Glogowski's insites on Classrooms as Third Places

Konrad Glogowski wrote a very insightful and provocative blog post about creating Classrooms as Third Places. He borrowed the title and concept of Third Places from American Urban Sociologist Ray Oldenburg. I truly appreciate the work and research that Konrad is doing to create spaces for classroom communities to thrive. For those interested in these ideas please take the time to watch his SlideShare presentation (see below).

Does your learning style fit the future?

I serve as an executive member for the Information Science and Technology Center (ISTeC) at Colorado State University (CSU). I have been promoting Web 2.0 / Classroom 2.0 ideas to the executive leadership informing them about how collaborative technologies will continue to change how we work and learn. Within the ISTeC leadership group these ideas are beginning to gain ground. Hunt Lambert, Associate Vice President, Economic Development (an ISTeC executive member) just sent me a link to the following article in Educause Quarterly. It is very exciting to see that these ideas are gaining support on many levels within CSU and within peer-reviewed journals such as EQ.

So my question is does your learning style fit the future?

Planning for Neomillennial Learning Styles: Shifts in students’ learning style will prompt a shift to active construction of knowledge through mediated immersion.

SharkRunners - Game

The SharkRunners (Discovery Channel) game is an amazing example of how real time sensor data can be integrated into an educational game. You get to create a virtual SharkRunner boat (my boat is the Pelican Pat) and use it to track down real sharks! The boat is virtual, the sharks are real. When you find a shark you earn rewards. You can also compete against other SharkRunners that you know. This is a great game for showing how sharks move around the ocean and what it would be like to be a scientist tracking and studying these wonderful creatures.