Mark Wagner, Ph.D.'s shared items

Photo by Ryan M. — School Bokeh

I arrived in Raleigh yesterday afternoon, after a two-leg from Austin, Texas.  It was my first time home since the election, and while driving me to the house, Brenda was going on and on about Obama’s press conference, how refreshing it was to ….

While away, I was part of a dozen or so energetic conversations with teachers, education leaders, and even ed publishers about new directions for schooling in the U.S. and especially concerning possible appointments to the Department of Education.  A few names are being bandied about, but the bottom line is a change in direction.

This morning, with the buffer of yesterday afternoon’s four mile walk through the autumny spender of North Raleigh, and a good nights sleep in my own bed — not to mention the satisfaction of knowing that I won’t be flying out again for a good number of days — I’m sifting through some ideas of that might actually be helpful as we focus our thoughts collectively.

..and as a result, I’ve been coding this morning, and now launching Big Ideas 4 Education.  This is just a temporary thing, but a chance for us to cast about ideas for priority actions that might be made by a newly forward-facing U.S. Education Department.

The project features four phases.

Phase 1

Spend about two-and-a-half days composing and posting clear and succinct (140 character limit) priority actions for a U.S. Ed Department aimed at promoting and empowering a system that better prepares today’s children for their future.

Phase 2

The Big Ideas web site will change, consisting of a list of the items that were posted.  We, will collectively match up similar items into the basic foundation topics.  Nothing will be deleted, only linked.

Phase 3

The basic topics that emerge will be listed, with associated items linked in, with a request that education bloggers and micro-bloggers post their insights about specific topics of interest.

Phase 4

Finally, the main topics will be listed, with links to an aggregation of associated blogs and micro-blogs.  Educators will then be asked to visit the list and prioritize the list by order of importance and logical sequence.

You can help to advertise the project by including the following code in the side bar of your blog, producing the lovely badge to the left.

<a href="javascript:window.open('http://landmark-project.com/bigideas/', '_blank', 'width=700, height=600, toolbar=yes, menubar=yes, scrollbars=yes, resizable=yes, location=yes');void(0);"><img src="http://davidwarlick.com/images/bigideas_badge.jpg" border="0" /></a>

I look forward to reading your ideas…

Cheers!

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Today’s challenge was one of the ones that Problogger posted that immediately grabbed me and sounded like a great idea. You created your blog yourself. You choose the theme, you picked out the sidebar items, you linked up every item and typed out every post. It’s your baby, your project, your labor of love. You probably know it like the back of your hand. But when was the last time you took a real close look at the back of your hand? It’s probably the last time you looked at your blog with FRESH eyes as well.

Your challenge for today is to share your blog with someone who has never seen it before. Choose a friend, colleague, family member or total stranger and ask them to sit down at your blog and explore it. If possible do it in person so you can see them actually doing it. Don’t give them any prep per se, just ask them to check it out and explore. Then see what they do. You can learn an incredible amount of information from just watching their explorations. Even if you can’t watch them do it yourself, ask them questions afterwards to see what their experience was like.

• Where do they click?
• What do they find?
• What do they miss?
• Are there parts of it that are unintuitive?
• Are there features that you’ve built in that aren’t quite as ‘obvious’ as you thought they were?
• Is it easy to navigate around or do they have trouble making their way from one section to another?
• Is there any information that they wish you had provided that isn’t there?
• Are there any parts that they didn’t understand the purpose of?
• Any general suggestions that they have for improvement?
• What parts of your blog were most memorable to them, 10-20 minutes after they explored it?

You get the idea. This is a great way to see your blog with fresh eyes and get a new perspective on something that has probably become so familiar to you that you don’t even see the details anymore. Take some good notes, because we’ll be using some of this information during other challenges throughout the month!

To be hones,t it’s also a great excuse to share your blog with other people. I can’t speak for anybody else, but I’m not one to brag. Most of my friends and family know that I have a website but have never seen my blog before. And I’m not one to force it upon them and such. So an activity like this is a great excuse to show off your site to somebody else that has never visited it before. And of course, if time allows, bonus points for doing this with more than one person!

Please share your experiences from this activity. Were you surprised by anything they had to say?

By David John Marotta

As Americans try to spend less and go on a budget, this provides an opportunity to teach the next generation financial principles they may never have seen in the prosperous years they have been alive. Here are ten principles for teaching children about money:

Talk about money. Every time money is involved, parents have a chance to teach their children the values and analysis behind their actions. Money should never be the primarily topic of discussion, but it is one of the most important topics through which we communicate our wisdom and values to our children. Every purchase, investment, or donation can be a time to teach your children something about your values.

