Guest Thinkers

Apparently it’s Richard Elmore Day in my electronic inboxes today. Here are two great quotes… From Using technology to move beyond schools (Elmore & City): With rare exceptions, schools currently […]

The technology world is all about tipping points, and last month marked the first time ever that a mobile phone (the iPhone 4) became the most popular camera on the […]

Japan has had a quite a year within geologic activity – some of it very tragic, some of it less so. Volcanically, both Sakurajima and Kirishima have put on shows […]

I’m not quite sure how I missed this wonderful table from David Warlick. Take a look below. Are your local schoolchildren ‘students’ or ‘learners?’If they’re not ‘learners,’ what can/should you […]

A project, two years in the making, was revealed this week at the Computer Human Interaction conference in B.C. The device created by students from Texas A&M University is called ZeroTouch […]

Sorry about the scarcity lately – it was graduation weekend here at Denison, so that always keeps me more than busy. However, now that graduation is done, summer is officially […]

The Warmth Of Many Suns by Isabel Wilkerson is such a good book I am almost tempted to go back to school to become a professor just so I can […]

The 2012 elections may be largely about race. While the state of the economy may ultimately determine whether Obama wins or loses, the rhetoric in both the presidential and congressional […]

Francis Fukuyama’s argument that man’s political development culminated in democratic capitalism is one of the most misunderstood theories of recent decades.

Am I the only person to be becoming just a little irritated by the twice daily claim of Tina Brown’s Daily Beastto have got “the morning scoop” or “ afternoon […]

What is the best strategy to learn / memorize? Taking a look at Amazon you will find a wide variety of books on that topic and I am pretty sure […]

What if you stayed at a hotel and never saw a soul apart from the other people staying at the establishment. You could stroll in and self check-in at kiosks at the front […]

Egypt’s revolution took just 18 days to unseat Hosni Mubarak, in Yemen the process has been much, much longer.  Earlier this week protesters passed the 3-month mark with no end […]

Marketers and product developers are showing new interest in older consumers. That interest must include more than simply dusting off brands and banking on fond memories. Many brand strategists hold […]

The cover of the May 16, 2011 issue of The New Yorker features a cartoon by Gürbüz Doğan Ekşioğlu in which the image of recently killed terrorist Osama Bin Laden […]

So here’s a rare treat: The leading historian of our Founding (Gordon Wood) receives a thoughtful and sympathetic–but indirectly somewhat critical–review by our leading political scientific student of our Founding (James […]

Every now and then, you’ll meet someone who loves physical books. Maybe you’re that person. But increasingly the p-book (physical book) lover is a minority. Ever since Amazon released the Kindle, […]

A small startup company called Extrality is working on augmented reality flashcards for phonics. They’re calling them SmashCards. The idea is to embed interactivity into what look like ordinary flashcards, […]

Celebration of creativity for creativity’s sake. That is the inspiration behind F5 film festival that took place in New York this April for a third year in a row. “Money might make […]

GUEST POST BY DANIEL MOORE Next week, the University of Chicago, will open the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library. The library sits as an addition to the Regenstein Library, next […]

This fake controversy about the rapper Common and his invitation to a White House poetry reading had me thinking about “Sucker M.C.’s”, an old rap song by RUN-DMC. Sean Hannity […]

[UPDATE: And the winner is… Suzie Linch, who submitted Nathan Barber’s blog, The Next Generation of Educational Leadership. Congratulations, Suzie!] Just a quick update… Six days after announcing my goal […]

Yesterday the CTC Sentinel released a special issue on al-Qaeda after the death of Osama bin Laden.  You can read the entire thing here.  There are a number of incredibly […]

Newt Gingrich, the thinking man’s Glenn Beck, is said to be a viable Presidential candidate because he has fresh, creative ideas. Even if you accept that notion at face value, […]

“Why buy a Vermeer when a Metsu is available?” Adriaan E. Waiboer, curator of northern European art at the National Gallery of Ireland, repeats that odd sounding question in the […]

Get ready for a close encounter – In November! For the first time, astronomers have anticipated the arrival of a giant asteroid that will come whizzing by the earth. The […]

Motivation matters. It matters a lot. It matters more than we thought, and might make more of a difference on both performance and life outcomes that we thought possible. 

Two months ago I had some serious problems with my web host which led to daily calls with the helpdesk. I soon found out that it was far better to […]

Last night, Italy’s Etna started a new period of eruptive activity – and for those of us watching the webcams, it put on quite a show. You can see video of the […]

It was about 95 degrees as we strolled into the Ames Middle School band concert Tuesday night. Although the outside air was stifling, the air conditioning inside was blissfully cool. […]