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Dominant logic often isolates higher learning research from the teachers who need to apply it. There are pay walls that keep average everyday teachers like me from nosing around in matters reserved for ivory towers. It sort of ticks me off sometimes. Why can't ivory tower people "adopt" classroom practitioners (like me and many others) who really "get into" reading research and applying it in our classroom so we can actually access the material we need to read? You would think that people would want "real" teachers to read the research on learning and teaching. Instead we often get insulted for not knowing it or using it when we don't have access in the first place. No entry allowed Today I was perusing around research around what makes learning meaningful to students and came across this article " Phases of Meaningful Learning " but have to be a "member" or pay a one time $25 to access the article. Well it may just b...

It is kind of like the time my husband and I drove up on a horrible motor cycle accident that must have happened milliseconds before. The man had flipped over his bike and slid several feet on his face. I didn't want to look but I did and will never forget it. That is how I feel about the book Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker , legendary hacker Kevin Mitnick's personal memoir. As a huge fan of Leo LaPorte 's old show the Screensavers , I knew who Kevin Mitnick was but really had no idea how much effect he had on my own life or what he had really done. [Video. Kevin Mitnick uses a computer for the first time after his sentence of being unable to use a computer expires on the Screensavers with Steve Wozniak and Leo Laporte] Cyber-enemy #1: Arrested February 1995 I missed his arrest in 1995 because I had just had my first child and was on maternity leave but I had been working for telephone companies since 1991 for one of Kevin's ta...

Scott McLeod and Chris Lehmann 's new book What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media is available for preorder on amazon Stephanie Sandifer and I co-wrote a chapter on wikis in this book. Just wanted you to know - looks like it will be a great book and a marvelous summer read. Hat tip to two excellent leaders in the educational space. Full Disclosure: I co-authored a piece in this book but not compensated for it. If you want to support this blog and pre-order through the links above, I am compensated by amazon as an part of their affiliate program. It is the only affiliate program I participate in at this time.

Summer is the time you can rejuvinate and learn. I still think that my recommendations for book reading last year were great but there are some new ones I think you should pick up. The Way We're Working Isn't Working   By far, this is one of the best books I've read not only on personal productivity but on teaching. Using research and great stories (mostly from the business world) Tony Schwartz, Jean Gomes, and Catherine McCarthy hit many of the misconceptions about work head on. If you can pick one book this summer, pick this one. The Power of Less by Leo Babauta   This is a great book to help you get rid of what is unimportant so you can focus on what is. Focal Point: A proven System to Simplify Your Life, Double Your Productivity and Achieve Your Goals . by Brian Tracey.  I pick up this book every time I need to FOCUS on the things important to me. Finally Thin! How I lost More than 200 pounds and Kept them Off - by Kim Bensen.   This is the...

I've told some of you at conferences that I'd share the links to the books I keep mentioning in my keynotes. I've also added permanent links to these on the books tab on my blog as I won't get to share about all of these books in today's blog post. My friend Julie Lindsay is here from China and we have a ton of work to do for our Flat Classroom projects!   1 - Productivity Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload   by Mark Hurst - This is the book that has most helped me tackle my email. Yes, Getting Things Done: is  good book, but it overwhelmed me too much! The flow chart took me under. After reading Bit literacy, I highly recommend the Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better 2- Change Leadership Influencer: The Power to Change Anything This is an incredible book chock-full of research on the characteristics of effective change. The thing I love in this book is that it literally talks a...