Evolution of Information

Michael Welsh has another thought provoking video about the role of the Internet. This video focuses on how the Internet has changed the way we work with information.

Harnessing the Web for Learning

Use RSS to keep up with news sites and blogs. Watch the video RSS in Plain English to learn how to use this tool.

Common Craft has produced a several short videos explaining many of the web 2.0 tools in use today.

• Online Photo Sharing in Plain English
• Blogs in Plain English
• Social Bookmarking in Plain English
• Social Networking in Plain English
• Wikis in Plain English

Making PowerPoint Non-Linear

When compared to Hyperstudio, one of the complaints users express about PowerPoint is its use of linear presentations. The ability of Hyperstudio to allow the viewer to select the presentation path has kept some users from using PowerPoint to design presentations.

By using Action Buttons, it is possible to create a PowerPoint presentation with the ability for the user to select the information path. This involves the use of custom buttons and text boxes to create the navigation links.

For additional information see:

• Creating Action Buttons by Susan Tucker
• Add Actions to PowerPoint by Helen Bradley of PC Magazine

NCTE Proposing Shift in English Curriculum

Toward A Definition of 21st-Century Literacies Annotated

tags: information_literacy

Twenty-first century readers and writers need to

• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and
  cross-culturally
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of
  purposes
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous
  information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

2008 NCTE Annual Convention Welcome Annotated

tags: information_literacy

These many shifts are enough to have our heads spinning, but I want to propose one more, one that is intimately tied to the social dynamic of our students’ lives. We’re teaching the Millennium generation, that group of kids who arrived at school as “digital natives” who have a new set of 3 Rs in mind: Relevance, Relationships, and Responsiveness. They live in a digital world in which they turn on, turn up, and tune out with a mere tap on a touch pad. These kids connect with people around the school, city, country, and world as they IM, “friend”, text, game, podcast, and blog. When it comes to preferred technology, they tend (to borrow from the song) to love the one they’re with, so if cell phone is in hand, text messaging is great; if they are online, IM is what counts. Their technology, like them, is mobile and is as much about connecting to people as it is connecting to information.

Weblogg-ed » Connective Reading Annotated

tags: no_tag

If nothing else, this goes to the heart of connective reading and connective writing that we’ve been talking about here and elsewhere now for years. Reading and writing is still about the ability to understand and to create texts of various types, but it’s increasingly more now about connecting to other ideas, other people, and other conversations.

The Fischbowl: NCTE – “Shifting” Toward a New Literacy Annotated

tags: no_tag

Now, I know some folks will cheer when they read these, and others will vehemently protest. I think it’s important to remember that they aren’t throwing away the “old” literacies, they are just expanding what it means to be literate. But what I think is most important about this is the fact that NCTE is apparently basing their convention around these ideas. I think this is a major shift. This is not ISTE promoting NETS, or a coalition of folks from corporations wanting better prepared employees, this is NCTE – perhaps fundamentally redefining literacy and how we teach our children. Perhaps I’m reading (pun intended) too much into this, but I think this is huge.

Physics Phun

Amusement Park Physics - Design your own roller coaster and then see how it rates for both safety and fun. This is just one of the Interactives available on the site

Fear of Physics - Interactive visual simulations

Football Physics - Featuring videos by Dr. Tim Gay that are produced for showing during the University of Nebraska’s football games.

Ippex Online– Interactive Shockwave physics modules covering matter, electricity and magnetism, energy and fusion. User may also operate a virtual Tokamak

Java Applets on Physics: Waltr Fendt - Physics demonstrations

Little Shop of Physics - Experiments and computer simulations

MIT Classical Mechanics- Features video demonstrations by Prof. Walter Lewin. These videos are part of Watch MIT- on-line video of courses taught at MIT

Newton’s Laws of Motion – includes graphical animation of Newton’s laws

Physclips - Animations and video clips

Physics Applets - Virtual laboratory

Physics Science Gizmos- Variety of Shockwave demonstrations covering a variety of physics concepts. Gizmos available for math and science grades 6 to college

Physics Demonstration Videos

Physics of Sports - Discussion of physics behind various sports

Physics World Teaching Resources - Virtual Physics Laboratory

Skateboard Science: Mid-Air Maneuvers - Physics behind skateboarding maneuvers on Skateboard Exploratoreum

What in the world is Curriki?

Curriki is a global education learning community, where teachers around the world contribute and share resources. The goal of curriki is to create quality resources for the benefit of students around the world. This online environment was created to support the free distribution of classroom resources. Essentially, it is a wiki for curriculum – thus the name curriki. Membership is free, but users do need to register.

