It's only 10:00 AM, and I've been at my computer for only an hour or so. But, in that hour I've learned a TON of things from my friends on twitter. What a day it's been already.
First, let me apologize to those folks who tweeted some of these and I can't seem to find them now to give you credit.
Then, someone (sorry!) pointed to a publication on this site: http://www.yudu.com that looks like a fun way to publish flyers and other documents. You'll need a flashy template, but still, it looks interesting.
@gearth (you KNOW that I point to that blog often) tweeted about an article that talks about how the web reacted to the crash of the French airliner, and in there I found that a wikipedia page had been created about it and was updated hourly. This will surely be mentioned in the next "Here Comes Everybody" edition, eh?
Someone else pointed to a mashable article that had a list of some excellent Twitter tutorial videos where I learned about a feature in tweetdeck that connects you to 12seconds.tv. There you can use the site to record a twelve second video and have it posted directly to twitter of Facebook. I turned on Camtwist and recorded a short video showing my desktop. http://tiny12.tv/CD6SC
Another Mashable article was mentioned that talked about the top 6 features of the Google Wave that will change EVERYTHING. An excellent article.
@AngelaMaiers retweeted @mrstg who pointed us to funnelbrain.com where you can created editable flashcards.
@ShiftParadigm pointed us to this SEDTA article about strategies and tactics that states are using to try to get better results in student achievement.
@rww pointed us to an article that talks about how NASA is using the Semantic web to help power its Constellation Program
Then, @Hertzog pointed the gamers among us to a trailer that really DOES look AWESOME. Incredible graphics sure to raise the bar.
Not sure about twittter? Really, you have to try it. Follow the educators. You'll learn more in a day than you did in an entire class that you may have taken in your life.
Yikes! It's now almost 11:00 AM. No, the article didn't take this long to write. I just got distracted by other tweets.
I'm in Washington, DC this week for NECC, and already the trip has been extraordinary. I want to share one story with you.
After the edubloggercon gathering on Saturday, the great folks from Wikispaces held a reception. While mingling with the guests we met a young man, Evan Morikawa, who seemed to be soacking this all in with special interest. He appeared to be about 19 (younder, actually) so we were curious of his connection. It turns out that he is one of the co-founders of Alightlearning.com. That, in istself was pretty cool, but his story is even better.
He was happily attending college in Massachusets, somewhere (Sorry, I forget where) when his friend received an invitation to the premier showing of the Google Wave. Everyone who was lucky enough to be there received an API code so that they could begin to develop apps for this amazing product. That changed their lives. They were so blown away by the possibilities of that app that they then began to view college as just being in their way. They dropped out of college to begin work on their app idea.
That alone is pretty amazing and gutsy isn't it? But, we loved his response when asked why he thought they could make it in this economy when other web services have failed. Evan replied, "Because Blackboard sucks and they charge $100,000 per school." :-)
I love their idea for their app, and I love their attitude. Can't wait to see their Google Wave app when it's released later this year. Good luck, guys.
I'm very lucky (have I said that before?) to have the opportunity to teach the LTMS 600 course at Harrisburg University again this summer. Here is the description:
"LTMS 600: 3 semester-hour credits. This intensive course is designed for classroom educators to explore, and practice with, Web 2.0 learning technologies and how the integration of these technologies into teaching and learning impact their teaching and classroom dynamics. Tools to be explored and used, for example, include RSS feeds and aggregators, blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, mashups, podcasts and more. Students will begin to design a classroom activity incorporating one or more Web 2.0 tools for implementation in their classroom. Within a peer learning model, students will design, implement and evaluate a classroom activity that incorporates one or more Web 2.0 tools. The results of this applied project and experiment will be reported out and presented. Lessons created will become a part of a technology-based collection of classroom activities which participants can continue to access after the course."
This year we're going to change the schedule a bit. Last year we met for 5 days in a row, and then on two evenings (synchronously), and then a final Saturday. This year we're going to meet for three days in June, three days in July, and then a day later in the fall. This will allow us time to digest and practice and explore - something we didn't get a chance to do much of last time. I think this will work out much better.
Another reason why I love twitter. Today @dwarlick posted a link to this video of twitscoop in which we see clearly how the world was chatting about the news of Michael Jackson's death. Watch closely and you'll see his name appear in the list, but not very large. Then you can see it grow as more and more people spread the news. Suddenly the word arrest appears. Then Cardiac. Finally, at the end you can see the key words have told the story.
