What’s in Your Pockets?

For the past several years, my husband has been telling our children a continuing story of the time he was two inches tall. The story, which still has not ended, unfolds in his childhood home, and it has taken him from the bathroom sink drain, to rides on a June bug, to close encounters with […]

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Expanding Dialogue Through Open Source Curriculum

I’m fascinated with the revolutionary times in which we live. The idea of online communities and collaborative creative projects (like Wikipedia) are opening a vast new horizon of opportunities for sharing knowledge and learning. Enter into this world Rice University’s Richard Baraniuk, founder of Connexions, a free, open-source, global clearinghouse of course materials. The simple […]

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Knowing our work is worthwhile

We all get our moments of thrill — when we see the effect of a dialogue-approach on an individual, group or organization.  I had one of those moments last week and wanted to share it because it felt extra special. About 14 years ago, I worked with Karabi Acharya (both of us then with Academy for Educational Development) on a […]

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Visuals for You, Me and Posterity!

Most teachers and trainers use visuals to help emphasize specific information, to give "form" or make concrete abstract concepts or connections, and to provide visual references for lectures, among many other uses. What has been talked about less, are the ways visuals can and do benefit the instructor, and in the following example, how they […]

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Dialogue Education as Praxis

I have the honor and privilege of preparing a new book for Jossey Bass Wiley. As usual, I was feeling daunted by the task, and shared my concern with Paula Berardinelli, GLP’s new COO. She offered this insight.  “I think of an hourglass – you put into it the theory of many sages and out […]

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Engage! Science & Learning

For Trekies and casual viewers of Star Trek, the command "Engage!" brings memories of that point where the engine-power was unleashed, propelling the Enterprize into light-flash. As teachers we too hope to engage, to engage students most fully, that they too can take their learning wherever they choose to travel at "light-speed". Like many films, […]

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