Breaking Bread

Last Friday afternoon I experienced one of the most joyous moments of my thirty years in education. I took three fifth grade girls (along with their classroom teacher chaperone) out to lunch. That’s right. We walked right out the front gate of the school, into the sunlight, crossed the street, walked down the block and had a leisurely 90-minute lunch at the restaurant of their choice –... [Read more]

The Big, Little Paradox

For decades, many schools gave old hand-me-down computers to their youngest students. The implicit logic  is that little kids don’t need the best computers. Today, many school districts provide iPads for its youngest students. Both practices are built on faulty logic. Sure, the iPad is light, easy to use and has a good battery life, but of all the students in a school or district, younger children... [Read more]

Dumbing Down

Although I’m only 48, I have been working in educational computing for thirty years. When I started, we taught children to program. We also taught tens of thousands of teachers to teach computer science to learners of all ages. In many cases, this experience represented the most complex thinking about thinking that teachers ever experienced and their students gained benefit from observing teachers... [Read more]

Cool Math & Tech Books for Free Download

An old friend of mine, Dr. Barry Newell, is an astrophysicist who was was the Administrator (in the NASA sense) of Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories of the Australian National University. He now works on the dynamics of social-ecological systems. In his spare time (back in 1988), he wrote two classic books on Logo programming and mathematics, Turtle Confusion and the accompanying book for... [Read more]

New Trends, New Learning Opportunities

New Trends, New Learning Opportunities As we approach the new millenium, technology – and its use in schools – continues to evolve © 1998 Gary S. Stager Published in Upgrade, The Magazine of the Software Publisher’s Association As the cost of computing decreases rapidly, children continue to enjoy increasing access to computers and the Internet . However, lower cost is not the only... [Read more]

Curriculum Not Included

Many of my readers and colleagues know that I have a knack for questioning deeply held assumptions and myths involving education. I also hold positions that others might find extreme. For example, I think curriculum, in all of its forms – especially heavy-handed nonsense like “Common Core – is a terrible idea. I don’t mean bad curriculum is a bad idea; I mean that curriculum... [Read more]

What Makes You Think This is Teaching? – episode 1

Note: I’m starting a new series of occasional blog posts in which I share my disbelief at what I see passed-off as “teaching” during my work in schools around the world. My nephew, let’s call him Vernon Honours, is a 9th grader. His Geometry teacher assigns the kids to read Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott over the December holidays (so far, so good)... [Read more]

Literature Review on Keyboarding Instruction

Note from Gary Stager… In 1989, a great friend, colleague and pioneer in educational computing, Steve Shuller, authored the following literature review. Steve was Director of Outreach at Bank Street College during its microcomputer heyday, co-created New Jersey’s Network for Action in Microcomputer Education (N.A.M.E., now NJECC) and was a Director of the IBM Model Schools Project. Shortly... [Read more]

Gift Ideas for You and Colleagues (it’s not too late)

Four collections of recommended books The Constructivist Consortium has compiled an extensive online book store for creative educators. Be sure to peruse these recommendations! Wanna be a School Reformer? You Better Do Your Homework! Required reading for school leaders, administrators and policy makers. Tinkering resources for educators Overlooked gems, books kids (especially boys) will love The... [Read more]

Misrepresented by the NJ Star Ledger

While in While in Italy last week, I received email from Eugene Paik, a reporter for The Star Ledger newspaper. He read my blog post, BYOD – Worst Idea of the 21st Century?, and was seeking expertise for an article on a New Jersey school district enacting a Bring-Your-Own-Device/Technology policy. I dropped everything and responded to his questions immediately via email since I was overseas. Besides,... [Read more]

Deeply Moving Historic Video by CMK 2012 Speaker

One reason why Constructing Modern Knowledge is gaining a reputation for being the premiere learning event for educators is the opportunity to work with world-class experts and an amazing faculty. Award-winning filmmaker and digital story-telling genius, Casey Neistat is one of the spectacular guest speakers participating in  CMK 2012. Casey creates several super creative short films per week using... [Read more]

The Best Steve Jobs Quote

The PBS documentary, Steve Jobs – One Last Thing, contains video (I believe from 1994) in which Steve Jobs offers the following advice. “Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact and that is everything around you that you call life was made up by people who were no smarter than you. The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually, if you push in, something... [Read more]

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