The Dalai Lama Makes a Joke

Or does he? Happy snow day. I'm getting some work done from home today, but I'm also "paying more attention at [my] inner values." Thank you, David Orban...

David Jakes asks: how innovative are you?

David Jakes is at it again. His blog post today at Tech&Learning is at once stimulating and challenging. If I were a negative person I'd be a little discouraged. Since I'm not, I'm driving you to his thought-provoking views on the value and acceptance of innovation in education:

David Jakes asks: how innovative are you?

David quickly gets to the point: "I’m not interested in being satisfied with pockets of innovation. Yes, they can be recognized, which for many schools, is the end point and the final rest stop of innovation in most schools. There can certainly be more however, with those same pockets analyzed for what works and why, amplified to increase their visibility and importance, and systematized to make a difference for all."              READ MORE...  

Why Let Our Students Blog?

Forgive me if this is old news to you but it's new news to me. Connecting the dots from twitter to email to internet this morning (not an unusual pathway for me) I came across a video I'd like to share. It's from New Zealand teacher Rachel Boyd and I find it rather eloquent. Enjoy:

Academia 2.0 -- Death to the "Lecture?"

Oh, one hopes so, one truly hopes so.

Another video from Kansas State University, via the Best Practices for eLearning Ning, (by way of the Teaching College Math Technology blog)this 10 minute thought-provoker. A gift to you, fellow teacher or learner...

The Globalization of Higher Education

I knew I did something right when I nominated the "Teaching College Math Technology Blog" for the March featured RSS feed in the Blogger's Hut in Second Life. Don't worry, you don't really have to understand any of the foregoing. Just know that if you are interested in teaching or learning, be it math or not, Maria H. Anderson's blog is well worth adding to your list of favorites.

This entry will point you not just to another blog, not just to an entertaining post by a thoughtful educator, not just to her description of an insightful (and maybe inciteful) presentation, but finally to the presentation itself. After you read Maria's armchair review, you'll want to visit YouTube to pick up the 5 part video of the complete (30 minute or so) presentation. I know I want to do that, and it's on my list of things to do in the early morning, before I start shaking the kids out of bed for the school day.

The presentation is called "Exiting the Educational Silo, Entering the Global Freeway." It was shared by Mike Lively (hmmmm, wonder if he knows the Kid-Web diva, Gail Lovely?) in Washington, DC (Maria doesn't say where), and is loaded up with interesting takes on the survival of our current models of technology in education, as well as their relationship to the size and scope of institutions. I won't spoil the joy of reading Maria's descriptive article for you, but I will mention my agreement with Lively's (along with co-presenters Sam Zachary and Kevin Corcoran) position that we don't have to have a faculty comprised of what he calls "Uber Instructors," (pic from her blog) but rather a faculty willing to innovate with a support team of knowledgeable and innovative designers "supporting their technological desires for improving pedagogy."

I am looking forward eagerly to seeing the first-hand delivery of Lively's "shot at the present day LMS leaders with this slide 'Why Present Day Learning Management Systems Will Fail.'" Go on, you know you want to see this slide and read the article, and then you know you want to view the presentation. Spoil yourself, just "doit."