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http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-science-teachers-check-thi http://www.teachersfirst.com/single.cfm?id=8258
This is what it's about:
TeachersFirst is proud to offer this chance to experience the life of a physics researcher through the eyes and dry humor of our own physics blogger, Andy. As an undergraduate not long out of the high school physics lab, Andy brings us into the "real world" of scientific research but can still connect with the middle or high school student who may be wondering, "When am I ever gunna use this stuff?" Spending the summer of 2007 at Los Alamos National Labs, Andy shares his day-to-day discoveries and gives your students a chance to respond to the blog, perhaps connecting to a "real" scientist for the first time.
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This looks like it will be good. Check it out.
Thanks to Candice S for sharing this one.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-memorial-day-video.html Thanks to John G for sharing this with me via the for:jgates513 tag on Del.icio.us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ervaMPt4Ha0
This very moving video was done back in November of last year, but it is very appropriate for Memorial Day.
Note her comments. She had to turn OFF the comment feature for this video because so many folks had decided to turn the comments into a forum for public debates. Very sad. Sorta missed the point, eh?
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/photosynth-demo.html http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/129Wait until you see THIS! The future is NOW. Amazing technology. This is what thet site says about this talk: Using photos of oft-snapped subjects (like Notre Dame) scraped from around the Web, Photosynth creates breathtaking multidimensional spaces with zoom and navigation features that outstrip all expectation. Its architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, shows it off in this standing-ovation demo. Curious about that speck in corner? Dive into a freefall and watch as the speck becomes a gargoyle. With an unpleasant grimace. And an ant-sized chip in its lower left molar. "Perhaps the most amazing demo I've seen this year," wrote Ethan Zuckerman, after TED2007. Indeed, Photosynth might utterly transform the way we manipulate and experience digital images. Make sure you catch the meaning of things when he talks about doing a search on Flickr for a Notre Dame and then building a picture of it from the bits and pieces of the search results. Pictures will be linked together. Incredible! Make sure you watch this if you'd like to see the future.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/another-follow-up-to-celest-sto http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=276This is a nice post about the media coverage that has happened as a result of the story of Celest being skyped into her 4th grade class while she was home recovering from cancer treatments. Make sure you read the whole thing, and DO check out their wikis and other projects.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/very-cute-video-on-copyright-an Steve Dembo points to this YouTube video done by Eric Faden of Bucknell University. You HAVE to watch it.
Oh, and remember the name Steve Dembo. I'll be mentioning his name again - as PETE&C draws closer.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/office-and-boxnet-very-cool.htm How can kids get their work to and from school? That's been a big issue since the days of the 5 1/4" floppies. Now, some schools even block the use of usb drives so the problem continues. Until now. (Does that sound like a Ted introduction?) :-) Box.net has announced that it has made a free add-in for Office that will integrate directly to box.net. Once you install the free add-in a special "Save to box.net" option will appear in the add-ins section. Well... here is what the email release from box.net says about it: Save files from Microsoft Office to Box In other news, Microsoft Office is now Box Enabled! We've released a plug-in for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Publisher that conveniently uploads any document you're editing to Box. Once the software has been installed, a "Save to Box.net" link will appear in the "Add-Ins" section. Clicking on this button will save your file to Box, making it easy to access from anywhere, share with anyone, or keep safe for later. Download the first version of it here: http://www.box.net/shared/m0jjh7n610--- Very cool, eh?
