Skip to main content

Recent Articles

By
Two articles came across my desk recently that I thought I would share. The first, is an article about student blogging from 21st Century Connections. It speaks to some of the concerns that staff have had about student blogging being too "schoolish" and offers up a way to engage students and allow them to drive the discussion. What I also liked about the article was the concept of not just getting students to write thoughtfully, but also to use blogs to get students to read critically.

The second article was an interview Daniel Pink conducted with Thomas Friedman on education in a "flat" world. In the interview they discuss the need for a liberal arts education, and both left and right brained instruction. Will Richardson had an interesting video post on the brain from Jill Bolte Taylor that has some good left and right brain information.
Labels:

Comments

Tim K. said…
The first article is very interesting -- and humbling. As much as I try to avoid it, I fall into the "assigning blogging" camp rather than the "teaching blogging" one. My concern, as always, is time -- I think maybe what I'll do next year is to try and include the first six steps of the process listed there as part of our discussions of the films we watch. Maybe students won't establish and start writing in their blogs until second quarter.
March 21, 2008 at 10:24 AM
Unknown said…
Tim,
I appreciate your comments. I think we all rushed in this year to get kids going, and we need to be more intentional. Let's hope that this makes it less "schoolish" too!
March 28, 2008 at 11:31 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Syncronicity Regarding the Future of Learning: Are you a Sherpa or a Jazz Musician?

By
Yesterday, Sara Swenson , Edina High School Librarian (She prefers that term!) shared the following video with me via e-mail that she found on an NCTE Web s ite . I thought that the video crystallized for me the potential for educational technology integration, 21st Century learning and learning beyond the classroom walls. It is something we are working on with our Community of Practice . That isn't to say that there won't be road blocks to navigate, or crevasses to traverse! We know they exist now! I was intrigued to see the teacher's role defined in such creative ways!! When people ask you what you do for a living, do you respond as "teacher", "educator", "instructor", facilitator", or are you a "Connected Learning Incubator" or are you still "Keeper of All Knowledge Which Is Good?" Hmmm ... Then this morning, I checked my Twitter feed and Will Richardson had posted about a conference on the Future of Education ...
8 comments
Read more

We Have Met the Enemy and He is PowerPoint! A Reflection

By
Today, the New York Times ran an interesting article regarding the use of PowerPoint in the military, We Have Met the Enemy and He is PowerPoint . It was a fairly damning critique of an organization that gets most of its information or lack of information through PowerPoint slides. Here are a few quotes from the article: “PowerPoint makes us stupid" - Gen. James N. Matti “It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control...Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.” -Gen. H.R. McMaster And the following comment that I think has a great impact for us as educators: " Commanders say that behind all the PowerPoint jokes are serious concerns that the program stifles discussion, critical thinking and thoughtful decision-making ." And this... "Commanders say that the slides impart less information than a five-page paper can hold, and that they relieve the briefer of the need to polish writing to convey an analytic, persu...
9 comments
Read more