New Ventures

Tom Scott has agreed that I can represent the MASS in the planning with MassCUE of next year’s (2019) combined conference at Gillette Stadium. A colleague on the MassCUE Board and I are planning a one day series especially targeted to Superintendents.

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After an initial rejection a year ago, Senator William Brownsberger’s nomination for me to attend the Citizens’ Legislative Seminar 2018 was accepted. I transitioned from the ASCD Conference to the State House for 1.5 days of intense and interesting learning about the Senate. Among the experiences we engaged in were looking at original documents from the State House repository and replicating a Senate meeting in the chamber. We met several Senators (Senator Chandler welcomed us and recognized me with a nod and a smile), and discussed one particular proposed piece of legislation. (The grilled cheese sandwich in the State House cafeteria did not measure up–no salt–but the cook did!) Here is a picture of all of us: CLS 2018 members

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Finally, Cornell is doing something about STEM:Cornell Engineering Debuts Online Collaboration Space for Makers in Grades 6

CELT and MASCD are working together to develop a new consortium of small/rural schools in MA. This article from The Washington Post on October 15, 2016 captures two phenomena: one I have observed and one we will be working on: a-new-digital-divide-has-emerged-and-conventional-solutions-wont-bridge-the-gap.

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LearnLaunch, (http://www.learnlaunch.org) a group of investors in technology in education startups, has been promoting about two dozen such companies.  At both their demo on September 18 and at their expo as part of the MassCUE/MASS conference at Gillette Stadium on October 23 and 24, 2013, those companies showed their wares. Although each user needs to make its ow decisions, the following companies looked interesting to me:

edtrips.com

30 hands Learning

I4class.com

ListenEdition.com

Balefirelabs.com

Also check out thescholarschoice.com

The last two are projects run by people we have worked with.