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-writing-prompt-for-your-ec How's this... "OK, class, imagine this: Today, an engineer in the oil fields somewhere in the Middle East area has just finished analyzing the data, and to his/her horror the data shows that the Earth has reached 'Peak Oil.' In other words, we have just hit the midway point of the world's oil supply. From now on we are consuming the final oil deposits on the planet. Talk to me about what would likely happen in the short run and the long run when this news is made public." (It just may be THIS generation who will be faced with this inevitability.) "Use whatever tools you feel appropriate (Inspiration, the outline feature in Word, whatever tool you think works best for you) to jot down ideas. Not complete sentences yet. Just ideas. Things like, "Gas prices rise sharply" or "Panic on Wall Street." - whatever thoughts come to mind. You'll have 10 minutes to record your thoughts. Go." Ten minutes later you say, "Let's hear some of the things on your list. Say just two items. If you hear something that you like but you didn't think of it, feel free to add it to your list." Then you go around the class to let them tell what they thought of. Then, give them a wiki and let them build this out. Show them the Discussion area and encourage them to use it to discuss how they will format the front page, etc. Will this be written as a futuristic 'story?' What is the "voice" of the wiki? Present tense, past tense, future tense? What are your ground rules? For example, will you agree that instead of deleting someone's post that you will use the strike out style to strike itout and then put your idea after it - perhaps with your initials to show who made the change? Let them decide all that. What will be interesting is how they talk about what happens in response to the situation, what the governments do, etc, as those are their ideas for possible solutions, aren't they? So, Do you like the idea for an economics class?
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-new-poptech-videos.html You've heard me speak about PopTech.org and their popcasts, right? Well, I wanted to alert you to a couple new movies that they've added. The one I just finished watching is of the architect, Blaine Brownell. Send this tip to your fellow teachers who are teaching this sort of thing. In this video Blaine shows and discusses the new materials that are being created now for building materials. You'll be amazed at the variety of the products and of their implications on buildings of the future. And if you're like me, you'll be in awe of the ingenuity behind these innovations. See it here: https://www.poptech.org/popcasts/PopCasts.aspx?viewcastid=34
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-ethanol-big-lie.html Here's another one for the science teachers among us. This video is an investigative news piece about ethanol. IS it all that it's hyped up to be? Is it the solution we're after? Show this to your classes and see what they think. http://digg.com/videos_educational/Myth_Corn_Ethanol_is_Great
BTW - digg is itself a site you may want to check out. See what other folks are "digging." Subscribe to various categories, like educational videos, perhaps. That's how I found this movie.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-interesting-school-library http://slmsbookexchange.wikispaces.com/Here is an interesting wiki that a school librarian recently started with her students. Here is how she described the project to me in an email: "I created a good book wiki with 3 classes in my middle school building. Many books have multiple reviews but so far we have almost 300 unique titles in. With one class, I have taken it to the next level. They have been spending time adding links to the author's website, podcast of an excerpt and for further reading suggestions. Check out "Great and Terrible Beauty" under "Fantasy". " Won't this be a good resource for the kids as this grows? And, it's THEIR resource! Check it out. I can see the kids linking to all sorts of outside resources in some cases. What if they also recorded themselves reading a short passage and then posted that file to the wiki? What if they made a splashcast (www.splashcastmedia.com) to a wiki page? What about adding a slideshare (slideshare.net)? There are lots of cool things that I'll bet will show up in this wiki over time. If you've got an idea for this project, why not add your thoughts in the comments on the blog post? This will be fun to watch over time.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-pennsylvania-wants-to-ban- Get this: "Section 1. Section 1317.1 of the act of March 10, 1949
11 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949, added
12 December 22, 1989 (P.L.749, No.103), is amended to read:
13 Section 1317.1. Possession of [Telephone Pagers] Electronic
14 Devices Prohibited.--(a) The possession by students of
15 telephone paging devices, commonly referred to as beepers,
16 cellular telephones and portable electronic devices that record
17 or play audio or video material shall be prohibited on school
18 grounds, at school sponsored activities and on buses or other
19 vehicles provided by the school district. First of all, why is the STATE involved in what is arguably a LOCAL issue? Second, why are people who have NO CLUE about this topic even involved in the conversation? Who are they? "INTRODUCED BY CRUZ, MAHONEY, SAYLOR, READSHAW, SABATINA, THOMAS AND KORTZ, MAY 18, 2007" To be fair, they DO make exceptions for student volunteer firefighters or students with medical conditions. Simon says, "Pennsylvania, take two giant steps backwards." Here it is: http://snipurl.com/1llp9
