Thursday, May 24, 2012

School Tech Connect: A Nose For News

School Tech Connect: A Nose For News:


A Nose For News

I can't believe I haven't written about this yet, but I did a little search of the site, and sure enough, I haven't written about it.

This evening I was just reviewing my decision not to attend ISTE 2012 in San Diego, and while I don't regret missing the scheduled video address by Arne Duncan, I do regret missing Yong Zhao's wry observations afterward.  Arne Duncan is a talking-point machine; if he were reciting a poem, it would be about choosing for our nation the road more traveled by --- in China--  as Yong Zhao has been pointing out forever.

It's neither here nor there. I'm really writing about my recollection of ISTE 2010 in Denver, where one of the keynote speakers was the guy who was running the big Hawaiian virtual charter school, Jeff Piontek. He gave a speech that was frankly about what a genius he seemed to be and how his school had the highest test scores, and how he was changing the game, or whatever. Maybe he was raising the bar. I can't remember.