This investigation of the evolution of empathy and the ways it has shaped our development and our society is well worth the 10 minutes it takes to watch. If you have any students, I suggest you share this with them. Empathy is something we as teachers need and need to teach to all our students.
Unstuck from Unstuck on Vimeo.
Here’s a fun little app called Unstuck that was built to help you get ‘unstuck’ when you are working on a project or idea. After logging into the app, you are asked some questions concerning where and what you are stuck in. Just as one would do creating an online course this tool is broken down into objectives and steps. Unstuck is helping you get your game on and map out possibilities.
This is me looking into Unstuck
By determining how you are feeling in this stuck moment, this little app discovers the type of stuck moment you are in. In my test I was a ‘Deflated Doer’ another time I might be a ‘Perplexed Planner’ or a ‘Fuzzy Forecaster’. Once you’ve gotten this step complete, the app asks what type of stuck you are in and who it involves. You are then asked to type in an answer to the cause of your being stuck. [The app even gives you some prompts to help you.]
Then there is a fun little step where you sort through a deck of cards to figure out what you are thinking about with this issue and you are also asked about what 3 things you are doing-in this stuck moment. The final step is to answer a list of questions pertaining to the things you are doing because you are stuck.
The app then analyzes your issue and offers advice. Read through what Unstuck offers, this is the fun of the app. I liked reading my ‘Stuck Report’ which helped me understand why I’m acting the way I am in this moment. It evens compares you to the Unstuck community.
I think this app is probably as helpful-maybe more so- than randomly browsing websites or other procrastination tactics I might indulge in. Try it for yourself. It’s nicely put together, fun to work with and might just help you.
Now here’s another twist on the textbook Inkling. It appears they are incorporating the Adobe Digital Publishing functionality with a few of their own details.
One thing I really like is the Social Learning feature which allows users to interact with classmates. So, you could ask each other questions and discuss ideas and questions.
You can download the Inkling app, for your iPad, then buy chapters or full books. There are a few chapters, that are free, so I suggest you give them a try. Happy reading and learning.
Here’s a way to streamline an online course. Coursekit brings the learning management system [LMS] directly to the instructor and student-i.e. The Users-all for free. The experience is focused on simple and elegant and includes the basics: a calender, file sharing, submitting assignments, and grading work. One noticeable difference, compared to other LMS interfaces, is how Coursekit brings the user directly into ‘the classroom’ and not to the typical dashboard…which makes it more like a real classroom experience.
Just as a student would walk into a physical classroom, online students first appear in The Stream of the your online classroom and it has the feel of Facebook. Unlike Facebook, within The Stream, students can upload; text, images, video, and audio. Each element in The Stream brings up a side panel when you click on it. As Coursekit’s creator Joseph Cohen explains, “The result is that it turns short stuff into long stuff.” This allows the ability to have a space to discuss in length and works much like a Twitter feed.
As for textbooks, Coursekit is pursuing an online free system for textbooks as well. “The textbooks of the future will not be textbooks,” Cohen says. But there will be a need for educational content, and much of that will be bought (remember, direct-to-instructor is already at the heart of that businesses). If all goes well, Coursekit is the seed of the storefront of the future for educational products, with a ready-made group of customers who are already logging in. All this might look something like Inkling.
In my humble opinion, it is all driving towards a more personalized experience for learning and it’s all quite exciting.
Watch how QR [quick response] codes are used. When we can think past the computer screen and think about ‘how’ this type of interaction helps the learner…well, this is beautiful. Watch and see how they implemented instructional design into this project.
Museu da Vida – Interaction Cubes from Mariana Duprat on Vimeo.
I recently discovered this lovely blog called Marc and Angel Hack Life: Practical Tips for Productive Living and since I’m always looking for ideas to streamline my productivity, these two have loads of advice. And since it’s the time of year to really reflect back on what has happened this year and look forward to the new year, I wanted to share a couple of Marc and Angel’s lists:
30 Things to Start Doing to Yourself:
MIT today announced the launch of an online learning initiative internally called “MITx.” MITx will offer a portfolio of MIT courses through an online interactive learning platform that will:
MIT expects that this learning platform will enhance the educational experience of its on-campus students, offering them online tools that supplement and enrich their classroom and laboratory experiences. MIT also expects that MITx will eventually host a virtual community of millions of learners around the world. READ MORE.
