This is an article that talks about how to train those folks in your sessions who are also answering emails, skype chatting, twittering (?), and otherwise not fully paying attention. The steps include starting strong, thinking in pictures, using words not cliches, and using vocal inflections. Sound fairly obvious, eh? But read the article. It makes some good sense - speaking as one of the multitaskers in your audience.
In the past couple of months I've had about four people ask me for help to get their gizmoz (www.gizmoz.com) gadget to work when embedded. It so happens that there is a bit of code in there that is rejected (at least by wikispaces) and it won't embed.
The solution: remove the: " wmode='transparent' " piece of code before you save it. Works just fine. See a sample here: http://gatesworkshop.wikispaces.com
The report, called "21st Century Skills, Education, and Competitiveness," argues that for the United States to be globally competitive--and for states to attract growth industries and create jobs--the nation requires a fresh approach to education that recognizes the critical role 21st-century skills play in the workplace.
Read on. Preaching to choir here, for sure, but it’s ammunition to take to your staff.
Not a good title for this post. It’s more than a blog. But, if you’re not a regular to BrainPop then do check this out: http://www.brainpop.com/educators/blog/
On the left are links to all sorts of resources, from graphic organizer templates, and even interactive whiteboard resources – and much more. Not sure how to get started with it, check out this page of PD resources: http://www.brainpop.com/educators/professional_development/
What do you think? Pretty nice, eh? Send this to your favorite elementary or middle school teacher.
Not sure, now, how I came upon this. Probably from a tweet some time today. But this is such a clever idea that is only possible because of the popularity of blogs.
http://blogactionday.org is a website that is trying to leverage the visibility of blogs everywhere to raise the awareness of poverty. You may recall that I recently posted about one district alone that has over 3000 homeless children within its boundaries. The problem, of course, is much larger.
If you’re one who receives these tips via email, then go to the above link and watch the movie on the home page. Those who read the tips in my blog can see the movie embedded there.
On October 15, over 3800 blogs will contain articles about poverty reaching an audience of over 7.3 MILLION people. Talk about raising awareness! Of course, the bottom line is to also raise money, but that part is out of our control. All we can do is get the issue out there and hope that the kind hearts who read our blogs will make a donation.
Don’t think poverty is an issue for an education blog? Well, if the above story of the 3000 homeless children in one district doesn’t change your mind, ask your building principal what percent of your school’s children are homeless, and what percent lives in poverty. It’s everywhere.
Stop back in here on the 15th of October. Read blogs everywhere. And, if possible, contribute what you can to the effort.
This is VERY disturbing. For many it will fall into their “circle of concern” and outside their “circle of influence” and will then be dismissed. For others this will be a cal to action. Maybe one of your students?
Launch iTunes then press cmd-T to start the visualizer. Press cmd-F to put it in full screen mode. Then sit back and enjoy some VERY cool visuals.
The article tells of some hidden secrets to adjust the displays a bit. Like, M will cycle you through the different variations. A and S will wither Add or Subtract the little.. Thingies (I forget what he calls them) Anyway, read the article find more controls.
Yes, I KNOW this won’t do a THING to raise a single test score. It’s just cool, hypnotic visuals.
It’s REALLY a shame that, for all the cool stuff that Apple makes, they still don’t quite “get it.” Their stuff is completely proprietary. The problem with that is that you really can’t attract the geeks among us to come out and build a really cool app. But, as linux has shown us, if you open it up to the world’s creative powers you can come up with TRULY superior and outrageously powerful applications. Moodle, Drupal, Joomla, Firefox –all open source applications. Yes, developers CAN write programs for the Mac, but the OS is protected. It’s not really open.
Take a look at the video above. It shows a couple neat features on this new phone, and it talks about the open platform upon which those applications were built. Now the world really CAN focus on a tool and start making things for it.
Are we watching the end of the iphone? Well, again, not if it’s only available for t-mobile users. When these folks make it so that you can use ANY carrier with the phone then. I don’t see anything stopping it. Do you?
Starting next school year, the first generation of Florida students can earn a diploma from their public schools entirely online, without ever setting foot in a classroom from kindergarten through 12th grade.
A new state law requires districts to create their own full-time virtual schools, collaborate with other districts or contract with providers approved by the state.
Play the video on the front page. Pretty amazing technology, eh?
Now think about this. We’ve got phones that can browse the web, store podcasts (REAL podcasts, not just mp3’s), store images and documents, as well as SO many other things. (iphone) Now we’ve got pens that store what we hear and connect it to your notes. We’ve got free web app’s that allow us to connect to people around the world and build things together. (wikis) We’ve got other web apps that allow us to collaborate on the same document at the same time and embed the results. (Zoho, Google Docs, etc) We’ve got RSS feeds that allow us to have information brought right to our desktops. (netvibes, pageflakes, google reader) We’ve got free presentation websites that allow us to post our projects and collect audio feedback. (vimeo) SO VERY MUCH MORE! This could be an exciting time to be a student.
Forget it. Put that away and get back to your seats. Get out your book and turn to page...
Yes, you CAN block ustream,tv and skype in your school. But if you do you prevent things like this from happening: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cvsd
Congratulations to Chris Smith and mardy McGraw for puling this off for their students.
Here, Daniel Pink visits a classroom in PA via skype and the conversation is ustreamed out for others. Hurry up, now, see if you can find two people in your district who will tell you that this is bad education. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
...
