What questions are we not asking?

This morning I had a somewhat disheartening conversation with a good friend.   We get together every week to talk about education, what we see, our point of view, and give push back on ideas. He commented that he doesn't read his Twitter stream because there is a lot of noise. Educators are repeatedly talking about the same things and the conversation isn't changed. Topics I see repeatedly are reform,  government oversight, 5-100 best ways to do something, the best apps, and more. The lack…

In my last post I reflected on a simple yet profound idea:  innovation hates silos.  Why?  Innovation wants to break out of the mold and disrupt, to do something new, and make what was once old relevant again.  There is a great deal to be learned from the past and the present for education's benefit.

We can look all we want at current education practices in the U.S. and determine something has to change.…

Silos.

Educators live in them largely because of the pedagogical walls built individually over the years to teach children narrowly focused content using textbooks.  Even within a school there is little communication between educators leading to closed…

I am worried that educators miss the true meaning of assessment like missing the true meaning of Christmas.

Giving a "test" isn't about devising a 50 question multiple choice, fill-in the blank, short answer, and extended response on paper using a pencil. It isn't using a bank of test questions to deliver the test online and send results to students via email. Testing isn't about having student memorize facts to regurgitate and then say that they have learned. Testing, really…