Like Krazy

This post was inspired by this post from hadleyjf. I commented on that post but felt I wanted to expound on my thoughts here. Before you begin reading, press the play button on the Voki below this paragraph and then immediately continue reading while it speaks. Try it. It'll be educational and will barely hurt, I promise. Get a Voki now! This past weekend I participated in educon thru elluminate and in the past year took online courses using a similar program. In both experiences I was able to participate in a conversation that was taking place during the presentation/class using a chat window. Having done that many times now I have come to realize that I find it impossible to multitask in that way. Many times the chat session became the "front channel" and the presenter/teacher went to the back of my attention. I found that I missed some of what the presenter said while I participated in the chats. But at the same time I also find that I learn greatly from that part of...

This video from Langara College, "Rethink Scholarship," is a very creative look at continuing motivation of ideas. While conferences such as educon and discussions like edchat inspire me, it may take a short video like this to turn that spark into a fire. This is the main reason I decided to act and begin writing much more frequently to this blog. It is a chance for me to put down my ideas and let them sit for a while. If others happen to read them (and I won't leave it totally to chance as I will push these posts to those I have connected with on Twitter) I hope they may leave their own comments and impressions. None of us can truly learn without others and the feedback is always welcome. Heck, I'll just take the non-feedback to mean that the ideas must be so far ahead of their time that others need a chance to catch up. :) Or that they are really, really lame. In any case, I'll take it. Something's better than nothing to get the ideas in motion. I find that ...

While I was viewing The Field Guide for Change Agents created at Educon today I was reminded of an article I came across a few weeks ago entitled The Innovator's DNA . In it the authors identified five "discovery skills" in creative executives: associating, questioning, observing, experimenting, and networking. It is no surprise that the skills necessary to become an innovative executive mirror those of a change agent in education. The fact that the change agent presentation was created at the Educon conference not only entails networking, but us noneducon attendees (or educon nonattendees?) can only imagine the amount of associating, questioning, observing, and experimenting that went on to produce such a document. They are skills that Change Agents (and probably most of the best educators) wield. The great news is that in being drawn here and taking the time to read this post proves you have several of the "skills" of that innovative DNA. In this case, though...