We put on some miles trotting around the island of Manhattan the other day. We had a agenda and did divert from it upon occasion-due to weather and/or time. We were focusing this trip on being vintage, thrifty and we had one artistic goal to see the Holiday windows and visit Lady GaGa’s Workshop at Barney’s. Bottom line was, we only had 10.5 hours.
Beginning in Times Square, we traveled south, by subway, to the Chelsea Market. Breakfast at The Chelsea Market is summed up in coffee and bakery goods. We indulged in the latter, twice. Yum. This old building is a destination onto itself and for future reference, remember the grocery store inside, quite inclusive. There was also a nice vintage pop-up shop inside, a collection of vintage clothing booths which fit right into our theme. Due to the strong winds, we decided to table our High Line visit until the next trip to NYC and headed towards 17th Street.
In search of the Angel Street Thrift Shop, we did indeed find it and it too was quite a fun find. Then, we walked around Union Square, stopped to split a Bento box at a local Japanese restaurant on 17th Street and then headed to Shareen Vintage. Last Spring, we got hooked on Shareen’s Planet Green Dresscue Me show, which lead to this and this. What we didn’t expect, as we were buzzed into Shareen’s shop on 17th Street was to actually ‘see’ Shareen! It was great, just like in the Dresscue Me show.
We were invited to pick out some dresses, so Shareen could get a sense of what Xernay was looking for. From there, dresses slipped on and off, as Shareen worked with several customers at one time. During our chatting, we learned Shareen is a Smith alumi and said she really enjoyed her time in Northampton, MA.
Xernay ended up not getting a dress. Not for lack of dresses, Shareen has a wonderful, every-changing selection of stock [at really, really reasonable prices]. No, the colors were a bit too ‘wintery’ for the spring prom dress Xernay was searching for. I’m sure we will be back and we’ll be sure to check Shareen’s Facebook to be sure, when we next go to NYC, it’s a time Shareen is at the store.
We then headed down towards the West Village. First stop, Jo Malone’s newest shop. It was in a charming little neighborhood and a nice little rest stop as we had walked from 17th Street south. Then, we found Joe’s Pizza, which was your typical NYC pizza joint, quite tasty and a handy electrical outlet allowed me to recharge my mobile. Evening was starting to set in and we walked east through Greenwich Village and up to the subway. A quick zip north and we departed into a whole other NYC-Uptown.
Then, it was a couple blocks walk over to Barney’s. We had gotten a block off track and popped into a wine shop to double check directions. We got our answer from the cashier and were able to glance at the bottles of wine. The lowest priced bottle I noticed was $350 and one of the highest priced was $3,500. Wild.
And wild was one way to describe the 5th Floor of Barney’s and Lady GaGa’s Workshop. Obviously, a lot of work and planning had gone into this.
However, I have to say I was slightly disappointed in Lady GaGa’s Workshop. Not in the design of the display’s, but in the prices of the merchandise…I fear Barney’s will have a bit of ‘bargain bin goodies’ from GaGa. It was fun, none-the-less to wander a bit in Barney’s.
Then, we were off again, south on 5th Avenue, pushing our way to the throngs of holiday walkers. A taxi was out of the question as I knew we could get back to Times Square and the Port Authority Bus Terminal faster on foot. We were moving pretty quickly and did make a last stop into Chipotle’s for some dinner to eat on the bus.
We got to the terminal and as we had left the terminal, in the morning, via subway-we didn’t know where our gate was. The information booth was closed and we didn’t have time to go clear to the other side of the terminal to find guidance. Then, from nowhere a non-uniformed man appeared and asked if we needed help. I was immediately skeptical yet did tell him where we were headed. He said, “go down 2 floors and look for gate 82 or 83 to Hartford.” We thanked him and headed downstairs. Sure enough, there was the gate for Hartford. We caught our breath and as it turned out, the bus was late, so all our rushing was for not.
