I think I have found a new vision, a new paradigm, a “New Story of Learning” in the 21st Century. It is creative and innovative. It is passionate and kind. It is natural and real. It leads me down a path to the truth and beauty of learning and the beauty and truth of humanity. It describes for me how we can learn to know, do, be, and live together. You will find all this in a book written by Stephanie Pace Marshall, The Power to Transform. Dr. Marshall is Founding President and President Emerita of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy®.
Dr. Marshall’s language is so powerful and universal that is it not a story for educators only. It is a story that invites conversations, conversations among educators and people from every discipline and field of inquiry or human pursuit. The more perspectives the better.
So this post is a little different. It presents you with a digital tool called a VoiceThread. Many people, including students, teachers and other educators, are using this platform to invite participation. You have to register to use the VoiceThread at their website, but that is easy and although using it is fairly intuitive, there are tutorials on the website.
In the VoiceThread I’ve created below, you’ll find seven quotes from the book, The Power to Transform. One quote per VoiceThread page, or “slide,” is presented for you to read. Here’s an example of what it looks like.
The 1st arrow points to the button you click to add your comment (text, audio, video, or file uploaded to the page). The 2nd arrow points to where you click to “turn the page” forward or backward.
You can participate in this “New Story of Learning” conversation by
- reading this VoiceThread,
- commenting on one or more pages,
- visiting Dr. Marshall’s website for more information about the book and her work, and
- reading The Power to Transform.
Dennis Richards
Superintendent
Retired, but still a Learner & Teacher
dennisar at gmail dot com
innovation3.edublogs.org
This is cross posted on innovation3.edublogs.org.