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Bio

“Some people think outside of the box. Gary is unaware of the box’s existence.” – Futurist, Dr. David Thornburg

Dr. Gary Stager, an internationally recognized educator, speaker and consultant, is the Executive Director of The Constructivist Consortium. Since 1982, Gary has helped learners of all ages on six continents embrace the power of computers as intellectual laboratories and vehicles for self-expression. He led professional development in the world’s first laptop schools (1990), has designed online graduate school programs since the mid-90s, was a collaborator in the MIT Media Lab’s Future of Learning Group and a member of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation’s Learning Team.

When Jean Piaget wanted to better understand how children learn mathematics, he hired Seymour Papert. When Dr. Papert wanted to create a high-tech alternative learning environment for incarcerated at-risk teens, he hired Gary Stager. This work was the basis for Gary’s doctoral dissertation and documented Papert’s latest institutional research project.

Gary’s recent work has included teaching and mentoring some of Australia’s “most troubled” public schools, launching 1:1 computing in a Korean International School beginning in the first grade, media appearances in Peru and serving as a primary school S.T.E.M. Director. He was a Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University and Senior Editor of District Administration Magazine. His advocacy on behalf of creativity, computing and children led to the creation of the Constructivist Consortium and the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute.

In 1999, Converge Magazine named Gary a “shaper of our future and inventor of our destiny.” The National School Boards Association recognized Dr. Stager with the distinction of “20 Leaders to Watch” in 2007. The June 2010 issue of Tech & Learning Magazine named Gary Stager as “one of today’s leaders who are changing the landscape of edtech through innovation and leadership.” CUE presented Gary with its 2012 Technology in Learning Leadership Award. A popular speaker, Dr. Stager was a keynote speaker at the 2009 National Educational Computing Conference and at major conferences around the world. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Melbourne’s Trinity College on several occasions.

Gary was the new media producer for The Brian Lynch/Eddie Palmieri Project – Simpatíco, 2007 Grammy Award Winner for Best Latin Jazz Album of the Year. Dr. Stager is also a contributor to The Huffington Post and a Senior S.T.E.M. and Education Consultant to leading school architecture firm, Fielding Nair International. Gary also works with teachers and students as S.T.E.M. Director at The Oaks School in Hollywood, California.

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About Gary Stager – The Stager Difference
Contact Gary Stager
Speaking, consulting & professional development and mentoring services by Gary Stager
Reviews of Gary Stager’s recent work
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Gary’s Web Sites

• Gary’s blog
• Constructing Modern Knowledge
• The Daily Papert
• The Constructivist Consortium
• Gary’s web site
• Gary’s articles on The Huffington Post
• Gary’s most recent newsletter

Follow me on Twitter

Popular Resources

• Super cool gift ideas for makers & tinkerers
• Articles and papers by Dr. Stager
• 1:1 Computing resources
• Recommended books for creative educators and parents
• Robotics in education resources
• “Digital Reggio” resources
• Logo resources
• Planet Papert, a web site dedicated to the powerful ideas of Seymour Papert
• Five articles on effective project-based learning (PDF)
• Tinkering resources compiled by Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez
• A Constructionism Primer (2011)
• The Gary Stager Video Collection (presentation videos)

Curriculum Not Required Hugo’s learning story (2012)

Breaking Bread (2012)

Technology is Not Neutral (2012)

This is What Learning Looks Like A collection of learning stories and resources (2011)

The Best Education Books of 2011 Three must-read books and some other suggestions (2011)

Dumbing Down (Computer Literacy) (2012)

Mission Accomplished (rethinking Accelerated Reader) (2012)

Choice, Duh! An article detailing the critical elements for successful project-based learning (2011)

My 1:1 Toolbox (2011)
Creativity software I recommend for student laptops.

Where is the List of Tech Skills? by Gary Stager
My response to the quest for measurement of student “tech skills.”

BYOD – Worst Idea of the 21st Century? (2011)

The Computer Lab as Learning Hub (2011)

Super-Awesome Sylvia in the Not So Awesome Land of Schooling (2011)

Curriculum Not Included (how to create problem solving classrooms) (2012)

Passport to The Best Educational Ideas in the World (2010)

Radical Reformer, my 2005 interview with Dennis Littky

Award-winning radio broadcasts by an at-risk student

Wanna Be a School Reformer? You Better Do Your Homework First (recommended books)

Seymour Papert’s Eight Big Ideas Behind Constructionism

The five TED Talks I would share with children

Recommended Tinkering books

My provocative article about interactive white boards

Huffington Post article, Who Elected Bill Gates?

