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Gary Stager
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Gary Stager Ph.D. has spent the past twenty-nine years as an internationally recognized educator, speaker, journalist and consultant working on six continents. His work specializes in educational technology, at-risk learners and school reform. Personal web site.

Gary S. Stager, Ph.D.
Executive Director: The Constructivist Consortium
Since 1982, Gary Stager, an internationally recognized educator, speaker and consultant, has helped learners of all ages on six continents embrace the power of computers as intellectual laboratories and vehicles for self-expression. He led professional development in the world's first laptop schools (1990), has designed online graduate school programs since the mid-90s, is a collaborator in the MIT Media Lab's Future of Learning Group and a member of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation's Learning Team. Mr. Stager's doctoral research involved the creation a high-tech alternative learning environment for incarcerated at-risk teens. Recent work includes teaching and mentoring some of Australia's "most troubled" public schools. Gary was a Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University Senior Editor of District Administration Magazine and Founding Editor of The Pulse: Education’s Place for Debate. He is an associate of the Thornburg Center and is the Executive Director of The Constructivist Consortium. In 1999, Converge Magazine named Gary a "shaper of our future and inventor of our destiny." The National School Boards Association recognized Dr. Stager with the distinction of "20 Leaders to Watch" in 2007. The June 2010 issue of Tech & Learning Magazine named Gary Stager as "one of today's leaders who are changing the landscape of edtech through innovation and leadership."

Dr. Stager was a keynote speaker at the 2009 National Educational Computing Conference before an audience of more than 4,000 educators. He was also a Visiting Scholar at The University of Melbourne's Trinity College in 2009 and 2010.

Gary was the new media producer for The Brian Lynch/Eddie Palmieri Project - Simpatíco, 2007 Grammy Award Winner for Best Latin Jazz Album of the Year. Dr. Stager is also a consultant to leading school architecture firm, Fielding Nair International.

Dr. Stager's professional blogs are:

Stager-to-Go
Constructing Modern Knowledge

His personal web site is www.stager.org

Blog Entries by Gary Stager

A Counter Narrative for a Day Such as This

(4) Comments | Posted December 15, 2012 | 2:09 AM

December 14th's unfathomable tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School is unlikely to lead to serious action on gun control. More likely, there will be emphatic calls to make school security a cross between Gitmo and Apple's research lab. Such overreaction will only undermine a true sense of personal security and...

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Shameless Shape Shifters

(13) Comments | Posted September 27, 2012 | 7:25 PM

Anyone the least bit familiar with my work over the past 30 years knows that I oppose standardized testing, Teach-for-America, school privatization, merit pay, Common Core Content Standards, mayoral control and get-rich-quick schemes promising to increase teacher accountability or raise achievement with the signing of a purchase order. (read

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Mission Accomplished!

(32) Comments | Posted April 10, 2012 | 11:41 AM

I would like to go way out on a limb and make a radical declaration. I am a big fan of reading, books and improving literacy. I even think these things are good for children.

That's why I quickly clicked on the article, "American High School Students Are...

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Best Education Books of 2011

(5) Comments | Posted January 26, 2012 | 12:34 PM

The three best education books of 2011

Tricia Tunstall's beautiful new book, Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and...

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President Obama Should Pardon John Edwards

(6) Comments | Posted January 18, 2012 | 2:50 PM

President Obama should use his constitutional power to Pardon former Senator John Edwards. There, I said it!

I can think of no case more deserving of executive mercy than this one.

A pardon would cause prosecutors to drop the criminal campaign finance case against former Senator, Vice Presidential and Presidential...

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The Help: A Teacher's Guide

(5) Comments | Posted September 22, 2011 | 12:01 PM

The Opportunity

Some of your secondary school students have read The Help and many more will have seen this summer's film adaptation. This creates a critical teachable moment for educators.

This feel-good book and film only makes some people feel good. The more you know...

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Senseless Acts of Homework

(57) Comments | Posted August 25, 2011 | 1:35 PM

I'm a big fan of summer. I still have the same "back-to-school" nightmares I experienced as a kid as the days get shorter each August. I think that "Back-to-School" sales before Independence Day are a form of child abuse. I believe that casual neighborhood play, family vacations, scouting and organized...

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Teachers Should Cry, Get Mad, Do Something!

