Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

"IT JUST GOT way, way easier to search and browse the US Geological Survey's collection of historical topographic maps, thanks to a new online map viewer. These maps-more than 178,000 of them-date back to 1880, and they cover the entire country. Best of all, they're free to download for anyone who wants to, say, check out the contours of the Grand Canyon or study the urbanization of the San Francisco Bay Area (see below)."

"Education-bashing has become something of a national sport in the United States. From hurling criticism about slipping test scores, socio-economic disparity, dropout rates, to raising concerns about poor teaching standards and school resources, the popular narrative is that U.S. schools are failing children. There's good reason for the pile-on: in many cases, the problems are real. While most of the conversation around education reform centers on how to address these existing issues, another point of view has been gaining momentum over the last several years. It's a point of view that is less focused on fine-tuning the current system for high performance-since the system was built in 1893 with the goal of churning out "good workers"-and more about rethinking education entirely and how it meets the world's rapidly changing economy in the information age. This topic is explored in depth in the feature-length documentary, Most Likely to Succeed, which premiered at Sundance and will appear at the Tribeca Film Festival April 24. In the film, director, writer and producer Greg Whiteley casts a light on the shortcomings of established education methods by focusing on one school that's defying convention, San Diego's High Tech High. While following two ninth-grade classes for a year, with classroom instruction unlike anything you've ever seen, the doc offers some inspirational ideas for how to help students rise to the occasion of an innovation economy that requires critical thinking."

"Call it an industrial evolution. As the maker movement outgrows the garage and shifts into popular culture, anyone with an internet connection can click into a world full of creative possibilities. That includes kids, some of whom can code, craft, and build with the best of us by elementary school. A slew of websites, fairs, and maker's guilds are available to introduce kids to the basics of design and engineering, and tech-savvy parents often bring their children into the fold by starting with small projects. Experimental schools, such as the Tinkering School or Brightworks Academy in San Francisco, are also tailoring their curricula towards hands-on skills aimed specifically at boosting fluency in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math). But you don't need a formal program or DIY-fluency to empower your kid to chase their creativity. All they need are some interesting tools, a little guidance, and the space to pursue their passions. For the parents of some kids, like Alonzo King, 12, that means letting him tear apart cassette players and see what he can build out of the parts. For others, like the parents of Miles Hacker (yes, that's his real name), 10, that means waking up to a living-room-sized spider web that their son made from a roll of tape."

"If you've purchased any or all of iLife/iWork apps for iOS at some point in the past, now is the time to update your productivity suite and take advantage of the new features Apple introduced just yesterday at their event in San Francisco. It was quite a big day for the likes of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Not only did Apple unleash a host of new features, they've also baked in deep compatibility for these apps-utilizing iCloud, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and iOS 7. Read on for some of the highlights you'll find in the updated apps."

"While doodling has often been seen as frivolous at best and distracting at worst, the idea of sketchnoting has grounding in neuroscience research about how to improve memory. When ideas and related concepts can be encapsulated in an image, the brain remembers the information associated with that image. William Klemm, a professor of neuroscience at Texas A&M University, says the process is akin to a zip file. "This is a way to get your working memory to carry more," Klemm said at a Learning and the Brain conference in San Francisco."

"Filmmakers are using virtual reality to make the problems of the developing world seem more ... real. But how can you see their work? You could buy a headset, but you might end up in virtual debt. Prices range from $200 to $500 for devices from big players like Oculus Rift, Sony and Samsung. And forking over that much cash is a problem since there's not a lot of content yet. MindMaze Software Engineer Nicolas Bourdaud demonstrates a virtual reality system at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. All Tech Considered Developers Continue Push To Make Virtual Reality Mainstream An attendee at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles plays Sony's Project Morpheus London Heist video game with a virtual reality headset and Move controllers. All Tech Considered Gaming Industry Pushes Virtual Reality, But Content Lags "You're in a store ... and here's all the head-mounted displays and then it costs $200 or $300. Why would you ever buy it when you don't know why you're buying it? You wouldn't," Tony Christopher, CEO of Landmark Entertainment Group, told NPR last month. But there are inexpensive options that require only your smartphone and some cardboard. Google Cardboard, a project of the tech giant, offers instructions and templates to build your own cardboard virtual reality headset. Grab a pair of scissors, X-Acto knife and some glue. Then find some cardboard at home, print out the templates, trace and cut out the different pieces and assemble your goggles. The instructions can get confusing, so our multimedia editor Ben de la Cruz suggests following a how-to video like this one from the tech site, CNET."

"Today I am hanging out at the Twitter HQ in San Francisco. During the presentation on Twitter I learned you can MUTE someone without unfollowing them. There can be periods of time that someone you follow is tweeting a series of tweets that do not pertain to your interests. Someone may be at an event that does not interest you to keep up on. Someone may be participating in a Twitter chat for an hour and blowing up your Twitter stream."

Link to steve Job's live keynote address June 9 at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco

A San Francisco wiki services provider has just finished a multiyear project under which it gave teachers all over the world 100,000 free wikis. And now, it is doubling up and getting set to give away another quarter million.

Social Media search Samepoint is a conversation search engine that lets you see what people are talking about. Discover, learn and share new web sites and ideas.

"Three years ago I explored and reviewed the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra's website for kids called Keeping Score. Recently, the site was overhauled with new features and a new name. The new site is called SFS Kids and it is loaded with good activities for elementary school and middle school students. "

"Three years ago I explored and reviewed the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra's website for kids called Keeping Score. Recently, the site was overhauled with new features and a new name. The new site is called SFS Kids and it is loaded with good activities for elementary school and middle school students."

"David Hockney's exhibit at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco is awe inspiring, jaw dropping and a tribute to what is possible with a phone or tablet. His imagination is boundless, providing the viewer with a journey into a wonderful world of color, space, expanse and tributaries into landscape and portraiture. "