Here is my latest article to be published in a forthcoming edition of The Creative Educator magazine.

In 2004, I had the great privilege of being hired to consult and lead professional development in India. One of the highlights of the trip was being on a panel discussion with Dr. Sugata Mitra and a billionaire high-tech exec. The purpose of the day was a school convening it's community and experts to discuss the future of education. (How many of your schools have that sort of event on its calendar?)

Dr. Mitra and his work were damn impressive. Upon returning home I wrote the following article: Let Them Eat Tech Standards - A hole in the wall as science and public policy

The "Hole in the Wall" project is a testament to the competency and capacity of children to construct their own knowledge in a community of practice. Internet access can connect children to each other and the 21st century.

The fabulous TED Conference has just posted a new TED Talk by Dr. Sugata Mitra. It is worthy of the attention of every teacher concerned about learning and every coordinator with "technology" in their job description.

Note: The TED Talk site has better video quality, but Blogger would not allow the Embed to work properly.

Also read Sylvia Martinez's blog about Dr. Mitra's work, Hole in the Wall - Can kids learn computer literacy by themselves?

My latest magazine column for District Administration Magazine is now online.

Who Ya Gonna Believe?
The ongoing battle between facts and mythology.

Other professions have a term for when you put your personal belief ahead of facts-malpractice.

Read the entire article here.

The political conventions are like a four-day Superbowl for me. I can't get enough. I am however concerned about the stagecraft and the political calculus that requires the Obama campaign to distance themselves from the proud traditions of the Democratic Party

President Carter, one of two living Democratic Presidents, was met with thunderous applause as he and Mrs. Carter walked across the convention stage, waved and then fled. That's right a former President and Nobel Prize Winner was used as a prop and then made to disappear. The in-house band should have played Ray Stevens' 70s classic, The Streak during his minute in the spotlight.

What was the Obama campaign afraid of? Were they afraid President Carter would call for peace, not war? Were they concerned that he would call for economic justice, racial equality, disease eradication, civil rights, human rights or an end to torture?

Soon after President Carter was whisked off to an undisclosed secure location, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. took the stage.

He got to speak as a reward for throwing his father, Jesse Jackson, Sr. under the bus. How shameful it was when he publicly chastised his father for personal political gain. Congressman Jackson invoked the bloody battle for voting rights in Selma, Alabama and the heroic leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. while expecting the audience to forget that his father worked tirelessly and risked his life for decades in order to help America "rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." Reverend Jackson was in Selma and with Dr. King on that fateful balcony

Jesse Jackson, Sr. endorsed Barack Obama for President nearly two years ago. The reward for his loyalty is that neither he, Congressman Charles Rangel or Congressman John Lewis were invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention.

In fact, Senator Obama can't seem to be photographed in the same room with the civil rights leaders on whose shoulders he stands. Without the heroism and sacrifice of this greatest generation, Obama's presidential nomination would have been impossible. Without Jesse Jackson's historic presidential campaigns and the millions of new voters he registered, Barack Obama would not be a viable nominee.

While the Obama campaign pretends that racism is a prehistoric memory, they cannot be associated with leading African American leaders who risked life and limb to make racial equality possible.

It's all very sad. This denial of history, elders and expertise is reminiscent of the edublogosphere and so much of our culture where youth and immediacy are over-valued.

I have contributed to the Obama campaign and I will vote for him in November. However, I won't be half as proud as when I puled the lever for Jesse Jackson, Sr. in 1984 - the first time I was old enough to vote in a presidential primary election.

At least Ted Kennedy got the attention and respect he deserves. It was glorious to see the enormous smile on Senator Biden's face as Senator Kennedy spoke and delighted the delegates in the arena.

My summer institute, Constructing Modern Knowledge, was one of the most rewarding efforts of my career. I'm already working on how to make next year's event even bigger and better.

Soon, more multimedia from CMK08 will be posted on the the web, but in the meantime a number of thoughtful reflections have been shared via the blogosphere.

Check out the blogs here.

Dan Meyer's blog, dy/dan shares the thoughts, insecurities and efforts of a terrific young urban educator via words and remarkable videos. His blog is worthy of your attention.

Dan should me commended for making his thinking public and discussing issues rarely explored in public. A recent blog started out by wondering if Washington D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee's tactics and hostility towards teachers would be fruitful in the public schools of the nation's capitol.

