Help me take results-only learning to the SXSW Conference

The SXSW Edu Conference and Festival in Austin, TX has become one of the top conferences on teaching and learning in America.

I think it's a marvelous place to share the power of the Results Only Learning Environment. But I  need your help. Part of the intense selection process is popular vote. So, please give Role Reversal your support.

Please cast your vote for my Role Reversal proposal here.

Don't forget to share with your PLN.

Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, now available in the ASCD store, Barnes & Noble and at Amazon.com

Education in a Changing World

Last week, I had the pleasure of presenting three sessions at the Education in a Changing World Conference, hosted by Monte Vista Christian School. This amazing conference featured luminaries in education, like Sir Ken Robinson and Alan November.

I presented student-centered learning, based on the concepts in Role Reversal, classroom websites and web tools for education. The video below, shot by a couple of very helpful MVCS students, is a brief segment from my Role Reversal presentation. I hope you enjoy it, despite the poor production quality -- my fault, not the videographers'.



Don't miss Mark's books ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, and The 5-Minute Teacher: How do I maximize time for learning in my classroom, now available in the ASCD store, Barnes & Noble and at Amazon.com

Weigh in on this discussion on Education Talk Radio

Larry Jacobs, Education Talk Radio host, and I discus student-centered learning and other concepts from Role Reversal in this brief interview.

Listen at your leisure and weigh in on the discussion.

Listen to internet radio with EduTalk on BlogTalkRadio

Cross posted at Learn it in 5

Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, now available in the ASCD store, Barnes & Noble and at Amazon.com

Are you a curator of information?

In this digital age, most people are sharing information daily. Sure, in many cases, it's insignificant commentary about something that might only interest a group of friends or family. Sometimes we share pictures and videos of loved ones.

What many educators, and certainly their students, fail to realize is that we are all curators of information, and this comes with a huge responsibility. While telling your Facebook friends or Twitter followers about your weekend is acceptable social behavior, it's equally important to share content that improves learning.

There are a myriad of tools available to help us easily curate information. You can learn more about them at www.learnitin5.com. One is Paper.li. It empowers the user to gather important stories, pictures and videos and create a virtual newspaper that can be shared in many ways. Consider what you have to share, while you check out this example.




Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, now available in the ASCD store, Barnes & Noble and at Amazon.com

Excerpts from my Kappa Delta Pi Webinar

I recently presented a Webinar to nearly 180 Kappa Delta Pi members. The webinar is based on the concepts in my book, Role Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom (ASCD 2013).

The video below contains a few highlights of the webinar, in which I discussed the value of student-centered learning over a traditional classroom and narrative feedback, and I answer a few audience questions.

If you'd like to view the entire archived webinar, learn how at this KDP.org website.




Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, now available in the ASCD store, Barnes & Noble and at Amazon.com

Slide Rocket has really angered me

Boy, am I angry at Slide Rocket!

I've written widely on the web-based presentation tool and advocated for its use in education circles. I even produced a how-to video on Slide Rocket here. I created further content and video about effectively using Slide Rocket, at this Learn it in 5 page. When I wanted to teach educators how to effectively use the online writing tool, KidBlog, where did I turn? You guessed it, Slide Rocket.

What was great about Slide Rocket was teaching students how to use it and watching their eyes light up, when their old boring PowerPoints came to life with Slide Rocket's innovative animations, templates and plugins. Best of all, Slide Rocket was free.

Now, Slide Rocket has been taken over (they call it a merger) by ClearSlide -- a corporate giant, seemingly interested only in business. By its own admission, the new company will cater to the private sector. This was posted to the Slide Rocket blog in March:

"Clearslide is revolutionizing the relationship between sales teams and customers. . . . By acquiring SlideRocket, ClearSlide will expand its rich presentation capabilities for sales teams to engage customers more effectively and close more business."

You can't fool me

I was so angered by this move that I contacted SlideRocket/Clearslide to ask what this merger/takeover meant to educators like me and to my students, who have come to depend on Slide Rocket for many of their projects. First, some Clearslide salesperson, who had no idea how the merger/takeover would effect Slide Rocket, foisted me off on another sharp talker, obviously schooled on how to handle inquisitive teachers.

Not to worry, I was told, everything is being considered. Oh, and should it come to pass that I'll lose my Slide Rocket membership, Clearslide will make sure I have plenty of help downloading my presentations to PowerPoint. Hmm., I thought, if I wanted to use PowerPoint, I wouldn't have spent the past four years, using Slide Rocket!

This spin doctor double-talk couldn't fool me.

It's very clear at this point that Slide Rocket will soon look nothing like, well, Slide Rocket. More likely, it will become just another piece of Clearslide which, by the way, is a very clunky product that feels more like an amped up e-mail program than the slick presentation tool that Slide Rocket used to be.

Boy, this makes me angry! Keynote, here I come.

Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, now available in the ASCD store, Barnes & Noble and at Amazon.com