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-one-for-musicians-in-group There are some WONDERFUL videos on YouTube. And remember, you can get them to show in your classes by using either zamzar.com or media-convert.com - and maybe others. This is one that you will want to share with your musician friends. Bobby McFerrin is shown in this one performing a Bach prelude. But what's so VERY cool about this is that he invites the audience to sing the beautiful Ave Maria that Charles Gounod wrote to work as a descant to the prelude. The result just may send chills up your arms. What a beautiful moment this audience shared with this fabulous musician. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgvJg7D6Qck
While you're there check out some of the other videos of his that you'll see listed.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-more-from-ted.html I suddenly thought, "Why haven't I heard of new videos from Ted? I subscribe to it, after all." So, I went there to see if anything new had been added. I'm glad I did. LOTS of new videos have been added, so if you've not been there recently you should go back. You can enlarge the videos by clicking the icon in the top right corner above the video. Oh, and you'll want to subscribe to it when you're there, too.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-what-great-bunch-of-studen Today I had the pleasure of attending a student showcase held in the East wing of the PA Capitol building. Students from around the state attended to show off some of the great things they've been doing in their classrooms. I didn't get to talk to all of them, but those I did talk to were amazing. Take Kristen, Hanan, and Nicole, for instance. Kristen, I believe, is in 5th grade. The other two are in 6th. I was actually on my way past their table when the line I was in stalled, putting me right in front of Kristen. I looked at her display (which I had seen earlier but I didn't have a chance to hear them talk) and she seized the moment, offering her hand to greet me. I'm SO glad she did. She proceeded to tell me about the projects that she and a team of six others have been working on for a while. They make vodcasts and podcasts. Her natural use of the term vodcast caught my attention and the more I listened the more impressed I was with the projects, with their teacher's dedication to this endeavor, and with Kristen's fluid description. What a natural she was. So often kids that age don't quite put things together in a logical order, either out of the excitement of the moment, or from lack of experience. Not her. She told me of how their team meets to brainstorm their ideas, and how they write the scripts and how they shoot the scenes, and even made sure I saw and read a newspaper article that told their story. Then, when Hanan and Nicole came over, they, too, were just as poised and confident and excited about this project as Kristen, and they gave me even more information about how they work. It was their teacher who later told me that those kids are waiting for the teacher every morning so they can get started on the scripting or editing, and they sometimes have to chase the kids home at night or they'd stay all night doing this job that they love to do. You're doing something right when you've got kids who WANT to work on your projects, yes? Want to see what they do? Go here: http://www.ellwood.k12.pa.us/podcasting/Podcasting Team/Welcome.html. Click the Concept Library link at the top of that page. They've got four so far, and are working on another now. The videos take a while to load, but do invest the time. I think you'll like what you see. Oh, and check out the anchors links and .. well, visit all the links there. You'll be glad you did. I hope to see those students at next year's PETE&C conference next February. Congratulations to the kids and their teachers. What else did I see? Robots, wonderful programs written in C#, a website written in php, some podcasts done by second graders, some amazing Flash animations done for an art class, and SO much more. The future IS in good, creative hands.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-letter-to-secretary-spelli Two good things about that article. I like what it says about the use of technology in education and the "movement" it's trying to get started that will bring our opinions to the attention of the Secretary. But, I also know the guy who is quoted in the article. He's relatively new to blogging and already he's found his voice and has had some very good inputs. He's also a new daddy. :-)