I didn’t think you’d find anyone. So, if it’s blocked in your school, find out WHY.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve said this before, but, “We don’t have time to waste.” We can’t lose one more day. We MUST make some radical changes in the experiences that we offer our students. This is SUCH serious business that if you’re in a district that won’t allow things like this, then you’ve GOT to press the issue. I can’t think of a single issue (save for this disastrous economy) that is more important – making sure our students are prepared for this ENORMOUS challenge that we in this country face. To stand here in the face of all those challenges and to continue to say, “We don’t DO skype” is, in my opinion, a crime.
When some folks argue as to why we need to be using technology in the schools they will say that “The kids are already doing this stuff”, or “The kids today are digital natives and they think differently” and even, “Their brains are different.” And, in the area of teacher preparation we used to say, “When the next batch of new teachers hits the schools THEN we’ll see the change we’re looking for.” But that hasn’t happened, has it?
I admit that I, too, used to say that. But then, about three years ago I began to question that assumption. I wasn’t seeing it. Nor was I hearing it when talking with teachers. In fact, I wanted to put together a survey (And Scott McLeod was going to host it) that would try to find out how ‘native’ the ‘natives’ actually were. Alas, it just never happened. And a part of me was a little reluctant to actually find out the truth. If it turned out that the kids truly were NOT al that tech savvy as we were assuming, THEN what would our rallying cry be? And, how much credibility would we have lost when forced to shift gears with our assumptions?
Yes, we can point to some kids who are phenomenal programmers, or who are creating some very clever mashups, or even some that ARE using the tools for personal learning. But, I can also point to some who can do NONE of those things. And I can point to a lot of others who can type and save and print but who cannot tell you what a blog is (“Oh! My Space is a blog? Well then I have one.”) or what a wiki is, unless they can point to wikipedia.
The popular concept mapping program, Inspiration, has gone online in Webspitation. I just opened it for the first time this AM and haven't had a chance to test it with others, but this web version allows for kids to collaborate on the same document! Yes, others have been doing that, but this is especially nice since so many kids have used Inspiration in school already. Should be an easy move to this version.
I don't know how many kids can collaborate on a document at one time, or any of the other particulars. But, this is one o check out, for sure, don't you think?
Have you seen that post? Games (can we say that word here?) on Google Earth. Ten of them. From a football game (doesn’t THAT pique your interest?) to Battleship to Where in the World? (Anyone here remember Carmen SanDiego?)
Very cool stuff. But, I forgot. You’re already subscribing to that blog, aren’t you?
Read that post. You’ll probably find yourself thinking a few different thoughts. Like, “How interesting that she would write about Oedipus.” And, “What an interesting comparison she’s making to her life and that of Oedipus.” And, “Wow. Very nice.”
Now ask yourself if YOUR students would EVER write something like that. Maybe they COULD, but WOULD they? DO they? Maybe they do, but in a smaller scale. Maybe they do, but their analogies aren’t quite as good. Maybe they do, but YOU never see it.
Why do you suppose that is? I think the answer might lie in this statement:
“I built my blog on the idea of exploration: expressing myself without limits and without a clear idea of what exactly I was expressing.”
“Expressing myself without limits”, eh? What? Not for a grade? Without fear of little, “Gotcha’s?” Without someone telling you to write so many words about a topic you couldn’t care less about?
This is NOT a slam on teaching methods. NOT AT ALL! I’m merely pointing out there the blog is a medium that allows a student to publish and be read by someone other than a teacher who is looking to give a grade. This girl is always writing, reading, and reflecting on her writing in order to improve herself. The medium is its own motivator. She’s MOTIVATED to write this post in which she reveals some personal vulnerabilities. Yes, she’s not your typical student, I’ll give you that. But, don’t YOU have a non-typical student who loves to write? What are you offering that student to help her/him develop that talent? Are you Ok with just letting him/her post to MySpace? Or, do you see that perhaps if this student had a blog for REAL, and some guidance (so as not to write about things that would give away identity, for example) that this talent could develop into something? And, even if it didn’t, when that student applies to a college and points the Admissions Office to the blog as evidence of her abilities, don’t you agree that it would make a MUCH greater impression?
Today I'm going to be talking to a group of future educators about the present and future of education in PA and the world. I will promote one student to be a moderator who will be able to accept comments from the class.
A group of high school students today proposed dramatic changes to the state’s tough new graduation requirements that would create separate routes to a high school diploma based on whether a student planned to attend college, enter the work force or pursue a career in the fine arts. Some routes would require less rigorous coursework for students.
You MUST see this. Give it time to load. It loads a database that will plot the position of every known bit of space debris and satellites, both active and inactive. You won’t believe how crowded our skies are.
Then, click on an icon of a satellite and it will bring up the information about it – including whether or not it’s active. It could be just a dead hunk of metal floating around up there.
Did you read about how the space station had to side-step some space junk? Take a look at this AMAZING overlay on Google Earth and you’ll know WHY.
A student in a college class was blogging about the class. The professor took exception to it.
But here’s an interesting point, I think. Isn’t the point of blogging to create and participate in the conversation about the blog post? Let’s assume that the student is blogging about the topic of the class and NOT about how lame the professor is. If that happened with one of MY students I’d be THRILLED! I’d encourage others to read the blog and comment. Isn’t that what it’s all about?
But then, what if the student WAS prof-bashing? Should there be a rule that says you can blog, but only positive blogs? Or, is that an infringement on 1st amendment rights?
Why not show the video to your class and have them contribute, too? In this election year our constitution is even more significant than ever, wouldn’t you say?
Here is a short video that Scott McLeod created that doesn’t preach, it ASKS a question. Based on the new Bloom’ taxonomy, it asks us to consider some questions about how we structure our curriculum in order to ensure that our students are leaning.
I don’t want to give it away. Watch it. It’s one to show to your faculty.
