Gifted Education 2.0

tutorial and resources for using Podcasts as writing assignments

Recognizing and nurturing giftedness in young children presents an important challenge to educators. Schools need to respond to their educational needs before their abilities diminish or become less recognizable to those who can do something about them.

Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change: The 21st century is a world in constant change. In A New Culture of Learning, Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown pursue an understanding of how the forces of change, and emerging waves of interest associated with these forces, inspire and invite us to imagine a future of learning that is as powerful as it is optimistic. Our understanding of what constitutes "a new culture of learning" is based on several basic assumptions about the world and how learning occurs:

parents, school personnel and board members had named consistent communication of the restructuring a key priority in order for it to succeed and leaders have made sure to get that information to parents and district leaders since before the changes took place.

How to attend Gifted Education Conferences in Second LifeRoya Klingner of The Bavarian Center for Gifted and Talented Children, among the many wonderful things that she does, runs monthly meetings on giftedness in Second Life. These are usually advertised in Mary's Gifted Contacts on Facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_156128687756927  and on Twitter but are also advertised on The Bavarian Center for Gifted and Talented Children website.

Recently I've come to the idea that the question "how do you differentiate?" is the wrong question to ask (or at least coming in the wrong sequence). The essential question should be "what do you differentiate?" By differentiating instruction I am changing something for some group of students. To do this I have to ask myself "what can I change and what do I need to keep the same?" What follows are three cases of differentiation, all of which change a different facet of learning.

Sometimes gifted children think they know what their parents do and do not want to hear; therefore, these children will tell parents only certain information and avoid telling them other things, such as their fears.

"In Intelligence Reframed Howard Gardner contends that "literacies, skills, and disciplines ought to be pursued as tools that allow us to enhance our understanding of important questions, topics, and themes." Today's readers become literate by learning to read the words and symbols in today's world and its antecedents. They analyze, compare, evaluate and interpret multiple representations from a variety of disciplines and subjects, including texts, photographs, artwork, and data. They learn to choose and modify their own communication based on the rhetorical situation. Point of view is created by the reader, the audience and the medium."

Great set of cyber safety topics in online videos

Search the Calvin and Hobbes comic strips for a topic or two!

For teachers hoping to infuse multimedia into their classrooms, YouTube makes for an excellent starting point. Plenty of universities, nonprofits, organizations, museums and more post videos for the cause of education both in and out of schools. The following list compiles some of the ones most worthy of attention, as they feature plenty of solid content appealing to their respective audiences and actively try to make viewers smarter.

Kodue Game Lab runs on XBox 360 or a PC running Windows. A graphic interface makes it easy for children as well as adults to create.

An online museum sharing some specific and unusual topics: poetry through the ages, Color vision and art, what is color, Van Gogh's letters and much more

a collection of maps of past and future including climate history, Paleo-globes, earth history, and animations

After clicking on the "change" link, Google informs that this is an advanced feature and that it will only work for Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Sites, Google Reader, Google Voice, App Engine and Google Code. When multiple sign-in is enabled, a drop-down is displayed next to your email address at the top of the page, so you can quickly switch to a new account.