After listening to the Speed of Creativity, and visiting Next Vista, Teacher Tube, Clip Blast and You Tube, I feel that I have been introduced to a whole new world! Our learners live in a digital, virtual, and global world. I come from a world that was protected and now seems quite small. When we talk about the need to help our students work with others, we usually think of the work environment. We try to prepare them for the future. I now have to ask myself "Can I really do that?" "What does that mean?" We are preparing students to live in a bigger world than the one I grew up in.

I like the concept behind NextVista. I had a difficult time downloading the movies but I was able to connect to a few and just seeing what Next Vista has available was interesting. I like the quality of this site. I appreciate the fact that all content is vetted unlike You Tube where "anything goes". I did not open many videos in You Tube. I did not understand the educational value as I did with Next Vista. I am so aware that this is an incredible opportunity to bridge the gap between cultures. We, as teachers, can tell students what we have read but how different for them to hear and see a video made by a person in another culture!

I could see students and teachers making videos to help learn about our culture, and even addressing the curriculm in any subject. Teacher Tube was okay but I had to do a lot of sorting of ideas to find somehting I think would be educationally sound for my kids. I could see again students making a movie for their peers about something we learned in school, even putting some of the interactive skits they do to emphasize historical content would be a new way for them to invest and share their knowledge with the world. Talk about authentic audience! I think older teens would connect with this site.

I did not like Clip Blast. I would not want my students to have access to this site. It would be too distracting. I did have fun though, seeing clips of movies. I thought about viewing some of the political ones but veered away from them. Isn't that what our students would do?

I am not sure if I will use these sites in my own classroom. I need to ponder this awhile and listen to others who do use them. Am I too old to leap with the speed of creativity into this new vista?