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-walk-straight-line.html Do you recall the mashup I talked about some time ago called,"If I dig a very deep hole, where will I end up?" It's a mashup found here: http://map.talleye.com/bighole.php. Let your students try it. They'll be amazed where they end up - and it's likely NOT to be in China. Anyway, this one is from the same site: http://map.talleye.com/ But here you choose a location and a direction and it wll plot out your path as if you walked a straight line in that direction. It's not going to be at all what they think for THIS one, either. Dble click PA on the map, or zoom in and let them start on their house, if you wish. When you dble click that spot a green(ish) flag appears at that spot. Click it and it will let you choose the direction. When you do it will plot it. You can even see it the readl Google Earth, too, if you wish. Pretty neat.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-loss-of-privacy-on-faceboo This blog post from the CoolCatTeacher points to a video that you MUST show to your students - and especially your college aged kids. http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/05/are-kids-too-much-of-open-book-on.htmlBefore they create a Facebook account they should see this video. Does this scare you? If not, watch it again.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-another-virtual-reality-wo This article from TechCrunch - http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/17/entropia-universe-a-better-second-life/ - tells us about The Entropia Universe. http://www.entropiauniverse.com/index.var What is it? You should read the TechCrunch article, but here's what the site says about itself. "The Entropia Universe is more than a game. The Entropia Universe is for real. Real people, real activities and a Real Cash Economy in a massive online universe. Join people from around the globe who use the Entropia Universe currency, the PED, to develop their characters everyday on the untamed planet of Calypso. The unique and secure Real Cash Economy allows you to transfer your accumulated PED back into real world funds." The NY Times calls it, "The buying game." I KNOW I'll pass on this one, thank you very much. Besides, that ain't no way to raise test scores! :-)
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-seomozs-web-20-awards-just Thanks again to Sue S for sharing this one. This is the 2007 list of winners in the Web 2.0 Awards contest. I've sent out last year's versions of this site but I didn't know that the 2007 version was available. Here 'tis. The page you'll see is the short list - just the winners in the various categories. To see the complete list which includes the runners up, go here: http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/ This is a good way to see what the readers think are the best in each of the categories.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-happy-ending-to-familiar-s In February I made this post about a "must-see video" that dealt with using Skype in the classroom to include a little girl who was at home fighting leukemia. Remember? Well, here is the happy update.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-third-grade-tech-problem-s Those of you who know me will know that I've often told this story that I had read somewhere online but I couldn't remember where I had read it. Finally, thanks to this post from Miguel I was able to track it down again. This is the story of the a girl in his THIRD GRADE class... "She was typing in Word - wanted to print, but could not - and could not save to her network folder. But she had Internet access. There was only one computer in the room that had access to our printer at that time." Do you remember me telling that story? Anyway. If you've NOT heard me tell the story, read it for yourself at either of those top links. This made my day!! :-)
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-to-catch-predator-msnbccom This is VERY difficult to watch. Maybe you saw it on TV already. "To Catch A Predator" will shock you. Hopefully it will also scare you into talking with your kids about online safety. Maybe you should watch this WITH your kids. The page is full of stories and videos of the confrontations they had with the ... "suspects." Start on the right side in the "As Seen on the Broadcast." Then check out those other links - if you can. Make SURE you watch The Legal Fallout section.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/tips-background-view-of-bloggin This video is from Mark Ahlness, a third grade teacher who put a powerpoint together for his parent night some time ago. He's now replaying the powerpoint and talking over it to tell us what he told the parents that night. In part of it he shows the backstage operations of a blogmeister blog - what he sees and what the student sees. If your school won't allow students to blog without teacher moderation then you should watch this. It's a great insight into the workings of that blog service. It's also a great insight into the workings of a great teacher.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/wonderful-moment-if-i-may-share was working in my office yesterday when someone knocked on the door. It was a woman who works at the IU, although not in our location so I rarely see her. The last time I saw her was at the employee recognition dinner when she commented that she had my tips in a notebook, all printed out, etc. I joked something like, "OH! So YOU'RE the one who's reading my tips!" Anyway, yesterday she happened to be in the building so she stopped by to show me those notebooks. Yes, plural. Two thick binders FULL of the printed tips dating back to 2002, shortly after I started at the IU and began again to send daily tips. Back then they were Office tips, mostly. But, her notebooks had tabs to identify the categories of the tips, from Word and Excel to Protecting yourself online, to websites, etc. She had a third notebook started, as well, I believe, but I was too much in shock to absorb everything I was seeing and hearing. One never knows who all is reading blog posts or emails, I suppose. But, it was an awesome experience to realize that she had been, and in fact had even been printing and organizing them. Maybe I should buy them back from her. I lost two years worth of tips when my hard drive crashed and the archived emails were lost. That's what made me start the blog - as an archive. Anyway.... I had to share the moment.