“ 
1. Collaboration is over used and mis-used and is becoming a buzzword for business people and technologists alike

2. Collaboration isn’t the same as cooperation or coordination – each have different processes, practices and depth of engagement

3. Collaboration is a human process – throwing technology at people won’t magically/automatically create collaboration

4. Meaningful, productive collaboration won’t happen without mutuality of desired outcomes, shared values of transparency and information sharing, compassion, compromise

5. Collaboration implies that ‘the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few or the needs of the one’ and sometimes people aren’t really interested in living by that principle

6. Collaboration isn’t always the best process

7. Collaboration is not equal to Web 2.0

8. Collaboration can be a source of real value in the face of complex environments and situations where no single person has the right answer”

(Via Reflections on Knowledge Management and Organizational Innovation)

Spot on!

Something that stuck out…

Most kids don’t click past the first page.

YouTube – Wolfram|Alpha Homework Day: Teaching 4th Grade Students using Wolfram|Alpha

(Via Wolfram|Alpha Blog.)

Is American Education Neglecting Gifted Children? — THE Journal

“Some of the findings included:

- A full fourth of states provided zero funding for programs and resources for gifted students last year;

- In states that did provide funding, there was little consistency, with per-pupil expenditures ranging from $2 to $750 last year;

- Only five states require professional development for teachers who work in gifted programs;

- Only five require any kind preparation for these teachers;

- Gifted students spend most of their time in general classrooms and receive little specialized instruction;

- Key policies are handled at the district level, when there are policies in place at all, rather than at the state level, creating ‘the potential for fractured approaches and limits on funding’;

- There is no coherent national strategy for dealing with gifted students.”

(Via T.H.E. Journal.)

I personally know that one of the things I need to work on the most as an educator is making sure to consistently differentiate my instruction in such a way that challenges gifted learners.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind — fantastic new book about a how a Malawian teenager harnessed the power of the wind – Boing Boing

“Using Energy described how windmills could be used to generate electricity. Only two percent of Malawians have electricity, and the service is notoriously unreliable. William decided an electric windmill was something he wanted to make. Illuminating his house and the other houses in his village would mean that people could read at night after work. A windmill to pump water would mean that they could grow two crops a year rather than one, grow vegetable gardens, and not have to spend two hours a day hauling water. “A windmill meant more than just power,” he wrote, “it was freedom.”

(Via Boing Boing.)

Copyright for Educators

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(Via Moving at the Speed of Creativity.)

In the next few days I have some resources to share and will post them as soon as I can. Currenty I am posting this from the WordPress application on my phone. It is a great application for those who use WordPress and have an iPhone.

If you are interested and don’t follow me already I am @mrcirce on Twitter. I tend to post more in short form over there than I do here. This year I hope to change that though!

I like how it is not only multi-touch, but it is also multi-user.

Still, for right now, very expensive. But in 10 years, I could see something like this as a learning center in my elementary school classroom or as something I have in my own house for my kids!

It is hard to form an opinion yet based on an advertisement. I would like to see how this is used within the context of an actual classroom. Also I wonder if the table runs with its own open source operating system, or comes with a proprietary SMART O.S. Most likely I assume the table will function like the SMART Board and can be plugged into a local computer.

What do you think about this?