21st Century Learning

So Much to Say-- So Little Time

There is a price to be paid for community driven learning- TIME. There are only so many hours in a day to invest in reading, learning, writing, and all that goes with being part of a community of learners. The benefits far outweigh the cost, so I am not complaining, however, it is beginning to impact the time I had previously devoted to blogging.

I was reading a post on Our Virtual Class Blog called 2.0 Riptide. He quotes Konrad Glogowski who after finishing his dissertation establishes research questions that  he hopes to be able to work on in the near future:

1. How do we prepare teachers to teach 21st century learners whose lives are based on rich interactions in multiple online environments?
2. How do we help new teachers move away from what Marshall McLuhan once called the “imposing of stencils” and adopt a practice of probing and exploration?
3. How do we help new teachers acquire the courage to transform their classrooms into communities of learners and transform themselves into participants who can embed themselves in those communities?

These questions are near and dear to my heart because they are the very questions I have found myself grappling with for the last four years. As I have shared before, years of experience working in several large projects that look directly at these very  issues (ENDAPT, TLN, ABPC 21st Century Learners, ASSETOnline and now Powerful Learning Practice) it seems I keep coming full circle to networking, community of practice, true collaboration and what my friend John Norton terms "mutual accountability" among teachers.

MUTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY
John asked recently on TLN, "What's the difference between "negative competitiveness" and a willingness to trade narrow accountability measures from the outside for collaborative accountability -- where teachers hold one another accountable for teaching quality? He suggests that until teachers seize that ground, they will always be on the defensive and easy targets for top-down reform.

One teacher's response caught my attention-

Teachers need to be seen as professional leaders in their districts and communities, leaders able to work together to improve student learning...  Teachers are either working as silos, not interested in collaboration, or scared to show their areas of vulnerability for fear of ridicule or reprisal.

To "[seize] that ground", convincing administrators, public opinion, media, etc. that collaborative accountability is the best method for improvement, I believe we must expand our playing field.  We need to seize the grounds of media and public opinion regarding education, testing, school and community partnerships, and the nature of improvement and change.  This requires organization.  Where is the teacher voice?

Then it hit me, this is exactly where participatory media can make its biggest impact. Allowing teachers to network together online first - forming personal learning networks around areas of passion and interest and gaining comfort and trust in the nonthreatening use of the medium helps to give teachers the confidence they need to use these tools to hold each other accountable for learning.  Using tools like Twitter, Tapped In, NING, Blogs, wikis, Ustream, Diigo, Elluminate, etc, teachers who understand how to "seize the ground" can apprentice teachers who are emergent in their understanding of such concepts. Conversing and working at it together in spaces that are somewhat separate from the local context, educators can learn within the safety net of the community and develop the self-efficacy skills and boldness needed to generalize what they are learning to their local context.

WHY IS IT EASIER TO COLLABORATE TOGETHER ONLINE THAN IN OUR SCHOOLS?
One of my consulting projects this year has been CTQ's ASSETOnline project. I have had the wonderful experience of working with Anne Jolly, a professional learning community expert. In a recent conversation online she asked teachers if they liked collaboration and if not, why not. In her true researcher form she compiled the results.

Frustrations that lead to a preference for working alone in some cases.
These include . . .

1.  Not knowing what collaboration really means
2.  Not knowing what is actually expected from those collaborating
3.  Insufficient implementation support
4.  Not finding real value in collaboration
5.  Different teaching philosophies among participants/ little to share
6.  Doesn't spring from teacher's needs
7.  Dictates and limits from administrators about content for collaborative meetings
8.  Teachers left out of decision-making
9.  Lack of modeling/understanding of collaboration by administrators
10. Need space to be creative - tricky to do this in teams
11. Lack of training for collaboration
12. Lack of trust and comfort in sharing with other teachers - feeling threatened
13.  Not enough time
14.  Getting everyone on the team on the same page is hard
15.  "I don't like meetings!"  :-) - a waste of time that could be spent grading and preparing
16.  Need more time for self-reflection rather than group reflection
17.  Others on the team pass off other's work as their own
18.  Too much talk and not enough action
19.  Not enough clout - except in the classroom
20.  One person does all the work
21.  Merit pay breeds competitiveness rather than sharing
22.  The education system is designed for isolation - and the status quo is strong
23.  The atmosphere can be punitive
24.  The school setting doesn't support collaboration
25.  Teachers are overwhelmed and trying to survive difficult situations
26.  Lack of communication about changes and the reason for changes

