Pay Attention!

For my technology course called C-21, I have to learn how to work with images and how they can be incorporated into a variety of different applications.  I have never embedded a video into my blog posts and did not really know how to begin.  It seemed like it would be easy to do.  Pretty intuitive.  After several attempts, I figured it out.  I wasn't afraid to try.  I wasn't afraid to mess something up.  In fact, I did just that.  This was my 3rd attempt to embed a video from You Tube into this blog post.  Innovate.  Create.  Make it happen.  Don't be afraid to go beyond the edge of your comfort zone.  I think that's a main point with technology today.  Push yourself to think and learn outside of your comfort zone.  It will be good for you.  I wanted to find a video that I could include within my blog...and I think I found something pertinent for us to contemplate.  So much of what we do in school has been challenged lately.  View this video and tell me what you think about it.  Join me at the edge of my own capabilities, keep an open mind, and be ready for the challenge to your thinking....

Welcome from the Edge!

What exactly does it mean to "learn from the edge?"  Why would we want to "learn from the edge?"  How does one "learn from the edge" and yet still remain sane?

Lev Vygotsky revolutionized the way we think about educating students with his concept of the ZPD--the zone of proximal development.  This ZPD provided a new contextualization of how we approach teaching our students.  Vygotsky reasoned that in order for the learner to truly learn, a more knowledgeable "other" needs to provide a nudge to push that learner just beyond what he or she can do independently WITH support.  With support, the learner can accomplish far more than what he or she could do independently.  Socially speaking, this makes sense.  We are social creatures that learn in sociocultural contexts.  Since we are all students in one fashion or another, I believe we all need to be pushed just beyond what we can do independently.  In other words, we need to travel to the "edge" of our current realities in order to be open to what might be possible and within our reach.

Just think about that.  Daily, we ask our students to go to the edge of their learning and be willing and open to learn new things.  To assimilate new learning to existing knowledge structures.

Are we, as educators, as leaders, indeed, as learners--ready to do the same?  Will you please join me as we travel to the edge and learn beyond our wildest dreams???