Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Category: literacy

  • Takeaways and Learning from the MSON Summer 2020 Annual Conference

    Last week I had the opportunity to attend the second edition of the MSON Summer 2020 Annual Conference, held virtually via Zoom. MSON is the “Malone Schools Online Network” (@MaloneSchools), and for the first time this year (I’m guessing because of COVID-19) their annual conference was open to educators everywhere. Our school (where my wife…

  • Learn From Mike Wesch How to Create Better Videos for Students

    The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed school leaders, teachers, students and parents in the United States to respond in different ways to “shelter in place / shelter at home” mandates. It has pushed many K-12 teachers into the role of “emergency remote learning” instructors, even if the courses they teach were never intended to be “online”…

  • “PlanDemic” Disinformation Teachable Moment During COVID-19

    All of us using the Internet today, regardless of age or past education credentials, need additional media literacy skills in our present age of “information pollution” and the neo-coronavirus pandemic. This past week, large numbers of people on social media shared video links to a purported “documentary” titled “Plandemic” which allegedly reveals “the hidden agenda…

  • Recent Virtual Workshops by Wes (March – April 2020)

    The move to “remote learning” at our school in late-March 2020 has corresponded with an uptick in the number of online workshops and webinars I’ve offered for teachers, mainly for faculty at our school as part of my “day job,” but also a few evening and weekend virtual presentations. All of the workshops I’ve led…

  • 3 Ways to Become a More Connected Educator During the COVID-19 Crisis

    The neo-Coronavius / COVID-19 crisis is upon us in the United States. As we grapple as teachers with how to maintain wellness and self-care for ourselves, our families, and our students, it’s important to consider how we can each become more connected to our educator colleagues around the world for support and idea sharing. In…

  • Hashtag Power of #HongKongProtests, Twitter Bots, PsyOps and Media Literacy

    Yesterday morning I listened to a fantastic World Affairs (@world_affairs) podcast interview with UC Irvine professor, historian, and author Jeff Wasserstrom (@jwassers) by MaryKay Magistad (@MaryKayMagistad). Dr. Wasserstrom is the author of “Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink” from February 2020, which was also the title of the interview from February 5, 2020. Dr. Wasserstrom…

  • Facilitating Student eBook and Book Publishing with Book Creator and Lulu

    For the past three years, I’ve had the opportunity to partner with our high school English department chair, Whitney Finley, who teaches a unique and engaging creative writing class for 12th graders in which they write and publish their own children’s picture books. After creating their books, as a group students visit our Kindergarten students…

  • Thoughts on Content Filtering, Parent Education, and School Laptop Initiatives

    The Oklahoman, our largest Oklahoma City based newspaper by circulation, published a scathing article today about Norman Public Schools’ new MacBook Air and iPad “1 to 1 Learning” initiative. The article is titled, “‘They want them gone’: Norman parents complain of school devices.” In case The Oklahoman puts this article behind their paywall as they…

  • The Tyranny of Current Events

    A few weeks ago, I shared and led a lesson at our church which included discussion about the famous Apollo 8 mission to the moon in December 1968. Apollo 8 was: the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first to reach the Moon, orbit it, and return. Its three-astronaut crew—Frank Borman,…

  • Tips for Media Literacy and Avoiding Foreign Political Propaganda Influence

    The United States is not only engaged in a new “Tech Cold War” against China and Russia, we are also under information influence attack from foreign as well as domestic adversaries who are aggressively working to build “followers” on Facebook and other social media platforms they can use to exert unconstitutional influence on our political…