Google joined partners worldwide by going dark for Earth Hour.  Even while 'dark', Google continues to create new tools that are gaining traction worldwide.  A few recent developments are highlighted in this episode, including the ways in which Google is engaging us in teaching the machine.

Questions for Consideration:
What might happen if educators allowed students to spend part of their day/week working on self-selected, creative projects based on individual abilities and interests?

Related Websites:
Lots of Google Tools to Explore!

Contact: Rodd Lucier via thecleversheep@gmail.com
Continue the discussion: http://thecleversheep.com

Pecha Kucha is a form of presentation that ensures that the highlights are all that are shared.  Twenty slides in twenty seconds each, or any other 'micro-presentation' format can provide the speaker with the opportunity to leave the audience wanting more, with  plenty of room for multiple speakers in a given block of time.

Questions for Consideration:
What types of authentic presentations are suitable to short presentations?

Related Websites:
Pecha Kucha www.pecha-kucha

Contact: Rodd Lucier via thecleversheep@gmail.com
Continue the discussion: http://thecleversheep.com

Questions for Consideration:
Are you on Twitter?  What do you get out of it?
Does your school district block or allow Twitter?
What about blogs?  Allowed or not?
Does your board have policies or guidelines that you can share?

Related Websites:
http://twitter.com
http://thecleversheep.wetpaint.com

Contact: Rodd Lucier via thecleversheep@gmail.com
Continue the discussion: http://thecleversheep.com

Questions for Consideration:
Amid March Madness and Easter, do you turn your technology off?
Is there an audience for online video that teaches?

Related Websites:
http://blip.tv
http://teacher20.blip.tv/
http://www.varasoftware.com/products/screenflow/

Contact: Rodd Lucier via thecleversheep@gmail.com
Continue the discussion: http://thecleversheep.com

Questions for Consideration:
How often do you use CDs or DVDs?  Like me, do you find yourself accessing content via wires or over the airwaves?


Contact: Rodd Lucier via thecleversheep@gmail.com
Continue the discussion: http://thecleversheep.com

Maybe it's time we re-think the most used micro-environment for learning: the desk.

Questions for Consideration:
Do you do anything special to ensure the comfort of your students or yourself when learning?

Related Websites:
http://www.scobleizer.com

Contact: Rodd Lucier via thecleversheep@gmail.com
Continue the discussion: http://thecleversheep.com

Peter Purgathofer at the Viena University of Technology has forwarded an innovative way to engage lecture audiences!

Slidecasting

An excerpt from Massive "Multiplayer" E-Learning
http://www.designsonelearning.net/index.php?section=1&item=3.453:
"The goal of SlideCasting 2.0 is to enable students to use a live captured and jointly annotated representation of the presentation slides as a basis for a massively collaborative online discourse."

A sample Slidecast:http://k2.iguw.tuwien.ac.at:3015/

Questions for Consideration:
What are you doing that's engaging students?

Contact: Rodd Lucier via thecleversheep@gmail.com
Continue the discussion: http://thecleversheep.com

It's my first sound-seeing tour!

I've spent much of my March Break attending the Atlantic Canada Synchronized Swimming Championships.  This tour of swimming and other athletic pursuits, takes place at the Claude Robillard Athletic facility in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Email: thecleversheep@gmail.com
The Blog: http://thecleversheep.com

Questions for Consideration:
Is sharing solutions to problems equivalent to cheating? or Is it just sensible collaboration?
Is such discussion any more problematic if it takes place on Facebook instead of in a cafeteria or dorm room?

Related Websites:
Links to the Ryerson University Facebook story are on the blog:
http://thecleversheep.com

Contact: Rodd Lucier via the cleversheep@gmail.com

Questions for Consideration:
Have you ever used Lego Robotics materials to teach your students to work as collaborative engineers? 
Will a conscious global machine be more 'justice oriented' than a networked society?
What might this global machine be named?

Related Websites:
Robotics Links: http://www.ldcsb.on.ca/schools/cfe/robotics/index.htm
DARPA Grand Challenge: http://www.darpa.mil/GRANDCHALLENGE/

Contact: Rodd Lucier via thecleversheep@gmail.com
Continue the discussion: http://thecleversheep.com

Questions for Consideration:
What are we teaching the Machine?
Are we teaching it the best of humankind or the worst or the middling?

Related Websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL_9000

Contact: Rodd Lucier via thecleversheep@gmail.com
Continue the discussion: http://thecleversheep.com

Questions for Consideration:
Have you ever considered that millions of people are teaching the World Wide Web... every day?
What are the consequences of our connecting ideas, images and words for one another and for the machine?

Continue the discussion on the blog: http://thecleversheep.com

Related content: Michael Wesch, Photosynth, Flickr, Wired

Contact: Rodd Lucier via thecleversheep@gmail.com

How did Star Wars invade my week?
Let me recount the ways...

My son insisted on "The Clone Wars"
http://www.starwars.com/

Star Wars in 90 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/v/EBM854BTGL0

Chad Vader
http://www.youtube.com/v/4wGR4-SeuJ0

Clay Burell's Blog logo
http://beyond-school.org/

Wookie pedia...
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

GLEF
George Lucas is on to bigger and better things:
Information and Inspiration for Innovative Teaching in K-12 Schools
http://www.edutopia.org/