Tuesday, February 20, 2007

And A Child Shall Lead Them

At the risk of turning this into the "Did You Know" blog, I wanted to share a quick story with you. As a result of the Did You Know presentation going a little bit viral, I've been getting lots of emails with some interesting stories. I may eventually blog about some of those, but this is probably my favorite.

Quite a few folks in my school district have been getting one of the emails with the link to the presentation - and most of them don't know that it was created here. Some of them are forwarding it on to other folks that do know where it came from so they send it on to me. I then sometimes ask about who sent it to them, just to get a feel for how it's spreading. Here's a response I received today:
Interestingly enough, [another teacher in her building] sent it to me. It was sent to her by her daughter who is a sixth grader here.
Now, I'm probably reading too much into this, but to me it's somehow apropos that a sixth grader is informing the adults around her about this presentation.

9 comments:

  1. LOL...that is pretty amusing!

    By the way, I've been asked by our Vision committee at our campus to re-post it on our blog.

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  2. What is the music you chose for the background of this movie?

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  3. I think children often can see the light when adults have trouble finding it (so to speak). That again reminds me of the story of my niece I shared with you earlier. My 3 year old was struggling with a marker cap and wanted to color. So I kindly asked my niece to please take it off for her. And my 5 year old niece understands constructivist learning already, as she replied, "Aunt Barb if I always take the top off for her she will never learn to do it herself!" Ouch- being told the learning process by a 5 year old.

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  4. You are a credit to the world of education, especially the niche ecosystem called "the future of learning," Karl. Well done...and I adore the irony of your 'colleagues' passing the presentation around without putting 2+2 together. One could 'deconstruct' what that means on a number of levels, but I'll refrain from the criticism and stay with the 'congratulations' perspective instead.

    Seriously, it's a cool story, Karl.

    Looking forward to the DesignShare article you wrote causing a few more folks to come your way. We'll be publishing it next week. I'll let you know. Thanks again for the great work you did. Chris Lehmann also wrote a piece that will be a great ally to what you're sharing, BTW, and I'm thinking about publishing a piece I'm doing on the Map of Future Forces future-planning tools for school design and education that was created by The Institute for The Future on behalf of KnowledgeWorks. Clearly your piece needs to be sent to the leadership team there...which I'll take care of soon.

    Again, great job! And enjoy the continued irony of colleagues saying, "Karl, look what I found. You oughta check it out..."

    Cheers,
    Christian
    http://thinklab.typepad.com
    www.designshare.com

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  5. VERY cool story. You just KNOW that this 6th grade girl now KNOWS that "The Race Is On!!" I hope it somehow instills in here a sense of panic or at least a sense of purpose as she faces her education.

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  6. And proud you should be Karl. The work is provocative and inspiration at the same time. Your work has most certainly traveled the country/globe and as a result will make an impact.

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  7. :) A friend in Japan sent the video to me in Germany. I have just one question: Can I work for you?

    Google Video was recently blocked at my school and my repeated requests for access are denied. I'm so frustrated I can't see straight but I'm glad there are administrators who can see the big picture. Please do what you can to spread the word to others "in charge." The video is a great start - keep up the good fight.

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  8. You will be posting links to the DesignShare article once it's available, won't you?

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  9. When I watched the "What if" presentation at the beginning of the school year I felt the need to pass the message on with urgency to my students. It is truly a powerful message and I love that a 6th grader felt the need to pass it on too! Thank you for sharing this story.

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