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I’ve spent the week in Boston at the Building Learning Communities conference (BLC08). I’m sitting in the airport waiting for my flight that will move me closer to home. I’ve been thinking about my experience here and trying to organize my learning in a way that will be useful. I feel like I’ve been submerged in a torrent of shifting information of great relevance. It feels like a dynamic river has changed the landscape around me. It’s as if I were walking along feeling fine about everything when suddenly a river appeared under my feet and swept me along. Really though, I signed up for it. I stepped into it willingly. I just didn’t know the current was so strong.

When I was a teenager, I tried to catch a snake swimming along a river. It was a cold September morning. It was in the city and the river was walled with angles of concrete so the snake couldn’t get out. When I reached for the snake’s neck, I overextended, lost my balance and slipped into the frigid water. The snake swam away and left me to figure out how to climb the smooth concrete.

What do you do?
First, breathe
Second, swim downstream while staying close to the edge of the river
Next, grab hold of something solid, pull yourself out, and walk upright again
Then, shake it off…
Finally, never forget what happened and what you learned.

That’s what I did then and it’s what I’ve doing now. I’m going to grab on to the most solid quote that I can and make the best use of it in my practice. Here’s what I learned. I learned ways to put student learning into a larger vision that makes sense to the student and place her/him at the center. “D’uh” you’re thinking. “We all know this.” I know. I did too. I just haven’t been fully putting this knowledge to work for students and teachers. The quote of the week for me came from John Davitt. “How would you like your learning?” This is what we should be asking our students. This is what I should be asking the students/teachers that I work with. We have all of the resources that are needed to put this into effect. I just haven’t organized them well enough yet.

So… the goal I’m taking away from this conference is to make sure that people I work with are given a choice of how they would like their learning. Are you a self-directed learner that prefers to work alone online? Would you rather create something for the common good while working with a group? Details to whole? Lecture? Take a look at the menu? I’ll return in a bit to take your order.

Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/atestofwill/286682459/sizes/l/

This week I’ve been fortunate to attend Alan November’s Building Learning Communities conference (BLC08). The theme of course is that we (earthlings) expand our perspectives by connecting with people from around the planet. Today I heard this message from Alan November, Ewan McIntosh, Clarence Fisher and all of the presenters at epals (FREE!).

I noticed this clip that Ewan McIntosh used during his keynote presentation as coming from Ted.com. If you haven’t seen this clip, take a look. It will only cost you 4 minutes and 25 seconds of time. This is the kind of news about news that will make you want to recycle your television(s) and find alternative sources of information.

Alisa Miller: Why we know less than ever about the world. 

Here’s a great post about Flickr from Creative Commons.

Cameron Parkins, June 20th, 2008

The Smithsonian has joined the Library of Congress, the Powerhouse Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum in releasing numerous (over 850 from the Smithsonian alone) photos from their archives online – free of copyright restrictions – to The Commons on Flickr. There are some absolutely stunning photographs available in high-resolution, ranging from portraits of artists, scientists, and inventors to photos of everyday people and places. Some info on The Commons below:

The key goals of The Commons are to firstly give you a taste of the hidden treasures in the world’s public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer. You’re invited to help describe the photographs you discover in The Commons on Flickr, either by adding tags or leaving comments

In similar news, a wonderful new group, Free Use Photos, has been created as a means for Flickr users to posts copyright-free photos. In lieu of a formal way for users to indicate public domain status for their photos, the creators of the group have decided to post information regarding CC0 in conjunction with clear language waving copyright to make clear that all photos posted to the group “are available for use by anyone” with “no need to give credit or to fear rights infringement.”

This evening I was looking through the “talks” on TED talks and found a presentation by Johnny Chung Lee. If you subscribe to this blog, you know he is the master-mind behind turning a Wii Remote into an interactive whiteboard for under $100. If you haven’t heard about this or even if you have, this video is worth checking out. Johnny Chung Lee demonstrates his Wii projects and describes the role www.youtube.com has played in spreading the news. So, if you’ve ever said, “I wish I had one of those interactive whiteboards.” As Johnny states, “You get about 80% of the way there for about 1% of the cost.”(Projector not included)

Alarm clock sounds are a great way to get students’ attention. If you are using activstudio and haven’t taken a look at the clock. Check it out. Using the count down clock, you can make a specific sound alarm at any given time. Activstudio comes with quite a few folders of sounds to choose from. Within each folder are lots of great sounds. Here are the folder’s titles; animals, domestic, Elementary, explosions, music, nature, Spanish, & transportation.

Here’s how to choose different folders or to reconnect to a folder. (see image below)

• Open Activstudio.
• Click on the clock . Or add it from the toolstore (menu> customize>tool store)
• Select “Count Down.”
• Click on the “…”
• Navigate to a folder
• Here is the navigation for the Domestic folder
  • C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersDocumentsActiv SoftwareActivstudio3Shared Sounds

Now that you know how to change sounds, try recording students and using their voice to signal the class to stop an activity or get ready for a transition. It could be a motivating reward for some students. You can use the sound recorder in activstudio to easily record voices. You just need a cheap microphone from radioshack. If you want to edit the audio, use Audacity. It easily allows you to edit the sound… and it’s free!