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/05/dear-bloglines-tear-down-wall.h I've been taking some wonderful Apple workshops in a district down the road a bit, and have been frustrated time after time when I try to check my bloglines account there. It's blocked. One reason for it to be blocked is that the url contains the word 'blog' and that organization (an IU) that provides the filter blocks everything with the word blog in it. Outrageous, I know. But, in the case of bloglines, the person in charge of the filtering decisions always points to the image wall in bloglines as the reason to have it blocked. Today I went back in there to see for myself, and the very first screen contained three images of topless women among the images. *FLAG!* *Sirens!* *Danger, Will Robinson!*
I've written to them before, but I wrote again to the bloglines folks to ask them to PLEASE remove that VERY UNNECESSARY "feature." It serves NO PURPOSE! Worse, it's forcing the schools in PA to block the site, which means that we must use other sites (netvibes, pageflakes, google reader). And, in my opinion, the bloglines site has some otherwise excellent features that keep me there for my home use. I LOVE the "Keep new" option, and the 'email this' option, for example. But, as long as that image wall remains I cannot use it in school, and what a shame that is. I can't even point folks to my public feed roll there.
I had commented on this before in this blog and a short while later, this response (http://www.bloglines.com/about/news#133) came from the bloglines folks, and I thought the situation was resolved. But, I never look at that feature so I didn’t know if it was resolved or not. It’s NOT.
So, I wonder if it would have ANY impact if the education blogosphere would join in on this campaign to get the image wall removed. Do you think? It certainly can’t hurt. Do YOU think that the feature is unnecessary and are you finding that it’s being blocked in your school, as a result? If so, PLEASE visit the bloglines site and use their Contact Us page to ask them to remove it. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan (and Pink Floyd), “Mr Bloglines, tear down the wall!”
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-web-2-tools-for-assessment MANY thanks to Ken Pruit for sharing this one. http://www.futurelab.org.uk/viewpoint/art103.htm This site does a nice job of listing some web 2 tools in table format and checking off the different types of assessments that can be made with those tools. A nice page. Read it all. Very well done, I believe.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-thumbprint-of-god-fracatls Arthur C Clark narrates this outstanding video about fractals. Share this one with your math teachers. GREAT soundtrack to this, too. The Mandelbrot set, discovered in 1980 is TRULY remarkable! http://digg.com/lbv.php?id=2155985&ord=1 Notice where this is? It’s being displayed from DIGG. Wondering where I find these videos? I subscribe (via rss) to the educational videos at DIGG. Don’t know or use RSS yet? You REALLY should learn it. It will change how you learn.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-what-do-teachers-make-vide Want to feel good about being a teacher? Watch this video - http://jase.jaseblog.com/BlogPostComments.asp?ditsop=307 (Look! It’s not on youtube so you just MIGHT be able to see it!) We’ve heard these lines before in those “Chicken Soupy” emails, but this one just makes you want to stand up and cheer when he finishes.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-check-out-this-computer-in http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/131 YES! Another cool Ted movie. Here’s how the site describes this presentation: Anand Agarawala presents BumpTop, a fresh user interface that takes the usual desktop metaphor to a glorious, 3D extreme. In this physics-driven universe, important files finally get the weight they deserve via an oddly satisfying resizing feature, and the drudgery of file organization becomes a freewheeling playground full of crumpled documents and clipping-covered "walls." Worried your laptop's desktop will descend into the same disorder as its coffee-mug-strewn real-life equivalent? Fear not: BumpTop has a snappy solution for that messy problem, too.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-video-of-nuclear-explosion Oh my... I couldn't watch it all. It's only about a 5 minute movie, but... I can't believe that man should have EVER learned how to create bombs of such unimaginable power. When you watch this you HAVE to say to yourself, "It's SO powerful that NO SANE PERSON would EVER authorize its use." I suppose if you couldn't tell yourself that then you'd be curled up in a corner whimpering the rest of your life. This one is for the physics teacher, the history teacher, the sociology teacher, the english teacher (another writing prompt, perhaps). This one was again courtesy of the digg/educational videos feed. This is our gift to our children. "Now BE CAREFUL with it!!!"
