Great Destination

great destination by =henryz on deviantART

I love this image. To me it evokes a fantastic sense of unbridled creativity. Although the artist didn't willingly create a vision for education, let me unpack the scene as I see it...

On the whole, this place appears to be more about creation rather than regurgitation. Do we encourage our charges to learn with the intent of improving their own world?

Although the buildings do appear to be the destination, the learner appears to expect to do his work as a part of the larger natural environment. How do our learning environments expose learners to exploration and creation in the real world?

This young person appears to arrive of his own accord. Perhaps he senses his responsibility for designing his own future. What can be done to lead learners to see such purpose in their own daily work?

A vast range of tools for creation (including an iPod) are at the disposal of this young person. Are such tools readily available to our own students; and are they supplemented with modern digital tools?

I appreciate the fact that the lone chair in the scene sits empty. Which changes to your daily routine might lead students to work in settings beyond such uncomfortable chairs?

What makes your school or classroom a 'Great Destination'?

Giants & Groundhogs: Archiving Our Time

The Giants Win! The Groundhog sees his Shadow!

While the headlines of the day may be forgotten in a few weeks, today's stories are destined for a long shelf-life courtesy of the World Wide Web. Although the footage of the first SuperBowl was actually erased, today's sports stories will likely be saved for all time as archive footage and will exist on the Web.

A few of my favourite Archives:

The Internet Archive: Did you know that web pages can be views 'as they existed' in past years? Check out the Wayback Machine

Newseum: Front page stories as they appear in the papers of the world. Check out the way major events have been highlighted by visiting the archives. If you like news archives, check out World-Newspapers.com or Actualidad.com as well.

Virtual Library Museums: Visit museums and art galleries around the world... virtually! Chris Witcombe's Art History Links are also terrific.

My current favourite archive resource has to be the Prelinger Archives:


Check it out by visiting Middleton Family Goes to the New York World's Fair courtesy of the Prelinger Archives, or listen to today's Teacher 2.0 Podcast.

Oh, I almost forgot... Canadians may be interested in seeing the SuperBowl commercials that were hijacked north of the border, these too are archived on MySpace/SuperBowlAds.