Gibber-gabber
Putting things in perspective…Shift Happens by Karl Fisch
Milo Plurnbottom 2009-02-08 23:00:57 UTC
The video you see above was created by Karl Fisch, director of Technology for Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. It was originally created as a PowerPoint presentation for a staff development meeting.
In Karl’s words…
“I put together a PowerPoint presentation with some (hopefully) thought-provoking ideas. I was hoping by telling some of these “stories” to our faculty, I could get them thinking about – and discussing with each other – the world our students are entering. To get them to really think about what our students are going to need to be successful in the 21st century, and then how that might impact what they do in their classrooms."
After he posted the initial presentation for colleagues to share with friends and family, one thing led to another. Folks like David Warlick and Bud Hunt blogged about it, and somewhere in there Scott McLeod, who had been using it in some of his classes and presentations, posts a remixed version of the presentation, and finally a couple of students post it on YouTube. One of those videos starts to become viral and is further distributed on other video sites. Then in March 13, 2007 it gets posted to Break.com along the way becoming called ‘Shift Happens’.
In a follow-up post on his blog Karl goes on to say…
“I’m not sure that Did You Know? is the video/message I would’ve chosen to go viral. While I think it’s certainly part of the message, I worry that it’s often taken out of context or used in ways that I don’t think are the most helpful for the direction I think we need to go. For example, most of those two million folks that have seen it haven’t read the original blog post, so they don’t know what its intended purpose and audience was (high school teachers thinking about the world our students are entering and wondering how best to help them prepare). (Yes, I know I should’ve thought of that before I posted it, but I really, really, really had no idea it would spread like this. Now I know – pun intended.)”
In that same post Karl goes on to discuss what he feels has been good and bad about this presentation exploding like it has. He goes so far as to break it down almost slide by slide with fantastic commentary on his intentions.
In 7 short months, this thought provoking PowerPoint presentation evolved into a point for global consideration. While I cannot speak to the success of the presentation in terms that Karl is concerned about, for me it vital that we continue to examine the world from fresh perspectives and remember that on this ever “shrinking” planet, we all need to come to grips with living side by side.
What does the future hold? I don’t know. But I like the idea that people like Karl Fisch are thinking about it on a deeper level and trying to make sense of the past, present, and future to the benefit of our youth.
See The Fisch Bowl a staff development blog created by Karl Fisch for the Arapahoe High School.
You might also be interested in:
© 2007-2012 CoTradeCo, Coachella Valley Packaging, & Coachella Valley Trading Company
are part of the Shorebird Corporation
Community content is all rights reserved © by the contibutor of that content granting
CoTradeCo some limited non-exclusive usage rights, see our policies.