Our Students are Tomorrow's Change Agents

Recently, Magda Galloway blogged about students feeling like they can make a difference. She explained about how we completed our Educational Technology and Design undergrad class with a lecture on "Being a Change Agent in Your School."

This was an interesting way to bring closure to the class. We posted some polls in the CoverItLive backchannel that we ran during the lecture. It was interesting to see that 75% of our students thought that they would be change agents in their schools. 25% of them said that they weren't ready to be change agents. None of the students in the backchannel said that they wouldn't be change agents.

Read Magda's post to learn more of the specifics: Being a Change Agent AKA the Status Quo Sucks!

Innovating Education

Innovating Education is an opportunity for Dr. Z to discuss with UNI colleagues their visions, successes, anticipations and fears of creating learning environments to address the needs of the first digital generation, the Millennials.

One of the tools that we will be using during this hour-long experience will be a backchannel using the CoverItLive utility. It provides an on-going chat that will allow students to discuss the topics with each other while Dr. Z is exploring the topic.

The presentation will be going from noon to 12:50 CST. You are welcome to join in the discussion if you wish no matter where you are in the world. Please chime in.



You will be able to access the slideshow and resources that are mentioned in the discussion at the Innovating Education wiki.

Watch the Earth Shake and Twitter About It!!!!

Just heard about a 7.2 earthquake in Baja California through Twitter.  Can you believe that a friend was on a golf course in Palm Springs when she felt the shake. First thing she did was twitter this incident to her tweet-network. Next thing I knew, there were tweets from Palm Springs, San Diego and Orange County. One tweeter mentioned that he was following the LA County Fire Dept's tweets as they responded to earthquake news. (@lacfd) 

Anywho, I was looking for immediate information about the quake and I found the IRIS Seismic Monitor map. This is OUTSTANDING!!!!  Click on the map above (after you finish reading this posting and leave your comment) and it will take you to their live map of the latest seismic activity around the world. The color of the rings indicates the recency and the size of the rings indicate the magnitude. See the Big Red in the California region?

Click on these buttons to access informative educational resources:

Earthquake Headlines - takes you to the latest Google News about earthquakes;

Special Events - leads you to the Recent Earthquake Teachable Moments page on the IRIS site.

Education Links - links you to the IRIS page on their website that is filled with instructional resources.

This page is a lucky find. Do you see how you might use it in your teaching?

Share your thoughts with us.

Z

Related articles by Zemanta

• Mexican Earthquake Felt In Los Angeles (news.sky.com)
• 6.9 Earthquake in Baja, California (laist.com)

Photo: IRIS Seismic (iris.edu/seismon)

You CAN Work Less - the Research Proves It!

Nice Mantra! Work Smarter, NOT Harder.

We have all heard about this idea that we need to be be smart about how we work. The only problem is that I consider myself pretty smart but I still find myself working ALL the time. That's not smart.

I recently read Matthew E. May's posting about How to Work Less and Do Better." He describes the same questions about what working smarter means. The great things is that he goes beyond wondering and cites a couple of studies that show working less can actually increase your productivity. One study tested the level of productivity for a Boston Consulting Group if their consultants took "predictable time off" every week. That is one uninterrupted evening free each week after 6 p.m. No work and no Blackberrys. Interestingly enough, their productivity increased and satisfaction improved.

Another study involved Lance Armstrong reorganizing his six hour workouts to well-planned four-hour workouts that achieved more. His 7-year record of wining the Tour de France is evidence of his success.

I must admit that lately I have been taking short breaks from my typical 15-hour work days. It doesn't mean that I don't still do 15-hour work days, but I do less of them. I tend to take all of Saturday off and sometimes don't even look at email. Believe it or not, I was at a conference where I went 4 days without checking email. Quite relieving, but I had 400 unanswered emails when I returned to the grid - It was worth it.

What about you? What is your work schedule? How do you give yourself a break? Do you give yourself a break?

You should.

Z


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