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This wiki is devoted to hosting ideas, lessons, implementation strategies and more related to using the game, Minecraft in a school setting. Whether you use it in a computer/gaming club, as part of your regular curricular instruction, or even at home with your own children, Minecraft's simple yet scalable "sandbox" virtual environment can be an excellent tool for engaging student learning. The open-ended nature of the game lends it to application in a variety of subject areas. Game-based learning, virtual worlds, and simulations are emerging tools for reaching our learners. That's why this wiki was created. Are you an educator who also plays Minecraft? Perhaps you're considering using the game in your school or district. Do you have ideas about how Minecraft could enrich your teaching while providing a fun and exciting game world for your students? Then join us and share those ideas! This is an opportunity for crowd-sourced lesson building! -Lucas Gillispie, Instructional Technology Coordinator, Pender County Schools, NC

The Flip camera is great for all types of projects in science and math - at any grade level. Flip cameras are small handheld video cameras that can record 30 or 60 minutes worth of video. They connect to a computer with a USB plug that "flips" out from the side of the camera. The benefits of these cameras include another means for assessing students understanding of concepts beyond worksheets and tests. Besides a teacher's record, the videos provide a digital record for parents and administrators to show a student's successes or areas which need improvement.

What is Wolfram Alpha? It is a supercomputing brain. It provides calculates and provides comprehensive answers to most any science or math question. Unlike other search sources, you and your students can ask questions in plain language or various forms of abbreviated notation. Contrary to popular belief, Wolfram Alpha is not a search engine. Unlike popular search engines, which simply retrieve documents based on keyword searches, Wolfram computes answers based on known models of human knowledge. It provides answers which are complete with data and algorithms, representing real-world knowledge.

Facebook, the most popular social networking Web site in the world, was founded in a Harvard dorm room in the winter of 2004. Like Microsoft, that other famous technology company started by a Harvard dropout, Facebook was not particularly original. A quarter-century earlier, Bill Gates, asked by IBM to provide the basic programming for its new personal computer, simply bought a program from another company and renamed it. Mark Zuckerberg, the primary founder of Facebook, who dropped out of college six months after starting the site, took most of his ideas from existing social networks such as Friendster and MySpace. But while Microsoft could as easily have originated at MIT or Caltech, it was no accident that Facebook came from Harvard.

Read Google Books and Magazines on your desktop and/or save to pdf, currently only works w/Windows XP/Vista/7. And you need to have .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 installed on your computer. Send request for other OS through support form. Free download.

Google Docs is an easy-to-use online word processor that enables you to create, store, share, and collaborate on documents with your science and math students. You can even import any existing document from Word and Simple Text. You can work from anywhere and with any computer platform to access your documents.

- Take a picture or make a short video of what you see on your computer monitor. - Share it instantly via web, email, IM, Twitter or your blog. - Simple and free, Jing is the perfect way to enhance your fast-paced online conversations.

Nvu (pronounced N-view, for a "new view") is a complete Web Authoring System that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web page editing. Nvu is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.

MIT grad student David Merrill demos Siftables -- cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Is this the next thing in hands-on learning? David Merrill works on Siftables, tiny computer blocks that interact with each other to make networks (and music)

Visualization software from Microsoft; free; helps your computer simulate a telescope; is a mashup of various telescopes around the world; recommended by colleague Jenny Luca

If you received a Facebook message similar to these: ---------- Hey funny. Between You and a Friend Today at Time/Date Is that you making love?!: Long link to video download web site here ... ---------- or ---------- Hi my friend. Between You and a Friend Today at Time/Date Who and when made this video of you?!!!: Long link to video download web site here ... ---------- DELETE it. Do NOT click the link. If you clicked the link, do NOT download the file! If you downloaded, do NOT click/run the file! If your Facebook profile is suddenly sending spam-like messages to all your friends (similar to those above), please read the instructions for removing the Koobface worm. If the worm is a variant of Koobface.A, there may be instructions and antivirus data files (update, dat file, signature, etc.) or a remover application specific to the variant. Don't panic. There is no good reason to format a hard drive to get rid of a virus. Most antivirus software can do a good job of cleaning up. As this thing relies on an internet connection to propagate, please unplug your network cable. Follow the removal instructions for your operating system, and scan your computer with updated antivirus software. I think any one of the popular antivirus applications (and some spyware progams) will take care of it as long as what you're using has the latest virus definitions/signatures/dat file/updates, etc. W32.Koobface.A http://www.symantec.com/norton/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2008-080315-0217-99 Free stuff here that may help: Browser Security Tests: http://www.pcflank.com AVG Anti-Virus Free: http://free.grisoft.com Ad-Aware Spyware Remover: http://www.lavasoft.com/single/trialpay.php Spybot Search & Destroy http://www.safer-networking.org/en/

Windows 95 was a remarkable moment in personal computing. Its successor has come.\n\nBut not from Microsoft. Apple has launched the defining platform of the early 21st century. The PC is dead-or will be. Long live the smart phone, er, iPhone.

Creative Web Tools For and By Kids is a project designed for students, ages 9 to 14, to use emerging technologies for engaging, thinking, learning, collaborating, creating, and innovating. The focus is on the use of free, open-source, or minimal cost tools, so the project can be replicated. An underlying goal is to demonstrate how advanced technological applications for enhancing learning can be implemented with only a computer and Internet access.

I met with a representative from Turning Technologies today. While many of you may have had the opportunity to use interactive response systems (so-called "clickers"), we're finally moving into the 21st century; now that we have reasonable computing facilities at all of our schools, our goal is to fully utilize them and add interactivity. Thus, these interactive response systems that allow students to answer questions and take surveys in class with their aggregated responses displayed within a PowerPoint presentation or on a standalone unit. The real beauty of Turning's system is its direct integration with PowerPoint (sorry, no OpenOffice integration, although the software can be superimposed over any Mac or Windows software). It includes a dedicated toolbar and a series of macros for automating the creation of interactive slides.

EffectGenerator makes it relatively easy to add different effects to your photos, and best of all you don't need to register with the site to use it. Select a template and start creating your slideshow. You can upload the photos from your computer or add by URL. Flickr search is integrated into the application.

Twitter is a software tool that allows users to continually post (or "tweet") very short text messages to the Web from computers or mobile phones. These quick public messages simply describe what a user is currently doing. Twitter's appeal has mushroomed, making it a much-discussed new tec

Now you can carry your favorite computer programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more with you. Use them on any Windows computer. All without leaving any personal data behind.

The world's largest 'How to' site. Videos on all sorts of topics including education, computers, technology.

Beautiful site and looks like the software is super easy to use to virtually look at anything in space. Big wow factor. Only drawback is that it takes some hefty computing power to run the software. For example, while the minimum RAM is 1 GB, they recommend 2 GB AND while 1 GB minimum hard drive is okay, they suggest 10GB. Now for most people, only the RAM will be the issue. However, it is so cool, I'd love to run out and get a PC with the power to run this application.

The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere. It's something we want to give you, along with some online media hosting, to see how you use it. The project will eventually turn into something else. Tell us what you think so we can figure out what that is. Try it, you'll like it. Find out more in the FAQ, or on the weblog .