How many educators have espoused to create a legion of lifelong learners from the captive students in their classes? It is a noble and necessary goal for today’s educators but it does have ramifications for those so called lazy days of summer. Summer in this increasingly digital world is now a time for modeling lifelong learning unless that concept is more myth or cliché than fundamental belief.

Yesterday was our last day of school. For me that’s the equivalent of New Year’s Eve. For most in education, the last day is at least a professional New Year’s Eve of sorts; a time for reflection on the year just ended and a time for goal setting and resolution for the year embarking. The proverbial ball drops and as soon as we celebrate the year’s end with graduations, we begin to make our resolutions about what we must do to be better in the upcoming year.

A recent speech by Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody has some sage advice for education. Today’s learners adhere to the physics of participation and that’s as revolutionary as the physics of the modern atom. To understand this new physics will require some significant unlearning.

It has been a busy week of curriculum revision as we continue to prepare for next year’s 1-to-1 initiative. We aren’t doing tablet training choosing instead to continue to prepare our curriculum for the changes that are approaching. After all, it isn’t about the technology, it is about the learning and the skills that our students need to be enthusiastic, lifelong learners.

Preparing to launch a 1-to-1 tablet program that will impact 450 students and 85 teachers in 3 grades is daunting and at times overwhelming. There are so many things to do in preparation for 1-to-1 tablet program and just when you think you have it figured out, you discover something that would make the plan even better or something that calls into question the things you think you have figured out.