"Designing Rigorous and Globally Connected Assignments"

Up till this point, I had never heard Allen November speak. Wow! This was by far my favorite presentation to date. It was chalk full of usable ideas that are relevant to what I do in my classroom. One point that he made, which I found very useful, was the use of a teacher or student created search engine. My students waste so much time on Google when researching because there is just too much information. With a search engine that already has predefined, or screened sites, the time wasted sifting through information that is too difficult for them to read is spent actually working. I also LOVED the use of student screencasts! What better way for a student to show his or her learnings than to create a screencast that their peers can use to further their education. I was also blown away by the call to have our students contribute to the world. I am going to check out kiva.org and look into having my kids each bring one dollar to loan someone in another country, follow their progress, research their culture, maybe even link to a classroom.... This was an amazing onslaught of new information. Wow!

Opening Keynote - NECC08

Sadly, I missed the opening keynote at NECC this year due to being in a car for 13 hours. But, luckily with the keynote available online, I was finally able to see and hear what all the talk had been about at NECC. First, let me say that it was out of morbid curiosity and always being the "devil's advocate" that I chose this video to watch. After having said that, I realize that I am not the "devil's advocate" he speaks of in his speech. He speaks of a person who is 'assigned' the job of looking for the loophole. I am not assigned that job, I just always find it.
On a more related note, what struck me most about the 'wisdom of crowds' is that my students are the crowd. If I allow them to work together to solve a problem, the chances of the problem being solved correctly is better. It is also okay if we don't all agree all the time. The fine line is teaching our peers and students to put up a 'fair fight.' Listening to different points of view is healthy for all involved. The keynote wasn't so much a technology integration lecture, but rather a look at human interaction and how we affect one another.

Ian Jukes

I found most of what Ian said to very interesting. The numbers that he stated as to the hours spent by our students watching television, playing computer games, and spending time on the phone versus reading were astonishing. I also found the use of colors when reading to be something that will affect the way I create my presentations for classroom use. His statement about using digital media as our main source of teaching before we look at text makes sense to me when I think about how I prefer to learn about things. With our access to discovery streaming, we have all that we need to move in the direction of visual before text.