The Year of the Laptop (new article 10/10)

The truth about India’s “$35 Laptop”

Assessing Technology Literacy: The Case for an Authentic, Project-Based Learning Approach (PDF)

Seymour Papert’s long-lost 1990 speech (transcript) on school transformation, Perestroika and Epistemological Pluralism

The Original Twenty Things to Do With a Computer (1971) by Seymour Papert

Teaching Children Thinking (1971) by Seymour Papert

A New Paradigm for Evaluating the Learning Potential of an EdTech Activity by Gary Stager

Gary’s Latest Newsletter (including summer reading suggestions)
Archive of previous newsletters

The 1996 Whitepaper by Gary Stager mentioned during his presentation.

The Book Every Educator Should Read (2/28/2010)

Books for Combatting Current Education Policies

Want to know who is trying to takeover public education? Read Gary Stager’s cover story, School Wars, from GOOD Magazine

Gary Stager’s recent spotlight presentation from the National Educational Computing Conference (high-quality video) – Learning Adventures: Transforming Real and Virtual Learning Environments

Gary Stager’s keynote debate from NECC 2009 – Recipe for a Disruptive Keynote

My manifesto for excellent teachers and principals

Computing and the Internet in Schools: An International Perspective on Developments and Directions
From the archives, a monograph written by Gary S. Stager, Ph.D. in 1996

Learning Adventures: A new approach for transforming real and virtual classroom environments

- Paper for ACEC 2008

Daniel Pink’s book, “A Whole New Mind,” Worst book of the 21st Century (review by Gary Stager)
high school student discussions of the book with Gary Stager, period 4 and period 5

Laptop Woes
Bungling the world’s easiest sale
An abridged version appears in the October 2005 issue of District Administration

Why Thomas Friedman Does Not Compute
Gary’s critical review of The World is Flat and the education community’s knee-jerk reaction to it.
Published in the December 2005 issue of District Administration

A Schoolmaster of the Great City: A Progressive Education Pioneer’s Vision for Urban Schools (book from 1917) by Angelo Patri

Gary Stager’s role in the history of classroom-based “laptop learning” is documented in the book, Never Mind the Laptops: Kids, Computers and the Transformation of Learning, by Bob Johnstone.

Gary Stager’s article about Australian Deputy PM Julia Gillard’s education adviser, Educators can learn nothing from Chancellor Klein’s visit (from Crikey)

Books Discussed in Some Presentations

• After you read Dennis Littky’s book, The Big Picture: Education is Everybody’s Businesss, you MUST read Doc: The Story Of Dennis Littky And His Fight For A Better School. This recently republished book by Susan Kammeraad-Campbell may be the first education thriller ever published. Anyone who wants to understand anything about education should read these two books.
  • Radical Reformer
    Dennis Littky drew on his 30 years of education innovation to create a new school model. Now he won’t be satisfied until he replicates it throughout the country. (An extensive interview with Gary Stager)
  • A related column – Let the Sunshine In

• Will Richardson has written perhaps the best “how-to” book for computer-using educators since Dan Watt’s Learning with Logo in the 1980s. Will’s book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms is a must have for every educator or citizen interested in understanding Web 2.0!
  MySpace Unraveled: What it is and how to use it safely by Larry Magid and Anne Collier takes the incredibly novel position of suggesting that you know what you’re talking about before setting policy at home or in school. The book teaches adults how to use MySpace.com so that they may more rationally discuss social networking with children.
• Macarthur Genius and school principal, Deborah Meier’s book In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization is an incredibly important read for all school leaders.
• Perhaps the two best books ever written about Learning:
  • The Book of Learning and Forgetting by Frank Smith
  • What Do YOU Mean by Learning? by Seymour Sarason

By Bob Johnstone Foreword by Gary Stager

Real web inquiry, not that artificial webquest stuff

2007 Grammy Award Winner! Gary was the new media producer for this groundbreaking Grammy Award-winning music project

• Excited about the possibility of emailing a bicycle? You must read Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop–From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication by Neil Gershenfeld.
• Learn about “micronations” and think of creative curricular connections. Lonely Planet has just published a tour book for those of you interested in traveling to some of the world’s micronations. Unfortunately, Talossa is no longer accepting reservations. Read Lonely Planet Micronations.
• Bridging Differences – a semi-weekly critical writing on school policy issues – a must read!