The Coolest Magazines in the World for You and Your Students - 4 issues/year
Recommended Books Discussed
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)
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!
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.
You can find many of my favorite education book recommendations organized here.
Refreshing the ISTE Technology Standards Senior Editor Gary Stager interviews Don Knezek, CEO of ISTE, on the revised National Educational Technology Standards(NETS). Plus: Stager's perspective.
Published in the June 2007 issue of District Administration
Sounds Great, Less Expensive Will your school impede the creative development of your students or embrace tools that let you get out of the way? (Related to iLife '06) Published in the March 2006 issue of District Administration
Jonathan Kozol Takes on The World - By Gary Stager
This educator's latest book shines a bright light on what he calls this country's big shame -- not only are cities segregated, but the education we offer those city children is markedly worse. Published in the January 2006 issue of District Administration
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) Published in the November 2005 issue of District Administration
Stuff I Like
A collection of links to my favorite software tools
Creative Commons
Information wants to be free. Learn about it all here.
Texting Teenagers are Proving “more literate than ever before” (research)
Fears that text messaging has ruined the ability of teenagers to write properly may be unfounded. The two-year study found that in spite of an increase in “colloquial words, informal phrases and text-messaging shorthand...today’s teenagers are using far more complex sentence structures, a wider vocabulary and a more accurate use of capital letters, punctuation and spelling.”
Gary Stager is one of the authors of the recently published TechYes! Student Guide and Implementation Guide.TechYes! is a revolutionary product that allows middle school students to earn computer literacy certification through the creation of personally-meaningful peer-reviewed projects.
Odeo
Windows users can record and publish audio using nothing more than a browser!
http://local.live.com/
Microsoft's amazing mapping project. Find the car in your driveway!
A Not-so-funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future
The International Society for Technology in Education invited Gary to write a column for their newspaper, The Daily Leader, distributed at the 2004 National Educational Computing Conference in New Orleans. read more
Gary's New Newsletter
The ISTE Problem ISTE's vague standards and an exclusionary "seal of alignment" make one wonder whose side the group is on. Published in the February 2003 issue of District Administration
The great thing about Gary is that he never gives up. He was there at the beginning of the great transformation of learning via the medium of portable computers, at the first school to implement laptops, Methodist Ladies College, Melbourne, in 1990. Fifteen years later, Gary's still at the forefront, still showing the way, still walking the walk in his inimitable style.
His work - particularly among the most challenged students, like the juvenile offenders incarcerated at the Maine Youth Center -- provides conclusive proof that kids can learn better through the intelligent use of technology.
Gary Stager is one of the true pioneers of the 1:1 laptop movement. His work in this area includes looking beyond the laptops to their effective application by students as true tools for learning. Rather than seeing 1:1 computing as a vehicle for replicating older educational models, Gary sees it as a chance to transform educational practice in ways that truly prepare young people for lifelong learning.
Gary is an outstanding educator who makes a powerful impact on teachers, parents and students. Gary worked with our school for five days. During that time, I was able to observe him leading faculty meetings, facilitating parent question and answer sessions and working with students in whole class settings. In each case, Gary provided quality instruction, insight and modeling of effective practices. He was able to quickly identify our specific needs and tailored his workshops and interactions accordingly. Gary is an enthusiastic, committed practitioner who challenges the status quo in a manner that promotes inquiry, reflection and substantive change. Gary keeps student learning as his central focus and left our teachers, students and parents energized and motivated to expand their view of how the learning environment can be restructured to improve engagement, motivation and achievement. Overall, it was an outstanding week and we appreciated all that Gary had to offer.
- Lisa Mireles , Assistant Superintendent: American School of Bombay, India
Why teachers don't use computers Blocked Web sites, IT staff that exist to hinder staff, and restrictive policies make integrating technology too hard to overcome. No other column by Gary Stager has generated so many negative responses. Published in the December 2002 issue of District Administration
The End of Textbooks
With so many vital sources of information available to students, why are schools slavishly holding onto textbooks? Digital textbooks may be worse than the real thing. Published in the June 2003 issue of District Administration
Laptops in School - A Wonderfully Cautionary Tale
This new major reflection on 10 years of work in 'laptop schools' will appear as a chapter in a book about laptop learning published by the Children's Technology Foundation entitled, Transforming Learning. For more information, click here
a list of software I recommend
About Gary Stager
For 25 years, Gary Stager has helped learners of all ages across the globe 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), designed online graduate school programs since the mid-90s and is a collaborator in the MIT Media Lab's Future of Learning Group. Mr. Stager's doctoral research involved the creation a high-tech alternative learning environment for incarcerated at-risk teens. He is Senior Editor of District Administration Magazine, Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University, author of the regular feature, Exceeding Expectations, for Apple Computer and an Associate of the Thornburg Center for Professional Development. In 1999, Converge Magazine named Gary a “shaper of our future and inventor of our destiny.” Gary has worked with schools, conferences and other institutions around the world and welcomes the opportunity to speak at your next event or design effective professional development services for your school.