“Often more powerful than words or imagery alone, infographics utilize visual elements of design and words to convey a message in such a way that context, meaning and understanding are transcended to the observer in a manner not previously experienced.” (Instantshift.com). The Infographic: Making Ideas More Beautiful The challenge for COETAIL this week was to…
Research shows that educational experiences that are active, social, contextual, engaging, and student-owned lead to deeper learning. (Cornell.edu). Why is collaboration so important right now? Last year was tough. We were physically at school doing hybrid learning for only four months. The other six months were spent completely online. It was hard to build connections.…
We need to learn to identify, read, and understand images – to become literate in visual language – in order to communicate successfully in our increasingly image-saturated culture.” (ToledoMuseum.org). Back to blogging! COETAIL Course 3 is up and running and I am back in action. The topic of course 3 is “Visual Literacy” and it’s all…
I originally wrote the following blog post and submitted it to Angela Watson in hopes that she would contact me to be a freelance writer for her Cornerstone for Teachers (formerly Truth for Teachers) website. She didn’t contact me. But I still like what I wrote. So I thought I might as well put it…
Pop the bubbly! It’s time to celebrate. The end of course 2 is here! Woohoo! Cheers! After I hit “publish” on this post I will officially be done with all my requirements for this school year. Then it’s time for summer break. YESSSS!!! Oh man, do I need a rest. I just have to answer…
In support of democratic education: Way back in 2005 I completed my Master’s of Teaching thesis for the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. I remember so clearly the topic of my research as it was a subject I was, and still am, extremely passionate about: “Service Learning and Participatory Democracy”. For…
T.H.I.N.K. Before You Post: Ok, so this week there were so many different directions that I could have gone with my post. But after thinking about it, I realized that what I really wanted to talk about, in depth, was the “T.H.I.N.K. Before You Post” poster created and shared by Melissa Pilakowski in October 2015. …
“Always eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or bed—no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters in your skull.” – George Orwell, 1984 Big tech knows everything about us: The readings for course 2 week 3 were rather Orwellian…
“Youth who grew up in the age of social media understand it better than most adults, and not just kinda like something dissociated from real life.” – Driena, age 18 This week’s COETAIL exploration was all about teens and social media. The key questions we were looking to answer were: How do students connect with…
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” – Oscar Wilde There is a famous Seinfeld scene from the episode called “The Maid” where Kramer and Jerry are talking about Ray’s Pizza in New York. Basically, Kramer is lost downtown and trying to tell Jerry where he is, and he…