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Jeff Utecht's thoughts on creating vs consuming information.

Here's the Windows 8 consumer preview version if you just have to download and try it out. (Or, if, as Microsoft hopes, you want to start building apps.)

"New Change4Life teaching resources will support teachers to use English and Maths lessons to help children cut back on sugar. This comes as Public Health England (PHE) reveals the average 10 year old has already consumed at least 18 years' worth of sugar.[1] While children's sugar intakes have declined slightly in recent years, they are still consuming around eight extra sugar cubes each day[2], equivalent to around 2,800 excess sugar cubes per year."

One of my students turned up this information that Facebook is working on controls to help kids under 13 use the service. It is no surprise that 7.5 million Facebook users are under the age of 13 and that 5 million of THOSE are 10 years old or younger. COPPA, while set up to protect children, is actually keeping them from participating in society as they want to. This infographic and information is worth sharing as you educate your students. If you want until they are 13 to talk safety online, that is too late. "Last June, Consumer Reports magazine said they had unearthed "several disturbing findings" about children and Facebook, including: 20 million minors had used Facebook within the year prior to their study. 7.5 million of those users were under the age of 13 and not permitted to use the site. 5 million of those were 10 years old or younger. 1 million children had been harassed, threatened, or subjected to other forms of cyberbullying in the year prior."

New guide for parents from the Federal Trade Commission about protecting children online. It says that parents should get a "plain language notice" about information will be collected before they want to use features on an site or download an app that collects their personal information. I'm very curious how this is going to happen since often parents aren't involved in the app installation process for their children. Review the parent guide to understand the current rules.

"Does the thought of answering questions at teaching interviews fill you with dread? For many, the answer is a resounding yes. Not only is the application process extremely time-consuming, but if you are lucky to reach the interview stage, you will deal with on-the-spot pressures too. Most schools will observe a lesson you've prepared before moving to formal interviews. If you reach this stage you've done well. However, this is often the point at which candidates struggle the most. After all, you can prepare a lesson, knowing to some degree how it will go. But how can you predict what will be asked in an interview? Answering questions at teaching interviews is a skill you need to develop. Fortunately, there's a way."

While reading the syllabus for a new course you discovered there is a research paper project. These types of projects often require the need to carry out online research to find sources. The online world is vast, often making such research a time consuming drain on valuable study time. So what do you do? The following top 10 tips for successful online research below will help make time dedicated for research more efficient.

An overwhelming majority (89%) of all kids age 6-11 in the US spend at least some time doing online activities and - though many of their basic social activities haven't changed much over the years - they have vastly different communication styles and preferences than older age groups, according to a study from Experian Consumer Research.

via http://freetech4teachers.blogspot.com/2008/12/secret-builders-virtual-world-for-ages.html\n\nSecretBuilders is a virtual world for children 5 to 14 years old powered by a web 2.0 community of children, parents, educators, writers, artists and game developers. On SecretBuilders, children will explore virtual lands, undertake quests, play games, maintain a home, nurture a pet, and interact with their friends. Three features which form the backdrop for SecretBuilders distinguish it from other online worlds:\n\n * Children learn through immersing themselves in the stories, themes, and concepts from the best in literature, arts and humanities. They will interact with famous historical and fictional figures and be introduced to content and characters from world civilization and the great thoughts and ideas of human creativity. \n\n * Children will create this site, not just consume it. They are directly involved in creating this world with their ideas, critiques and contributions on virtually every aspect of the site and many of their ideas will be implemented!\n\n * Children publish their works - writings, art, videos - making SecretBuilders their own personal store of creativity. They can invite friends and family to view their works, and comment upon them. Seeing their works published and enjoyed by others instills tremendous for self-confidence as well as motivation to do more.\n

Podstock is a brand new conference designed to bring podcast creators and those who see the real value of podcasting as creators and consumers together.

consumer education created by teens...

Google Knol is turning into an excellent resource for both researchers and experts alike. It offers information consumers a platform for finding encyclopedia-like articles. Read on to learn how you can make the most of this useful new tool.

Describes the problem with using miles per gallon as our fuel efficiency metric for automobiles. Points out gallons per 10,000 miles provides better information to consumers.

I can say without hesitation that all my traditional educational experiences combined, everything from grade school to grad school, have not taught me as much about learning and being a learner as blogging has. My ability to easily consume other people's ideas, share my own in return, and communicate with other educators around the world has led me to dozens of smart, passionate teachers from whom I learn every day. It's also led me to technologies and techniques that leverage this newfound network in ways that look nothing like what's happening in traditional classrooms.

Nice mediacl infographies. The Better Health Channel website was founded in 1999 by the Victorian Government, Australia as a consumer health information website for the Victorian community. It is now Australia's most popular health and medical website. The site's aim has always been to provide free health and medical information in an easy to understand format and language.

Great Gadgets, Strange Science & Technology with a Twist "Gajitz is as much an interactive archive of innovations past, present and futuristic as it is a collection of the latest and greatest gadget designs, sensational scientific discoveries and terrific new technologies … with a twist. The primary focus of this tech publication (read: blog) is on objects, finds anddesigns that defy particular typologies, wander away from convention and are more than merely consumable objects."

Watching the Oscar-winning global-warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth, I was struck by the similarities between climate change and education change. These seemingly unrelated crises on our planet and in our schools are, in fact, connected. Both have taken many decades to develop and, at least in the United States, both originated in an industrial economy built on manufacturing. The effects of global warming and school decline are difficult to detect year to year, but over several generations, their impacts accumulate -- and are now converging to limit the future health of our economy and our society. To reverse these declines, similar fundamental shifts in thinking and behavior will be required at the individual, institutional, and societal levels. Consuming less, recycling more, and the ethic of caring for the environment should begin with our youngest children, as modeled by their parents, teachers, and caregivers. It's the same with literacy, curiosity, and a love of learning. Just as green technologies can make energy consumption more efficient, learning technologies can play a key role in modernizing the learning process.

This Google resource brings together the latest industry facts and insights. These have been collected from a number of third party sources covering a range of topics from macroscopic economic and media trends to how consumer behaviour and technology are changing over time.

Educational technology advocates claim today's students are technologically savvy content creators and consumers whose mindset differs from previous generations. The digital native-digital immigrant metaphor has been used to make a distinction between those with technology skills and those without. Metaphors such as this one are useful when having initial conversations about an emerging phenomenon, but over time, they become inaccurate and dangerous. Thus, this paper proposes a new metaphor, the digital melting pot, which supports the idea of integrating rather than segregating the natives and the immigrants.