Serendipity35

I'm still recommending to educators that they read The World Is Flat, but if you haven't gotten to the book or want to introduce students or fellow teachers to the ideas in the book, take a look at this video called "Shift Happens."

There's an official update to the original video from Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod that was posted this past summer. They updated and added to the statistics, questions and got a new design. The video is embedded below if you have Flash player installed - otherwise (like Tim) or if the connection seems slow, you can watch it on YouTube or many other sites.

Karl Fisch describes the original idea for the original 2006 presentation:

"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. It would also help the faculty that are not currently participating in my staff development join the conversation."

There's also a very good wiki they put together where you can get more information, or join the conversation at http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com. There are suggestions there on how you might use the video in class, links to other related videos, translations and the content as text.

For example, try running the video to 6:32, then pause on the frame that says, "What does all this mean?" and ask students (or fellow teachers) about how all this might affect their teaching and learning. There are some "answers" that follow. This is a good presentation to use with students or adults going on the changing world and how the U.S. stacks up (or down) and to start conversations on vision and change.