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Free education style web site hit counters

"When a bolt of musical inspiration hits, many musicians will reach for their smart phones, pop open the built-in voice-recorder app, and make a quick recording of some combination of guitar, voice or piano, hoping to capture the essence of the idea before it fades. But a voice memo is a blunt tool for capturing a song idea, and the artist is left on their own to figure out how to translate a rough recording into something more substantial -- or even to remember what chords were played."

"When a bolt of musical inspiration hits, many musicians will reach for their smart phones, pop open the built-in voice-recorder app, and make a quick recording of some combination of guitar, voice or piano, hoping to capture the essence of the idea before it fades. But a voice memo is a blunt tool for capturing a song idea, and the artist is left on their own to figure out how to translate a rough recording into something more substantial -- or even to remember what chords were played."

"Rubrics hold a mirror up to your objectives for an assessment task. Matt Townsley remembers well the day he looked into this mirror and didn't like what he saw. "I realized my criteria were mostly about how neat the project looked. It hit me that students could do well without knowing a whole lot about the learning objective."

This sounds like an interesting article that someone took the time out to put up here on Diigo. There's only one problem, this seems to be some sort of "pay to view" site. Visitors actually cannot see the article in question (well, they get a 2-paragraph preview). Diigo friends, please don't point to sites that don't give the full information.

Actually, one need not pay, but to read the whole article, one does have to sign in - the account is free, and I understand some don't want to sign in. Still, the article raises some good points.

Asa Spencer of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute writes in the Education Gadfly Weekly: "Traditionalists cringe, tech buffs rejoice: This latest NAEP writing assessment for grades eight and twelve marks the first computer-based appraisal (by the "nation's report card") of student proficiency in this subject. It evaluates students' writing skills (what NAEP calls both academic and workplace writing) based on three criteria: idea development, organization, and language facility and conventions. Results were predictably bad: Just twenty-four percent of eighth graders and 27 percent of twelfth graders scored proficient or above. Boys performed particularly poorly; half as many eighth-grade males reached proficiency as their female counterparts. The use of computers adds a level of complexity to these analyses: The software allows those being tested to use a thesaurus (which 29 percent of eighth graders exploited), text-to-speech software (71 percent of eighth graders used), spell check (three-quarters of twelfth graders), and kindred functions. It is unclear whether use of these crutches affected a student's "language facility" scores, though it sure seems likely. While this new mechanism for assessing kids' writing prowess makes it impossible to track trend data, one can make (disheartening) comparisons across subjects. About a third of eighth graders hit the NAEP proficiency benchmark in the latest science, math, and reading assessments, compared to a quarter for writing. So where to go from here? The report also notes that twelfth-grade students who write four to five pages a week score ten points higher than those who write just one page a week. Encouraging students to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) is a start."

Baby boomers have been hit hard by the recession. Millions of people in their 50s and 60s are unemployed; some have retired but wish they were still working. And yet research shows that older people have much to offer, particularly as educators and child care providers.

"Planboard helps you easily plan and view your academic year. It's quick and easy to add items for each class. Need a synopsis on weekly schedules? Just hit the week button. Have a lot on your plate? An overview of your day is just a click away."

Interesting statement about the role of questionging in acquiring new infomation. Your mind has to ask the question in order for your brain to have a place to hold onto the information.....interesting perspective. 

I frequently say a similar thing when I talk about having students share their questions after a first reading. Their questions are such a great diagnostic of what they are ready to learn! Having students ask and answer their own questions not only gives them the info. they need now, but teaches them to be self-directed learners for a lifetime.

A logic game where players must drag objects around to hit targets and get the egg into the cup. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Easter

Valve, a game developer has released their hit game Portal for free with a series of educational resources targeted at teaching Senior Physics and Maths. Will be checking this one out over the holidays, but so far looks excellent.

Create a graph online quickly. Create bar graphs, line graphs or pie charts. Simply choose your settings, paste your data in the Chart data area and hit the create button.

"Here at BA Central I see a lot of truly ridiculous conspiracy theories. Over the years there's been the Moon Hoax, various asteroids NASA was covering up that would hit the Earth (or wipe us out somehow via electricity), and of course the end of the Earth over and over and over again. Yet happily, we're still here. Yet sadly, so are these silly theories."

Candid good and bad from the students on the adoption of iPads in their 1to1 school. No surprises but it reinforces the lack of freedom teachers have to use the most current/best app for the job if the district has to approve it and do all the loading on the devices. Also hits the idea of use it for what it is best at and not just because you have one.

How much CO2 is created by a banana? A wedding? A flight to New York? We teamed up with GE to turn 'tons of carbon' into an interactive visual landscape. Enter a CO2 value. Hit the 'random' button for serendipity. Or just click through objects like stepping stones. (There are nearly 200 objects so it may take a second to load) Designed by David McCandless

Thiel is a venture capitalist and the game that VCs play is to invest in 10 different ideas with the hope that one of them hits it big, while the other nine are likely to fail, morph into something different, or simply fade away.

In reference to Gates and others who have shined, according to Gladwell's "Outliers" they have also most likely put in the time (10,000 plus hours) practicing, envisioning, and imagining what they want to create. Innovation takes time input, imagination, desire, and risk...

Video pointing out the challenges to children in Syria

"To cognitive neuroscientists, Handscombe's experience is the subject of great fascination and growing alarm. Humans, they warn, seem to be developing digital brains with new circuits for skimming through the torrent of information online. This alternative way of reading is competing with traditional deep reading circuitry developed over several millennia."

Washington Post article on how the internet is impacting our ability to read and concentrate.