Along the way, Dan asked a serious question about how to improve his students' geometry test scores, regardless of how each of us might feel about the value or use of standardized testing.

Here is my first, albeit incomplete, set of recommendations.

Dear Dan:

First of all, I wish to share my admiration for the sincerity and courage inherent in your question.

I got my 07-08 Geometry results back yesterday and they were not acceptable. Too many kids listing along at Basic levels, not enough kids rising to Proficiency.
My question to so many commenters here: what would you have me do with that data?

Asking this question is critically important. You can't be good at anything, much less teaching, without being reflective.

First, let's assume that the test actually attempts to assess "geometry." Many standardized tests give kids a score for something like "algebraic reasoning" when the test only included one question on the topic. It would also be nice if you continued to work with the same students tested. Having test results after the kids move on to another teacher is hardly useful as a corrective instrument.

Since you can't cure poverty or the other socioeconomic and cultural obstacles experienced by your students, solutions will need to be relegated to what you do in your classroom.

One mistake frequently made when confronting such issues as your geometry scores is to assume that blame lies with either a) the teacher or b) the student. There is a third player at work here - the curriculum. Why don't we ever challenge the assumptions underlying the curriculum?

While I realize you have a limited ability to replace or abandon the curriculum, it is equally true that doing the same thing louder will not achieve a different result.

But both of your responses dodge the question. From the perspective of someone opposed to the accountability measures of NCLB and skeptical of standardized tests, what would you have me do with the knowledge that (e.g.) four out of ten students I taught last year couldn’t find the volume of a unique swimming pool?

Why should students be able to find the volume of a swimming pool? How often do you have to do that? I never calculate unique swimming pool volume.

How many of your students have access to a swimming pool or even swim? (Oh, I know. Tests are supposed to be culturally neutral.)

It's worth asking yourself the question Seymour Papert used to challenge my own teaching and curriculum planning. "What can they DO with that?"

Such a question goes well beyond matters of relevance. Knowledge is constructed as a consequence of experience. What sorts of experiences do your students have?

I'm not a Utopian. I know that you have to "teach" the kids "math." However, you may need to ensure understanding before covering the curriculum. Perhaps you can change the order of the curriculum. Perhaps you can supplement the curriculum with more imaginative texts (including trade books written by experts). Perhaps you can use Logo with kids - still for my money the richest environment for developing geometric reasoning. Perhaps you can find a way for students to be less hostile to the curriculum being shoveled in their direction. In any event, you need to take the kids from where they are and help them move forward.

You may need to change everything, just to "catch-up!"

The research of Constance Kamii and others, plus your own common sense indicates that "practicing" more pool volume problems is unlikely to help students improve their scores, or more importantly understand volume. Check out Kamii's books here. Her videos are available from Teachers College Press.

In that spirit, here are some resources and practical ideas you might consider:

• The concrete inquiry model presented in How Big is the Moon? should be adaptable to your circumstances to great effect.
• Civil Rights hero Bob Moses' Algebra Project may have resources to help. His book, Radical Equations: Math Literacy and Civil Rights, may be a source of inspiration to you as well.
• I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE an out-of-print book, entitled Build-a-Book Geometry. Get yourself a copy and try the author's approach to kids owning and inventing geometric knowledge.
• Visit the Constructivist Consortium's Online Bookstore for additional book recommendations.
• Use Logo (not Scratch) and find ways to integrate turtle geometry and programming into your required curriculum.
• Use activities from Harold Jacobs' brilliant textbooks Mathematics: A Human Endeavor or Geometry: Seeing, Doing, Understanding
• Use the strategies of Think, Write, Talk proposed by Marilyn Burns.
• Use Geometer's Sketchpad and the books and manipulatives provided by Key Curriculum Press.
• Use MicroWorlds to have kids construct their own "Sketchpad" as described on my site.
• Borrow activities from more progressive texts like "Connected Math"
• Identify real projects requiring geometry outside of the classroom.
• Plaster your classroom walls with interesting posters of geometric art like these.
• Remember that less is more!

As Papert and Harel teach us, "It's OK to worry about what to teach Monday, as long as what you do points to what you want to do someday." Don't get distracted by the immediacy of the curriculum or tests. I hope this helps.

Kevin Carey, of the "independent" and "innovative" Education Sector, didn't have the decency to defame me by name when he attacked the cover story, School Wars, I wrote for the current issue of Good Magazine.

It's ironic to be accused of "policy juvenalia" in a blog oh so cleverly entitled "Bad Magazine."

In a time when smart people of good faith occupy both sides of many heated and complex education debates, it makes sense occasionally to pause, take a deep breath, and denounce things like the incoherent mishmash of policy juvenalia, useless sentiment, and blatant lies found in this article, published by GOOD Magazine, in which we are told that NCLB "requires all of the nation’s schoolchildren to be above the mean on standardized tests," Bill Gates and Eli Broad are spearheading the corporate conspiracy to privatize K-12 education, and standardized tests come with instructions about what to do if students throw up on them. It's sort of a perfect distillation of woolly-minded HuffPost-type conventional education wisdom, and in that sense is oddly valuable, because you can read it and know everything that a not-inconsequential percentage of people know (or rather, don't know) about education.

It's not "useless sentiment" to care about children.

Ever since President Bush told me to "use the Google," I have found it to be an indispensable tool for learning all sorts of interesting things. One thing I learned when I clicked on the "Who We Are" link on the Education Sector web site was that the "independent" and "innovative" Education Sector is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as Eli Broad.

It is awfully refreshing to see such "independent" and "innovative" analysts strenuously defending their sugar daddies. It's kind of sweet.

For the record, my article was carefully fact-checked by Good Magazine. In fact, a good deal of my juiciest stuff about Eli Broad was left on the cutting-room floor. Stay tuned, keep reading and don't forget to follow the money!

I'm really honored that the article I wrote, School Wars, is the cover story for the September/October issue of Good Magazine.

While they edited out a good number of my jokes and a bunch of stuff about Eli Broad, I am thrilled to have been asked to write such a large and unconventional article for a lifestyle magazine. After ten years of writing for trade magazines and the web, I think this makes me an actual journalist! (My dues is paid up too)

While you can certainly read the article online here, I suggest you find a copy of Good at a local newsstand, bookstore or Whole Foods so you can see the provocative art they used to enhance my article. Plus, you can have me autograph the issue the next time you see me :-)

It's also not such a bad idea to buy the issue in order to send the message that you wish to read thoughtful pieces about education in the mainstream media. It takes a pretty gutsy magazine to pay me to question the motives of Bill Gates and Eli Broad.

Here is my most recent article for District Administration Magazine, Enrichment Programs: The winners win more at the expense of their classmates.

Enrichment is derived from Latin for "children of rich parents who complain.

I sure hope this column generates some conversation.

Houston GEORGE BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT...

Leg one of my roadtrip is now complete. Despite my son and I having tickets for separate flights to Houston two hours apart, he made it onto my plane. A bit of SMS-prodding from his Mom and finagling on my part and I managed to get the kid upgraded to first class.

We are on our way to Birmingham, Alabama for a civil rights history tour of Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma, Memphis, Little Rock and anywhere we can stop for good BBQ. I've been deeply moved by the courage and sacrifice of the young Americans who changed this country through their heroic principled actions in the South during the 1930s-1970s. This is my way of paying respect to their efforts and learning more about my country.

I have three books on touring historic civil rights sites and have been studying up.

I'll try and keep you up-to-date on our learning adventures.

On to Birmingham...

Here are some recent articles I published in District Administration Magazine...

Enjoy!

Keep the Wish List Short

Giving parents a laundry list of supplies to buy is lousy public relations and exacerbates economic hardships.

Published in the July 2008 issue of District Administration

What's a Computer For? Part II
Computer science is the new basic skill.
Published in the July 2008 issue of District Administration

What's a Computer For? Part 1
It all depends on your educational philosophy.
Published in the June 2008 issue of District Administration

Online Videoconferencing
Web tools such as uStream make video broadcasting accessible.
Published in the June 2008 issue of District Administration

Keeping Up with the Future
Consider these suggestions for staying informed and inspired.
Published in the May 2008 issue of District Administration

The Games Teachers Play
We are cheating our students by turning reading into a game of dodgeball.
Published in the April 2008 issue of District Administration

Public Schools?
Be wary of a gift that might squash the benefits of public education.

Published in the April 2008 issue of District Administration

I've been writing for magazines for about a decade and on occasion the publisher or Editor-in-Chief objected to the content of a column and refused to punish it. On other occasions I would not make changes I felt would dilute my argument or insult the intelligence of the reader.

My 2008 column, The Children’s Machine - It’s time to turn the network upside down was inspired by thinking about the potential of the XO, aka: the "$100 Laptop."

