Be of Use

I've moved pretty much 100% of my reading to the Kindle or iBook format. There are a few holdout publishers out there - Teachers College Press is the most notable one that I can think of. Odd that they publish all these books from the Games + Learning + Society folks and none of them are offered outside of pulp products. That's also the reason why I haven't read Finnish Lessons yet - although I see its made it to Audible (and I have one credit left for it!). Of late, I've been having problems getting through any books efficiently. I'm a fairly responsible guy - my kids get fed and clothed, I pay my bills on time - but I'm having a hard time staying off of the Safari and in the Kindle or iBooks app. It dawned on me, it must be REALLY hard for a teenager or younger to do that - focus on the task at hand when Angry Birds is a few taps away. I believe this only reinforces the need to put devices in the hands of kids for educational uses. Some may think this is a...

When decision times come around I like to say - If you ask people their opinion, then do what you want to do they'll be mad. If you do what you want and don't ask people their opinion they'll be mad too. Such is life when you're trying to get a read on where people in your organization are at in terms of prospective initiatives. In my last district, leadership decided on 1:1, then had a teacher committee to help steer the direction of the project. I joked with my now former colleagues "they could pick any device they want, so long as it was an iPad." That group met a couple of times and helped make decisions...kind of. I'm not sure the people who were a part of that group felt like they were empowered to make decisions. Personally I don't think they ever in the position to make their own major decisions. I don't think that's a bad thing - leadership had a good vision. I'm trying to figure out in reality what's the best way to get people...

Right now I'm writing this from Edwards, CO which is about 20 minutes from Vail, CO. Breathtaking views, great vacation spot - we've had a wonderful first day decompressing after a flight to Denver and a 2.5 hour drive. Here in the middle of the Rockies 3G and cellular service is no problem. About three weeks ago my wife traveled to Cuba with her colleagues for a week long trip. After I dropper her off at the airport I packed up our two young boys and headed for refuge on the shores of Lake Michigan at my parent's house. They live in a place called Kewaunee, WI. Kewaunee is about 30 miles west of Green Bay. I had random cellular access - meaning forget data, I was only able to answer or take a call at my parent's house maybe 5-10% of the time I was there for a six-day stretch. My parents Internet connection was okay for being non-fiber, bit was pretty pricy - $60 a month. In Wisconsin terms Kewaunee, isn't the middle of nowhere. Access to information is difficul...