Thing 1 and Thing 2

I decided to participate in this program to get an overview of the tools available on the Internet to facilitate interactive communication and see if there are any technical "issues" that might arise to prevent the use of these tools. It also appeared to be an interesting and enjoyable way to earn CEUs!
After watching the video on 21st century learners, the first thing that popped into my mind was, I must be a 21st century "forgetter". I firmly believe we all must learn something new every day. The difficult part is retaining what we learn!
As for the students in the video, someone must have told them to look bored. Unfortunately, they look beyond bored. Depressed would be a better description. Yes, today's students are familiar and comfortable with technology. The question is, what do they do with it? They spend hours on Facebook, listening to iPods, watching TV, and texting, but is it anything other than entertainment or socializing? We, as educators, need to channel those technological skills into something that will benefit them in college and the workplace.
The article was interesting, but I'm not sure how texting in the classroom could be used for constructive purposes and not get completely out of control. Meaningful cooperation between teachers in different subject areas is always a great idea. Implementation is the difficult part. The superintendent mentioned in the story must be operating on a day longer than twenty-four hours to be able to read all the teachers blogs!
Thing 2 was easy until I decided I wanted two avatars. The first one worked with no problems, but after creating the second one, saving, exporting, copying, and pasting, I ended up with two identical avatars! Can anyone guess how it was finally accomplished? The funny part is, I think it took longer to create an avatar than to watch the video and read the article for thing 1.