
- Image via Wikipedia
Last year on about this day I wrote a post that ultimately drove to the idea of declaring “Independent THINKING Day” (http://discoverchampions.com/blog/?p=125) for kids all over. It was a fun piece, and rereading it actually sort of tainted my creative juices in the last stretch before the holiday weekend. But someone down tha hall mentioned getting sparklers for her kids. Although it might initially feel like a stretch, we educators are always trying to find that next “spark” that will ignite a kid’s (or adult’s or employee’s) excitement for either the process or the content of our learning objectives.
Some of my fondest memories from childhood 4th of July celebrations revolve around sparklers–from the first year my parents trusted me with them, all the way through my teenage years when we began to use them as punks for their louder older cousins. That unforgetable tingle on the back of your hands, the heat from the all-too-bright center, and the smell of spent combustables. I remember never really getting board with the shapes that you could draw in the air with sparklers–even now I’m still fascinated by it.
In the world of technology, those sparks can, of course, come from interactions with a fun new piece of simulation software, a game that’s infused with learning deep in the core of the experience, or a GPS adventure. Those flashy and expensive things, though, strike me as afforementioned “louder older cousins” in a disussion like this one about fireworks. So, then we should ask, what are the simple little sparklers of electronic education? Activities like sending the kids out on a fuin scavenger hunt of great websites, or allowing a group to maintain a classroom blog/vlog [see Kathy Cassidy's (no relation to the author) class site here: http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337]. We can even use Google Docs to create quick, interactive crossword puzzles and other basic games, and a decision-based learning secnario can very quickly be assembled in PowerPoint. And, depending on the design and content, each one of those approaches can be as or more effective than their flashier cousins.
With this all said, I guess I felt like it was about time to pay a little tribute to that little “gateway” firework that many of us hold near and dear to our hearts. Anyway, Happy 4th



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