Edina Digital Age Learning

Earlier this year, I blogged about The Alice Project , an amazing authentic learning opportunity developed by Texas Educator, Christian Long . Long has developed a new student project, based on TED talks , titled The TEDx Project . This new project, which kicks off April 5, has his students individually analyze 1 TED Talk per week (Students sign up, so ultimately all 600+ TED talks will be analyzed!), publicly defend one of the talks, and create a 5-10 minute talk of their own on something they are passionate about using the theme, “What Matters (to You)?” The students will present their talks "in Ignite or Pecha Kucha style — 20 slides of 15 to 20 seconds each." They will then upload their videos to Youtube and embed them on his blog. Long states, " students will prepare with a ‘global’ audience in mind from day one. " He is looking for teachers to help judge his students work, and is also inviting Middle and High School teachers to submit their own student...

Yesterday, I had the pleasure to sit in on a Webinar put on by John Pederson , Educational Technology Liaison with WiscNet in Madison, Wisconsin (And Tri-State PLP Community Leader!), featuring Christian Long . Christian shared an activity he has created for his students, " The Alice Project ". As John eloquently stated in describing the seminar: This project turns 16 groups of high school students loose on the book The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition . Teams of students use various “Web 2.0″ technologies to build a public presence for their learning, develop an ongoing (and carefully edited/maintained) digital portfolio of their discoveries, and demonstrate the use of these tools as story-telling/presentation catalysts. Behind the scenes, Christian is consciously shifting his “teaching” efforts to that of co-learner, collaborator, and advisor. He’s connecting his students with the rest of the world using the technology and helping them experience a real world audienc...