Rethinking Learning
conversations about the future of teaching and learning
Barbara Bray
be creative, innovate, take risks, unlearn to learn
Oakland, CA

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Defining the Skills Gap - Part Two

By Barbara Bray      April 21, 2010 -- 01:09 PM
There ARE highly qualified people AVAILABLE right now -- collecting unemployment checks. Consider that one of the top careers of the unemployed are tech workers. These are responsible and very talented people who were laid off for H1B visa workers working for 30% of what U.S. workers were paid or even less.

It started during Reagan’s administration when it was put in place where workers could be hired as W2 workers working as contractors not paid any benefits. So many of these talented and qualified workers were not counted in employment statistics because they were considered temporary ...   more...
Comments: 2   Last Comment By small Barbara Bray  April 28, 2010 -- 08:44 AM

Such Tweet Sorrow

By Barbara Bray      April 19, 2010 -- 07:47 AM
Here is an interesting twist on Romeo and Juliet that is taking shape in England: a collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Mudlark, a cell phone company. They create a Twitter version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet called Such Tweet Sorrow.



It takes place in an English market town where Juliet is posting a video on YouTube, Mercutio has lost his cell phone, Nurse is a lawyer, and Romeo is too busy play Xbox to do much tweeting.

Interesting take on modernizing this love story. Remember West Side Story? That was the 1960 version. So now you can join by following any or all of ...   more...
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Defining the Skills Gap - Part One

By Barbara Bray      April 18, 2010 -- 07:36 AM
Employment figures are rising this month. In March the payroll jobs increased by 162,000. The Dow topped 11,000. This is showing that the recovery is actually happening. However, the recovery is going to be slow not only because businesses are just starting to get back on their feet, credit is still tight for businesses, and one big factor many are just starting to realize: employers are saying that the employees they need are not available.

Tapan Munroe wrote:

Manpower Inc.’s 2009 worldwide talent survey involving 39,000 employers in 39 countries concluded that nearly one-third of the employers ...   more...
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The Way Free is Going

By Barbara Bray      April 15, 2010 -- 08:49 PM
Ning offers online networks and the ability for members to set up their own communities. Millions of people have used Ning for free. I wasn't even aware that there are premium versions. TechCrunch just announced that Ning’s Bubble Burst - no more Free networks and cut 40% of its staff. What does this mean for you if you are on several networks (communities) in Ning?

Currently, Ning’s premium options include support (which has a $10/month and $100/month options for different service levels); Custom domains ($5 a month); Extra storage and bandwidth ($10...   more...
Comments: 1   Last Comment By Teresa Roebuck  April 15, 2010 -- 09:16 PM

The Power of Crowdsourcing

By Barbara Bray      April 5, 2010 -- 08:12 AM
Looking for a new way to connect to thousands maybe millions? Most of us are turning to the Internet and social media. CloudCrowd is a brainchild of talented software engineers and hackers who were frustrated with the Internet and how it could use the crowds to outsource.

From their about page:
CloudCrowd is the next evolution in business process outsourcing. The company uses the Internet to tap into vast underutilized pools of talent, labor, and creativity to get work done. CloudCrowd helps companies reduce overhead, increase efficiency, and lower costs by breaking large projects ...   more...
Comments: 1   Last Comment By Amit  May 3, 2010 -- 09:47 PM

Content Marketing: Interview with David Szetela

By Barbara Bray      March 25, 2010 -- 10:21 AM

Looking for other sources of revenue? How about increasing traffic to your website? You may want to look at placing ads on your site. If you are planning to add text or graphical ads to your content, then I highly recommend reading David Szetela’s book: Customer Now.  You can download it as an eBook.

Using your content to build revenue is an interesting sideline for teachers. Just think about all the content you have created and its value. Instead of selling your content, how about putting relevant ads within your content. I asked David some questions about because I had ...   more...

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Vote and Sign Petition for 21st Century Students

By Barbara Bray      March 7, 2010 -- 10:00 AM
I just set up a petition on Change.org for 21st Century Students. I looked through all the causes and did not see a cause that mentioned this so I decided to start one. I need your help in getting this cause noticed. Go to Vote for 21st Century Citizens.


Let me know if I need to change anything. Please share and encourage others to vote. The timeline is short. Thanks!    more...
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My Challenge to Obama's Challenge to Schools

By Barbara Bray      March 2, 2010 -- 07:33 AM
President Obama is proposing $900 million to states and school districts that agree to drastically change or even close the worst performing schools. The problem is once again focused on schools and teachers. Obama said, "There's got to be a sense of accountability."

We have had, for most of these low performing schools, a big sense of accountability for the last nine or so years. I had a lot of hope for Obama and making change for our country, but this hit a nerve for me. This is one more stab at public schools with the students that have no other means to get the education they need to be successful. ...   more...
Comments: 1   Last Comment By Natalie  March 4, 2010 -- 01:50 PM

Technology's Impact on Learning

By Barbara Bray      February 14, 2010 -- 10:14 AM
Technology may not make the difference in how a student learns. What makes a difference is the learning environment: how the teacher designs learning, and how they use and integrate technology appropriately. In some cases, maybe no technology is appropriate. In-class discussions may work better. Think-Pair-Share where students are looking into each others’ eyes works well and may increase their self-esteem. Maybe going outside or on field trips. However, there are wonderful opportunities for technology where there is no access to valuable resources.

Add video conferencing for a field trip ...   more...
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Participating Online

By Barbara Bray      February 10, 2010 -- 06:41 PM
What does it mean to participate online? I asked a few of my teacher friends this who are more of the boomer age category. Many told me they really only felt comfortable with email. Some of them joined Facebook and have added friends. They usually do not comment on status updates from their friends. They send them a personal message.

At first, I thought that feeling comfortable only emailing instead of posting or commenting is only with boomers, but I am finding that people of all ages use different social media and participate in online learning communities for different purposes and in ...   more...
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