Concord's experiment in online learning

Teaching, meet your future.

I ran across this on Will Richardson's Weblogg-ed today, the blog that every good teacher must read, and every bad teacher must fear.

Below is a plan from Concord School to teach kids, really little kids with disabilities, no less, how to network using online social media. It's quite a plan, encompassing photo sharing, blogging, game making, music creation, social networking, and more.

In an age where many teachers' idea of incorporating new media into the classroom is to look up stuff using Google, this is - as Richardson says - visionary.

"They used Scuttle to house their own social bookmarks, WordPress MU to blog, and Scratch and others for social game making activities. Be sure to spend some time on the skills matrix at the bottom. All in all, it’s an impressive suite of tools and pedagogies that did much to change learning."

I've called a May meeting for the Creative Communications program at Red River College, in which we'll discuss more collaborative learning that incorporates new media, and knocks down the walls (at least a bit) between our classic majors: Advertising, Journalism, PR, and Broadcast.

I'm looking forward to the meeting - I've had nothing but positive feedback from my fellow instructors since I set it up. There are probably two lists we need to make at that meeting: things we can do now ourselves to get started, and things we can do down the road with help from the college (in terms of tech support, permission, scheduling, red tape, etc).

This is not to say that new media tools are the solution to the traditional issues that prevent "good teaching," just new ways to learn using a medium with which all of our future grads will need to master in order to function and lead the workplaces of the future. That's all.

Publish at Scribd or explore others: School Work schools socialnetworking

Related stories from Kenton's Infotainment Scan:

• Will Google replace me?
• The media is all one thing. Deal with it, education

Dan Falloon pens most memorable line of the year

Dan, is that you?

Here's a clip (below) from Winnipeg funnyman, RRC grad '09, and - legend has it - Leprechaun.

Dan's opening line, which he wrote in Comedy Writing class and performed at the King's Head comedy night has only gained traction throughout the year and, I dare say, has achieved legendary status as one of the funniest and most memorable.

This is it:

"I'm Dan Falloon and I don't look like most people."

It's a classic opening stand-up line. I love that it's simple - only 10 words long - yet still surprising, and, of course, funny. It draws the audience's attention to the stage. It would kill on Letterman.

Here's the mark of a great line: people can't stop repeating it. Many a-time this year, I've heard the following conversation:

Person one: "Who is Dan Falloon?"
Person two: "He's the guy who doesn't look like most people."

Whatta hook!

Lots of comics never get a good opening line or figure out their "brand." And some attempts are just a bit obvious or clunky to work. Glen Foster, who is one of my favorite Canadian comics, has always called himself, "That Canadian Guy."

Glen has the classic problem of just being "funny" and, ironically, in comedy that's not enough; you need to be a "gay comic," "minority comic," or "prop comic" for people to "get" you. And that's where Carrot Top and Jeff Foxworthy's "You know you're a redneck when..." came from. Yes, they're lame, but these guys are also selling out arenas.

My most successful opening line was always a bit hard to say, relied on the word "Mennonite" too much, and took on the format of a standard joke to work:

"I'm half Mennonite and half Norwegian. Which means tonight, on this stage, I will rape and pillage myself."

The punch isn't bad, I guess. The premise is true. "Rape and pillage," like "jaws of life," is always funny. And it does kill in Carman, Winkler, and Morden.

But I like Dan's better. So, without further ado, here's Dan Falloon, and he doesn't look like most people: