Blog - Page 36 of 47 - John Spencer

Sep 30 2016

10 Tips for Global Collaboration Projects

By John Spencer Future of Learning, Innovation 2 Comments

Two years ago, I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of speaking at the White House and sharing the story of a global collaboration project. It was part of the Future Ready initiative and I spoke about the need to leverage the connective and creative power of technology…

Sep 23 2016

Showing My Work: How I Use Feedback and Self-Reflection to Modify My Lessons

By John Spencer Teacher Life 4 Comments

Every Tuesday and Wednesday night, I teach a 4-hour pedagogy class. I use the design thinking cycle to plan the course (a topic for another blog post) and so as I teach, I am in the Highlight and Fix phase. I thought I would give…

Sep 22 2016

Critical Questions for Making Sense Out of a Connected World

By John Spencer Technology and Media Literacy No Comments

A few days ago, I noticed people sharing a few random articles from Atlas Obscura. I noticed a few of their tweets rising to the top of my Twitter feed as well. As I drove to work, I caught a part of an NPR story with one…

Sep 20 2016

Helping Students Leverage the Connective Power of Research

By John Spencer Podcast 2 Comments

I still remember the moment I went to the computer lab to check out the World Wide Web. This was somewhere around 1993. The librarian called it a Field trip to the Information Superhighway and for awhile I thought she was like Ms. Frizzle.…

Sep 13 2016

In an Age of Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy Is More Vital Than Ever

By John Spencer Future of Learning, Vintage Innovation 5 Comments

Imagine you are building a self-driving car. Chances are you'll look for a team of engineers who can figure out how to make each part work fluidly in an interconnected manner. You'd look for software engineers and mechanical engineers and experts in user interface (UI) and…

Sep 08 2016

Helping Students Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset

By John Spencer Future of Learning 7 Comments

About three years ago, a student approached me before class. "Mr. Spencer, I heard that you wrote a children's book." I nodded. "I co-wrote it with my wife and then we self-published it." "Can you teach me how to publish my own novel?" I launched…

Sep 02 2016

Seven Technology Trends that will Transform Learning in the Next Five Years

By John Spencer Future of Learning, Podcast 10 Comments

I knew social media had hit mainstream the moment that my mom sent me a friend request. Suddenly Facebook had become a place where "mom" and "friend" were synonymous. I knew that Facebook had lost its cool, edgy, college vibe. Since then, Facebook has become…

Sep 01 2016

Students Need to Own the Project Management Process

By John Spencer Podcast 3 Comments

Note that I use the terms "organization," "creative process," and "project management" interchangeably. I'm basically suggesting that students should own the workflow process. I have an embarrassing confession to make. I like Microsoft Word. I like the way it handles autocorrect when I start typing…

Aug 29 2016

14 Ways to Differentiate Professional Development

By John Spencer Podcast 8 Comments

I'm sitting at my desk reworking my pedagogy course. With each revision, I move closer and closer toward truly empowering my students to own the learning. I started with student choice and slowly shifted toward student freedom. But now, I'm taking it a step further.…

Aug 24 2016

What Happens to Behavior When You Incorporate Student Choice?

By John Spencer Podcast 5 Comments

My hardest year of teaching involved a sixth grade self-contained class about four years ago. Somehow, I got off on the wrong foot. I had just been an instructional coach and I felt, on some level, that I could handle any classroom situation. I was…