I am interested in using presentation software for our community engagement and development work. Elluminate is one program that looks very useful. I will pass it on to our Board contact person for his review.

Here is the company’s bumf on their product.

At FutureU, we understand that real-time online learning and Web-based meetings are all about usability (ease of use) and usefulness (functionality and productivity). Sure, your content, instructors, and meeting facilitators have to be good. But if the software is hard to use or you don’t get enough accomplished, you put communication in jeopardy, lose learning opportunities, and confuse and lose your faculty and students. That’s why we think Elluminate is the best tool for real-time learning and meeting over the Internet. We’ve looked at most of the market leaders and we decided to use Elluminate for our own work. So it is with pride and purpose that we recommend Elluminate to our prospects and clients.

Here is a nice looking video on using blogs and video in an elementry classroom. It comes from Dean Shareski’s blog; Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech. At his blog, I picked up a link to a nice review of video sharing sites and programs.

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Well, I thought Canada was a bit immune or at least above the over the top, paranoid and knee jert reactionism of the media in the United States. In a radio broadcast (on CBC) I heard a commentator refer to terrorism as a phenomenon fueled by access to the Internet. It wasn’t just the usual reference to terrorists or terrorists want to be’s learning how to make bombs by googling dynamite etc.  It was a clear statement that the Internet is contributing to young born in Canada Muslim’s learning to be terrorists via the Internet.

“He says young Canadians from immigrant backgrounds are becoming radicalized through the internet and are looking for targets at home, not abroad.” The men responsible for the 2005 transit bombings in London were from immigrant families, said Hooper. This is a CISUS expert (Canada’s Spy Agency) who is making these racist and exnophobic statements.

Here is the full article. I hope this is not the beginning  of a witch hunt and the same kind of fear mongering that is taking place in the U.S. What bothers me is the vilifying of the Internet as if it was an evil and deadly place that  needs controlling. Yes that old saw keeps coming up!

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My friend Jasmine is a brand new teacher, recently graduated from OISE, at the University of Toronto. We have started a bit of a conversation as she gets her blog up and running. She posed some questions to me that ties into so many of the writers and bloggers I am following. I’m not sure where to start with answering her query so for now, I’m just pointing her in a few directions that may further her explorations. Here is her post that grew out of a experiences at her graduation ceremony.
Friday was the final day of classes at OISE, ended with an awards ceremony to celebrate exemplary teachers and education faculty and students. This leads me to wonder, what did we value in educators ten years ago and has that changed? Do we truly value change or is the Culture of Teaching monolithic when it comes to public practice? And if it is (and in many cases, I have found that it is), WHY? What are we so attached to? If teachers promote innovation in curriculum, shouldn’t we also promote innovation in our own philosophies and practices? A faculty advisor with whom I worked commented to me that OISE’s pick of award candidates almost invariably did equity work. Was it, he asked, an indication that OISE would put more emphasis on equity within its own ranks and practices? And how do we promote equity more effectively in all our teachers?

This is my first response to her questions. I will add more as I ponder the question further.

Some very weighty questions posed. I like them, don’t have a significant answer, however, I’m not sure you really need an answer. From my perspective, innovation in teaching practices is an explosion that web 2.0 has set off. To be an educator, your role as expert learner becomes more the norm because you are absorbing the changes occuring in the world and community and assisting your students do the same. It’s a different landscape than the traditional teacher – learner model. There are many excellent writers who are in conversation and writing about your questions Jasmine. David Warlik is one of the key people I read. Have a look at these 2 links:

David Warlick – Curriculum is Dead-Teacher as Tour Guide
David Warlick – My New Heros – Elementry School Teachers:
Here is Christopher Sessums latest post that I think relates to your questions. I really like his writing as so much of it bears direct relevance to my work at the Community Resource & Learning Room.

Creativity and Education: re-visioning teacher education

I liked this post from Clarence Fisher at his blog – Remote Access.

“The role of the teacher in the network is to build relationships around the world that create authentic learning. Kids would rather present their work to the world than to just their classmates. Shows fan fiction. On this site, you get reviewed. Asks, how many of you have 103 reviews of your work on the Internet?”

I posted not long ago about how if I was looking for a new title, one to replace teacher, it would be “network administrator.” As a teacher, my job has fundamentally changed. I connect kids with content. Both with places to access content, and to present their content. I connect kids with other kids and their learning, their thoughts and ideas. I put kids in contact with an audience in order to motivate them, to drive them forward in their thinking, to allow their viewpoints and world views to crash up against those of others. It is vital.

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From Jay Cross – Informal Learning, a very timely reflection on informal learning. The free range learner term is one I first heard in reading John Abbott, a British writer, educator and innovator. 

Training is something that’s pushed on you; learning is something you choose. Many a knowledge worker will tell you, “I love to learn but I hate to be trained.” Knowledge workers thrive when given the freedom to decide how they will do what they’re asked to do. They rise or fall to meet expectations.
Reinventing the wheel, looking for information in the wrong places, and answering questions from others consumes two-thirds of the average knowledge worker’s time. Good connections vastly improve knowledge worker productivity.

Knowledge management is no longer the intellectual high ground it once was. Why? Because it didn’t work. Knowledge lives in people’s heads, not in mere words. You can no more capture true knowledge in a repository than you can trap lightening in a box. More…..

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We have completed two solid weeks of presenting to schools, community groups and various social service networks. The schedule was tough but with a very successful and well planned presentation, our travelling road show succeeded beyond our expectations. Our youth researchers were real troupers and we had a lot of fun. Jasmine and Rabina, our two OISE students (on coop assignment with us) provided invaluable support and rounded out our presentation team. To my left is Meghan, Zach, Nick, Jasmine, Marina (sitting) and Rabina. Unfortunately, Emma had to go to a meeting and missed this great lunch we enjoyed after a dynamic presentation to the Homelessness Alliance of York Region.

Brent Learning Community, networks brent youthmapping research