Swivel is a great data source for students and teachers alike. You can create graphs right on swivel or download the data sources and create your own. The data set shown in the link is food expenditures at home and away from home by year since 1933. I really like the food expenditures away from home since 1947, it looks like a nice exponential decay function. It would be nice to have students analyze what happened in 1947 to cause the graph to change its behavior. If you are a SS or American History teacher, I think looking at the initial aspect of this data would be interesting given that the data mirrors the great depression and as America came out of the depression the amount of money spent on food items at home decreased, until the advent of WWII!

If you missed Angela Cunningham's post on backchannelling then I encourage you to take a look at it. If you are interested in finding out more about backchanneling, then this is the place to go. There is a significant amount of resource information and articles about teachers incorporating backchannelling in classrooms, mostly at the post-secondary level.

Using the arts to teach biology. Stanford instructor records 5 raps that describe different aspects of his biology curriculum for his students. I'm not sure they are incredible examples, but they do set a tone that music can/will help students understand/remember the material more effectively. It's not for everyone, but is another example of differentiating instruction for those who need/want/like to receive information in different formats. Why does the format have to be lecture? (My pessimistic response is that the lecturer learns best by that modality therefore dictates that others should learn that way!)

Not a poetry expert, but it looks like a comprehensive site. I will put it out there for everyone else and hope to get some feedback.

IF you are looking for a site to help students make informed decisions, or for them to learn how to present both sides of an issue procon.org is a great place to start. The site takes controversial topics and presents a very thorough argument for many sides of the topic. It also provides an overview that is less detailed that students can use as a quick conversation starter.

Great extension of using a video in the classroom. I love the idea and hope others will offer their thoughts. Check out Angela Cunninghams discussion http://contentliteracy.ning.com/profiles/blogs/using-technology-in-the in the Content Literacy Ning

A dowloadable desktop application, centered around open source model, haven't downloaded and played with it. Am just bookmarking it for later development. They have apps for math, science, language, geography and some misc.

Unfortunately, this guy, Shawn Wheeler, just stopped his podcast and changed jobs, but there are some great resources for designing and creating your own podcast. Yet, another resource for delivering content to students that I think teachers would do well to explore.

Another digital storytelling resource. This resource focus' on using the modality for content storytelling, so if you've been reluctant to explore digital storytelling in your classroom, then think again. It's a great set of ideas for developing rigorous stories for content of multiple grades and content areas.

Nice little set of quizzes that students can take quickly. Helps memorize some of the features and other facts students need to know for unit study. Interactive and fun. I took two of the quizzes and need to work on my great lakes. How well can you do?

Interesting blog from a fellow Classroom 2.0 member. He is interested in math, technology, and is working on his masters in technology integration. A worthy read if you are looking for someone to stretch your thinking.

Wake Forest is espousing using wikis with their students. The article does a good job of describing the issues involved in using a wiki for instruction. What I really like about the article is that it is almost all about rigor, high expectations, and relevance. Gosh such problems to have to think about when designing work for students. Maybe more of us need to consider what this article is describing.

A must read for anyone interested in technologies in education. Working my way through it. Maybe a bookstudy? Anyone interested?

Great example that social networking is not just playing.

Another example that conceptualizing the network helped draw her to the engineering field.

WorldWide Telescope is Microsoft's answer to Google Earth and Google Sky. It's pretty cool and does a lot of stuff that I don't understand but am sure someone interested in astronomy would love. I look at it and think about using the zooms of planets to have student calculate the size of some features knowing the scale. It's not utilizing the total power of the software, but it gets me in the door, makes it a cool activity for the students, and creates a little love to science in a math class. i can live with that!

A member of the Content Literacy Ning Sean Nash started this group to connect biology teachers from all over together. I love one of the premises of the group: "Step one in participation within The Synapse: read & explore. Step two: share. Be a resource. Help to create a synapse that communicates in both directions!"

Another digital storytelling site. I've not gone through the process with this site, but sharing it.

Have been looking for more cc (creative commons) or copyright free photos to use in the work I'm doing. Catherine Rubin and I have been discussing the issues involved in cc. Here's another site that might provide more options to teachers looking to include images in the work they are doing.

Using music to make connections in content learning, most specifically social studies. The non-profit organization works to design lessons that get permission from artists for students to use their lyrics as the basis of their writing. I like the idea and think it fits well with the type of thinking we use at CTL so I'm sharing it!