Posts Tagged ‘pencil’
The unstated theme for this tweet is foresight.
Foresight is the difference between a good lesson plan and a bad one.
Foresight might also distinguish a good leader from a bad one.
The good news about foresight is that it does not have to be something you are born with. You can develop it by sharpening your mind almost like you would sharpen pencils. It stems from the practice of trying to see something interesting in the mundane.
Pencil of today?
Posted on: June 9, 2013
This popped up on my Twitter stream last week:
It declared that the computer was the pencil of today, that is, computing devices need to be as common as pencils were in the past.
But that is as far as the analogy can go.
Computers are not just input devices for writing and drawing. Computers connect teachers and students with a world of resources and people they would otherwise not have access to if they limited themselves to pencil pedagogy.
Any attempt to deny learners the pencil of today is as sad as this pencil manufacturer’s attempt to stay relevant.
Suitable for computer?
Posted on: May 15, 2013
On Monday, I attended a seminar where we were encouraged to use pencils and paper.
I noticed that the pencils were labelled “suitable for computer”. I wondered what that meant.
How is a pencil “suitable” for a computer? Perhaps the makers meant “backup for” or ” distant precursor of”.
Perhaps they meant that you could still draw something more quickly and freely with a pencil and paper than on electronic versions of the same.
Or was this an artefact from the past trying to stay relevant by superficially labelling itself “suitable”?
I used that same pencil to outline what you could learn with a pencil, what you can learn alone and with people as mediated by computers, and how much more there is to learn.
That is one way a pencil is suitable for computers: To point out the broader possibilities if you operate outside the pencil box.
