The Nexus for the 21st Century

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TechForum - Web 2.0 Tools Round Table

Thank you all for your input to to our roundtable discussion on Web 2.0 Tools.  There are a couple that were presented that I am not able to find.  Please feel free to help...

New Brunswick Schools Have a Plan - Your Thoughts

I was cleaning up my Google Reader page when I came across the post by Jeff Whipple in his Whip Blog regarding his cautious excitement about New Brunswick's renewed commitment in action and deed in embracing the concepts of 21st Century Learning Spaces and the skills and proficiencies necessary to vision, plan, and make them real.  The embedded video is impressive and captures the power, strength, and necessity of the message.  How are we doing with regard to bringing these types of learning and teaching  experiences to our students and faculty?  Have we even acknowledged the need for change? If so how are we moving towards that desired state?  Are we anywhere near a critical mass that would include superintendents, school board members, staff, and community?  What are our next steps?

Garys Social Media Count

 

Australian Gary Hayes has created this Flash app that informs and amazes me about the exponential growth and immersion of social media.  The growing numbers force the acknowledgment that social media is not only here to stay ... it also screams that that those that can successfully navigate it, discriminate good from bad information from it,  and take an active role in participation  to leverage it will have a selective advantage over those who do not.  Make sure you try the Tabs for Phones and Gaming.

Alliance for Climate Education Presentation Follow-Up

Here are some additional Climate Change links ...

MIT http://globalchange.mit.edu/

Oak Ridge National Laboratory  carbon dioxide analysis center http://cdiac.ornl.gov/

US Environmental Protection Agency  http://www.epa.gov/epahome/learn.htm#climate

 

 

 

 

Alliance for Climate Education Presentation

I am sitting in a day long series of presentations for science students at Hinsdale South High School developed by the Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) regarding the current state of:

Climate Change - Global Warming

The focus of the presentation is to identify the state of the planet today, the scientific perspectives of the causes (the science of the National Aeronautics and Space Association – NASA; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – NOAA; Internal Panel on Climate Change - IPCC), the role we (humans) play in jacking up the Earths’ global temperature, identifying the urgency for a response to climate change (a response is needed NOW – we have a decade to make a change), the role we can play to reverse the negative effects, and the power of individual actions and their collective influence on the political, educational, business contributions to Climate change.

The beginning of the presentation focused on the 7 essential principals of climate science grounding all students in basics understanding of the prevailing science and causative factors of climate change; concluding that 99% of scientific community believe that climate change and its negative impacts are indeed occur and that there is 90% certainty among the scientific community that humans are the main contributor to climate change,

The majority of the presentation focused on the role each of us can play individually and collectively as a major force in influencing implementation of priority, philosophy and practice that the very large potential student network (22 million high school students) can be as the driving force in reversing climate change and the creation of climate change free world. 

What can students do?

Reduce Emissions - Do One Thing (DOT)!

Raise Your Voice - Get Involved!

Have you ever heard of ACE? Have they presented to your students? Do you have active DOT’s going on at your school?  I would be extremely interested in hearing form you.  I would like to see how the student network is growing and what local impact is occurring and can we see the influence on a larger scale?

 

Raise the bar on teachers: New instructor-evaluation plan must be only a start

Will Richardson asked the following question...

http://tinyurl.com/24z6vdu

So let's see who is paying attention...what phrase in the above quote needs to be changed so as to reflect the reality of what happens in the classroom?

My response...

Raise the bar on administrative leadership: New administrative-evaluation plan must be only a start.

There has to be 1) an acknowledgment of the need for change to prepare our students for what awaits them in the world they live 2) A cogent action plan to transition in to practices that will prepare students for that world

To date we are sorely void of both ... there are pockets but no critical mass ...

Teachers in the trenches are left to fend for themselves in an environment that lacks administrative understanding, support, and modeling. This "head in the sand" approach ignores the world in which students will be expected to function. This has created a lack of expectation on teachers (that demands support in the domains of professional development) and the way they should integrate modified pedagogical approaches that would leverage technology tools in more authentic ways for students. We loose the curiosity, energy, and creativity of our clientele as a result and do not prepare students for the world/society and the expectations it will impose on them. Grass roots approaches to change is not enough to move us off our status quo.

My $0.02

Senior Citizens and Web 2.0

In late April/early May I received a call from Myra, a member of the Indian Prairie Computer Club (IPCC) in Hinsdale Illinois looking for someone that would be willing to present on a variety of of technology topics to her group. The topic of the day was YouTube. Originally, I was very excited about one of our students from one of our service co-curricular organizations to do the presentation as part of their community service commitment. I have been very interested in getting students more involved within the Hinsdale South Learning community as a human resource serving technology needs for community, faculty, and our IT staff similar to the GenYes approach as a service organization.

High School Reform

In the current issue of ASCD's Educational Leadership: Reshaping High Schools Bob Wise article High Schools at the Tipping Point confronts the current realities of the high school learning and teaching experience and the necessary and obvious need for reform. Essentially he makes a great case contrary to the maxim: If it is not broken don't fix it. He contends that an educational system built for the early 20th century is not capable of serving current/future generations of students in a world that places very different demands of their graduates Is Broken and Does Need Fixing. Thought provoking data is presented referencing increasing drop out rates, low percentages of high school freshman nationally reading at grade level, increasing levels of incoming college freshmen needing remediation across the college curriculum in order to be successful in college, the continual decline in world ranking for the percentage of high school graduates, and the rising concern of U.S. manufactures that high school graduates are poorly prepared for entry-level jobs support the contention that American high schools are broken and need fixing. Current approaches to educational change are characterized only to serve to add more to a teacher's a plate rather than fixing a broken system. Identified Approaches for Reform Align what schools expect of students with the demands of college and the work force. Offer a rigorous, Option-rich curriculum; personalize learning; and provide necessary supports. Improve instruction by mining data and using digital technologies.

Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh)

Here is a classic example of the speed in which digital landscapes change.  It has been a battle to get acknowledgment and support for engaging students in realistic authentic learning experiences by leverages more traditional Web 2.0 technologies and applications ...the shift continues to happen and with remarkable speed!  How can we get the necessary support in order to use the energies and skills of the digital natives that are inherent in their out of school landscape?  This represents a few of the many challenges that face us.   I have always believed that challenges can be viewed as opportunities and we, in education, find ourselves in the land of opportunity!

Socialnomics09 — May 05, 2010 — Social Media Revolution 2 is a refresh of the original video with new and updated social media & mobile statistics that are hard to ignore. Based on the book Socialnomics by Erik Qualman.