C4T #2

Jenny Luca is the Director of eLearning and ITC at Toorak College in Australia. She has a passion for learning how technology can be applied to the educational setting. Her blog, Lucacept , is all about her "intercepting the Web" and sharing her knowledge with others.

School's Out Friday #1

Ms. Luca posted about an upcoming series of YouTube videos made by author John Green and his brother called Mental Floss. John Green is a popular Young Adult novelist who's books are known for their thought-provoking life lessons cleverly woven into what a very well-written story. The videos of Mental Floss are full of random and quirky facts that are meant to inform as well as entertain and engage. Ms. Luca goes on to share in this post that she recently sent out her 20,000 tweet. Wow! She addresses that some people think Twitter is a waste of time, but that this couldn't be more wrong. Twitter is an invaluable resource that allows users access to a wealth of knowledge.

I was very excited when I saw that Ms. Luca was also interested in John Green. He is a fabulous author and a great thinker. His novels are the type that have a myriad of different audiences without coming off as forced. I agree with Ms. Luca on her view of Twitter. Since I started this class, it has become more than just a place to read about what people are eating and veiled references to heartbreaks. It has become a tool that I can use in my career that will allow me to view ideas I wouldn't otherwise be able to.

School's Out Friday #2

This post focused on a video by Adam Leipzig called How to Know Your Life Purpose in 5 Minutes. In this video, Mr. Leipzig says there are 5 questions we need to ask ourselves in order to discover our purpose in life:
      1.Who are you?
      2. What do you do?
      3. What do you do it for?
      4. What do people want or need?
      5. How do they change or transform as a result of what you give them?
Ms. Luca recently presented a conference on what we as educators are preparing our students for. She stated that sharing her knowledge has become her life purpose and that she hopes she is teaching educators how to better prepare their students for the future.

Mr. Leipzig's video was wonderful and I suggest that everyone watch it. It really made me think about what I'm doing with my life and how best to do that. It's a scary thought; knowing that we have to prepare our students for the unknown. Within the video, Mr. Leipzig suggests that successful people focus on who they serve and how to make them happy. I think if we can impart some knowledge of this skill onto our students, then we ourselves will be successful educators.