Feeling that collaboration works at times too, such as when  . . .
1.  Teachers see value in the collaboration
2.  Teachers have similar teaching philosophies and complementary skills
3.  Collaboration is more natural and spontaneous than structured
4.  Collaboration springs from teachers' needs
5.  Collaboration is not mandated
6.  Teachers make decisions about what they collaborate on
7.  Administrators practice what they preach
8.  The atmosphere is trusting, respectful, and comforting
9.  The school is successful at supporting collaboration
10. Teachers have time to think through together what they want for their kids
11. There is time for introspection as well as collaboration

I am curious-
How do you feel about collaboration?  Do you feel safe enough in your school to "seize the ground" or do you hesitate to share for fear of ridicule or reprisal. Do you feel collaboration online is easier than it is locally in your own schools or organizations? Or do you feel the same hesitancy to publish and as a result become "clickable?" Do walled gardens (private online communities of practice)  make you feel safer in terms of being transparent enough to hold each other accountable for what kids are learning in our schools?

What is your take?

 

Video Podcast - Chillin' with Kevin

Do you know Kevin Honeycutt? If you do not, you should. He is wise, talented, sincere, loves kids, and wildly funny. Here is a vidcast we did at the recent NCAETC conference. The most fun I have ever had in an interview.

Culture Change- Breaking Down Tradition

Interesting discussion over on Student 2.0 by Sean (the bass player) a student in Scotland and a group of teachers.

The post was inspired from some well meant questions from a caring American adult (teacher) who was chatting with Sean at 1:30am (Scotland). I think it was more the perceived inferences Sean drew from the questions that inspired his post, not necessarily the intentions of the asker, but regardless, the conversation struck a chord with me.

Where do we draw the line?
Sean asks, "Where do we draw the line?" in response to the question- “Does it seem strange to you to associate with a bunch of adults?”  There is more to the conversation- I encourage you to go read Sean's post for contextual reference for this discourse that follows.

The line Sean is talking about has more to do with the hidden rules of tradition and territory than it does with a moral or digital citizenship line of sorts. It is one that while more visible in the 21st Century has been around since Amateur radios began showing up in homes.  It also has a bit to do with motivations, goals, intellect and family culture I think. Let me explain.

It is a matter of family norms and culture
Sean's preference for adults is not new and he certainly isn't the only one. There are others who don't quite fit the mold and in some families it is by design. I homeschooled my four kids. Amber, my oldest (http://myaimistrue.com), only attended 1 year of conventional education. And Grace, my youngest, entered the traditional system in 5th grade(11-12 year olds).They mostly hung with adults and each other- which had some real advantages. Sure, they had some friends that were their own ages who they mostly saw at church or later in the collaborative school I created, but mainly they preferred adults. Why didn't that bother me? Because in our family the culture (mantra) was- I am raising adults, not kids. I wanted the end product to be adults, so having lots of interaction with adults seemed to make sense.

My kids were mature for their age and had lots of questions and interests that other kids simply were not into, so it just made more sense for them to connect with folks who could help them learn what they wanted to learn. Besides, learning in our family took place 24/7 even at 1:30am-- as we all had people we spoke to around the world. And I do not think that is so different than it was for my father as he was a Hamm Radio nut when he was a kid and up at all times of the night trying to accommodate for time zones.

And being a homeschooling family, the more interesting or diverse the adults my kids befriended, the better. Since my kids could pursue their passions in terms of content studied, we actively sought out adult mentors who could serve as SMEs (subject matter experts), and technology helped a great deal with that. My kids would often attend the college classes I taught and participate in the discussions. They felt as comfortable around adults as they did children, not because they were so different- but more because our culture and experience was different. 

Tools today are more powerful
While we didn't have the same tools we have now, we did have some. Bulletin boards and asynchronous chat boards were popular, IRC chat, and various protocols that gave us direct access to each other's machines. Sometimes I would make the relationships online and introduce my new found friends to my kids and sometimes they would introduce me to who they had met. I will admit- in the beginning of all this- there were typically more "techie types" online than there was Joe average, so less chance for a need to exercise digital citizenship (safety)  skills. It simply hadn't caught on yet. However, if I had been given a choice between my kids being online at 1:30 am talking to someone in Scotland who was a responsible adult or having them out riding around in a car, breaking curfew with other immature, age-specific peers-- well you get the idea. Plus, when you raise your kids to be responsible online and have open lines of communication there is a level of trust that is developed. And until that trust is broken, there is no reason to doubt that the relationships  they are making in person or online aren't healthy. Staying involved is the key.

