In my MTM online class we've been the idea that our students will need to be life-long learners, constantly evaluating and building their skills, to compete in the 21st century job market. Certainly we as teachers have always needed to be life-long learners to be effective. The difference is that in years past, companies would provide whatever training its work force needed. However, professional training and development has been significantly cut by many organizations. Individuals must scramble to build their own professional development networks in order to grow as professionals.

Dennis at Tech4Teachers has posted an excellent review of VoiceThread, an online tool which enhances and encourages the building of digital stories through a unique collaborative model. You can read what he wrote in his blog post, but clearly this is a tool that has value to educators. Now the hard part -- making the time to experiment and explore with this site. I can't wait to get started, however!

Here is another reason why we need to teach online safety techniques to our students (and perhaps to our parents!). Check out the Pew Internet Report on Teens and Online Stranger Contact. Nearly one-third of all students reported being contacted through the Internet by someone that they did not know, and 7% reported feeling uncomfortable or threatened.

A colleague who is taking the same MTM class as I has pointed me in the direction of Slam Dunk lessons. This model is one applies inquiry based learning to a lesson which may typically be accomplished in a single class period. In addition, this model connects to specific content standards and appeals to students with a variety of learning styles, particularly visual learners.

Check out the 50 Top Computing Tips from PC Magazine. Lots of good suggestions in here. Some ideas are new. Others are ones I've heard before but have been off my radar for one reason or another. All of these are useful in their own way, either for home systems or school networks.

As you might imagine, we here in the Rocky Mountain west are quite excited about the Colordado Rockies reaching the World Series for the first time. Even in mid-September, no one would have thought it possible for the Rockies to be one of two teams left standing in October. Yet an incomprehensible streak of 21 victories in 22 games, just when it mattered most, has propelled the team toward a date with the Boston Red Sox.

It seems as if the blogging is easiest to set aside when things get busy. My apologies for that. Every once in a while I need to collect my thoughts and regroup as I seek to share ideas and resources that might be useful to other educators.

I'm seeing some good friends this weekend. What makes them good? Read on...

I'm interested in gathering a list of online wikis that have been created by Lutheran school classrooms. The purpose of this is so that I can show other teachers examples of these that are not my own wikis. I want other educators to be able to see a wide variety of ideas of what is possible today with collaborative projects.

Having a bad day? Having a really bad day, maybe the worst day? Read on how God can make it the best.

Saw a post from Andrew on an LEA listserv reminding me about the K12 Online Conference which begins this week. This is the second year for this virutal conference, which provides over 40 different sectionals related to technology and education. What makes this conference different is that it is entirely delivered through the Internet. Anyone can access asynchronous professional development on their own time this way.

Each of us working in Lutheran schools is used to connecting activities each year with our school theme. If your school is like mine, we examine possible themes and their Biblical content at the end of a school term in the process of planning for the future year. Some years it is easier to identify a them than others, but the task always is completed through the creativity of the faculty and staff.

Dennis Grice introduced me to VoiceThread on his blog, a tool which allows users to build audio stories connected with images. This is a fascinating tool, one which appears to have a great deal of potential for making classroom connections.

You might want to check out this site. This site gives users the opportunity to answer a series of questions designed to help a person discover which 2008 presidential candidate has beliefs most aligned with one's own beliefs.

I am currently taking an MTM course entitled Applying Technology in Content Areas. The current lesson deals with explorations into digital storytelling and creating virtual tours. As a result, I'm adding a number of sites to my del.icio.us links, which are publically viewable by other educators like yourselves.