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-keyboard-shortcut-for-fire I just read this in another MacOSX tips blog, but it works in Windows, as well. What a life-saver it can be. You’ve got multiple tabs open in Firefox and you start to close some, and in your haste you close one that you didn’t want to close. Recall that CTRL-T (or command-t on macs) makes a new tab. Add the shift key to the mix, shift-ctrl-t, or shift-command-t, and it puts that tab right back and you’re looking at the same site, too. Try it. Open a bunch of tabs and put something in each. Then close one and press shift-ctrl-t. Presto! It’s back.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-another-great-popcast-vide What can you learn from ice? Well, if you're studying ice that is 2 miles thick and it has been around for hundreds of years, you can learn a lot. This video is of Richard Alley who does a great job in showing what the scientists have learned from studying the ice. I was fascinated. Check it out. Bookmark it for next year when school starts. This one is a MUST see for when you study the discussion of Global Warming.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-google-earth-gets-sound.ht What could be better in Google Earth. It was just recently announced that it is getting street views of some of the major cities in the world. Now, THe Christian Science Monitor reports that it's getting SOUND, too. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0605/p20s01-stct.html (Via the Kim Komando Daily News list) To see what this is all about, go to: http://earth.wildsanctuary.com/. You'll have a choice to hear the sounds on Google Earth or Google Maps. I chose Google Maps this AM for time reasons, but I saw the map of the world with icons in various places. When I clicked an icon the note appeard and in the note was a play button to play the sounds associated with that area. The man behind this, Bernie Krause, says that a good portion of his sound files are from areas now extinct. (Take a moment to let THAT one settle a bit.) This is HUGE for Google Earth, and I'll just bet it won't be the last of its kind to appear. Project this out ten years. We're already down to the street level in some places, and now we've got recorded sound from many areas. And, we've got links to live cameras. What next? Is this fun or what? And for those of us over... well... over 40 :-P we can remember a time when the world was a big place. Now we're learning how small it truly is.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-is-anyone-receiving-my-tip I haven't been getting copies of these tips the way I used to. Is everything OK?
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/high-school-grad-statistics-not This article is one that every high school gae student needs to read. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/06/12/40exec.h26.html?tmp=164687062 The latest stats on the earning potential of high school grads vs college grads. Do check it out. BTW - I HAVE been sending tips recently, but our email (we "upgraded" to exchange) isn't quite working the way we want it to, just yet, and nothing that I send to my tips list gets posted. Nothing that I send to a particular school gets posted, either. Don't get me started. :-)
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-ancient-rome-comes-alive.h MANY thanks to John B for sharing this one on another mailing list. http://tinyurl.com/yp89mh - This article tells about a $2 million computer simulation of Ancient Rome that is 10 years in the making. Here is a quick snippet from the article. “Visitors to virtual Rome will be able to do even more than ancient Romans did: They can crawl through the bowels of the Colosseum, filled with lion cages and primitive elevators, and fly up for a detailed look at bas-reliefs and inscriptions atop triumphal arches.” Check out the simulation here: http://www.romereborn.virginia.edu/ Click the Gallery link on the left for stills, videos, and even audio clips – and more.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-wireless-elctricity.html I used to tell my students that they'd live long enough to see wireless electricity. They'd say, "You mean, like batteries?" Well... no, but... And so it's here. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10856955
While we're at it, I also predicted that they'd live long enough to see 3-d tv - holograms. They'll live to watch the superbowl by having the players right in the middle of the living room. Maybe I'll live long enough to see that one, eh?