This was the first time we tried the PeterPan Bus line departing from Hartford, CT to NYC and I have to say the accommodations were nice: comfy seats and Wifi [slow, but workable]. However, the scheduling was a horror. I purposely booked ‘express bus’ tickets online, for a decent price-when compared to the North Metro or Amtrak…but there is no control over the highway traffic and late buses are no fun. Our return bus was not the express I paid for and we stopped a 3 or 4 cities before getting into Hartford near midnight.
I think next time, we’ll stick to our drive to New Haven and train into Grand Central OR try the Amtrak from Hartford into NYC. In any case, plans are afoot for the next trip to NYC. We have yet to visit Candle Cafe, Bemelman’s Bar located in The Carlyle Hotel, we’d like to also do some looking and shopping at the Bowery Restaurant Supply Company, and we would also like to get over to Queens to Arzu Uygur Cafe. Getting to all those places might require a weekend in NYC.
P.S. I always look for something that inspires me and ‘speaks’ to me, when I visit NYC [and anywhere I’m exploring] and usually it is color, clothing, events, food or something like that. This time it really was the kind people we met all day. From bus drivers, to wait staff, special ladies in the shops, the woman who gave us subway directions, to the man at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. I was so moved, I actually wrote to Mayor Bloomberg to let him know of our experience. I thought it nice to share some good news. I know the mayor’s system received my email, as this was the confirmation that popped into my email inbox.
And, I did get a reply from Mayor Bloomberg’s Office.
I just finished reading this wonderful story, by Colin Meloy, called Wildwood. Where to even begin to describe the writing within these 500 plus pages…mesmerizing, might due. I proclaim this story will become a major motion picture within the next few years. Whether it be live action or animation, I’m not quite certain. Perhaps Book 2 will be out prior to the movie….time will tell. In the meanwhile, keep tabs on A Dull and Witless Boy and while you’re waiting, get your hands on a copy of WildWood. You won’t be disappointed.
Listen to how the story begins: Prue McKeel’s life is ordinary. At least until her brother is abducted by a murder of crows and taken to the Impassable Wilderness, a dense, tangled forest on the edge of Portland. No one’s ever gone in – or at least returned to tell of it. Oh, and in addition to the story, Carson Ellis has created the illustrations. Just try to choose which one you like the best. For me, it’s a tough decision amongst; the cover, the image on Page 231 where Curtis [and others] are held prisoners, and the the color illustration of Prue flying with the eagle.
Watch the trailer. [scroll down]
Since August, I have been on a journey working with some fabulous educators, instructional designers and just all-round wonderful women drafting outlines and creating the content for a chapter that will be published in a book which is being published by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning [also known as iNACOL]. We just completed our draft of our chapter and are so excited.
This chapter will present a student-centered model for online teacher mentoring. The one-to-many online model is designed to be scalable, self-directed, and leverages social learning. The program, Self-Directed Learning [SDL] Support Model: Training Educators for Online Learning, introduces teachers to ideas of self-directed learning, partnering pedagogy, and metacognition while orienting new and prospective virtual teachers to the online learning environment. To maximize impact and sustainability, this program employs the Cognitive Coaching model through a social learning community.
Without giving away all our secrets -you’ll have to wait until the whole book Lessons Learned in Teacher Mentoring: Supporting Educators in K-12 Online Learning Environments is published [due out in the fall of 2012]- we explain ‘how’ we developed and taught an online course which has helped many educators-across Massachusetts- become better learners and in turn better educators.
Our chapter goes into great detail explaining how we used self-directed learning techniques and skills to teach educators how-to understand and use essential self-directed learning skills such as: goal setting, metacognition, motivation, critical thinking and time management. We also discuss how we designed our online course, how we delivered it and how we improved it.
I can tell you that by implementing the use of social learning, collaboration and ePortfolios we have had a very good success rate with this online course. Here is what a few of our participants said about our course:
“This was a new way to approach teaching.”
“The course really helped me understand how to encourage and coach students not just around content but around linking content to their own goals in life.”
“It’s cool to watch students change over the course of the year. They start talking about what their goals are and what skills they’ve learned. Online learning puts their education in their own hands—it’s wonderful!”