Curriki has resources in the following subject areas (quantities as of Feb. 2008):

• Arts – 703 resources
• Career and Technical Education — 679 resources
• Educational Technology — 802 resources
• Foreign Language — 520 resources
• Health — 878 resources
• Information and Medial Literacy — 302 resources
• Language Arts — 1667 resources
• Mathematics — 1614 resources
• Science — 2396 resources
• Social Studies — 1690 resources
• Uncategorized — 2950 resources

One of the lessons previewed was a “Virtual Biology Lab” over cell biology. This lab, created at Rutgers, begins with a lesson on the microscope and quickly moves into viewing actual images as seen thru a compound microscope. One of the images was a short movie clip of Euglena which captured the movement of the Euglena under the microscope lens.

Another lesson previewed was an AP Calculus lesson on functions. This lesson incorporated text, voice and animation to present the topic. The contents of an entire course in AP calculus were available in this format.

The AP Calculus curriculum is one of many contributed by the National Repository of Online Courses. Like the AP Calculus course, the lesson on Jim Crow Lawsfrom the AP US History course incorporated voice, images and primary sources to present a topic. Courses are available in science, social science, and math. These courses can be accessed thru Curriki or thru Hippocampus.

A featured partner of Curriki is Next Vista for Learning. Next Vista is an online library of free videos for students and teachers anywhere in the world. The collection is divided into 3 sections: Light Bulb, Global Views and Seeing Service. The Light Bulb area contains short videos (less than 5 minutes) in a variety of curriculum areas. The video on Newton’s First Law of Motion could easily be used for seat belt education as well as a science class.

Curriki does offer grants to develop online courses called Curriki Master Units. Currently these grants are targeted toward middle school math. The target area appears to change monthly.

Through its groups feature, Curriki incorporates some aspects of social networking. Examples of groups include Middle School Science, K-8 Math Collaborative, Adolescent Literacy Forum, New Teacher Group and an Interactive Whiteboard Group.  

Speedlinking

Discovery Education Webinar Archives — Includes tutorial (scroll towards bottom) on how to use Movie Maker and Discovery Education’s (United Streaming) videos to create a personalized movie.

2007 Awards of Excellence – Reviews of software programs and web sites that received recognition for their excellence in incorporating 21st century skills in the classroom.

Digital Photography Contest — Although this information is for the 2007 contest, this would be a good contest for art or journalism students to enter. View the 2007 winners for ideas

Study Curve — Social Networking site for homework help.

Cyberbullying Articles

• Terror in the Classroom: What Can Be Done – Part 1
• Terror in the Classroom: What Can Be Done – Part 2
• Terror in the Classroom: What Can Be Done – Part 3
• Terror in the Classroom: What Can Be Done – Part 4

Livening Up Foreign Language – Tips on using Internet audio, videoconferencing, Flickr and other resources

Rubistar – Need to create a grading rubric? Rubistar provides the ability to quickly create a rubric using one of their rubric templates. Curriculum areas covered include science, research and writing, music, and multimedia.

Integrating YouTube Video segments into curriculum – With YouTube blocked for students, they cannot view educationally appropriate videos directly from YouTube’s site. However, teachers can make these same videos accessible to students by embedding (copying/pasting) the link in a blog, wiki, Moodle class, or powerpoint posted on the web.

RSVP Technology – Tool to improve reading by displaying text briefly, in sequential order, using a small amount of space. For those wanting to experiment with this technology, there is a free plug-in to Firefox that can be installed.

Need for Right Brain Skills – The book, A Whole Mind: Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, argues that right-brain skills – particularly creativity – are the skills that will be the skills needed by employers in the future. The author, Daniel Pink, has an online presentation at Discovery Education’s Webinar archives.

Getting Certified — Certiport offers Microsoft and Adobe tests to become certified users of their software.

Ramping Up Reading – 14 tips on how to use technology to improve reading comprehension

CITEd – Center for Implementing Technology in Education – wide variety of links to lesson plans, tutorials and other resources

Free Webinars on technology related topics – sponsored by Don Johnston, Inc.

Resources for Science Learning – Including Franklin Institute’s History of Science and Technology site

Battle Lines: Letters from America’s Wars — Featuring letters written home during over 200 years of American history

Library of Congress on Flickr — Over 3000 original photos from the 1910s and the 1930s

Mind Meister — Free online mind mapping tool that allows for collaboration. (requires user to create an ID; premium service has more features)