Cross posted at TechLearning I recently watched Clay Shirky's newest TED talk based on his book, Cognitive Surplus. The concept of cognitive surplus simply means that in the last century the amount of free we've had has increased and that in the last decade, we've been able to use that surplus not only to consume media but to create...

Cross posted at Tech Learning One of the current buzz words in the world of educational technology is “personalized learning” I’ve used it often and while it’s been used prior to the influx of technology in schools, the internet is making it more of a reality and possibility than ever before. If indeed we believe in the value of a personalized...

For some of you reading this, you understand this but some of you and many of the people you work or live with can’t imagine how any people can form deep connections with others they’ve never met and in some cases never communicating with directly. CBC Spark, devoted a good part of a recent episode to this very idea. You’d do well to listen and...

When I get an idea or concept in my head, I seem to see it show up in all sorts of interesting places. This story takes a few turns so be patient. The whole idea of community and creating community in our classrooms has been a very important theme in both my current class as well as the work I do in Prairie South.  In reading Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky...

With K12 online conference 2009 under way, it leads me to ask what makes a good online presentation? How do  you create compelling online content that can and will be reused. Remember these are not live sessions but rather presentations in a variety of formats intended to be used in a variety of ways by a variety of users. That's challenging to say the...

Cross posted at The Tech Learning Blog This facebook/twitter posting by Chris Lehmann got my attention. It's hard to argue with that statement and it raises some interesting questions and implications. It reminded me this cartoon by Hugh MacLeod (warning, Hugh as an affection for the f-bomb) It's powerful statement warning about our ability to connect and...