I say all this to say- not all kids are the same. Not all parenting styles are the same. My kids now are all very successful and madly creative. They are well adjusted and have lots of friends. They all say they have fond memories of growing up in a house that included such different learning opportunities and access to a variety of interesting adults through both hands-on and virtual experiences. And they all have continued to develop relationships with interesting adults from around the world.

Teachable Moments and Networking

Let me help you understand the different mind set. Because the culture in our family was learning as a life style and not just when school was in- we were always on "game" in terms of teachable moments.
I remember going to WalMart and seeing two young adults (my age at the time) on bikes who were traveling long distance. I thought, what a cool experience this would be for my kids. I struck up a conversation with these strangers and invited them to stay at my house for a few days. Turns out, Jenny and Dan were from Seattle and had just gotten married. As part of their honeymoon, they decided to take a cross country bike trip for a year and Jenny, a writer was documenting it all on a laptop!!! (Remember 15 years ago laptops were not as common). Boy did I score. Here we had young, interesting adults who used higher order thinking to plan a year long trip, one was a writer, they were traveling and could share their experiences with my kids.

We got out a map and documented everywhere they had been with pins and yarn. (picture shows how we used this technique to study other things too) We researched the geography, culture, and landforms. We talked about how you plan a year long trip and the kids planned their own using their newly found skills. We  looked at bikes in general, the mechanics, how to wrench, the science behind them and the environmental impact. The curriculum we discovered in Jenny and Dan was endless. When they left- they emailed back their locations and we continued to track them on the map.

Well meaning friends asked-- How did you know they weren't mass murders? What if they had been drug addicts or had hurt your children while you slept or what if they had stolen things? All valid questions I guess but  not part of our reality, much like Sean 's feeling of  surprise, " I surprisingly hadn’t thought about it before."

Not Wrong- Just Different
That isn't to say this way is "the" way to raise a family. Homeschooling sure has gotten its share of criticism as well. It is to say that there are different ways to raise kids that are acceptable even if they do not fit into the traditional vein. And adults are not the only ones who feel discomfort with breaking tradition (Sean's post).  Teens also feel territorial about places like MYSpace. My kids use to get asked all the time if it creeped them out that I was on MySpace and Facebook. They would laugh and say not at all as I was there first. 

Bottom Line
I think the most important message I got from what Sean wrote was this- Teachers we need to ask ourselves...

Do we want what we are preaching or not? Do we want kids who know how to use these tools in powerful and pervasive ways to connect and collaborate with others from around the world-- even at the cost of breaking our comfort and relationship with the status quo. Are we willing to unlearn most of what we know and relearn new ways -- new norms-- for how healthy relationships are established and nurtured in the 21st Century? Do we believe in learning ecologies made up of very diverse people who help inform our student's interests and passions?

Model for your students how to build a personal learning network
The kids are ready for relationships defined by community and what each learner has to share- and not bound by the traditions of teachers having to be the expert. I feel I have come full circle. Now rather than looking for teachable moments with interesting adults so my kids can learn what they need to learn, I find myself looking for opportunities to learn with/from interesting students who have garnered skill and wisdom through their use of these participatory medias. I want to learn all Sean has learned in his late night ventures with interesting adults. I hope he doesn't hang with kids all the time and that his parents continue to allow him to be part of a learning community that is trying to leave education a better place.

As educators we need to get ready for a real shift in culture. The shifts that are coming will not allow "business as usual" rather it will be "business as unusual". That is why it is critical for all of us to first own these emerging technologies and the pedagogy/culture that surrounds them, by using Web 2.0 tools to connect- in an effort to chase our own passions. Through the experience of building of your own PLN, not only will you model for your students how this should be done, but you might find some transformational moments along the way -that like mine with Jenny and Dan- will leave you a better person. And do NOT discount what those younger or older than you have to offer. Use expertise and passion- not age- as criteria for who you should learning from and for who should be part of your learning network.

I look forward to your comments, concerns, and push back. Let's have this hard conversation.

