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Let me start by saying that the image on the left is ironic - it is deliberately contrary to what I'd expect from a teacher designing projects and engagements for students. I'm writing this post after a pretty fraught couple of weeks at school where my mantra has been "it's about the learning, not about the tech", so it was great to read this same sentiment right at the start of Chapter 5 in Your Connected Classroom: A Practical Guide for Teachers today. To recap, I'm reading this new book from Eduro Press in order to write a review on Amazon - and at the same time I'm blogging about it. Anyway, my heart was singing as I read the above statement, and I'm convinced that this is the most important chapter in the book so far, as it deals with designing rich learning experiences (both with and without technology). The authors start by telling us to "mentally toss out whatever you've done before and start from scratch. Forget about your curriculum documents and resources and start with just the end goal: what you want students to know and be able to do and develop from there. The idea behind this is to give you the freedom to re-imagine the unit completely differently than you may have taught it before."