This week a colleague of mine, Mary Hendra, shared with me an interesting article from FacultyFocus.com. In it, author Joan Flaherty discusses the gap she perceives between herself, a non-digital “native,” and her students, members of the so-called “millennial generation,” a group that has grown up with digital technology.

The Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project continually delivers fascinating, high-quality research products. Their most recent study of teachers and technology surveyed several thousands teachers involved in Advanced Placement classes and the National Writing Project; they call them "leading edge" teachers. For me, the most interesting part of the report digs deeply into issues of technology and equity. One set of highlights includes these findings:

An important dialogue has started at Facing History about ways to use Facing History online tools to nurture civic behavior in the digital age. More and more our online tools are allowing for students to engage with one another all over the world. This has been especially important in trying out new resources such as Reporter, Bully and Freedom Riders, as well as Facing History online courses, have brought together international classrooms to share a common core of knowledge.

Just over a week ago, my wife gave birth to our second child – a healthy, adorable, little boy. For my wife and me, having a second child was a much different experience than when we had our first: we were no longer afraid that we were going to break the baby. We didn’t feel like the hospital should be sued for negligence for allowing us to take the child home. And, perhaps most importantly for this blog, my wife and I now both had smart phones. While one would think the first two items would be worth discussing with soon-to-be repeat parents, I found myself more fascinated by the latter – the presence of this Swiss Army Knife of a phone in my hand. As with our first child’s birth, I took pictures, I made phone calls (Hi, it’s a ___!), and I crafted the email I would send to my friends and family. This time, however, I had the power to hit send within only seconds of my son entering the world. And thus rose my first dilemma as a second-time father – to post, or not to post, that newborn picture?

Where to put the block? Forge ahead or play it safe and risk losing people to starvation?

The office is closed today as winter storm Nemo bears down on New England. I am sitting at my parents’ house with my dog at my feet watching reporters on all the different news channels get dangerously close to the ocean surf to demonstrate for viewers just how dangerous it is to get that close to the surf. Twitter and Facebook are in overdrive with friends posting photos of their backyards, front yards, and buried cars. Someone posted a link to a news spot from last night featuring her father and as I’m watching that on my computer the same spot is replayed on the television. To say that I live in a tech saturation world would seem like an understatement at this point. But I love it. I love how easy it is to remain connected to friends from around the country and how quickly I can meet new folks to engage with in conversation and debate…the only problem is finding the proper online venue to do so. Between spamming and vulgar tirades, online discussion boards are hit or miss at best. Fortunately though, there are online spaces that welcome and encourage intelligent discussion and through my involvement with Facing History’s online learning department I am constantly amazed by the individuals that come together to learn and challenge each other in our programs.

Digital Learning Day is coming up on February 6, and there will no doubt be a lot of conversation and debate about whether online tools can help students prepare for career and college. While career and college preparation are important goals, they aren’t the sum of the purposes of schools: Our educational institutions also have an obligation to prepare students for citizenship and for a reflective, ethical, and well-examined life.

In what should come as a surprise to absolutely no one who knows me at all, I'm a little bit "Type A." This is to say that I have always set irrationally high standards for myself and when I don't always meet those I tend to be just a wee bit unforgiving (see: K.C. in 1st grade, apologizing in writing to my parents for earning a "check mark" and not the superlative "plus" in Handwriting. Pretty sure I wrote something to the effect of "I will practice my letters in my room until they are perfect"). The teacher later gave me a book called Nobody is Perfick which I assume was an attempt to get me to breathe now and then. Clearly I felt compelled to correct the spelling on the cover. I was a weird kid.

In 2010 Facing History launched the Digital Media Innovation Network (DMIN), establishing a cohort of staff and educators from Facing History’s nine North American offices and partner projects overseas who together explore and pilot digital resources as tools in teaching and learning.