a state of reverie to enhance their thinking and conceptualizing. And were they alive today, and attending a conventional school, they might be diagnosed with a newly-minted disorder: […]
Help Make 2014 a ‘Year of Learning Dangerously’ – and how
Memo from the “Creating Our Best Future” Dept.: As a learning innovator I see widely divergent gestures toward the nurturing of learning across education, gestures that have significant implications throughout society. And in scanning the education landscape my emotions in the past year swung from arm-pumping enthusiasm to head-shaking discouragement. With this in mind and […]
Personalized Learning in the news for valid reasons
The first week of September means back to school for millions of kids and young adults in North America. What happens this first week will largely presage the events of students’ learning lives in the coming school year. I’m not talking about what classroom seat is chosen or whether a new math textbook is handed […]
SURPASSING Expectations
The end of July saw the wrap of another very successful Surpass workshop-camp for 26 teens, out of Camp Byng on BC’s Sunshine Coast. Surpass is a week-long experience of multiple activities designed to promote community and personal development. The sub-context to Surpass? Feeling good emotionally and physically; good enough to try out some new things […]
Interpreting the “Personalized Learning” Landscape – A Zookeeper’s Guide
On May 5th, I am giving a keynote presentation at the BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Groups (BCCPAC) Spring Conference and AGM (link here) on the theme of Personalized Learning or PL. I thought I’d take this opportunity to provide a brief overview of the PL landscape as it exists in education today. What’s most […]
Michael’s book, Learn Your Way! SelfDesigning the Life You Really Want, Starting Now is an ERAC-approved middle and high school textbook for career planning and health education courses (British Columbia), and it has received many endorsements. Contact Michael directly to obtain a pdf copy of the book.