Ben Grey’s “21st Century Confusion” post asks a simple question that I’ve often toyed with too: The Partnership for 21st Century Skills believes demonstrating originality, communicating, being open and responsive, acting on creative ideas, utilizing time efficiently, accessing information, etc. are all 21st Century Skills.  I’d retort that in reality, these skills have always been [...]

The comment thread on Gary Stager’s HuffPo article on the Duncan appointment wouldn’t allow this long response, so I’m posting it here. Gary, I’m still informing myself (and as others have noted, your links are now more of my homework), so I’m going to withhold judgment somewhat. I will say that all the reading I’ve [...]

Who is Arne Duncan and how will his choice as Secretary of Education affect education in the US (and, for better or worse in this hegemonic age, much of the rest of the world)? I’ve spent so many hours since the announcement reading reactions online that both my eyes and my brain cells are fried. [...]

Oh, the French wit. Just the right sauce for my Freedom Fries: Asked to sum up Bush’s record on the [climate change] issue, France’s climate ambassador Brice Lalonde chose instead to pass on a story he had heard. A man comes to the White House asking to see Bush. “He doesn’t live here anymore,” he [...]

(A response to Morgante Pell’s “Slow Blogging in Fast Times.”) “Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.” –Ben Hecht Nice post. I’m sympathetic to the thrust, but would argue it’s not the length of [...]

Announcing… ΨΨ The Winner of the McCain Stump Speech Wordle “Write Your Own Caption” Competition © ΨΨ I am pleased to announce the winner is the very talented Vincent Robletto, whose Kerblotto blog screams “Subscribe” for its verbal and graphic wit and creativity. Vincent’s submission rose above thousands hundreds tens ones of rivals. So, without [...]

Andrea Hernandez tagged me for this Wordle Meme: 1. Create a wordle from your blog’s RSS feed. 2. Blog it and describe your reaction. Any surprises? 3. Tag others to do the same. 4. Link back here and to where you were first tagged. (I don’t know what “link back here” means, but Technorati is [...]

Yes, I’m still gushing. I know he won’t be perfect, and is possibly farther right than Nixon in several ways, but by god, I just almost choked up watching Obama say these words in his Meet the Press interview with Tom Brokaw: MR. BROKAW: Let me ask you as we conclude this program this morning [...]

Picture this: enterprising students in cities in Texas, particularly, and other cities nationwide – along with counterparts in Romania, which just mandated a Creationism-only science curriculum (I kid you not), and maybe Turkey, for good measure – organize Smart Mobs to strike, peacefully and simultaneously, out of the blue to demand only 21st century science [...]

More Winter cleaning. I’m going to be posting a lot of scholarly essays from my college years on these pages so I can toss the paper copies. Paper’s a bear to box and ship when you live the global vagabond’s life. I took a Greek tragedy and comedy class in college. We studied, among other [...]