Thanksgiving has come and gone. But in its wake I’ve given myself some time to reflect on an important, fundamental aspect of BC’s K-12 education system for which I feel grateful though you aren’t likely to hear the pundits speak to this. At the same time I am a committed advocate for innovation and […]
“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 […]
Some advice for BC’s new Education Minister
Following the resignation of (Curious) George Abbott last week British Columbia has a new Minister of Education: Don McRae. Let’s see, in the 22 years I’ve been a certified educator in BC we’ve had … about 15 Education Ministers! Alas, they don’t seem to have long shelf lives and if the polls for next spring’s […]
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 […]
Brent Cameron 1947 – 2012
One week ago my collaborator, friend and mentor of 21 years Brent Cameron died of cancer, age 64, in Nelson, British Columbia. It’s challenging for me to summarize Brent’s contribution to education for in doing so I need acknowledge his passing and I’m still a little frozen in doing so. For the past few months, when it […]
Tipping (sacred) cows: Updating Bloom’s Taxonomy Overdue
The year was 1956. Elvis Presley stokes teen and parental angst with his newly-released “Hound Dog”, Communist Russia invades Hungary and a gallon of gas costs .22 cents almost anywhere in North America. In education circles the earth quakes when a professor from Chicago, Dr. Benjamin Bloom publishes his “Taxonomy of Learning” that crystallizes a […]
Prospecting yields a couple of noteworthy education trends
I used to be a prospector, a job requiring keen eyes and the ability to notice trends obvious and inferred. Prospecting is all about dreaming about what might be and why things appear just so. A few days ago I had a chance to dust off my prospecting skills while doing some research in the […]
From Piaget to … Sea Turtles
In the last couple of weeks I’ve caught up on some reading that can only happen when I take to the bath as part of a much-needed break. My first soak included a fascinating article in the December issue of Outdoor magazine that profiled how biologist Wallace Nichols is enlisting cognitive neuroscience in his advocacy […]
Re-conceptualizing the classroom
Just wanted to point readers toward an essay of mine in today’s Vancouver Sun newspaper, Op-Ed page. Read it here.The full title is Re-conceptualizing the classroom; New approaches to learning aided by technology will change how we deliver education. Basically, in the essay I profile the recently-launched ‘BC’s Education Plan’, the reaction from the BCTF, support from […]
Tacit, Constructivist, Mobile Learning – More, Please!
I’m just finishing an exciting book, A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change (2011) by Douglas Thomas and John Brown, in which the authors say pithy things like: “In our view the kind of learning that will define the twenty-first century is not taking place in a classroom […]
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.