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Here's why-- you change for the same reason you went into teaching in the first place. You change because what you do for a living was never just a job- but more a mission. You change because you are willing to do whatever it takes to make a significant difference in the lives of the students you teach. You change because you care deeply about kids and you know that unless you personally own these new skills and literacies you will not be able to give them to your students.

You change because of all the people in the world- teachers understand the value of being a lifelong learner. You change because you know intuitively relationships matter and you are interested in leaving a legacy to your kids-- through what you do for other's kids. You change because you understand learning is dynamic and that to not change means to quit growing.

Why change? Because you made the decision when you first became a teacher to do something that was larger than life and more meaningful than money, recognition, and status. You became a teacher because of change-- the changes in the world you wanted to make one kid at a time. You change because you want to do what is right-- simply because it *is* the right thing to do and you understand the need to model for others so they can do what is right as well. You are use to hard work and long hours. You are use to commitment with little recognition. You know what you do has lasting results

I want to tell them that pedagogy matters. That we have to empower, even if that means giving up the soft comforts of security... of filtering... of mandatory curriculum... of lecture.

Mind Meister's basic account is free and has all of the features that a teacher or student would ever need. With the free account users can collaborate with others, share via email or embedding, and download or export files. One of the features I really like is the ability to add active links to websites. The linking feature is a good one for students trying to organize their thoughts for a research paper. The intuitive piece of Mind Meister is in the creation aspects. To add a new topic or "idea box" users simply click the green "add" button. To remove an item click the "delete" button. Organizing the items with Mind Meister is a simple matter of dragging them to the position you want them in. Changing the size and type of text is as easy as changing the size and type of text in a word document.

Applications for EducationMind Meister could be used by students to record and organize their ideas and resources for research papers. The ability to add active links to websites helps students keep track of their resources and how those resources will be used in their paper. Mind Meister is a collaborative tool so it's very useful for students who are working on a group project or presentation. The embedding codes provided by Mind Meister make it possible for users to include their mind maps as a part of a wiki, blog, or website

Education should be about preparing our children for their future. Cellphones are an integral part of our children's futures that should be utilized in the classroom.

We should teach children that cell phones can be used for more than just sending text messages to their friends.

Generally speaking, schools are excruciatingly slow to change. Even when schools are making a concerned effort to be innovative and re-think traditional modes of learning, it often ends up being a variation of what’s already in place.

has to be driven by a focus on authentic learning and learner competency. What can our students do? What should they be able to do? How do we help them become capable of doing the things that really matter?