Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Tools for Place-based Learning Projects

We are trying to develop our capacity for Challenge- and Place-Based Learning. Tim H. helped me test the Trails App on his iPhone. When it worked reasonably well, we used it at the Summer Technology Institute as one of the sub-projects of our Vital Signs Project. This is an extension of that effort:

Picture geotag? at EveryTrail


Plan your trips with EveryTrail iPhone Travel Guides

Friday, June 18, 2010

Cameron Herold: Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs | Video on TED.com

While trying to setup a network service, I waited for the required several minutes for data to load from one interface to another. I took the opportunity to catch up on a little RSS Feed Reading. I found this talk by Cameron Herold to be interesting and applicable to our work.
Cameron Herold: Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs | Video on TED.com
Tim, Kate and others are exhibiting entrepreneurial leadership. What can we do to help foster stronger and broader support for it?

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Respect Awards - New York 2010 - Danielle Smith

"GLSENvideo — May 28, 2010 — Danielle Smith is honored as this year's Student Advocate of the Year, presented by AT&T, at GLSEN's seventh annual Respect Awards - New York."

In this speech accepting this national award, Dani describes the process by which she became a student leader. Peers, teachers, administrators, parents and community members can benefit from seeing this autobiography of leadership development and asking themselves, "What can I do to help develop leadership skills for myself and others?"



Where do we see other students and colleagues take the responsibility for informal leadership that would otherwise not be noticed? What can we do to share these so that they become the norm rather than the exception?

The Making A Difference Club Video!

I saw Jennifer and Ted at the Memorial Day Parade on Main Street. We shared progress on establishing community connections. She and Ted told me about this video that The Making a Difference Club created in order to have something to share with their community partners at Spectrum Generations. They made the video and then worked with six Spectrum partners to setup YouTube accounts and find videos of interest to them.




Both Ted and Jennifer said that both groups enjoyed the experience and want to do more. She reported similar challenges sustaining collaborations when other activities compete (e. g. school sports participation) for collaboration time. Jennifer liked the idea of collaborating on the Power Meter Project and expressed enthusiasm for connections with other groups and more systematic approaches. She especially liked the idea of improving assessments to be more consistent with 21st Century skills.
Vital Signs involves collecting, mapping, photographing, analyzing, and communicating about local invasive species to determine where they are and how they are spreading through Maine. Power Meter uses real-time energy monitors (provided by the project) at school and home to collect real-time data about electrical energy use and determine ways of reducing consumption and saving money.
In looking for the link to Spectrum Generations, I noticed that its partners include some of ours as well:

Spectrum Generations celebrated a “soft” opening recently with a luncheon at the new Southern Midcoast Community Center at 12 Main Street in Topsham.

Guests included representatives from Westrum House in Topsham, CHANS Home Health Care, TRIAD, the Topsham municipal office, Respite Care, and Hospice. Two new Center volunteers took advantage of the opportunity to start the new “Friday Fun” morning social time.