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Computational web based app. Although it's tempting to think of Wolfram|Alpha as a place to look up facts, that's only part of the story. The thing that truly sets Wolfram|Alpha apart is that it is able to do sophisticated computations for you, both pure computations involving numbers or formulas you enter, and computations applied automatically to data called up from its repositories. Why does computation matter? Because computation is what turns generic information into specific answers. To give an amusing example, every school child has at one time or another written a report on the moon, and they probably included the wrong figure for how far the moon is from the earth. Why wrong? Because the distance from the earth to the moon is not constant: it changes by as much as a mile a minute. If you ask Wolfram|Alpha the distance to the moon, it tells you not only the conventionally quoted average distance, but also the actual distance right now, which can at times be well over ten thousand miles off the average. The actual distance is a figure that can be arrived at only by computation based on the moon's known orbital parameters. It's rocket science, if you will.

In an age of mathematical, logical, and scientific thinking, storytelling is often considered appropriate only for language arts projects for young learners. However, in today's information-loaded world, storytelling is being rediscovered as an effective tool for helping us make sense of this data barrage.

"California as I Saw It:" First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900 consists of the full texts and illustrations of 190 works documenting the formative era of California's history through eyewitness accounts. The collection covers the dramatic decades between the Gold Rush and the turn of the twentieth century.

Interesting information that is lesser known from the US CIvil War.

Oil spills in the Baltic Sea have continued to drop off in recent years as a result of various authoritative measures, revised legislation and improved aerial and satellite surveillance. Ross Davies takes a closer look at the region's success story Some years back, the Baltic Sea had something of a reputation as being a cradle for oil spills.The figures speak for themselves.

With Advent upon us the Christmas season has finally begun. The misers among you will be looking to retreat to your caves to fend off the end of the year, but the rest can celebrate the season with th...

Did you fall for CBR's April Fool's story today? A few hours ago, we published a piece on smart kitchen appliances rejecting junk food. Toasters refusing to toast anything other than wholegrain bread, freezers shutting down when ice cream is detected. A truly Smart horror. April Fools!

In the post-truth era, does the capacity to utilise knowledge prepare one adequately to do battle against falsehood? When those selling untruths know the falsehood of their stories, does the bright light of truth shine through? Perhaps not.

Eiffel Tower goes dark in solidarity with victims of Manchester Arena attack. http://abcn.ws/2qTEoIT

I learned of Twine from Richard Byrne's Free Technology 4 Teachers blog post. It is great to see an opensource option that one can download and run locally or remain on the web to write.

via David Kapuler https://plus.google.com/105869951428386281310/posts/KHGtSpCumhM

Not only are nursery rhymes a pleasure to hear and to share, they provide a building block toward literacy. By playing with the short texts of rhymes, children explore the mechanics of the language. A rhyme, for young children, is a complete, short experience, which fits well with their limited attention span. It is like a compact story: it has a beginning and an end, and its own content. Once children have worked out these sequences, they feel confident, as they know that the language content is fixed, even if the speed of reciting might alter to match a mood.