Talk openly about money. Parent makes a mistake when they keep information from their children. The only way children learn what is a good deal and what is too expensive is by the experience of what their family earns and what items cost. Hiding this information robs children of the financial education they need.

Talk factually about money.  Many parents have strong emotions about money based on their childhood experiences. These emotions are always transmitted to children. Instead of helping children, they can cripple children from growing to make sound financial decisions

Require chores; pay for optional work. Everyone in the family has to help complete the work that needs to be done. If you want to pay your children, only pay them for optional work they can choose to do or not to do.

Provide children an allowance they can make real choices with. Talk about money is important, but children need real-world lab experience to understand the consequences of their decisions. Consider giving them an allowance large enough so that they can purchase some of their own needs. Then continue to give them honest advice, and help them ask the right questions to make wise decisions based on their values.

Help children prioritize purchases. Ask them if this purchase is better than other purchases they are considering making.

Help children comparison shop. Help them consider issues such as cost, quality, and convenience.

Require children wait before making large purchases.  Adults should wait at least a month whenever they are making a large purchase. Children shouldn’t be expected to wait that long. Here is a good rule of thumb: Children should be required to wait as many days as they are old in years before being allowed to make a large purchase (over a week’s allowance). There is always tomorrow and over half the time they won’t remember what attracted them to it in the first place. Developing this habit will help make them resistant to impulse buying.

Don’t use money as a punishment. Your priority should be helping to give your values to your children, not buy their outward behavior.

Don’t loan your children money. If their desired purchase is something they should be saving for, let them save for it. If you want to buy it for them for the value of the experience, buy it for them. The principles are “If they want it, they have to save for it. If you want them to have it, you will buy it for them.” Loaning your children money for items they want teaches them they aren’t responsible and they don’t have to prioritize.

David John Marotta works at Marotta Asset Management, Inc. of Charlottesville which provides fee-only financial planning and asset management.

If you've not become a reader of factcheck.org, you should. They work too hard, in my biased view, to present flaws on both sides. But that's a virtuous sin in such an organization. It's review of the VP debates is great.

Christchurch, New Zealand

So we’re all in New Zealand, having survived almost exactly 24 hours of non-stop travel from Philly to Christchurch, and already it’s as beautiful as advertised. We left leaves drifting into the gutter at home for freshly blossoming trees and flowers, and it’s just wild how everything, weather, time, etc. gets literally turned upside down. My brain is feeling it right now. Looking forward to a great 10 days of seeing the South Island (with a few presentations mixed in.)

New Zealand has a literacy rate of 99%, and in that context, I found the Times’ newest installment in its series “The Future of Reading” to be especially relevant. I guess my first reaction is why do we need to “[Use] Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers” when some parts of the world are obviously doing fine with pretty much just that book thing. (But then again, we seem to be falling on some difficult times in a number of different areas these days.) While the article does a good job of reviewing the complexities of trying to figure out just what kind of role gaming can play in reading, what really jumped out at me was near the end when games were described as a “gateway drug for literacy.” Seems that kids who are engaged in games read blogs and boards about the games and even start to write about them. Love this quote from a parent:

“I was so surprised because he does not like writing,” said William Tropp, Noah’s father. “I said, ‘Why aren’t you like this in school?’ ”

The obvious answer is because in school, Noah doesn’t get to learn reading and writing in the context of the things he’s passionate about. And in that respect, if games are a way to get kids engaged in words, great. I guess I wonder how much of a connection there really is in that regard, and how we would be able to create that connection in classrooms even if it does exist.

Anyway, just some tired thinking at 4 am EST…or 9 pm NZ time.

ShareThis

Christchurch, New Zealand

So we’re all in New Zealand, having survived almost exactly 24 hours of non-stop travel from Philly to Christchurch, and already it’s as beautiful as advertised. We left leaves drifting into the gutter at home for freshly blossoming trees and flowers, and it’s just wild how everything, weather, time, etc. gets literally turned upside down. My brain is feeling it right now. Looking forward to a great 10 days of seeing the South Island (with a few presentations mixed in.)

New Zealand has a literacy rate of 99%, and in that context, I found the Times’ newest installment in its series “The Future of Reading” to be especially relevant. I guess my first reaction is why do we need to “[Use] Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers” when some parts of the world are obviously doing fine with pretty much just that book thing. (But then again, we seem to be falling on some difficult times in a number of different areas these days.) While the article does a good job of reviewing the complexities of trying to figure out just what kind of role gaming can play in reading, what really jumped out at me was near the end when games were described as a “gateway drug for literacy.” Seems that kids who are engaged in games read blogs and boards about the games and even start to write about them. Love this quote from a parent:

“I was so surprised because he does not like writing,” said William Tropp, Noah’s father. “I said, ‘Why aren’t you like this in school?’ ”

The obvious answer is because in school, Noah doesn’t get to learn reading and writing in the context of the things he’s passionate about. And in that respect, if games are a way to get kids engaged in words, great. I guess I wonder how much of a connection there really is in that regard, and how we would be able to create that connection in classrooms even if it does exist.

Anyway, just some tired thinking at 4 am EST…or 9 pm NZ time.

ShareThis

Good morning all,

Melissa Tomich, one of my New Jersey Powerful Learning Practice colleagues, mentioned this video recently. It is now making the rounds via Diigo (thanks, Kieth Hamon!) and I thought I’d share it here.

I found it on Chris’ blog, Pracitcal Theory: http://www.practicaltheory.org/serendipity/. Chris is the Principal at the Science Leadership Academy, a magnet public high school in downtown Philadelphia that is one of the most remarkable educational institutions I’ve ever seen.

But first, Chris’ video … it was his performance at IgnitePhilly, a series of presenters giving five-minute talks about inspiring projects. It follows the “Ted.com” model, but with a much more compressed timeframe.

Anyway, there are people who talk about 21st century skills, the need for them, their importance, etc. etc. etc., and then there are people who are actually USING THEM (along with all the other skills we’ve ever taught at school) in their classrooms and schools. Chris is the leader of an ENTIRE ORGANIZATION that doesn’t just talk the talk … it walks the walk. Let’s go to the video:

Also, here is Chris’ actual slide presentation:

Chris’ performance … wow. Just … wow. Yes, it goes fast. Yes, he covers a lot of ground in what appears to be a sound-bite, some might even say, superficial manner. But anyone who has actually met Chris, or been to the Science Leadership Academy, will instantly know his message is very real because his school and his kids are doing what he talks about EVERY DAY.

Last January, Chris and his school held a conference called EduCon2.0. It was a Friday (pre-conference, SLA site visit), Saturday and Sunday. I had the honor of presenting a session with Sylvia Martinez entitled “Influence without Authority: Finding the Common Ground to Frame Innovation and Change.” There were many outstanding sessions, the wiki has them all, but it’s happening again in January 2009, and I strongly encourage EVERYONE to make time to attend EduCon2.1: http://educon21.wikispaces.com/. It is much MORE than a conference. It is a happening. An experience. It’s also ridiculously inexpensive, takes place over a weekend (if you skip the SLA site visit, which I hate to do, but getting out of the classroom is hard for me), and it attracts great thinkers from all over the country (and the world)! Great ideas, great discussions, great inspirations, and best of all, you get to experience it personally, at the school, WITH THE KIDS who are making it work. It’s not a conference in the traditional “sit and get” model. It’s more of a conversation. Just ask anyone who went last year. They’ll tell you. :-)

Hope to see you there!

Best, kj

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Technorati Tags: Chris Lehmann, EduCon2, Science Leadership Academy, SLA

Source: Dipity.com

Creating timelines hasn't been one of my favorite activities, but I was intrigued by this product press release:

As a software developer, I am trying to get the word out about a new teaching tool that I’m convinced will really interest your readers. We’ve just launched a special “Student” edition of our popular timeline charting software, Timeline Maker Professional. With a student budget-friendly price of only $49.95 Timeline Maker Student still contains all the core functionality of the market leading Professional edition such as ease-of-use, instant charts, great graphics and outstanding customer support.

We are the only company that can offer both. And I think that makes ours the most complete timeline solution for the classroom on the market. For us, that’s a big deal.

Trial versions of both Timeline Maker Student and Timeline Maker Professional are available on our website at: www.timelinemaker.com/education and I would be only too pleased to send you an activation code for either should you wish to take it for an extended “test drive”.

Of course, even though the product above sure is powerful (Windows only, though) at a cost of $49.95, this started me thinking about "timeline maker web 20" kind of tools. I immediately stumbled on this blog entry highlighting Dipity.com. Dipity.com is able to pull in content via RSS feeds...

...and display it in different ways. I pulled in the PassionQuilt feed for the timeline

and in the flipbook

a simple list....

It can also pull in a map!