Introduction to Creative Commons--A Video

Thanks to Steve Hargadon on the Classroom2.0 ning. He posted a link to this great video that I think does a wonderful job of quickly explaining what Creative Commons is and how it came about.

This would be a good intro for teacher PD. Only problem that I see is that in our district, all social media sites like youtube, flickr, photobucket, etc. are blocked for students. Teachers can now access them though, so for photos, flickrstorm would be a good option to share with them as well.


Here's the video to share:

Edublog Awards 2008

In his blog post yesterday, David Warlick thanked his readers and the Edublog Awards for conferring a Lifetime Achievement Award upon him. What a fitting tribute to a man whose work has impacted so many people--by challenging our thinking and by so incisively analyzing the changing world and what it might mean to our profession and our kids.

I've followed David Warlick since I was lucky enough to see his presentation at the ALA Annual Convention in New Orleans in 2006. His presentation inspired me to read Friedman's The World is Flat, and later, Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind, two works that have helped me to guide my young college-aged daughter, and to change my practice as a librarian. That one hour that I spent in Warlick's workshop truly changed my brain--changed the way I look at librarianship for the 21st century, as well as education in general! Yesterday, I was excited to get Warlick's latest book in the mail: Redefining Literacy 2.0. I can't wait to read it-- I know it will reinvigorate my thinking.

In his post, Warlick worries that the Lifetime Achievement Award might indicate that he is a doddering old man at the end of his career. I can't imagine that this is even close to truth. It's just a much-deserved thank you to a man that provides leadership and challenges so many others to think about things a bit differently, inspiring those of us "in the trenches" to professional practice that will (hopefully) serve our students well in this changing world!
Thanks David! And Congratulations!!

The Week in Rap!

I learn the most amazing things through my professional network of people all over the world! Today I was listening to the Seedlings at Bit by Bit podcast, and Bob Sprankle's Geek of the Week was The Week in Rap. Oh my goodness! What a wonderful and engaging tool for the classroom! It is a weekly current events video--in rap! From Flocabulary, which is a NYC-based project (I need to read more about it) that works with infusing hip-hop into educationally based products. Very interesting.

Here is a sample of a recent week in rap--a particularly monumental week it was too: Election Week 2008 in the US.






The Seedlings at Bit by Bit podcast this week was particularly full of great links too--even better than normal!! Thanks Bob and Alice and Cheryl! Carla was a great guest and I learned so much this week from you! Wow!

Nearest Book Meme

"The sun was shining." What a disappointing sentence to pull from such a wonderful book! One of my favorites!

Wonder what I am talking about? Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk blog encouraged us all to take part in this meme by Stephen Abrams of Stephen's Lighthouse

Rules: * Get the book nearest to you. Right now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
* Write this sentence - either here or on your blog.
* Copy these instructions as commentary of your sentence.
* Don't look for your favorite