Emerging technology, universal wireless Internet access and best educational practices will cause increasing conflict with the job security of many I.T. employees. How will your district respond?

I've been writing for magazines for about a decade and on occasion the publisher or Editor-in-Chief objected to the content of a column and refused to punish it. On other occasions I would not make changes I felt would dilute my argument or insult the intelligence of the reader.

Education’s Most Dangerous Idea: Curriculum (from 2006) takes the controversial view that the notion of curriculum is at the root of many education problems.

A friend called a few months back and asked me to tell him my most dangerous idea. What a great question I thought! My answer, “Curriculum is bad.”

Allow me to make the case.

I can turn to almost any page in a textbook, article or website and find an outlandish, inaccurate or confusing idea some curriculum writer thought was brilliant. Even the most well-intentioned efforts at relevance or context stretch credulity, often in a hilarious fashion.

I've been writing for magazines for about a decade and on occasion the publisher or Editor-in-Chief objected to the content of a column and refused to punish it. On other occasions I would not make changes I felt would dilute my argument or insult the intelligence of the reader.

It seems like the blogosphere is a good place to share these "controversial" articles.

Think Different - Lose the Cart was an open letter I wrote to Apple CEO Steve Jobs in 2002 imploring the company to stop selling laptop carts.

The magazine thought that Apple might be offended. I stand behind the article six years later at at time when schools are inexplicably tethering laptops to desks.

In addition to hosting The Constructivist Celebration, I will be part of the following sessions during NECC:

Student-Centered Laptop Integration into the Classroom

Ron Canuel, Eastern Townships School Board (Canada) with Susan Einhorn, Sylvia Martinez, Scott Parker and Gary Stager

Monday, 6/30/2008, 2:00pm–3:00pm; HGCC 211

Successful integration of laptop technology into the classroom focuses on having students be active participants in the solution-building process.

What Effective Computer-Using Educators Know about Teaching: An International Perspective

Geoff Powell, St Hilda's School (Australia) with Peter Skillen and Gary S. Stager

Tuesday, 7/1/2008, 11:00am–12:00pm; Grand Hyatt Lone Star Ballroom E

While focusing on increasing their technical fluency, we run the risk of assuming that all teachers understand foundational learning theory and child-centered classroom practice.

Transforming Technology Projects from Good to Great

Melinda Kolk, Tech4Learning, Inc. with Sylvia Martinez, Peter Reynolds, Adam Smith and Gary Stager

Wednesday, 7/2/2008, 12:00pm–1:00pm; Grand Hyatt Lone Star Ballroom E

This panel discusses strategies educators can use during project design, implementation, and evaluation to help ensure that student technology use inspires creativity and improves achievement.

With any luck, these discussions will be Web 2.0 free zones :-)

The recent Sturm and Drang over the Associated Press' concern about their stories being excerpted in blogs and on web sites without compensation has been continued in blogs [1] [2] by Will Richardson.

Some well-fed fully-employed bloggers long for a Utopian world where all intellectual capital is free. They use the technical breakthroughs of the Web as evidence that expertise and intellectual capital are devalued in a world in which "content" can be had by the barrel at no cost.

Such a view ignores the value of art, culture and civil traditions while viewing the world entirely through the eyes of economists. The answer to runaway capitalism is not Marxism.

I just read a terrific new article about how good old fashioned hard work, competent management, respect for artists and emerging technology is being used to make opera more profitable and accessible.

New York's famed Metropolitan Opera Company is improving the bottom line and increasing its relevance without defaming, devaluing or disrespecting their employees or compromising the quality of their "product." In fact, they are honoring hundreds of years worth of artistic tradition and its importance to Western culture, by building upon those traditions and reaching new audiences.

Surely, there are some lessons here for education.

Last December, New York Magazine published an article The Littlest Hustler: Portrait of a New York childhood, in the extreme. The article tells the story of "tween" Alex Goldberg who through grit, perseverance and force of personality views the world as his kingdom. I've thought about this terrific article over the past six months and my graduate students debated it.

Alex’s adventure ended hours later, at Nobu, where the pool crowd had migrated to feast on junket sushi. He had been chatting up Venus and Serena Williams at a nearby table, and mugging for cameras with a cigar hanging from his lips while eating a bowl of ice cream. Then the faces at his table went blank. Alex looked up and saw what they saw. His mother.

