Girls Love Legos, Too

Legos, love them. Why is it that when I am in the "Lego" aisle, all I see are Legos marketed to boys? (Indiana Jones, Bionicles, Star Wars, etc.) I am a mom of 3 girls that would like to see LEGO reach out to this market. If not for the families that want more options than pirates and astronauts, why not do it for the image of the LEGO company. Girls need opportunities to play with mathematical and engineering concepts in a non-academic arena. Many girls need more opportunities to develop left-brain activities. I'm the one spending the money and I say "if you build it, I'll buy it."

An Old Friend is New Again

I love WebQuests. I've had a love for them from as early as the late 1990's, when I was first exposed to them. They were an engaging, high-level thinking, web-based activity that I used with my students. I have to admit, they were time consuming to make, but the good ones were well worth the investment. How can anything from the 90's be relevant to technology integration today? Well, because the focus isn't on the technology. I also used Hyperstudio back then. That is dated. But Hyperstudio (another love) was a technology tool, easily replaced with the next best multimedia tech tool. WebQuests, however, is a lesson structure that allows students to think critically, solve problems, collaborate and use internet resources wisely. Sounds like 21st century skills to me. Whatever the new term is. WebQuests are still relevant.