Functionalism And The Least Of These

There is no quick fix to the problems facing people who do not start on equal footing in this world. As someone who believes we are all neighbors, and who believes that each of us was created with something to offer the body it is essential that I try first by loving my neighbor.


I am not sure that functionalists would agree. Everything is about the individual and what the individual can achieve. Even when placed in a group the individuals status as a group member is what makes it important, not the group itself. This view of the world rings false.


People in very different spots in life from myself have offered much to me, if only I listen at accept them as my brother or sister. If I create a space people will open up to the depth that all people are created for, a depth that reflects the love that created and redeems each of us. The best I can do for my students is bring them into community with this truth as well.


How do you show students justice your context? How do you bring your students into relationship with the least of these? Do you think it important to relate your students to the broader context of the subjects you teach? As a science teacher I was taught about interacting with concepts, inquiry, experimenting. How should I apply these concepts to teaching my students about how physics should impact their treatment of everyone on Earth? Am I having the interact and explore how to me more just members of the world with their knowledge? I hope so.

Upload a Keynote Presentation

I got this question from a teacher today and thought it would make a great post as well.

Hi Jim!

I'm hoping you can help us out...

Our MS (6-7-8) Spanish team is already planning the final project for our students.   We would like students to work in pairs or individually to create a presentation (think Power Point or Keynote) about a Spanish speaking country.  Then, we want students to upload their presentations to a Posterous site so they can view their classmates presentations.

Lately, I've been working with the Google Docs version of Power Point.  I LOVE it because the presentations are SO easy to embed into blogs (Example:  http://hollandchristianfles.blogspot.com/2010/03/san-antonio.html)

Most of the students are used to working with Keynote, but when you upload a Keynote to Posterous, you just get the file that you have to download.  

Here's my question...Is there a way to "embed" a Keynote on Posterous?  (Sort of like how the Google Presentation embeds)?  I know one "easy" solution would be to have all students create a Google account and use Google docs, but 6th and 7th grade students aren't 13...so I don't think they can create accounts.

You are right about Google Docs presentation being really sweet, but I too have shied away from doing real work with it because of the inherent limitation of a web based software that I might want to put a lot of pictures and video in. I see a couple of options for you. I had the same question recently and these are the solutions that I ran across. There are links to examples of each.
  1. Export the Keynote as ppt. Posterous will display this, but movies and audio do not come through and I do not really like the format very much (very slow loading). This same thing would happen if you used OpenOffice.org to make the presentations and sent those to Posterous.
  2. You can export the Keynote as images and send them all to Posterous. If you export them to a folder, right click on the folder and choose Compress from the menu. Then just attach that zip file to the email to Posterous and Posterous turns it into a very nice gallery. The pictures display in order and can be clicked on really easily. You still do not get audio or video. I think this actually turned out the nicest of all the options I tried when getting read for my MACUL presentation.
  3. Export from Keynote as a Quicktime. You get all the audio and video. You will have to be incredibly careful about length and presentation size. I was not careful about these things and could not upload mine this way.
  4. Create the blogs on the school blog server. Keynotes upload to it and show up great.
  5. You could use Voicethread.com. The free accounts are pretty limited, 25MB, so if there is any audio or video you will probably go over.
  6. You could use slideshare.com. No audio or video with a 100 MB upload limit. They take Keynotes directly.
These are my thoughts.

Student as Contributor: The Digital Learning Farm

Title
Student as Contributor: The Digital Learning Farm
Alternate Title
I am sweet, why hasn't the world listened to me?
Presenter
Alan November, Senior Partner, November Learning
Notes
"The real revolution is information and relationships."
"We are techno lusting nerds."
If feed back on homework is not immediate then the mistakes made start to sink in and become part of the brain pathways. By 36 hours without feedback ideas are set and the homework has done more harm than good.
"All learning is social."
"Kids are more interested in listening to a child explaining something than a teacher."
'Every teacher is a learner and every learner is a teacher."
"Kids will work overtime if teacher invites them into the teaching and learning process."
"Why don't we bring kids to staff development?"
Reflection
I love Alan November's ideas. I was surprised to find out that most of the young teachers at the conference had not heard of him but felt like his message was old and tired. They said they had it all through their education classes. I was glad to hear this but also somewhat surprised, not all new teachers have caught the vision.

Student Cell Phones in Learning

Title
Student Cell Phones in Learning
Alternate Title
Lot Of Interesting Things To Do With Cell Phones
Presenter
Liz Kolb, Lecturer, University of Michigan, and Adjunct Professor, Madonna University

Presentation

Notes
Liz thinks very creatively about how to use cell phones in learning. What I appreciate most about her is she think way outside the box on how to use tools, which I also like to do. 
Jumbli.com - online word game. no control but could be a fun bell ringer.
contxt.com - online business cards. Could also be used to build scavenger hunts.
dailybooth.com - public place to send pictures to from cell phones, like a twitter for cell phone cameras.
It is time for me to figure out google voice.
She showed off scvngr.com which I love but is a big deal to get ready.
Reflection
Liz was off her game today.