Digital storytelling

As I was going through old files, I ran across this video I made for a Digital Storytelling class 2 years ago.   Awesome class!  I highly recommend taking it.  

I had great fun making this video, and it was something to share with the rest of my family who have similar memories of my grandparent's cottage on the lake.   

A Whole New Mind

After having it recommended by a half dozen people, I finally got around to buying Daniel Pink's book "A Whole New Mind". I'm only about 100 pages in, but already I'm intrigued by his message. He essentially argues that left-brain thinkers (those who think sequentially, orderly, very fact, detail, and knowledge driven) who once found themselves very successful in the industrial and information age may now find themselves outsourced. To stay marketable, these people need to start nurturing the left side of their brain. 21st century skills will include the ability to create, design, problem solve and synthesize---abilities that cannot necessarily be outsourced to someone in a different country who can (and will) do the same job for much less money. These skills reside on the right side of the brain.
So, what does this mean for those of us who are still teaching left-brained skills...and more importantly, what does it mean for the students we are teaching?

What will a 21st century classroom look like?

One of the things we'll be talking about this year is what a 21st century classroom ought to look like. What do you envision for it?

Lovin' my time at Copper Mountain/Rocky Mountain TIE

I had a lot of fun at the 2009 TIE conference which was held in beautiful Copper Mountain Colorado.  The official theme for this year was around building a 21st century classroom (what does this look like anyway--even the experts say that we don't have these answers yet) for our 21st century learners.   Unofficially, it seemed to be fairly Google heavy...Google apps, Google Earth.  

  I am excited to be sharing some learnings in the next few posts...but for now, its time to go home.