Link: http://www.schooltube.com/

Students and teachers alike are using YouTube to publish school band performances or individual performances. A moderated Tube site for students and teachers can be found at SchoolTube. Here is a blurb from the website.
SchoolTube provides students and educators a safe, world class, and FREE media sharing website...

Many folks don't know about SchoolTube and use YouTube instead. A class-mate of my son has uploaded videos of himself playing various piano pieces. He shot the video, got it on his computer and uploaded it to YouTube. This is just one aspect of what our kids are doing today. This interesting thing is that they aren't learning this in school (grade 8 and 9) but on their own.
An example is at this link:
Jose Rodriguez Chopin Nocturne
This is just one child. There are many, many more who are doing the same thing.

Much more is offered to students and teachers these days and the choices can be a bit overwhelming. So I'm going to write more about choices in future blogs.

Cheers - Mike

Stephen Downes works for the National Research Council, Institute for Information Technology, in Moncton, New Brunswick. He is a dedicated, knowledgeable and a prolific writer.

Please have a look at his home page or his publications page or his E-Learning page. There is so much more there as well.

Cheers - Mike

Try this site for interesting discussion and a great blog - all education related.

This particular link is about the "Did You Know" video and updating it, and much more.

http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2007/03/did_you_know_we.html

You may be at this site for quite a while!

Cheers - Mike

Here is a link to T4 - Jordan School District in Sandy, Utah. Their motto is Transforming Teaching Through Technology.

This is their "Pay Attention" page.

Click for Pay Attention

Cheers - Mike

Karl Fisch has a terrific blog called The Fisch Bowl.

http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/

Try it, you might really like it!

It is also the home of "Did you know?", "2020 Vision", "What IF", and much more.

Cheers - Mike

"A dialogue of what education will look like in the future."
First meeting
Shaw Conference Centre
April 29, 2009

The event got underway at 8:30 am with opening remarks, including a video from the Alberta Minister of Education, and a video of Harmony Japanese drumming, then setting the stage for the day's activities.

At our table, there was a retired doctor, a retired banker, a teacher, a concerned parent, a Metis speaker, our facilitator and note taker.

We did our introductions and got started. Our group was very good, many ideas flowing and our facilitator was very experienced as was our note taker, who was a teacher and is now working directly for Alberta Education.

We went through a number of exercises leading to refining our thoughts and concerns and finishing with what we thought would be necessary over the next 20 years.

We covered how we learn, where we learn and from whom we learn. We talked about what we think is wrong with the education system today, and how it could be changed and where it should go. We talked about the qualities and abilities of an Albertan in the 21st century. We thought ourselves into the future 20 years ahead, and looked back at what was a bold or courageous idea or decision of 20 years ago. We went back to 2009 and talked about how we can move it forward into the future. We talked about what actions we can take to help move it forward.

Based on our conclusions/recommendations and those of the other table participants, we will see quite a change over the next few years.

We felt good about the process because:
It is being driven by the Minister of Education, who came up with the idea of these "conversations" around the province. He is committed to ensuring our students are not left behind considering the many changes taking place in a student's environment today.

Was it worth going to for the day? Definitely YES. We felt that is was not a lip-service exercise, but a gathering of valuable information from people of all walks of life and experience. These "conversations" are also being conducted for students around the province as well.

This was the first of 10 "conversations" to be held around the province, finishing by the end of June. A summary of information will be presented at a 3 day conversation and conference in October.

There were many items which came up for discussion. Only a few are mentioned here.

What is school for?
What is necessary for all?
Learning:
learn from around us - our environment
learn from each other and casual conversation
learn from formal education
learn from get togethers, conferences, etc
Mentors
Advisors
Leaders
Collaborators
Internet
TV

Provide opportunity
Encourage to learn
Achievement
Learning how to learn
Mentorship
World view
Web of knowledge
Hope - Life
Open door
Iceberg
Ripple effect - one person/many
What is revelant
New university studies
Distance learning and collaboration
Response time for new technologies and new teaching tools/ideas