SWEET JUSTICE… United Airlines & GUITARS being thrown around!

I have a smile on my face and I am humming a tune.

Revenge is sweet! Actually it is not really revenge as much as it is JUSTICE!

Listen/watch, and if you don’t get the story from the song, there’s more explanation below, or you can go to David Warlick’s blog post at 2 Cents where he has even more links for you.

SORRY for the video being too wide to see it all. Anyone who can give me advice how to make it work I would be appreciative.  (I tried changing the embed code, but it didn’t change anything!) You can click on the title of this bog post to go straight to UTube!

It is especially poetic to me, as several years back, I was running down the tarmac after a US AIR plane and had a different, yet similar (the bad experience part!), resulting experience!

Unfortunately, I did not have the expertise to make a singing video or the notoriety of this group. Plus, I don’t think it was available back then to post it on UTube and get so many people aware of the situation!

Thanks to David Warlick of 2 Cents I was made aware of this story and this video on UTube made by the singing group Sons of Maxwell where as David Warlick says

“after landing in Chicago for a connect to Nebraska, Dave Carroll and band, Sons of Maxwell, were alerted when another passenger exclaimed, “My god they’re throwing guitars out there.”

David was able to relate this to learning and education.  He states that

First of all, we are experiencing and participating with a new information landscape where the message — the spin — is no longer issued exclusively by the few who can afford the spin-mongers and media outlets.  We all have a voice today.

But just having a voice is not nearly enough.  Secondly, a video on YouTube did not make this story.  It was a young man, his band, and a very clever and well-performed song that made it.  They communicated their message compellingly with charm, humor, and bite — and they got the attention and response of a giant.

This is why teaching writing is not nearly enough for our children to be fully empowered members of their society.  It’s not that everyone will produce viral videos for YouTube.  But, because of YouTube and the avalanche of information that characterizes our society, messages must compete for attention to earn audience, customers, collaborators, etc. — and this means that beyond learning to write well, students must learn to communicate with images, sound, video, and animation.  They must have a command of the entire spectrum of content.

I’m sorry for quoting so much of David Warlick’s post, but he says it so well.

So all of this new media is not just “extra fluff” for the classroom teacher. Students and teachers need to learn about it, how to use it, and how to use it effectively to participate in everyday life.

What “extra fluff” are you teaching your students to be ready for what the world is like today?

[As always, in my author quotes, the underlines, color changes, and bold type is mine, not the author’s!]

Technorati Tags: David Warlick,2 Cents,writing,communication,Sons of Maxwell,Dave Carroll,United,US Air

EMPOWER Learners, despite the tests

David Warlick over at 2 Cents always has stimulating discussions. Someday I hope to go to a session where he presents. At least I should have access to him since I, too, live in NC! In the meantime, I must read his blog which is always informative. Today he asks, as he has in many of his presentations,

What kind of questions will we ask on our tests, when our students walk into the classroom with Google in their pockets?

He states the example of

calculators — how, for years, we resisted the new devices because it wasn’t math. It didn’t look like the math instruction we traditionally provided, and so we almost demonized the things. But now that calculators have become a critical part of many mathematics classes, have they changed the questions we ask? Have they changed the problems we ask our students to solve? Has it changed the nature of math instruction?

The answer, of course, is, “Yes!” Calculators empower learners to work numbers to an end. They force students to transcend paper and pencil, to truly utilize the language of numbers to solve problems, answer questions, accomplish goals — to learn new things. I maintain that we should expect learning in the classroom to be the same as learning in the “real world” — that it is about ubiquitous access to the global flow of information and the tools that empower us to work that information.

So, we should be looking for tools and pedagogy that empower learning.

David says:

It’s new questions that will define our future. Today, we need graduates who can invent answers to the “new questions.”

[This quote immediately above is purely the way David Warlick wrote it! I didn’t mess with it at all!]

Teachers need to realize there is a reason that students are there in their classrooms; it is not just to pass a test.

The whole purpose, originally, of education was/is to learn so we can use that information for our our enlightenment and betterment.

Do you teach students for their enlightenment and betterment? How do you do it? What are your strategies, tools, and pedagogy?

Can you do it, in spite of the tests?

[As always, MOSTLY (see exception mentioned above) in my author quotes, the underlines, color changes, and bold type is mine, not the author’s. I do this so often, I should probably put a disclaimer to this effect at the bottom of every blog!]

Technorati Tags: David Warlick,2 Cents,empower learners,information,real world,education