The IDEA

Over lunch today, I had an opportunity to speak with Ryan Bretag. Ryan is an instructional technology specialist and is the mind behind one of the most innovative learning spaces I've come across. The space is called 'The IDEA' and is located within Glenbrook North High School.



If you'd like to learn more about how this learning space came to be, our conversation has been posted as this week's episode on The Clever Sheep Podcast.

15 Things I'd Love to Teach

I recently applied for a curriculum coordinator position in my district school board, and although my current regional position in some ways restricts my ability to teach relevant skills to educators, there are many 21st century skills I'd love to share with local colleagues.


1] How to model academic integrity in your teaching;

2] How to harness universal designs for learning;

3] How to engage rich performance tasks as assessment tools;

4] How to share resources via social bookmarking;

5] How to employ podcasts and video production in teaching/learning;

6] How to collaborate with regional peers via wikis;

7] How to license student/teacher works via Creative Commons;

8] How to employ the power of Google tools;

9] How to develop a rich personal learning network;

10] How to harness the power of handheld technologies;

11] How to augment lessons with video conference technology;

12] How to highlight achievement through online portfolios;

13] How to create and share lessons via multimedia tutorials;

14] How to use blogs as reflective journals;

15] How to ensure your presentations are Zen-like.

Although my current position does not allow me to pursue these subjects during the working day, I will continue to teach and learn via my evolving network on the read/write web.

Will Richardson Interview

Ross Isenegger has shared links to an interview of Will Richardson taken this past week's Making Gains conference in Toronto. While the cold and snow kept bodies numb, Will's words warmed the hearts and minds of attendees.

This 17 minute video covers many of the key issues currently being discussed in the edu-blogosphere: