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Christmas Presence

Any birth, let alone the one that changed human history over two thousand years ago, is a miracle.

The fact that Mary's boy child also survived a king's edict to slaughter all children under two years of age is particularly miraculous.

The late Pope John Paul II reaffirmed that human life is the penultimate gift -

"The inviolability of the person which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, finds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life."

We need not plumb the holy pages of scripture to find evidence of miracles. Today we see the miracle of life embedded in the daily headlines. In the joyous face of the husband whose wife who lay buried for 72 hours under 60 centimetres of snow.

Or the Windsor woman who police thought had been assaulted - found holding a new-born after having just given birth on the street to twins.

The greatest gift we can give back to God is to defend and promote the precious gift of life. We do this whenever we defend the defenseless - stand up on behalf of the poor, the sick, the homeless, the alienated, the lonely or the unborn.

The best gifts, whether packaged in a cold stable, on a frozen field or on a busy metropolitan street are both priceless and timeless.


Photo Courtesy: Marie Rose Ferron

Through the looking glass - darkly

Like Alice, educators today are teetering on the edge of a bottomless rabbit hole.

By refusing to adapt our teacher-centred 19th century learning environments to meet the needs of students immersed in today's interactive collaborative technologies - governments and educational institutions, from school districts to faculties of education, set them up for failure.

By refusing to try and understand what it means to be literate in a digital world - we rob our children of opportunities to expand and enrich their own personal learning networks.

Fortunately we have visionaries like David Warlick and Amber MacArther and learning opportunities like the recent RCAC Symposium to remind educators that by embracing and using new technologies in the classroom, they help prepare their students for a future that even the most clairvoyant teachers cannot clearly describe.

Teachers who use wikis, blogs, podcasts, video games and other collaborative technologies are changing the learning landscape in their classrooms and engaging their students in rich learning experiences.

Like the eco-warriors who struggle to construct a new power grid based on clean, renewable energy - today's educational leaders must strive to construct a bold new 'power grid of the mind' that harnesses synergy and and favors collaboration over domination.

The educational visionaries who spoke and presented at today's symposium will at least help ease the fall into the rabbit hole and reveal a little more of what lies beyond the looking glass.

Photo: M. Redfearn

Tags: flat, classroom, work, technology