I’m sitting still for a few minutes here at the Minnesota Educational Media Organization (MEMO) conference in Mankato. The talk went well this morning, and I followed it with a workshop called “Harnessing the Digital Landscape”. Somehow, it ended with a tutorial on producing a podcast — I don’t know how that happened.
A librarian walked up to me just a few minutes ago and told me about the 16 foot bulletin board in her media center, that was a bane of her existence, trying to keep it updated. She said that this year, she carried a digital camera around with her taking pictures of students and teachers through the first couple of days of school, with lots of smiles and happy people looking forward to a new year. She started placing the pictures on her bulletin board, with captions written on paper.
Then after a couple of days, she stopped. Very quickly, students started asking why she hadn’t updated the pictures and she handed them a camera and said, you do it. Now students will come to her with an idea for a series of pictures and captions, she hands them the camera and they make it happen. She has turned her students into school journalists. It less technology than I typically have people tell me about, but sentiment is right on spot. Giving students voice for their experience.
Biggest treat of the conference is finally meeting Doug Johnson. We haven’t had a lot of time to talk, but it’s good to finally put a face to all of his wisdom. I’m also looking forward to meeting Tim Wilson, though I haven’t run into him yet. Perhaps I can tell you about that tomorrow!
2¢ worth from the prairie!