To live ...

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.
- Emily Dickinson

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars.
- Henry Van Dyke

What, in life, makes you happy?

Life is ...

Life is a long lesson in humility.
- James M. Barrie

This is a test, this is only a test!

The question is ... to blog or not to blog ... or .... to wiki or not to wiki. That is the question worthy of pondering. I suppose as time goes on, and I experience and practice with both, the answer will come to tell me what is best for what, and what is best for when, and what is best for where.

Let test this ... Okay, here is a blog I want to follow. Butterfly Hill Farms. Highlight and link. Let's try. Whala! It works. No prob. I don't need to place this on the sidelines I see.

For my class project I'll either use a blog or wiki as an easy access to webpages I want to highlight in my presentation ... Imagine, not using a Powerpoint! Now there's a new thought! :) Use a web 2.0 tool? Perhaps this will become the norm!

By the way ... I figured out why my Internet Explorer didn't have the "Tag" icon that everyone in class had last night for their Del.icio.us download. It was because when I tried to install the buttons (last week), I got an error message. Error 2738 to be exact. So I got on my Firefox browzer and was able download the buttons for Del.icio.us successfully. Yey! But now I've sent a message to Del.icio.us tech support asking how to bypass or fix this error problem. I'm awaiting their answer.

A Vision of K-12 Students Today

A vision of the younger students who
desperately need us to engage them in learning! How will we do this? And how can we incorporate technology in these efforts? Watch both videos: one for the K-12 learner and the other for the college learner (worth your time to watch both videos: K-12 and college age version; also on teachertube.com!)

A Vision of College Students Today

What are we going to do as educators to meet the needs of today's students? It begins with KNOWING your students, knowing their interests, their learning styles, and their communication style. After that, educators need to check themselves and ask themselves if they are truly connecting with their students, or are they continuing to do what they always have done from what they learned 10 years ago. If they dare to "check in" with their students and get the true picture, they will know that something in their approach to teaching needs to change. Watch this video by Michael Wesch, professor of Cultural Anthroplogy at Kansas State University, to get a glimpse of what's going on in student's minds in the classroom. And then, if you're a teacher, begin studying what the Web 2.0, the read/write web, has to offer you AND your students. It's a smorgasboard of active engagement just waiting for you! And remember that ... being human is all about LEARNING ... which is all about creating meaningful connections -- and significance.

The Value of Community and Collaboration

What effects me directly, effects others around me indirectly. All of us are equal and connected. The whole is great than the sum of it's parts. Have you heard these statements before? The clip below includes some quotes by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We are all part of one continuous thread. How would your world change if you saw the whole planet as part of your community? What would you do differently? Together ... we can make the world a better place for everyone.

A Tale of Power and Vision

A short film on the response to change. There are the innovators, the early adopters all the way to the laggards (pessismists) according to Everett Rogers in his Diffusion of Innovations theory.