Photo credit: http://www.ky4ky.com/yhn.htm

Reflection as an Agent of Real Change

As I was reading Jennifer Jones' post on viral PD today I found myself thinking how cool it is that in a community we all have a piece of the puzzle. One of the challenges we face in the 21st Century though is how we collectively connect ideas in such a way that the big picture becomes clear and everyone can benefit.

I know what you are thinking- ever heard of RSS Sheryl? (Actually, I have been thinking about RSS a lot lately in the work we are doing with PLP). But more my concern is around *managing* successful viral PD. With all the feeds, Google Alerts, and other information being pulled to each of us, combined with all the responses from each participant in an active, engaged CoP and the viral spin offs of each community as it grows and becomes more successful through the planned scaling - - how does one manage all the information without missing critical pieces?

I am a community organizer by trade. I spend most of my day reading, writing, thinking, and developing community across the nation and around the world. So how do I decide what to keep and what to toss? As we begin to feel the results of successful viral PD opportunities like what happened in Alabama, how will staff developers keep up with it all? For that matter how will *any * of us keep up with it all- with information doubling every two years now and predicted to double every 72 hours by the year 2010?

As I continue to work within the communities with which I am involved, it is wildly gratifying to see the deep and consequential changes in practice taking place over time with the educators who are participating.  I know the job embedded model works. What I question is how to maintain these changes in practice over substantial periods of time (sustainability) as the viral impact causes diffusion of the innovation to large numbers of users (spread).

Knowing the role of the community organizer is critical in terms of champion building in the beginning when trust and norms are being developed among members, I question how staff developers who oversee multiple communities of practice in addition to maintaining their own learning through their personal learning networks will keep up?

In Alabama, (which is one of the Microsoft mid-tier Partners in Learning projects) the community is strong and participants have taken ownership in ways that deepen and sustain the original work via adaptation (shift) as they are innovating and revising the outcomes of what we (the designers) originally intended. It is exciting to find my thinking continually challenged and to be pushed to reshape and recreate the model in new and different ways. (evolution) However, I am finding less and less time for sharing what I am thinking, doing and the evidence I am collecting that points to what is working.

How do we find/make time for reflection? I do believe it is critically important to reflect and be transparent as possible about the processes we are using. Why? Because it helps us all move away from a place of privacy and isolation to one of collaboration and innovation. But lately, I find myself so busy with design and implementation that I neglect reflection, even as critical as I believe it is to have your comments inform my thinking.

In Schmoker's "Results Now" he says, Isolation -- 'professional privacy' as Little called it -- explains why exemplary practices never take root in more than a small proportion of classrooms and school. Judith Little found that, "When teachers engage regularly in authentic "joint work" focused on explicit learning goals, ...their collaboration pays off in increased teacher confidence and remarkable gains in achievement."

As more and more teachers reject isolation and seek collaboration, teaching will become more transparent with teams of teachers excited and willing to learn from each other. The idea of sharing and reflecting on 21st Century lesson planning in a virtual community where it can be accessed and reviewed on the Web is one way to help schools move more quickly toward a culture of collaboration and improved teaching and learning!

The Reflective Change Agent
Donald Schon suggests that the best professionals know more than they can put into words. To meet the challenges of their work, they rely less on established models and more on improvisation learned in practice. Basically, we test out our theories and ideas via our blogs and through other participatory media and this allows us to collectively develop and design further. Significantly, to do this we do not closely follow established ideas and techniques - textbook schemes. Rather, we draw on what has gone before (shift and evolution mentioned above) and we can link this process of thinking on our feet with reflection-on-action.

I think this way of thinking about reflection and leading is going to become more important as knowledge creation picks up an even faster pace. There simply will not be time to formally test each change idea so others can review the findings and determine value before implementation. Rather reflection in action, transparency in our process via conversations with experts on the Web will enables us to spend time exploring why we acted as we did, what was happening in a group and so on and inform our practice as we move forward. In so doing we develop sets of questions/answers and this informs our ideas about our activities and practice.

Through our blogs, videos and recordings we should engage the network in our process, not having to have a full understanding of things before we act. With communities of global, experienced professionals pushing our thinking along the way, we will be influenced by, and use, what has gone before, what might come, our repertoire, and the repertoire of the community.  As we work collaboratively we will bring collective fragments of memories into play and begin to build theories and responses that fit each new situation. Through this reflective process the change in schools will become more emergent, organic, and viral in nature.

