2012 MELT

On MLK Day, teachers from the schools in my region (Minnesota River Valley) gathered to share our expertise and best practices. It was a busy day, filled with demonstrations of new technologies and a vision of where education is headed in this, the 21st Century. Most interesting, perhaps, was a demo where a science teacher created an etextbook in minutes, to be read online (e.g. over an iPad, which seem to be ubiquitous everywhere but my own home district). How interesting, then to hear three days later about Apple's foray into the same market.

Meanwhile, a teacher/speaker (yours truly) gave a presentation on the myriad of self-publishing options these days, from photo sites that let you create professional, modern scrapbooks to vanity presses, to online mentor publishers like lulu.com and createspace.com. Of course I began by sharing my own journey from idea to book-in-hand with the Super Power of the Day trilogy, complete with PowerPoint slideshow and lots of hands on show and tell.

My PLC group ended the day drinking mocha lattes and watching a flock of cardinals through the back windows of a local coffee shop. We rehashed the info of the day and speculated on the future of learning and storytelling. It is surely an exciting time for both.