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-national-dropout-rates.htm http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0621/p03s02-ussc.html
I was trying to corroborate a statistic that I had heard recently that said that the US has a 50% dropout rate from our high schools. I didn't believe it. I was right! It's NOT 50% - as a nation. It's only about 33%. Only one out of three kids drops out. Heck - we're still in the race.
I'm not serious, of course. Well, the one out of three dropout statistic is real (according to the article). How can this be? We can make list of reasons, I'm sure. And, we can't do much some of them. But, we CAN do something for those who dropout because they are bored or disconnected.
Read the article. WE are the ones who are in the position to make the needed changes.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-voice-thread.html First of all, my sincere appologies to the person who told me about this today. I spoke to so many that I just forget who it was. If it's you, leave a comment on my blog. The site is http://voicethread.com/view.php?b=409 - voicethread.com. Post a picture and then invite folks to leave voice comments on it. This has SO many potential uses for school. Do check it out. Log in and create one for your family, if nothing else.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-great-science-models.html I'm sitting here in a 1:1 workshop led by Dr Scott Carrigan from CAPE. (WWW.acape.org) He just pointed us to NetLogo, a wonderful site full of java simulations at NetLogo. This page shows the models that have been contributed by the community and the application is being developed by Notherwestern university.
Check it out: http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/community/
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-excellent-web-20-summary.h This is cruel. I'm going to tell you about a great keynote/luncheon speaker and I've got thing to link to. But, keep this guy's name in mind.
His name: Cole Camplese, the Director of Education Technology Services for Penn State University. His topic was, "Enabling the New Classroom Conversation" and it was a bird's eye view of the changing face of the web, student involvement, and the trends he and his team have identified. I've done some workshops (some better than others) in web 2.0 changes, but this was FAR AND AWAY the best presentation I've seen on the subject. Bar none.
He talked about so many things, and had so many excellent statistics, but here's one that stands out in my mind. (This is like someone commenting on the Gettysburg address saying, "He mentioned four score and seven years ago." :-) )
After the Virginia Tech tragedy the students of Penn state using Facebook!, quickly organized an effort to have the students wear the appropriate colored tshirts in order to form the letter VT in the stands of an upcoming exhibition football game (Blue/White game, maybe? I forget what game.) Within hours, thousands of students were on board with this initiative. The administration at the University got wind of it and was there at the game to distribute over 8000 t-shirts. He showed a picture of the the students in the stands forming the letters VT. To think that it was started by the students in Facebook, picked up and supported by the administration is powerful.
That is one story in his hour long presentation that gave an EXCELLENT - VERY CLEAR and Logical - overview of the changing face of the web. Web 2.0 tools and what they truly are, etc. EXCELLENT!
Those of you who are reading this and who would like to have a speaker come in for such a presentation would do well to give him a call. And no, I'm not his manager.:-)
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-another-couple-sites-from- I'm here in a workshop with Eva La Mar (from Oregon?!) as she shows a few sites that offer good free resources. She just showed a couple cool tools for higher level thinking. The first site was the Intel site for education. I had commented on that site a while back but there are tools that I hadn't seen before.
