Thanks to my PLN … Kahn Academy … UTube UNIVERSITY … IMHO

I am SO LUCKY!

I have a great PLN (Personal Learning Network).

I have a huge list of blogs that I read.

Sometimes I read every single word; sometimes I scan the posts; sometimes, I feel like  I am way behind in reading all the posts and so I (Gasp!) say I have read them (and click them READ) just to get my number of unread posts lower!

There, I have admitted it. It feels so good!

Dean Shareski,of Ideas and Thoughts blog, is someone who I have followed his blog posts for some time, and even followed him on Twitter (although I have to admit – Gasp! – that I am NOT a twitter guru or complete convert!)

Today I was catching up on some blog posts from those many blogs on my blogroll, and suddenly, I saw this post: The Kahn Academy.

I wasn’t sure I was going to watch the video, but something in the blog post piqued my curiosity. So I watched. And if you try it, you, too, should be glad you did.

Sal has such an unassuming quality to his manner of speaking that you immediately feel you know him, you like him, and you want to listen to him. These are the reasons his Kahn Academy is so successful and so valuable!

Thank you Sal!

(You see, I can call you by your first name because I feel like you are already my friend, even though we have never met, talked, or seen each other!)

Watch the video and then go on to attend the Kahn Academy and learn things you never thought you would ever understand!

Sal Khan at Gel 2010 (founder, the Khan Academy) from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

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GAMING… the future of the world?

WOW! Watch this video from TED and then think about the world and what needs changing and how it can be done.

Spring Break has arrived and…

                here I am back at blogging for a bit.

As most TED Talks, this one is inspiring and makes us want to jump up and do whatever the speaker wants us to do.

I am not a gamer.  I barely play “the Cow Game” or bowling on my Wii, but… I do have a Wii and I have experienced the games.

I know that this talk is about much more complicated and long term games.

As an educator, I have to think of the power of this mighty strategy. 

Students from 5th grade through the end of high school have the opportunity through classes (with perfect attendance) to achieve over 10,000 hours in a setting/learning environment (or so Jane McGonigal states in her Ted Talk).

Gladwell says (or so Jane McGonigal says) that anyone who puts forth 10,000 hours in direct practice/learning about an area/subject will be a virtuoso, an expert, in that area.

Why are we not making our students virtuosos by the time they graduate from High School?

In describing her games, Jane McGonigal says gamers do have the ability to solve world problems. She is trying to develop games that will work to allow these gamers to become these future world citizens who can solve the world problems and allow our civilization to survive another century.

I like the idea of the game Jane made regarding the oil crisis.

I’m thinking about what would it take to get me involved in this gaming frenzy. 

I love education. I believe in education. If there were a WORLD of EDUCATION game like there is a World of Warcraft game, would I play it?  Would I come up with creative and viable solutions to the problems of education? 

I’d  like to think that every day I play the World of Education Game. That every day I am trying to make the world a better place through education.  One minute, one student, one solution at a time.

The problem is that we need all the educators in the world involved in this game together, feeding off each other’s ideas and thoughts.  There is a start to this GAME. It is the Internet, blogs, PLN, twitter, etc. We just need a little more organization.

Are you up to organizing this? Are you willing to collaborate? Are you willing to spend up to a “half-time job” working on this problem after you work at your full time job at school?

What ideas do you have?

Technorati Tags: World of Warcraft,WOW,gamers,gaming,education,Jane McGonigal,Gladwell,World of Education Game,PLN,twitter,blogs,virtuoso,10,000 hours,game,high school,TED Talks,educators,organization,Wii,playstation

PLNs = Personal Learning Networks

Jeremy Biddle, jbiddle, over at Lutheran Educators wrote a post about PLNs - Personal Learning Networks. He created a VoiceThread video to explain it.

http://voicethread.com/share/603588/

Everyone should have one. Most of us have started ours already, but may not have realized it. Now we just have to constantly improve it, add to it, and learn from it.

Who is in your PLN?

How do you increase your PLN?

Happy Learning!

Technorati Tags: PLN,Personal Learning Network,Jeremy Biddle,Lutheran Educators,VoiceThread,education,technology

Who’s in YOUR PLN?

Jen Wagner is someone I consider part of my PLN (Personal Learning Network!), but she doesn’t know it!

I just read her blog which mentions her first post on T & L (Technology & Learning). She shares her REMINDER LIST of things to keep herself grounded.  It is a great read for all of us, newbies or been-around-a–long-timers! (NB or BAALT)

(Sometimes there are so many ACRONYMS running around that a newbie doesn’t know which end is up! Please spell them out when possible for those of us who are newbies!)

There are many people in my PLN who offer so much positive, helpful advice, opinions,  and useful ideas.  Many of them are just …OUT THERE ON THE INTERNET… and have no idea that they are part of MY PLN.

But that is what is SO great about the internet. 

You can follow people who are knowledgeable, opinionated, and sometimes thinking-outside-the-box without ever having met them and without them knowing you are following them.  (I don’t mean this in a stalker type way!)

There are many of you out there (and the list is growing by the day/hour/minute!) and someday (hopefully) each of you will get a mention in my humble blog.  Just not today!

I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to all of you. 

You each make me THINK every single day, you make me WONDER what can I do better, and you make me FEEL a part of a bigger picture.  I am not alone in these questions and minute details of daily life.

THANKS to my PLN!

Technorati Tags: Personal_Learning_Network,PLN,education