William C. Castell

A rainy Sunday, a good book and time to reflect. This particular non-fiction tome is very interesting … remember, most of this world is about how you attract and keep eyeballs. TVs, Phones, Screens … name it.

As we cautiously emerge from this chapter, what have we learned from an educational perspective?

There are great inequities of race, culture and socio-economic status. Access to broadband internet and devices is still an enormous issue. The asynchronous/real time nature of virtual spaces will continue. Hybrid models are difficult to achieve – snow days will inevitably face a make over going forward.

Let’s hold fast to being safe as we see the light at the end of the tunnel.

One of the most fascinating articles I have read in a long time about the role of Women in Computing – Thank You New York Times! Exceptional work!

As we rely more and more on computers to stay connected in this era of Covid, we need to keep the balance between tradition, innovation, teaching and learning at the center of what we do as educators, students and administrators. Having deployed 100′s of laptops and servers, managed databases and virtualized many machines – and having taught at every grade level from K-12, I seek a community and school where my educational and technical experience will be of service to teaching and learning in this new phase.

Here is one I worked on collaboratively with a colleague recently. The students spend 10 minutes in VR using Tilt Brush (Google) “painting” in a virtual world. We print images of their work and then they take the image and go into a quiet room and reflect on what they created and what virtual means. Amazing!

Some good ideas here.

I have been coaching “Maker Space” projects all year, three classes a week – everything from how to use a hammer to a laser cutter.  This fall, students wrote and signed a petition to have my class taught every day. It’s flattering to get student support!

It is wonderful to return to my roots as a technology-maker-stem-integrator at BB&N – the apex of my career in Art and Technology. Many old friends are here, and new ones being made. Learning so much!

Is it always the best solution? At the end of the day one needs to review the total technology budget of any school and divide it by the number of students. This gives you an benchmark to  compare to the effectiveness of technology between schools. The key questions to ask are what do we want the outcomes to be? When they go across the stage at graduation, what skills do we want the next generation to have with them? What will the workspace and community be like in 5 years? The world is flat and we are all connected across the planet in real time.

This article about reading from today’s New York Times is very important. I read the Times and Economist without fail. I believe in the happenchance of reading things that you may not immediately find of interest. Somehow it all adds up.