Additional Blog Assignment Due Sunday 4/22 at Midnight

Last week I asked you to begin thinking about several questions related to creativity, curiosity and education. Here are some of those questions:

1. Do schools in the United States systematically destroy (or inhibit) the development of curiosity and/or creativity in students? If yes, why does that happen? If no, how do you counter the argument of Sir Ken Robinson that schools do undermine the development of creativity in students?

2. Can a curriculum be developed that increases the curiosity of students? If so, what would be the key components of such a curriculum?

3. Can a curriculum be developed that increases the creativity of students? If so, what would be the key components of such a curriculum?

4. Can a teacher's actions increase the curiosity of students? If so, what would be those actions?

5. Can a teacher's actions increase the creativity of students? If so, what would be those actions?

6. What would help you become more creative? What role would teachers and/or schools have in that process?

7. What would help you become more curious? What role would teachers and/or schools have in that process?

Write an essay addressing these questions and post it on your blog. Use this as your Title: Creativity and Curiosity: My Thoughts - Special Post #12A.

The quotation that serves as a picture was taken from Curiosity Fuels Creativity: Teaching your kids to be curious by Elli.

Now I'll try and stimulate your curiosity. Who is Elli? How can you contact her? Will you do so? Why or why not?

Another suggestion: Read Educating the Next Steve Jobs from last Saturday's (4/14/12) Wall Street Journal. If you have trouble with that link try this one: Alternate Link

How Do You Contact Tom Johnson?

How do you contact Tom Johnson?

Skype John T. Spencer @johntspencer

Mr. Spencer writes some of blogs and books under the pseudonym Tom Johnson.

Kathy Cassidy Skype Interview

It has been reported that there has been difficulty in accessing the Kathy Cassidy video. This is because the server on which the movie resides has been down. It is now up, but in case it goes down again here are links to the Cassidy interview on YouTube. Since YouTube has time limits, I had to break the Cassidy video into three parts.

Part 1 of Kathy Cassidy Interview
Part 2 of Kathy Cassidy Interview
Part 3 of Kathy Cassidy Interview

C4T Corrections

Several students have notified me that their C4T #4 teacher was the same as their C4T #3 teacher. If they contacted me by 4/11/2011 I have reassigned them and the correct assignment is shown on the tab C4T#4 Original (4/1-4/22).

Other students may have had different teachers on the Original Assignment tab. If so, they can continue with that teacher or use the assignment on the MODIFIED tab.

FOR THE REST OF YOU, use the Tab MODIFIED C4T#4 (4/1-4/22) with is at the BOTTOM of the Doc. READ THE EXPLANATION BELOW.

Modern spreadsheets have tabs which are really additional pages at the bottom of the spreadsheet. Look at the bottom of the C4T (or C4K) Doc. You will find tabs for other pages that are part of the spreadsheet. Look at the pictures below:

Original TAB Selected

MODIFIED TAB selected

Corrections

DATES CORRECTED

I had several dates that disagreed with one another. Here is a summary of Due Dates for projects 13, 14, 15

Project #13 - A written summary of what you did in collaborating solely through technology for Project #15 (and perhaps some of #16). This is an experiment. We want a summary of what tools you used, how you went about communicating, what worked, what didn't. Post this summary on one person's blog. Repeat on others OR provide link to posted summary. Due Sunday May 6.

Project #14 - Basics of SMARTboard Use - Individual video - DUE April 1 but due to date confusion we will accept until April 15.

Project #15 - Collaborative SMARTboard lesson/instruction - DUE April 29

Project #16 - Final Project - Collaborative - DUE May 6

Easter Sunday - Lab Open - No Staff

The EDM310 Lab will be open Sunday March 8 but it will not be staffed.

The Power of C4K

tasteach has left a new comment on your post "C4K Joins the World Blog Challenge - Revised 3/27/...":

G'day Dr Strange and students,
Here is a link to an quality comment written by one of your students Brooke.

Tasteach (Ms. Sue Wyatt) is one of the founders of the World Blog Challenge. She is a retired teacher in Tasmania.

Brooke's comment was left on Natalie's Blog Post: Make It Global - Spread the Word

You should check out Natalie's post to understand the context. I have copied Brooke's comment here of you do not go to the original source.

Brooke LadnierMarch 30th, 2012 at 3:43 am Reply
Hi Natalie,
My name is Brooke Ladnier and I am a student in EDM310 at The University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I was deeply touched by your video. I attend a local church here in Grand Bay where I live(It’s about 30 miles south of Mobile) and we take part in mission work in Guatemala and El Salvador. I have been on 5 mission trips and I understand your passion to bring the word of God to people around the world. It can offer such healing to people, especially those who have been through warfare like the video described. I do have a question that maybe you can answer for me. In the video one of the men stated that the church was partially responsible for some of the killing that was done. Do you know what happened or why the church was involved? I am going to be commenting on your blog for the next 3 weeks so hopefully you will have some new posts for me to read! I really enjoyed this one. Keep up the good work.

What Have We Learned?

That students and teachers from all over the world look forward to and appreciate your C4K comments.

By the way, what do you know about Tasmania? Find out!