I enjoyed being a part of “The Sound of Ideas” radio broadcast today on 90.3 WCPN, Cleveland’s Public Broadcasting station.  The subject was cheating and my part of the program was on how technology has aided some sophisticated kinds of cheating.  We also discussed how technology can help break us out of the old-fashioned mode of memorization-based assessment that may encourage cheating.  You can watch the broadcast at this link.

In the picture, right to left, Maureen Neville from Parma City Schools, Michael McIntyre, the host of The Sound of Ideas, and me.

Please join me for a discussion of global education on #engchat on Twitter from 7:00-8:00 EST on Monday, November 7!

I enjoyed appearing on “The Regina Brett Show” on WKSU-FM 89.7 yesterday.  The topic of the program was homework–are kids getting too much/too little homework these days?  You can listen to the program here.

Here is a press release about a neat conference coming to Columbus the first week in August.  I’m proud to be a part of it!

Learn about new technologies used in classrooms worldwide

William Kist, one of the internationally known keynote speakers scheduled to participate in the Innovative Learning Environments Conference on Aug. 1-5 in Hilliard, provides a preview of his Aug. 3 presentation in a podcast posted here. Kist, an education professor at Kent State University, is the author of The Socially Networked Classroom.

Each day’s conference program will feature expert keynote speakers as well as educators from as far away as Finland, South Australia and New Zealand presenting breakout sessions. Conference participants may choose to attend for $30 per day or $99 for the entire week. Teachers may apply for up to two stipends of $110 per day, which are made possible by Ohio’s Race to the Top funds. Contact hours and graduate credit options are available. The event is co-sponsored by ODE, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Hilliard City Schools and the Educational Service Center (ESC) of Central Ohio. Learn more about the conference and registration details here.

I was pleased to get to review Nothing Daunted for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, but wished the book contained more details of being pioneer teachers in 1916-1917.

I was fortunate enough to get to see the reunion of The New London Group at AERA in New Orleans today.  This group’s manifesto, published in 1996, has led to so much thinking and great work around new literacies.  As you might imagine, the room was packed–it was like a reunion of the Beatles!  I’ll write more about this later, but the main thrust of the two-hour conversation was the challenge of how we can translate and ramp up these ideas to reach many teachers, and whether these ideas can, in fact, be enacted in the school organizational system we currently have in most of the world.  Somewhat ironically, I was told there was no wi-fi available in the room, but managed to log onto the Sheraton guest unsecured network and things went well until for about an hour, and then I started to lose access.   If a convention like this, with thousands of leading educators from across the world, can’t get it’s act together regarding wi-fi, then why do we expect everyday schools to be able to?  But, of course, we have to try!

Standing (l to r): Mary Kalantzis, Bill Cope, James Gee, Carmen Luke, Allan Luke, Gunther Kress. Sitting (l to r): Sarah Michaels, Courtney Cazden, Brian Street

It was really a fascinating experience to read Dorian Lynskey’s new book, 33 Revolutions Per Minute and to review it for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.  Where are the protest songs of today?

I was pleased to be asked to review Lit From Within for the Plain Dealer.  It was like The Time Tunnel!

I was interviewed by a reporter for The Observer (UK) regarding my review of the Turkle book.  The article has, at this point, garnered 450+ comments!  Turkle also appeared recently on Stephen Colbert.

Here is my review of Sherry Turkle’s latest book, Alone Together.  The review appeared in the January 16, 2011 issue of The Cleveland Plain Dealer.