A long time ago (in blog years) I wrote a post entitled: You won’t find any snarky, grammar/spelling Nazis here, in which I attempt to encourage you to write without worrying too much about stumbling over all those silly and often confusing rules and conventions.

Then, as sort of a disclaimer, I wrote another post entitled: das wiked. buh yo! u wanna get tada nxt levl? wateva, in which I dialed it back a bit.

And now I would like to share with you a TED talk by the cutest presenter I’ve seen on TED to date. Erin McKean is one of the youngest editors of a big five dictionary. Her official job title is lexicographer–a person who monitors and records uses of language. And my first impression of her is that she’s adorable–in a smart geeky kind of way.

Now, it’s estimated that there are about 540,000 words in the English dictionary–about 5X the amount that existed when Shakespeare was alive.

So Ms. McKean wants to put a a whole new definition on “The Dictionary.” But I won’t spoil it for you. Watch the video. Then let me know–what do you think? Should we let just anybody play? If we do, are we just setting ourselves up for something like this? Ultimately, would that be a bad thing?

Alright, that’s enough. 3 posts in 3 days. I’ve got to go type up the abstract for my master’s action research project.

“We have, consequently, the comparatively complex problem in educating our young of training them not simply to assume uncritically the patterns of the past, but to recognize and cultivate their own creative possibilities; not to remain on some proven level of earlier biology and sociology, but to represent a movement of the species forward.” The Portable Jung

If I could be so presumtuous as to (gulp) add to Jung, I would ask, why stop at “educating our young” to “cultivate their own creative possibilities”? What about the rest of us?

I started a Masters program this fall and have to tell you–it’s a blast. I’m learning so many cool things! Recently we were asked to revisit our “Philosophies of Education.” So I got to play around with this the other night.

I’ve mentioned stuff like this in passing before. But I’ve never formulated (and articulated) what I believe “education” is all about so emphatically.

We had some choices for presentation, and I went with a pamphlet type of thing that we could give to students or parents, which is pretty tough to recreate here, but I think you’ll get the gist.

I imagine I’ll continue to tweek it. I’ve already changed a couple of things even after turning it in last weekend. I’m just that way I guess.

Okay, enough chit-chat.

All the stats and images came from, Shift Happens, over at Slideshare.

Learning is Heroic

According to former Secretary of Education Richard Riley, the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.

I believe that real, lasting and valuable teaching and learning is a creative process anchored to a framework of ideas about what is possible. We live in unique times. Technology is fueling an information explosion.  This has profound implications for teaching and learning. Consider, for example, these two statistical bits from one of my favorite presentations, “Shift Happens,” originally developed by Karl Fisch:

• The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38.
• The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years. For students starting a four-year technical or college degree, this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.

It’s statements like these that lead me to believe that teaching, learning, and curriculum should focus less on content, and more on the skills needed to communicate, as well as creatively and critically solve problems.

In order for this to happen, I think our entire educational landscape will have to undergo paradigm shifts that will change the very structure of what we do.  We must shake the very bedrock.

Big shifts like this mean risk. They mean venturing into unknown territory. They mean adventure.

10 years ago, who could have predicted Google? Who then could even foresee the problems that search engines would solve? Today, there are over 2.7 billion searches performed on Google each month. Information is expanding and change exponential. Tomorrow’s great thinkers and leaders are today’s risk takers and problem solvers.

They are our hero’s.

I believe we desperately need a new and heroic vision in education. One that can grow and adapt at today’s rate of change. One that leads in the exploration of new ideas. One that not only reads and writes and shares and analyzes information, but that also recognizes, values and nurtures a creative spirit–the spirit of the hero, unafraid of failure, able to take a hit and recover after setbacks, reassess the terrain, learn, adapt and continue on toward victory.

Students need skills that will allow them to solve problems that don’t exist  yet—true. But to do this, they will also need adventurous and creative attitudes to be able to adapt to the ever-changing landscape.

Learning has just become heroic. It’s a shift, I know. But . . .

Shift Happens.

The Hero Path
“We have not even to risk the hero’s adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known.
We have only to follow the thread of the hero path.
And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god.
And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves.
Where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence.
And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.”
—Joseph Campbell

One of the joys of caring for aging parents (or in-laws) is that often as the inevitable downsizing begins, you get their stuff. This might be cool if 99% of it weren’t junk. Ancient tools, stacks of picture frames, geological surveys from 1950–you get the picture.

But then, every so often something interesting pops up.

This is the case with the hundreds of boxed National Geographic Magazines Margaret and Conrad gave us a couple of years ago. Despite their the cool pictures and somewhat historical nature, they’re not worth anything–believe me, I checked. But you can’t help but keep them. They’re just so darned neat. Many of the pictures are stunning, and the stories are still fascinating–especially if you look at them like an artifact.

After awhile though, the novelty runs out and you realize you can’t keep hundreds of old magazines in your garage forever.

And then you find a 1939 issue that includes a 32 page story entitled “NEWS OF THE UNIVERSE”. So what did we know about space in 1939?

Well, for one thing–using water melting from its polar ice caps, green green vegetation flourished seasonally on Mars.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to share some of the photos and illustrations from that article. I kept the pictures in order as they appeared in the story.

So without further ado:

The caption was too far in the binding for me to get a good scan of it, but it read, “Saturn, with its strange revolving rings, as seen from an asteroid 500,000 miles away.”

I think this one’s my favorite:

About the artist:

“A mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimension.”—Oliver Wendell Holmes

This summer, my family and I had the opportunity to take a trip of a lifetime. The 1st of July, we packed the whole gang, along with Lisa’s parents, into a Scandinavia Airlines 747 and traveled for three and a half weeks in Denmark.

‘Course the problem with a “trip-of-a-lifetime” is that once taken, your brain picks up things. The trip stretches you. You learn things. You might even become a bit savvy. And having done it once, you can’t help but begin to work out how you might do it again—which, of course, means that the whole idea of the trip becomes less “once-in-a-lifetime-ish” and more “let’s-do-this-again-ish.”

The tricks you learn along the way the first time around, make the second trip all the easier.

Today I want to share one of those tricks, because this is one of those almost “too-good-to-be-true” deals. If you’re considering a trip to Europe anytime in the near or even distant future, you need to know about this.

Because learning about the Volvo Overseas Delivery program is pretty cool. But experiencing it completely blows your mind.