On March 11, 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a computer programmer working at the CERN lab in Geneva, sent to his boss Mike Sendall a proposal for a “world information management system.” He called it the “worldwideweb.” His boss famously called it “‘Vague, but exciting.” Sir Berners-Lee developed much of the backbone of the internet — …
KQED and PBS partner to launch a set of nine micro-credentials for teachers on media literacy skills for the classroom. Teachers who earn eight micro-credentials automatically earn a certificate as a PBS Certified Media Literacy Educator. Whether you are a seasoned media educator, or just starting on your journey to incorporate media into your teaching, …
LinkedIn is certainly a powerful professional networking tool. But it also has its own embedded biases. For example these “Congrats to X PERSON for Y years at Z company” basically assumes it’s a good thing that someone stayed someplace and didn’t leaving. That isn’t NECESSARILY something to be congratulated. One could just as easily say, …
The New York Times recently ran a series of articles on how parents are increasingly worried about the amount of time their children are spending on their digital devices. The click-baity headlines include: “The Digital Gap Between Rich and Poor Kids Is Not What We Expected“, “A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to …
I never understood why in the 1990s there seemed to be shelves full of educational games at my local computer store, and then suddenly they were all gone. According to The Outline, that was the work of one man, Kevin O’Leary, a businessman trying to break his way into the lucrative educational software industry. In …
I’m excited to announce that next Thursday, August 2, I will be moderating a panel discussion on “Community Managers who Manage Offline Communities” at WeWork in downtown San Francisco. I’m honored to be joined by three impressive community management professionals: Omnia Khamis, WeWork Civic Center Community Manager Ronnie Rodriguez, Community Manager for the City and …
I have on my desk a pile of plastic 3D-printed marine animal parts that I’ve kept for years. I’ve use it as a reminder of that: Technology can and often does behave in unexpected ways. Running a Digital Learning program involves a certain amount of risk and uncertainty. Plan accordingly. I realize that I’ve been …
After more than six wonderful, exciting years at the California Academy of Sciences, I’m now looking for new professional opportunities. I’ve had an incredible run at the Academy, grown a lot, met some wonderful colleagues, and worked on a number of fun and exciting projects. Now feels like the right time to move on and …
One of my favorite exhibits at the California Academy of Sciences is the Reef Lagoon tank, which houses a wide variety of rays — Cownose, Blue-spotted ribbontail, Honeycomb, and Bluespotted. Rays are the best! We have had a live cam from our reef lagoon on our website for awhile now. So calming and beautiful, right? Now …
I love this animated gif of the weather station on the living roof of the California Academy of Sciences. There’s something calming and reassuring about it. Weather stations are part of the automated heating and cooling system of the museum. They monitor wind speed, wind direction, rainfall, temperature and humidity. Data is fed into a …