McKenzie Speeches

Finding the Deep Internet When You Need It

Much of the best information available on the Net cannot be found using Google, but most people have never heard of the Deep Internet and have no idea where they might find it. In this session, Jamie explains what it is and how to find this important information treasure chest.

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Winning Results from Technology Dollars

Much of the equipment bought in the past decade sits unused glowing in the back of classrooms because the tech plan failed to address the key elements in the "True Cost of Ownership." Jamie shows how effective and appropriate daily use depends upon a skillful blend of professional development, program development and organizational development.

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Teaching Students to Build a Case

Once we move past simple gathering of information to more demanding research challenges, students must learn how to collect information that is pertinent and compelling, evidence sufficient to build a convincing case. Jamie outlines the steps in showing students how to do this kind of research.

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Teaching Students to Evaluate a Source's Credibility

Because the Net is often like an information landfill, students must learn to sift through the sites they find and determine which ones are trustworthy. In this presentation, Jamie shows how we can equip students with a set of questions that will aid in the process of assessing credibility.

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Teaching Media Literacy in an Age of Wikilobbying, Spin, Tabloid Journalism and the Photoshopping of Reality

How do young people learn what is happening in their world when the media has turned dramatically from the reporting of news to a focus on scandal, celebrity gossip and disasters of various kinds? In this presentation Jamie gives examples of spin, Wikilobbying and the photoshopping of reality while providing an overview of how schools might make media literacy an important element in the curriculum.

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Replacing Topical Research with Inquiry that Matters

Jamie argues that topical research is mind numbing and a waste of students' time - the mere gathering of information requiring little thought or imagination. He shows how research might focus on questions of import that would require that students make answers instead of collecting them.

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Understanding by Accident: Wondering and Wandering as Legitimate Research Strategies

While applauding the intentions of UBD (Understanding by Design), Jamie argues for the value of surprise and discovery set in motion by a kind of purposeful wandering and wondering that goes far afield in order to find the unusual, the novel and the delightful.

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A New Literacy Landscape - Multiple Literacies vs. the Narrow Agenda and Wal-Mart Curriculum

In a decade characterized by narrow definitions of curriculum and literacy, Jamie builds a case for a dozen different literacies, suggesting that the health of a democracy depends upon the development of a citizenry that can do more than read and calculate. He challenges the audience to consider how schools might attend to cultural, social, artistic, natural, visual and ethical literacies among others.

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Will the Real Joan of Arc Stand Up? Making Sense of Images from History

While the Internet is loaded with images of historical personalities, it may be that some of these images are not trustworthy. Jamie uses the examples of Joan of Arc and Captain Matthew Flinders to explore issues of truth and reliability when it comes to portraits as historical evidence of character and personality.

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