The presentation at SF WordCamp 2011 that had me closest to tears was this one. John Kleinschmidt spoke about CURE International. Zack Berke shared his work with UNICEF in Uganda. See the slides and be inspired.
43,000 Free Learning Resources at Your Fingertips
What WordPress is to the web, curriki.org may become to education (for at least K-12 that is). Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, was the keynote speaker at ShiftED, a conference held to inspire and inform educators on how to embrace 21st Century technology to transform teaching.
“Education is not a right in this country. A right is something you give to everybody without taking from anybody. Healthcare is not a right in this country either,” said McNealy.
Citing sad statistics on the performance of 4th graders in U.S. schools, “What we have is not an Achievement Gap, we have an Achievement Grand Canyon!”
To address his concerns for the state of education and in alignment with his belief in open source, McNealy founded curriki.org. There you’ll find free learning resources including lesson plans, interactive materials, games, and other learning aids to enliven today’s classroom where students are more likely to be using digital media not yet available at the school they’re attending.
What’s the Urgent Deadline in 2014?
I recently vowed to stand for a dream – to contribute to creating a thriving, just and sustainable way of life for all – which is part of the vision of the Pachamama Alliance. In just 3 minutes see why we are urgently being called to action these next four years. Are you ready to participate?
The 2011 TED Prize Winner – JR
What is the TED prize? From the “about TED”, the TED prize is “designed to leverage the TED Community’s exceptional array of talent and resources. It is awarded annually to an exceptional individual who receives $100,000.
For 2011, the winner was JR for his “One Wish to Change the World.” Over the life of the prize, wishes have led to collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact.”