(7) Comments | Posted April 4, 2011 | 2:08 PM

60 Minutes just aired a two-part story that stands in their grand tradition of breathtaking journalism and exquisite storytelling. The report tells the story of Gospel for Teens, a nonprofit arts organization created in Harlem, NYC by the radio broadcaster, publisher and theatre...

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Who Elected Bill Gates?

(95) Comments | Posted March 1, 2011 | 2:17 PM

It's sad to watch a once smart and talented man go mad right before our eyes. There needs to be an intervention for Bill Gates. I fear that he has taken leave of his senses and finally jumped the shark.

I have written about Bill Gates and his interest in...

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If Educators Really Wish to Honor Dr. King...

(11) Comments | Posted January 17, 2011 | 6:05 AM

I originally wrote a version of this article in 2007, but the topic is even more timely during today's period of introspection regarding violence, civility, gun control, widening wealth disparities and education reform. Our daily discourse is filled with reckless nostalgia for the good ol' days of the White...

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Jill Clayburgh: A Remembrance

(2) Comments | Posted November 9, 2010 | 6:10 PM

Guess what happens when you're 14, get a night off and have limited entertainment options?

My first job was in 1978. That is if you can consider unpaid rustic indentured servitude a form of employment. I was a fourteen year-old Counselor-in-Training (C.I.T.), aka Staff Helper In-Training, at Camp Turrell,...

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Why Should she Work for you?

(15) Comments | Posted October 29, 2010 | 4:52 AM

Are good teachers being required to behave in miseducative ways based on directives from school administrators?

Dear School Leaders and Policy Makers:

Our university used to boast of a 100 percent job placement rate for MA students with a freshly minted teaching credential. The Class of 2010 faced nearly 100...

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Education Nation & Ideological Blindness

(1) Comments | Posted October 19, 2010 | 10:37 AM

As some of you know, I have been writing about school improvement and the political, corporate and ideological forces that have been attempting to claim "school reform" as their own invention for more than a decade for my blog, District Administration...

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Wanna be a School Reformer? You Better do Your Homework!

(16) Comments | Posted October 19, 2010 | 4:19 AM

Shouldn't people bold enough to call themselves "school reformers" be familiar with some of the literature on the subject?

Most of the school leaders who signed last weekend's completely discredited "manifesto," are unqualified to lead major urban school districts. Michelle Rhee and Joel Klein are not qualified to...

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The Most Festive Night of the Year!

(0) Comments | Posted December 23, 2009 | 5:47 PM

Spoiler alert: Don't play the video clips (below) unless you have already enjoyed the annual television extravaganza.

There is a great American holiday tradition that flies under the radar annually. It's not only funny, but heartwarming and wildly entertaining.

Every December 23rd, or the last weeknight before Christmas Eve,

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A Sneak Peek at Obama's Speech to Schoolchildren

(3) Comments | Posted September 3, 2009 | 3:35 PM

On September 8th, President Obama will speak to American schoolchildren. I got a look at an early draft...

"Dear children of America:

Study hard. Take lots of tests. Obey your teachers. Don't watch television. Don't play video games. Education is your responsibility. Eat lots...

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Heckuva Carbon Footprint, Mr. President!

(0) Comments | Posted February 5, 2009 | 9:03 PM

Today, President Obama took his first trip aboard Air Force One and even got his very own souvenir Air Force One jacket. We all know that we should spare no expense to ensure that the President of the United States is safe and comfortable. That's why he has...

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Obama Practices Social Promotion

(11) Comments | Posted December 17, 2008 | 12:41 PM

A curious cartel of billionaire bullies, power hungry politicians and tough-talking school superintendents wage an eternal battle against social promotion -- for the good of our children of course. Social promotion, a divisive political term with no basis in reality, like partial-birth abortion, is one of the most popular...

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The Last Back-to-School Sale Ever

(1) Comments | Posted September 3, 2008 | 5:12 AM

I nearly forgot that it was Labor Day until I walked into my local office supply superstore and was assaulted with memories of back-to-school shopping. As a kid, getting new cartoon pencils or bookcovers reduced the horror associated with another school year.

As a parent, I resented buying materials...

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First We Kill the Teacher Unions!

(0) Comments | Posted September 3, 2008 | 2:31 AM

Then What?

Slate recently reported on the latest public demonstration of enmity towards public schools and their teacher. Teacher bashing is hardly novel, but what makes this gathering particularly noteworthy is that took place during the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

The voucher, excessive testing and privatization fantasies of...

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