Very interesting. I encourage you to visit the twitscoop site and watch the live cloud for a while. - - -
This, of course, is THE HOTTEST topic of the.. year? Decade? Longer? And why? Because it changes everything about how we communicate. It's chat, email, backchannel, slideshows, collaboration and more, ALL IN ONE APPLICATION. Holy cow!! And, did you see the spell checker? Spellee ...Spellie.. er, Spelly? And linkee. It's just incredible.
What FUN this will be. Now, I know that most of you don't have an hour and a half to sit and watch a youtube video, but you might be able to let this run while you're working on something else. Then flip back to it to see it in action.
Oh, and this article (Thanks, Joanne R) is a great description of the Wave. Check it out, too.
The fact that it's Open Source (Are you paying attention, Apple?) is WONDERFUL! The fact that it brings together so many amazing tools into one INCREDIBLE application is... beyond words. It changes everything about how we communicate. Just now getting used to email? Don't get too comfortable, the Wave will pass this by instantly - where available. If you're the kind who MUST have Inbox (0) then this will freak you out, for sure. Start now to get over it. :-)
So how long before it will be allowed in our schools, do you think? ;-)
Another thing that I keep thinking of is the power demands of this technology. Bandwidth, too. This is surely going to up the ante in a HUGE way. Students, start NOW to be thinking about alternative energy sources.
It's only 10:00 AM, and I've been at my computer for only an hour or so. But, in that hour I've learned a TON of things from my friends on twitter. What a day it's been already.
A nice photo pool of quotes for teachers and Administrators. It appears that most, if not all, of the slides are licensed under the creative commons agreement
Following up from last Friday's entry about Iran's Presidential Election, Tehran and other cities have seen the largest street protests and rioting since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Supporters of reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, upset at their announced loss and suspicions of voter fraud, took to the streets both peacefully and, in some cases, violently to vent their frustrations
Once again, MANY thanks to John Branson for sharing this tip with us via a comment to a previous post.
An experimental Firefox add-on now lets you see both your Google search results AND your WolframAlpha search results on the same page - side by side. Holy cow!! Presenters are going to LOVE it, for sure, but so will teachers AND students - if they can get the add-on installed.
Check it out! Don't you just LOVE the Firefox browser?
On May 6 I had the opportunity to attend Capital Day at the PA state Capitol Building in Harrisburg. Students and teachers from around the state came to show off the kinds of projects that they've been doing in class. I LOVE these days. I LOVE to stop by to ask a student to tell me about his/her project and to hear the excitement and enthusiasm in their voices when they show off what they've done.
This year was no exception, as I went from station to station hearing these kids talk with that pride and confidence. I would ask a question about their topic to see if I could throw them off, but I never did. One project was all about landfills, and I asked a number of questions about how they keep them from polluting the ground water, and how they tap off the methane, and what they do with it, and what the outlook was for the future if the current trends continue. They knew the answers to every one of the questions and it was clear that the young man who was talking to me was enjoying the fact that he was so well informed. I loved it!
And then I stopped by to talk with some students from Radnor High School who were showing their ning site that they use in their Social Studies/English class. First of all, I thought the combination of the two classes was interesting, and the kids seemed to really take to it. In this assignment, they identified key ideas and themes for each chapter of A Fine Balance by Rohinton Minstry, and, with their blogging buddies, had conversations about the content of the posts. Yes, they could have done this by having a conversation in class, but we all know that that approach doesn't get all the students involved. Nor does it often give a student enough time to complete a thought without an interuption. Nor do the students often comment about a statement directly, as they will often simply follow up one statement with another which has its own point but which doesnt show a reflection on the first.
But, take a look at this conversation that was taken from their discussions. Ask your self if your students get a chance to talk like this in class. Finally, ask someone how you, too, can get your students into something like this. And, if nings are blocked in your school, send them this post so that they can see why you're after this kind of tool for your students.