But Alex isn’t like other boys his age. He’s had free rein over the streets of Nolita since before he can remember, and he quickly learned the rules of that playground, turning his relationships with the neighborhood’s shop owners into access to free gourmet meals and designer clothes and trendy sneakers, then turning those freebies into even better stuff (like courtside Knicks tickets), and leveraging those perks into even more valuable things, like connections to athletes, rappers, nightclub owners, and so on.

This article is a reminder that long before Web 2.0 there were kids kids who were competent, clever, resourceful, responsible and eager to learn.

I wish I was as cool as Alex! I love that kid!

What do you think?

I'm delighted to be a member of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation's Learning Team. The learning philosophy of OLPC and its computer, the XO, are an exciting manifestation of my 25 years worth of teaching Logo to kids and teachers as well as my work with "laptop schools" since 1990.

On May 20th, hundreds of educators, government officials and thought leaders from dozens of countries descended on the MIT Media Lab for a global summit organized by OLPC. Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of OLPC, gave a "State of OLPC" presentation in which he reviewed the organization's amazing accomplishments and presented XO 2.0. He also explained how the success of the Give One, Get One program made the XO cost $100 in developing countries.

Several leaders from countries using the XO (the "$100 laptop") spoke about the need for the XO in their countries, the implementation issues and the obstacles they have overcome. Oscar Becera's presentation, "The Starfish on the Beach: Why OLPC for the Poorest and Most Remote? and How?" was particularly interesting. Many children in Peru live a 4 day walk from Internet access.

My old friend and colleagues, David Cavallo and Mitchel Resnick spoke about learning and computing, while the father of the personal computer, Alan Kay, finished the day with another thought provoking discussion of the computer's unrealized potential in education. Dr. Kay's talk is highly recommended.

Best of all, these videos are all available for you to watch online here

The videos are up to an hour in length and available in Flash and OGG formats. The OGG files are easier on the eyes and larger. If you don't have software capable of playing OGG files, try VLC. VLC is GNU free and cross-platform. VLC the Swiss Army Knife of video players. It seems to play anything, including DVDs encoded for another region!

During last night's coverage of the final Democratic primaries in Montana and South Dakota, NBC's Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert remarked, "I would love to teach an American History class in an inner-city high school tomorrow morning." (paraphrase)

Read the rest of my blog, Is History History in History Class?

I've created Constructing Modern Knowledge, a minds-on institute this July 28-31 in Manchester, NH to provide an environment where educators can learn with computers, explore powerful ideas and raise their game.

In addition to personal and collaborative learning environments, the Constructing Modern Knowledge faculty and guest speakers represent some of the most creative educators in the field. Bob Tinker and Cynthia Solomon invented many of the technologies and methodologies we now take for granted. Nobody embodies creativity quite like Pete Reynolds and Alfie Kohn is one of the most prolific and fearless educational advocates alive today.

Go to www.constructingmodernknowledge.com/resources to read articles by our stellar faculty or visit their web sites.

Click here for more information on registering for Constructing Modern Knowledge!

Read my latest article Why Do You Want My Slides? in The Pulse: Education's Place for Debate.

Each year I make dozens of presentations at educational events around the world. Nearly every presentation is followed by an audience member asking, “Can I have a copy of your PowerPoint?” Sometimes, they hand me a USB drive...

What do attendees intend to do with my slides?

I've updated the page describing the keynote addresses, workshops and presentations I offer to schools, districts and conferences. Check out the list of sessions and descriptions here.

Potential clients may also download The Stager Difference, a PDF document outlining the services I offer plus endorsements from colleagues and clients.

Today, two new articles I wrote were published by The Huffington Post.

Read:

Spelling Porn (about the televised National Spelling Bee)

When the Jumbotron says, "Read," You Read! (about the merits of "summer reading")

and my earlier article

The Surge Against First Graders (about the Reading First scandal)

Then comment, cross-post, dig, subscribe - anything necessary to tell the world that different perspectives on education need to be expressed in the media.

Only a few days remain for early-bird registration!
Save $50

Attendees get free software from Tech4Learning (Frames, Pixie, ImageBlender, WebBlender, Twist)and LCSI (MicroWorlds EX) in addition to four days worth of immersive project-based learning, world-class guest speakers and terrific social events.

Constructing Modern Knowledge
Hosted by Dr. Gary Stager
July 28-31, 2008
Manchester, NH

For more information, go to www.constructingmodernknowledge.com.

Sponsored by The Constructivist Consortium and the Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation