Stephen Hawking has just recently passed away, and we are reminded of his quote: “Look up at the stars and not down at your feet…Be curious” I often wonder whether he nicked that idea from the “Father of Roman poetry Quintus Ennius: “No one regards what is before his feet; we all gaze at the stars” With all due respect, I’d have to challenge these gentlemen. As much as I find it important to #lookup (I have an entire series of Instagram photos tagged with this), being in a pe

This summer I took a chance on a new form of conference offering for me – the outside-the-venue-creative-safari. I launched it at Alan November’s Building Learning Communities (BLC 16), which is one of the most intimate and thought-provoking events out there. Part of my raison d’être is that I firmly believe in the use of smartphones as the ultimate device (at present) for the classroom. Coupled with BYOD programs and GAFE (Google Apps for Education), I am convinced smartphon

The other morning I was lingering in my bed in my Airbnb in Maine and noticed something stunning on the white paneled wall…the light danced enticingly, almost teasingly. Juxtaposed with the leaves and window blinds it was an overwhelmingly poignant sight that succeeded in captivating me for a good few minutes. I was working out an accompanying audio track in my head when I got the idea to archive this fleeting moment on camera (iPhone6 to be exact), and marry it to some music

Salt (aka sodium chloride) has always been fascinating to me, particularly since it’s something we in the modern age seem to take for granted – almost every restaurant and home table has a ample supply of the ubiquitous granular substance. But this wasn’t always the case. It can be said that salt or the lack thereof has made or broken societies, or – in the case of Napoleon’s army, military expeditions. The word “salary” comes from the economic use of salt (by Romans), as doe

“Blessed are people who see beautiful things in places where other people see nothing” – Camille Pissarro This is the 3rd blog entry in a series of four in which I aim to draw comparisons between the paradigm shift in education today (in particular, the influence of mobile and connected learning), and the Impressionist Art Movement. My main point is that something considered to be avant-garde or revolutionary eventually becomes quite ordinary, and therefore we need not fear s

On my plane ride last night I had a thought – what if I could essentialize my day into 1 word? What would be the most important? I am a big fan of creativity in restraint and am currently working on a workshop on Visual Thinking called “Image is Everything” where this sort of minimalistic synthesis is addressed. I also see it as a way to experiment with and practice my typography, since my palette is self-restricted to hot pink and black I really need to play in other ways. P