Congratulations to their teacher, Abby Daniels, and their CFF coach, Andrea Frezel, for their work to get this set up for their students. ----
Posted by David: Chapter 13 of A Fine Balance is concerned with serious themes of disappearance and avoidance. While man has certain duties in life, sometimes it is easier to run away from those responsibilities than it is to confront them. Dina tells both Maneck and Om early on in the chapter that: "Ingratitude is not uncommon in the world. One day, you too will forget me -- all of you. When you go your own way and settle down, you will not know me....In two months you'll sit for your final exam, pack your things, then disappear" (455). That's exactly what Om wants to do when the subject of marriage comes up. He wants to run away. Increasingly, Om becomes emboldened when his Uncle Ishvar talks about his obligation to arrange Om's wedding. He realizes, however, that the topic will not go away. Om is devastated to think he'll have to marry soon. He wants nothing more than to disappear.
This theme continues when Dina makes the worms in Om's stomach disappear. Om's body is cleansed not just physically, but spiritually. He is maturing into an adult. He is looking more and more like Maneck, and if anything is disappearing, it's Om's connection to the untouchable world of his deceased parents. As for Rajaram, he also wants to disappear, as he is on the run after murdering Beggarmaster's husband-and-wife team. Literally, Rajaram's mind has disappeared as well. He is so obsessed with hair collection that he literally clips the plaits off of living beings. Perhaps this is what happens as well to the untouchables in this time of the Emergency. Their possessions were stripped bare, and their huts and shacks were knocked down. Everything they owned disappeared, much like the hair of Rajaram's victims. He says, "I want to reject the material world, become a sanyasi, spend my life meditating in a cave" (468). Yes, Rajaram wants to disappear into the Himalaya mountains, but his escape is motivated not by a Hindu spiritalism as much as it is to run from the authorities, who would execute him on the spot for his terrible crimes. Om is beginning to face the reality of his social and cultural demands, while Rajaram is supposedly running away to become an ascetic in the "hope of redeeming" himself (475). The tailors know better. They realize that Rajaram will be back some day, with more tales and adventures. He's disappearing for the time being, and the reader doesn't believe for an instant that his life of "abnegation" will last long (475). That, too, will disappear, when the time comes.
3 Comments
Comment by Andrew on March 27, 2009 at 10:32am
I very much disagree with your statement that Om wants to disappear. On the contrary, with the relationship between Dina, Om, and Ishvar becoming less business-like and more family-like, it would be harder than ever for Om to have to leave his life with Dina behind. Om and Ishvar are no longer just tailors to Dina, they are family. They eat dinner together, they live together, and they talk like a family would, joking together, laughing together, worrying together, and crying together. I believe the true turning point of the relationship of Dina and Om, a point that occurred before this chapter, was when Dina offered Om a red-rosed cup, instead of his usual pink-rosed cup that she segregated from the rest, which expressed the fact that she no longer saw him as just her worker, as just a tailor that she needed to make a living, but as a true part of her family, a friend. Though it may have been true that Om wanted to return to his village in earlier chapters, that he wanted to leave the horrible city as soon as he could, such is no longer the case. Dina, Om, Ishvar, and Maneck are now a family, and leaving Dina’s house, which is now their home, would be just as difficult as it was to leave their village. This can be seen in the difficulty that Om and Ishvar experienced in leaving Dina’s house to return to their village to get Om married. This would truly be a happy ending in a world where a Hindu woman like Dina would more than likely never cease to treat Om and Ishvar with condescendence. In the world, caste is a huge part of the Hindu religion, an aspect of the religion very much engraved in Hinduism, and a Hindu woman learning about her workers’ pasts (which is what turned around Dina’s attitude toward Om and Ishvar) would most likely only increase her haughtiness over the “low-castes”. Though such a situation would be unlikely, I believe that it is possible, and that this story describes how such a happening would play out as well.
Comment by David on March 31, 2009 at 5:17pm
My blog comment on the word disappear reflects Om's reaction to marriage. This topic is brought up time and again in A Fine Balance, and each time his response is the same. Om says that he's not ready, or he tries to avoid the subject. Wishing that the topic of marriage would disappear is different than saying Om wants to leave the comfort and security of living with Uncle Ishvar on the verandah's of Dina's flat.
Comment by Troy on April 1, 2009 at 10:19am
I agree with the blog because it shows how there is a lot of disappearance. This is also seen in how the tensions of the household are disappearing more, as seen in Dina calling Ishvar "Ishvarbai." This blog post connects to the way that Om and Ishvavr disappear from their village early in the book. This shows how Om and Ishvar are making their life better again as they were before by disappearing. This time Om's poor habits are disappearing with his sickness disapearing.This connects to the real world because it shows the way that the third world nations have parasites and worms but the people their don't worry or immediately get rid of them.
