Everywhere I look today I’m being drawn into a secretive, seductive world: DIY. Be a Maker. Build a Treehouse, or a pair of snow goggles, or a solar theramin (I had to look that up). Learn how to identify animal tracks in the snow, or mushrooms in your neighbourhood. Get your bike or your […]
Still Fresh & Compelling – The Children’s Machine by Seymour Papert
The Vancouver Sun is running an Op-Ed essay of mine (found here) today, a 20-year retrospective of Seymour Papert‘s visionary book, The Children’s Machine, Rethinking Schooling in the Age of the Computer. Sy Papert, an MIT professor who trained under Jean Piaget in France and then forged his own path developing LOGO computer language (for children) […]
Missing from “21st C Fluencies”: Self-Directed Learning
I attended the CUE-BC (Computer-Using Educators) conference a week ago on the occasion of a PD day. First up was keynote speaker Ian Jukes, a self-proclaimed evangelist for adapting schools to the “21st Century Fluencies”. You can learn more about the 21stC Fluencies here but suffice to say Jukes pitched them as “critical thinking skills […]
“Generation Flux” report: Youth need more help
I just finished reading “Generation Flux” a report on youth (15-24 years) produced by the Community Foundations of Canada as part of their annual “Vital Signs” report series. Well worth the read, the report (found here) highlights many trends though I consider the following most pertinent: – youth are quick adapters to our changing world […]
Ten suggestions to improve K-12 education :
The start of a new schooling year spawns renewed interest in education. Mostly, this interest is fleeting and lead by mainstream media serving up sound bites, lunchbox recipes and superficial debates on the subject of “Back to School.” Our children deserve deeper discussion. The world they live in and are inheriting is changing rapidly and […]
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.