So I invite my readers to continually comment and push my thinking further. I appreciate your voice in my work.

Living Under the Rainbow

I have finally surfaced from my doctoral COMPS preparation. On Tuesday, after I had penned the last words and hit submit on the prompts that serve as the gateway to demonstrating if I have what it takes to be a researcher and academic, I came home to this beautiful rainbow. I immediately went out searching for the pot of gold! <smile>
Then I realize- I have it already.

Lately, I find myself living under the rainbow. There have been so many really exciting things happening. My brain stays constantly challenged, which is just the way I prefer it.

Shanghai and Learning 2.0
The travel was amazing coming to China. Sure- it was long flights, layovers, and cramped- but still, it was amazing. Why? Several reasons:

First, I am traveling with my 21 yr old son Noah. I am more pumped about that then coming to China and presenting.
Noah is the most interesting young man. Our house is a very busy one. All of us work and attend school. We always have. In addition, all of us have passions and hobbies, so as a result, there isn't a lot of time to talk and share. So the flight was spent with the two of us sharing ideas about the books we were reading on the plane. Noah was reading "The Code Book" which is about the history of cryptography. It was fascinating listening to him describe his insights as he was gaining them. I came to the realization that he had grown into the kind of person I would actually choose to hang out with-

even if he wasn't family.

Second,  I am traveling with Wes and Shelly Fryer, and Will Richardson. On the plane, Will and I kept knocking ideas around in between jokes, sharing passages from the books we were reading with each other and sharing small nuances of life we feel are important. Then it hit me, relationships are the beginning of wisdom. I realized while talking with Will, that vision starts with relationships; whether it is relationship with kids, colleagues, or our communities- vision begins with connecting ideas. None of us could get over the surrealness of actually flying around the world and landing in a communist country. I have had the good fortune of having traveled many places around the world, but never to Asia.   

To show you the difference between where I am now and where I live. We get a notice under our door- Dear Guests- We have received notice from our government: The People's Government will deploy a test of aerial defense in the Pudong New Area. Do not be alarmed.

On another note--Check out these cool tunnel pics I took at the Detroit airport.

 

Finally-- a pic not to be missed. We land in Tokyo and this is on the TV in the waiting room. Classic!

Creativity is a Global Crisis

Do you know about eSNIPS?  eSnips is the ONE place where you can share ALL your passions; your thoughts, photos, files, stuff you find on the web... and you control who you share it with and how. Get 5GB of free storage. Today, I was scooting around looking for content and came across the professional development page.

This was posted...

Being a teacher means being a self learner. It means constantly thinking and reflecting upon the needs of your students. Constantly phrasing that quiet question to yourself; "How can I be a better teacher?"  It is for not just years down the road but also for your class tomorrow. If education is the "progressive realization of one's ignorance", professional development is the spirit that would make one be able to live with that.

I am down with that! So I kept exploring. Then I found exactly what I came after--  The cool thing with this site is everyone loads related material or digital learning objects to a related folder. So in addition to Tony's video I found many other related resources that were uploaded.

Here are the notes I took as I watched the following video (below) by Tony Buzan an author, lecturer, and inventor of mind mapping . They are part his words and my embellishments and thoughts. Enjoy.

Creativity is a Global Crisis

• World is getting less and less creative on average. Education today is structured so that it destroys creativity and crushes dreams.
• In China, Mexico, Japan and US it is normal for creativity scores to decline throughout a child's education.
• However, normal is not natural!   
• We are teaching uncreativity in our schools. We teach children to have that natural gifting to decline.
• We teach kids what to learn.. not how to learn. We teach curriculum rather than how to learn.
• Scientific Journal feels that brilliance can be unleashed through nurturing creative thinking in children.
• Intellectual capital is fueled by creativity. There is a new creative age dawning and we must address it/. 60% of all jobs and professions within the next 10 years will be based on creative thinking.
• Child are born with intellectual potential- brain is soil with endless seeds. When child is stimulated creatively then brain cells engage and grow. When they are not stimulated cells disengage. Nurturing creativity allows synapse to form more connections. When we routinize, when we linearize, when we dull a child we actually physically disengage their brains.
• It is not one or the other:curriculum or creativity. Creativity is the thread that should be woven in each area of the curriculum.
• Every great creative thinker is incredibly disciplined. They are brilliantly focused and ordered. Amazingly imaginative. The ability to be original and make connections building on the thoughts and ideas of others. True innovation comes from making connections and create from there.
• We have to nurture - nature. The natural creative gifting that children arrive in our classrooms with-- we need to make sure we do not spoil it.

Back to basics is returning to way we all learn naturally through wonderment, questions, and explorations- not through memorization and regurgitation of facts.

Photo Credit: Yvette Thomas, 17 - http://www.gellyroll.com/teen/deep/tt99/dt2_win/creativity-lg.jpg

Senior Year: A Teenage Wasteland

My brilliant friend Mary Tedrow posted this piece over on Teacher Magazine. It is a must read.

Senior Year: A Teenage Wasteland
In 2001, the U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley called the high school senior year a "wasteland." In 2005, researchers concluded that the majority of high school students were not challenged during their senior year in reading, writing, or math. To many teachers who work with high school seniors, these findings ring true. They best apply to the wide swath of "average" students who travel the featureless landscape called senior year. Teacher Magazine, 8/1/07 (free registration required)

To give you a taste of why the free registration is worth it, here is a piece from the article as Mary describes what the senior year *could* be...

I would go a large step further and treat the senior year as a unique capstone experience. By eliminating strict scheduling, a team of teachers and counselors could shepherd seniors through a meaningful transition. Students could work with teachers to design a schedule that would include coursework, apprenticeships, and community activities. Seniors could also accept ownership in the school community by participating in tutoring, student courts, in-house television and radio programs, designing and writing school publications, maintaining websites, or even helping interview prospective teachers. In short, let kids test the waters. Let them make decisions in close mentorship with adults.

I say-- YES. And let's take it a step further. Let's imagine the entire school experience being that meaningful. Why stop at one year?

Mary Tedrow, a National Board-certified teacher, has taught high school English and Journalism for 17 years. In the fall she will begin teaching juniors at John Handley High School in Winchester, VA.

Second Life-Thinkerer Challenge Announced at Symposium

Got this from Alan Levine's NMC site.

August 15, 2007 (Thinkerers Quest, Second Life) - Thinkerer Studios - a network of residents in the virtual online world of Second Life - today announced the launch of an awards program to identify and encourage the development of creative products and services that use Second Life capabilities to enrich or empower experiences in Real Life. The first Award recipient will be made known at the end of September, 2007.

Recipients of the Thinkerer Challenge Award will receive 30,000 Lindens - the currency of Second Life - and the use of a parcel of virtual land (or an equivalent arrangement) for one year. In addition, they will be invited to become judges of future Thinkerer Challenges.

Cash awards will be funded by the founder of Thinkerer Studios, Thinkerer Melville. Awards will be given as often as once a month, depending on the volume and quality of nominations. Honorary Awards will also be presented on occasion, depending on merit and circumstances. All winners and their projects will be publicized and promoted, both in and off-world.

For more info: http://sl.nmc.org/2007/08/16/thinkerer-challenge/

This is *so* me, as of late...

Thanks to http://rbvandijk.edublogs.org/ for the point to these fantastic, shareable cartoons.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Art Education Community

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed with what you have to do that you find yourself in deep avoidance? The Web is perfect for moments like that.

I am part of a panel symposium on Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts in CLTNet. As the lead presenter, I have  been fast at work sharing resources and answering questions.

This morning I followed a link to a Ning community for art educators that one of the participants shared and was so taken with the intellectual  eye candy!

The pic featured here I drew using Kaleidoscope Painter, which was a shared resource in the community.

What first caught my eye though was this animation painter. The animation is done in Flash and it begins with a female skeleton which then is given flesh, underwear, and ends with a designer outfit.

I watched it 2xs and was blown away both times. I could learn to draw like this. I never got to take an art class in school, not one. And yet I come from a family of artists and gave birth to four talented artists. I have taught courses on creativity on the college level and I was known for the creative displays in my classrooms. I wish someone in my K-12 experience had seen the potential and put me in those classes. But typically, poor kids weren't the ones nurtured in the arts, maybe it is different now? Not.

Another cool video piece I found while there was this one on Women in Art.

 

Find more videos like this on Art Education 2.0

Or this video about Gilles Tréhin, a dedicated artist and artistic savant, who began designing an imaginary city, Dumont d'Urville.

Take some time and check out this Ning community, but be prepared to get lost in learning for a few hours!