GAFE Summit & Disney

Disney Freak & Geek

I'm a full-blown Disney fan. I get excited whenever I can make connections with what I'm learning in education and anything Disney. Last summer, I had the opportunity to visit Walt Disney Studios, Imagineering, and Jim Henson's studio and my mind was blown.

Fast forward to July 14: Imagine my surprise while attending the California GAFE (Google Apps For Education) Summit and Disney's Blue Sky  was mentioned during the Teaching Moonshot Makers keynote by Richard DeVaul on the Google X Rapid Evaluation Team.

Similar to teaching students to "shoot for the moon,"  Disney's Imagineers are encouraged to think the sky is the limit-if they can think it, they can do it.  One person's Google glass is another person's Radiator Springs Racers.

Richard DeVaul spoke about Project Loon.  Here is my tweet about it:

I do believe pictures (and videos) speak a thousand words.  Richard shared this video with us which explains the awesomeness of his project.


Absolutely amazing, right? I gleaned quite a few nuggets from his presentation.

1. Moonshot Thinking-Something audacious that we don't know how to do yet , but we are going to do anyway.
2. Constructive Failure means: Failing quickly, efficiently, repeatedly.  Failing for the right reasons. Not giving up.
3. How do we encourage our students to take intellectual risks, try things that may not work, and reward constructive failure?

Deeper Thinking

I mentioned previously my difficulty in thinking "under the surface."  I realize I need some more time to think about how to incorporate Google's "Moonshot Thinking" and Disney's "Blue Sky" concepts into my 6th grade classroom.  So for now-I'm going to ruminate and come back to this at another time.  Maybe I'll be inspired at Disneyland.