The first one she showed was one designed to help the kids learn about ranking. http://www.intel.com/education/visualranking/index.htm This one is terrific. Create a list of items, and then let your students drag them and drop them to put them in order. But, then they must comment on why they put them in that order. What kind of lists? Well, how about a list of voting issues, or causes for the civil war, or a list of disastrous weather conditions. I'm sure you can come up with a LOT more than that. But, once the list is ranked you can get in to compare lists, and more. Very cool.
Another one in that list is called, "Seeing Reason." Start with a central idea and let students create boxes that connect to that idea. But, the lines that connect the ideas can be different thicknesses depending upon its influence on that object. Click the line and tell your reasons.
There are other tools in there, as well. If it's been a while since you were last at this site, as it was for me, check it out again. You just may leave with a couple new tools in your toolbox.
Thanks for making the trip, Eva. Nice job.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-webby-awards.html http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=11 This is a HUGE list of the BEST websites on the web, as chosen by “…members of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences based on a number of creative and functional criteria.” You will get lost in here. There are some sites that are funny, others that are beautiful, others thought-provoking, and … well… ranging from Activism to Youth. Bookmark it but don’t say I didn’t warn you. It’s going to suck a couple of hours right out of your day. And you’ll enjoy every minute.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-terra-nature-of-our-world- http://www.lifeonterra.com/index.php In scanning the Rocketboom episodes that I’ve been missing of late I came upon this site, winner of a Webby Award in the category of.. Student??? But, check it out. Wonderful photography of life on this planet. Here’s what it says about itself: “LIFEONTERRA is a collaborative filmspace and laboratory exploring the questions and ideas on the cutting-edge of science and at the farthest horizons of the natural world. The "TERRA: The Nature of Our World" video podcast launched in October 2005. TERRA films have been downloaded over one million times.”
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-classroomgoogleearth-home. http://classroomgoogleearth.wikispaces.com/ Thanks to Chris C for sharing one from a wiki by (I Think) Steve Dembo. (See this post) He points to a few pretty neat wikis, including the one above. Imagine a wiki where your students post the kmz (saved Google Earth searches) files of the places that they’re studying in school. I like it! More here: http://top10freesites.pbwiki.com/
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-rocketboom-watch-this-epis http://www.rocketboom.com/stories/rb_07_jun_19 Watch this episode. You will come away with a sense of wonder at the creative power of those folks who are being interviewed. And notice how, during the acceptance speeches, that they all seem have the fever.. the drive… the excitement… the radical way of thinking about this connected world. You’re looking at a group of the most creative people in the world. Not scientists, perhaps, but artists and creative thinkers who are excited about what they do. I found it very exciting and exhilarating to watch.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/2007/06/tips-promoting-21st-century-ski http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/item.php?itemID=9771 This is recorded podcast (sorta) of Ken Kay, president of Partnership for 21st Century Skills, as he gives a talk at this past year’s FETC. The topic is 21st Century Skills – something we’ve heard talked about many times. But, give this one a listen. It’s almost an hour long (so let it run in the background while you do your work) but I think you’ll like what he has to say. Yes, he drops the name of Thomas Friedman and the World is Flat but he has some other very good anecdotes and some good suggestions at the end of his presentation. At one point he talks about visiting a 5th grade remedial writing class. The teacher gives the kids the assignment to write a story about a rescue. Real, personal, or imagined. It didn’t matter, as long as it was about a rescue. The boy he was sitting beside said that he was going to write a story that would scare people and off he went to try to write it. Ken went to the teacher to comment on it and the teacher said, “You missed the point. Once he made that statement (I’m going to write a story that will scare people.), it became HIS assignment. Self-directed learning. The lesson also included a paper that the kids received at the end of the class that had them reflect on the lesson. “Did you accomplish your task? If not, why not?”, etc. They had a rubric that helped the teacher recognize self-directed learning. A very informative speech. I do hope you’ll listen to it. It’s an enhanced podcast with his slides showing, too, so you’ll find yourself flipping back to that page to se his slides, I’m sure.
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