Lately I have found myself asking questions about things I encounter and researching the answers. Today was a great example of this. My family and I traveled to Frisco, CO where we visited the Frisco Historical Museum. As we wondered through the various exhibits and structures that have been preserved, I viewed an notice on newsprint that was used for the insulation for the house advertising a product called Schlitz Malt Syrup. I am familiar with the history of Schilitz beer but I never heard of this product.

After some investigation I found that this was a product created and sold by the Schlitz company during Prohibition. All breweries were forced to create new products and diversify in order to survive. Malt syrup was marketed as a cooking product during this era.

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I have been sharing links to blog posts of other participants at the recent International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in Denver via my Twitter account and thought it was time to share my own impressions of this event. This was my second ISTE conference (formerly NECC) which I was privileged to attend and I found this to be an even more rewarding experience than my previous conference.

I believe the key reason I was able to benefit so much more from this ISTE experience is that I did a much better job of planning my time in advance of the conference. The conference itself and all the activity associated with the event can be overwhelming. It is clear to me that a study of the session program, a plan of attack for which vendors to approach in the exhibit hall (if one chooses to set foot in their at all), and a list of those folks with whom you want to personally connect is important for a satisfying experience. Fortunately, I was prepared to do all of these things in 2010.

 

Here is a list of observations and activities which were meaningful to me at the conference, listed in no particular order:

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I was working on a number of project during the day today. While I was working I was monitoring the Twitter posts of those I follow from the world of educational technology. One of my favorite leaders in this field is educational technology futurist Alan November. Apparently he was giving a keynote speech this afternoon somewhere in California. As posts appeared I began gathering them in a single document to share with my colleagues at Shepherd of the Hills. Here are the quotes I collected from Alan November:

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In my last post I shared how I intended to keep the importance of new learning in front of our faculty in staff by sharing new things which I recently...

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I appreciate what David Warlick does when he begins a presentation by sharing something new he learned in the last 24 hours. What this does is create ...

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Today I worked with my 7th grade World Civilizations class on an activity designed to connect their thoughts about the decline of the Roman Empire wit...

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My keyboard has been silent. My attention has been elsewhere. My voice has been quiet. Yet, it is time to get back to blogging. It is time to blog onc...

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Happy National Lutheran Schools Week! Do you want to hear why our students love attending our school? Click here and follow the link to the first grad...

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I would like to introduce you to our school 21st Century Skills wiki. This wiki has been created to document specific lessons and projects used with students at Shepherd of the Hills that connect to standards within the core curriculum but also build practical skills for a student's future. We have identified and defined eight specific 21st Century Skills, and now anyone may view the activities which serve to build these skills.

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Saturday I had the privilege of attending Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation -- a single day conference which drew over 200 participants, primarily public school teachers, to discuss technology and education. It was a fascinating and beneficial day. You may view some of the conversations here.

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Here is a list of links which may be of interest to teachers in Lutheran schools:

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I've been intrigued by the educational possibilities of Wordle, an online site which converts text into beautiful word clouds. The service works by pasting text or a link into the creation tools, and a word cloud will result. Here is a cloud from President Obama's inaugural address.

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Many of you who have followed this blog know that I very much appreciate the innovative tools which Google has produced the past several years, especially those connected to education. I've shared these tools with many other educators through this blog, through work with my own faculty, and when I work with other schools. However, my honeymoon with Google is over after they announced plans yesterday to end development of Google Notebook, a great application which allows users to copy web clippings to a virtual notebook for saving and organizing.

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Don't forget to check out and participate in the Online Conference for 21st Century Lutheran Education, being held for the first time this week, Thursday through Saturday. You may participate live in the scheduled sessions, or view archived content at a later time.

There are many sessions of interest to teachers in Lutheran schools. Here are some of the highlighted sections:

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Here is a list of educational links for this first Monday of January:

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Every once in a while there is a post on an LEA listserv asking about mentoring programs and resources. I am proud to say that my dad has run such a p...

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I spent some time over breakfast earlier this week with a dynamic business owner/leader from our congregation. My goal was to get a sense of whether our school and program is on target with our 21st Century Skills emphasis in providing our students the opportunity to build practical skills which will serve them will in their lives outside of formal education.

The good news is that the session served as an affirmation of much of what we are doing at Shepherd of the Hills Christian School in preparing our students for THEIR future, and not OUR past. However, the challenge we face in seeking to incorporate the building of practical skills within the core curriculum promises to be a long-term, almost never-ending, project. Working to best position our students in new ways is going to require ongoing vigilance and hard work. It will also require the commitment of the entire educational staff, not just one person.

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I took note this morning of this article which points out that Internet has surpassed traditional newspapers as the new source of choice for society. No surprise there, especially considering how newspapers are struggling right now. The Tribune Company (owners of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times) is in bankruptcy. The New York Times has experienced a significant drop in revenue. Here in Denver, the venerable Rocky Mountain News is in danger of folding if it does not find a buyer (not likely in the current economic and competitive climate). Americans no longer see newspapers as relevant today.

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Hope you all had a great celebration of the Christ child's birth into this world of sin for our salvation!

I've been gathering a number of resources through the past month but I haven't taken much time to share them with others. One of my New Year's resolutions is to do a better job of that in the new year. Admittedly, that has been a resolution the past few years as well, so we'll see how I do. In the meantime, here are some online resources which may be of interested to Lutheran educators:

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Dr. Bernard Bull at Concordia University Wisconsin has provided leadership in creating the first online conference specifically connected with Lutheran education and the mission of Lutheran schools. To that end, the first Online Conference on 21st Century Lutheran Education will take place between January 8th-10th, 2009. Click here for more information and registration instructions.

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