In honor of August 2012 being Connected Educator Month, we wanted to showcase some of the connected educators and mentors within our community, and provide you with insights on how they are embracing connected learning.
Jabiz Raisdana: Helping Others Embrace the Learning Potential of Digital Media
After spending just a couple minutes with Jabiz Raisdana, you quickly realize he is not your average teacher. When you ask him how his school year is going, you won't hear stories about the woes of standardized testing or disengaged students. Instead, Raisdana will proudly tell you about his school's growing familiarity with blogging and Google Apps. Or how his students are studying photography and filmography by producing their own content and sharing it online...
Click here to learn more about Jabiz and how he utilizes such connected learning principles as:
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Juan Devis + Youth Voices: Building Linkages Between School, Home, and the Local Community
Devis eventually became "burnt-out" from climbing LA's entertainment ladder, and even after seven years in the City of Angels, he still found himself tied up in a perpetual search for a place he could call home. KCET Departures, for which he serves as senior producer, is a direct reflection of that search. He realized that in order for young people to begin to develop any sense of civic responsibility, they first needed to better understand the surroundings in which they lived.
Click here to learn more about Juan and how he utilizes such connected learning principles as:
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Brother Mike: Reimagining Mentorship for a Digital Age, One Beat at a Time
Before stepping foot inside YOUmedia, an innovative, 5,500-square-foot multimedia youth learning space at the Chicago Public Library, "Brother" Mike Hawkins never took any particular interest in slam poetry, nor did he consider himself a slam poet. That all changed when he began forming relationships with the program's teens in 2009. Click here to learn more about Brother Mike's involvement with YOUmedia. Watch the video below to learn more about Brother Mike's thoughts on the importance of mentorship as part of connected learning.
Antero Garcia - A Discussion on Transforming Classrooms, Schools, and the Teaching Profession
"I think a purposeful sense of mischief is just the thing that people trying to positively impact the outcomes of 'schooling' should be striving for." Antero joins the faculty at Colorado State University this fall as an Assistant Professor in the English Department but, until recently, was an English teacher at a high school in South Central Los Angeles. Watch the video below for his Connected Learning TV webinar that focused on mobile technology use in the classroom and defining 'critical pedagogy'.