My Top 20 Education Quotes from 2009

A well formed quote, like a picture, is a great method for painting detailed concepts. Each year I do my best to capture quotes that were impactful to me. Last year I shared these Ten 21st Century Education Quotes I Carry With Me. This year I am sharing another compilation of quotes and concepts I have collected over the past year through reading, events, classes, presentations and workshops. These quotes have been valuable to me and I hope they will be to other innovative educators as well. I don’t recall where I heard most of them (or even if it was me who said some of them), so I cited none of them. Oprah, The Element, Geoff Canada, and Alan November’s BLC conference in Boston were inspirations for several. Feel free to Google if you are trying to locate the source, or leave a comment with a source you know.


1) If we don't take ownership of our digital identity who will?
2) Why is the date of manufacture the most important determinant of how we group kids?
3) Do with. Not for.
4) Treat the world as a place of creation not consumption.
5) Many of the most brilliant and creative people didn't really discover what they could do and who they were until they'd left school and recovered from their education.
6) In the age of information, knowledge stops with paper. Paper is dead. You can't have a conversation with ideas on paper nor can you connect or communicate easily with others who care about those ideas.
7) Old punctuation means “stop” the new punctuation (hyperlink) means keep going.
8) The main thing the web is teaching our kids is the world is more interesting then we were ever told.
9) Because of technology, I have a network of advisors accessible to comment to and advise me at any time.
10) If you don't do something with what you learn you are a selfish twit!
11) Being in your element is when the things we love to do and the things we are good at come together.
12) When we takes notes, rather than keep it to ourselves it makes sense for others to learn from the way we are making meaning and respond and react to it.
13) When you learn something, don't keep it inside. Do something with it. Publish it! Blog it! Tweet it! Discussion Forum it!
14) Education has moved from consuming information for set answers to producing information to engage in conversation.
15) We don’t want a technology gap to become a skills gap to become an achievement gap.
16) Homework is an equity issue. If you don't have parents or guardians and technology available you are at a disadvantage.
17) Nostalgia is a seductive liar.
18) We shouldn't have tech action plans just like we shouldn't have pencil and paper action plans.
19) Never underestimate the vital importance of finding early in life the work that for you is play. This turns possible underachievers into happy warriors.
20) You must connect yourself to connect your students.

I love collecting these quotes and knowing how they’ve affected others. If one of these quotes affects you or if you have a quote that has affected you that you’d like to share please do by commenting on this post.