I got home from NECC to find that my latest purchases from Amazon had arrived! (I have to say that the amazon.com credit card is a really, really wonderful thing. Buy everything on that, pay it off every month. Get free books. Yay!)

So, taking my…

I got home from NECC to find that my latest purchases from Amazon had arrived! (I have to say that the amazon.com credit card is a really, really wonderful thing. Buy everything on that, pay it off every month. Get free books. Yay!)

So, taking my cue…

You know where I’m going with this… old school:

School and Society / Child and Curriculum — Dewey
The Schoolmaster and the Great City — Patri (thanks Gary S.!)
Teaching as a Subversive Activity — Postman
Teaching to Transgress — bell hooks
The Pedagogy of the Opressed — Friere
Summerhill School — A. S. Neill
Moral Leadership — Sergiovanni

Let’s figure out what we’ve known as we try to surmise the future.

http://www.thersa.org/events/vision/vision-videos/jonathan-zittrain

Thought that you might like it… Watching it right now.

There was a good web chat with Clay Shirky on Talking Points Memo blog:

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/16/speculation_on_social_status_i/

My list:

Finish Lessons Without Limit: How Free Choice Learning is Changing Ed. by Faulk/Dierking

Finish His Dark Materials Trilogy

Father Survival Guide (expecting in Fall…)

Happy reading all!

As much as I’d like to take credit for that recommendation, alas, it wasn’t me

A couple of titles I’m working on–
The Passionate Learner by Robert Fried
The Big Picture by Dennis Littky

And I ordered Here Comes Everybody, so am looking forward to that one arriving.
The other title I just ran across that sounds up your alley is The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam(about solving problems visually). He has a blog as well, that I discovered recently.

(and this one doesn’t have the catchiest title but if you’re speaking and working with librarians–I think this book is really important–School Reform and the School Library Media Specialist. )

And a fun nonfiction title that I have been laughing my way through is The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson’s autobiography of growing up in the 50′s. Highly amusing!

Also, it’s fun, and a different kind of adventure that should always be a part of our lives. In any season. It’s good to disconnect from the online world and vanish into a fictional one, engage with the imagination of others through this form.

Print? Audiobook? Choose what fits in with your summer. I’ll leave the choice of titles to what you find suits your taste in fiction.

I am reading Influencer as part of Scott McLeod’s online book club. I am also ordering a copy of Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody. I am also hoping to read
The Learning Game by Michael Barber, Whatever by Mark Treadwell, Five Minds of the Future by Howard Gardner, and
Wikinomics.

I also hope to get to Brain Rules this summer.

Another book on my list is An Ethic of Excellence, Building a Culture of Craftsmanship in Schools by Ron Berger. Not an “edtech” book per se, but I have been meaning to read this since (cough, cough) before last summer! I have a summary of his teaching principles taped to my desk at work and have used them to guide me in my teaching since I heard about this book two years ago.

@Bill, much as I respect you, I think I may have to skip your recommendation. I don’t know if my blood pressure can handle any more attacks on education. I’m starting to tire of the good fight.

You’re right—-Shirky’s a must read. I finally understand the changes that I’ve been living through and have language to describe those changes when talking to others!

Here’s a short title that I’d recommend to anyone involved in education:

Education Myths by Jay Greene

While not a technology title, I think it’s an important read because it is a caustic attack of public schools filled with distorted truths about what it is we do each day.

You might have to read it in slow bites so as not to raise your blood pressure too high, but by plugging through this title by an ardent critic of education, you’ll have a better sense for the darts (bombs? bazooka shells? napalm?) that people are throwing at public schools.

What is it that they say about keeping your friends close?

Rock on,
Bill