Post 30: The Power of Pull

"Instead of fear of failure learning (i.e., push learning) such as experienced in most schools and many training settings, learning needs to be irresistible and help learners unconsciously acquire information. In effect, learning should be:

• Interesting, fun, interactive, collaborative, cool, compelling, exciting, social or friendly, challenging, authentic (simulations for instance), flexible (learn when want to learn), user generated, captivating (draw learners into it—learning is a perk not a terrible experience)
• Simply stated, an alternative to the regular classroom.

The Power of Pull: Imagine walking by a bakery and encountering the tantalizing smell of your favorite cookie being baked. It would be almost impossible to resist going in and partaking. Learning can, and should, present the same attraction for learners. Ideally, it should be irresistible. With the pull-technique:

• Draw the learner to the knowledge.
• All learners have different modes by which they learn best.
• The top three are visual, aural and kinesthetic.
• Some people learn by reading and seeing — they are the visual learners and will absorb information most effectively this way.
• The aural group learns by hearing. They need to hear information in addition to seeing it to fully absorb and embrace it.
• The third group needs to do, that is, have hands-on experiences to deeply seat the information in neural circuits.
• While one of these styles may predominate in an individual, it is important for training to incorporate all three modes to create a varied and interesting learning environment."
  

Gillette, Charlie. "The Power of Pull." Norwich U. (Jan. 1 2008):4.20 Jan. 2008 .

Post 29: Welcome Newport High

Welcome to Newport High School. We know there's no use for cell phones in education for kids and teachers so we have to make sure we're not allowed to use them. However, maybe there are some things we might want to consider. listen (recording)

The above message was created by a cell phone call in front of the Newport HS faculty (this is how I began the presentation). Jott (a free Web2.0 tool) not only recorded the message, but converted it to text and automatically posted in this blog.

While the principal (Jon Zagel) did some preliminary staff meeting activities, I quickly created a Newport HS Blog and uploaded some pics and a video taken moments before. Enjoy.

See Post #22 for the Workshop Agenda.

Post 28: Sketchcast Web2.0 tool

OK --- just another little Web2.0 tool. But, it won't take you long to realize that Sketchcast.com sure has alot of potential. It took me 3 minutes to create this great little demonstration of Website Layout and Design strategies. Just remember, a picture is worth a thousand words --- and one just sketches and talks, then Posts the results in Blog or website. Imagine the possibilities.

Post 27: gMail, Blogging, and Google Docs Tutorials

Are you looking for a set of activities or tutorials for setting up a gMail Account, Blog, or Google Docs? Look no further. I created the following activities using Google Docs, then Published so they would be available to everyone. Feel free to link to these activities or send any ideas for improvement.

1. Lesson/Tutorial: creating a gMail Account

2. Lesson/Tutorial: creating and posting a Blog

• View video: Blogging in Plain English (3 min) and Blogging for educators and students and Creating your first Blog (2 minutes)
  
• Creating a Blog and Posting (using Google Blogger)

3 (Hood River). Lesson/Tutorial: Customizing Blogger

• Editing the Profile
  
• Inserting images, videos, docs, sheets, presentations and more.
  

3 (Sylvan Middle School). Lesson/Tutorial: creating and effectively using Google Docs