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I asked some of my kiddos and my music teacher colleague, Monica Femovich, to help me explain our very new efforts in teaching curation.  Usually game for anything Glee-ish, our singer/actors brilliantly and generously created an introduction I can use for instruction and in upcoming workshops. This may be the first song about digital curation.

Professional Development for me used to be about going to sessions on specific days and then trying to 'bring back' what I've learned and incorporate it into my daily practice. Sometimes this was very challenging, I would get inundated with new information and find it very hard to apply what I learned into what I did on a day-to-day basis. Often my notes would be filed away, not to be seen again.

This school year, I made a conscious decision to go paperless. Last year I carried around my computer to every class, a planner and a pen. I constantly lost the pen or the planner. I used a LOT of paper. On top of that, if I wanted to check when I completed a lesson, I'd have to flick through my planner, find the task then find when I started and fished.

Like most people I have lost many hours to Google Earth. As a geographer and teacher I have been trying to find ways to incorporate this tool into the social studies classroom. Over a year ago I started making my own Google Earth files. Throughout the past year, my father and I have spent countless hours working through technical issues creating what you see today. There are a few more improvements that still need to be made (when in doubt refresh the browser), but it works and is there for you to enjoy. I offer this tool to all teachers who want to create cool and engaging lessons for their students. In return I would appreciate feedback on how you use this site and potential improvements. Required Resources: This site looks best with IE7 and higher, Firefox 3 ((FF4-FF7 Fix), and Google Chrome. You must install the Google Earth Plug-in (Free, but you might need your IT administrator to install) and have broadband access.

"This post is inspired by the Xmas end of year podcast by the EdTech Crew." Another great resource of thoughts and ideas to add to the discussion about eLearning leadership.

A year in…reflections on a my first year as an eLearning Coordinator .. So here a few things that I have learnt from my first year in the role…

"I was wrong. One year ago I left the internet. I thought it was making me unproductive. I thought it lacked meaning. I thought it was "corrupting my soul. It's a been a year now since I "surfed the web" or "checked my email" or "liked" anything with a figurative rather than literal thumbs up. I've managed to stay disconnected, just like I planned. I'm internet free."

"When you're wanting to use Google Docs/Drive with students, figuring out which workflow works best for you is one of the biggest challenges. How to access something I want students to turn in to me? How do I put a file out there for my students to have access to? I wanted to share a couple ways that teachers in my district have been doing that. I know they aren't the only ways it can be done but teachers have had a lot of success with them."

AnthonyTeacher has "made an amazing little gradebook on Google Spreadsheets which allows students to view their individual grades in realtime. This means students click on my gradebook link and are taken directly to a page that shows only their grades. Any change I make in my gradebook will be reflected in their grade report automatically when they refresh or visit again."

PISA, the OECD's triennial international assessment of 15 year olds in math, reading, and science, has become one of the most destructive forces in education today. It creates illusory models of excellence, romanticizes misery, glorifies educational authoritarianism, and most serious, directs the world's attention to the past instead of pointing to the future. In the coming weeks, I will publish five blog posts detailing each of my "charges," adapted from parts of my book Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon: Why China has the Best (and Worst) Education.

"I'm Dr. Keith Devlin, a mathematician at Stanford University. In fall 2012, I gave my first free, open, online math course. I repeated it in spring 2013, then in fall 2013, and in February I am giving it a fourth time, each time with changes. This blog chronicles my experiences as they happen"

Following on from my last feel-good link 'Stop Disaster' I received a response from a post I put up about the game at my blog - http://abcreative.posterous.com Melanie, the Manager - School Education, National Security Capability Development Division, Attorney General's Department came across the post and shared this link with me. 'Dingo Creek - the disaster' and 'Dingo Creek - The Recovery' immerses students in an emergency management situation and gets them to make decisions will change the course of the game. The great thing this has been developed for Australian students. There are also offline units and lesson resources to download from the site. Another great resource for incorporating games / simulations effectively into the curriculum.

"Last week I was in a bit of a bind: My mobile broadband key from 3 wasn't getting reception, while my Optus-powered Samsung Galaxy S had enough reception to get me online, but I needed to use the laptop. Then I remembered that the Galaxy S lets you use the phone's 3G connection as a mobile hotspot and I thought to myself, "All phones should have this feature!"

Consider that many students have phones and that these will soon become mobile hotspots. Only a big deal for schools and depts that spend a fortune to shackle and cripple what students can and probably should be doing.

"Last week my wife and I told our 13-year-old daughter she could join Facebook. Within a few hours she had accumulated 171 friends, and I felt a little as if I had passed my child a pipe of crystal meth. I don't mean to be a spoilsport, and I don't think I'm a Luddite. I edit a newspaper that has embraced new media with creative, prizewinning gusto. I get that the Web reaches and engages a vast, global audience, that it invites participation and facilitates - up to a point - newsgathering. But before we succumb to digital idolatry, we should consider that innovation often comes at a price. And sometimes I wonder if the price is a piece of ourselves. "

An excellent read! I've been looking for more stuff on the whole Native/Immigrants nonsense, and there are some very thought provoking ideas contained in here.

My Top 10 Ways To Use Evernote by Aviva (@grade1). Evernote is a fantastic tool for assessment and organisation in the classroom

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The American Federation of Teachers' new online community Share My Lesson offers teachers free access to the resources and knowledge of their peers across the country. Featured are nearly 260,000 teaching resources, a monthly resource calendar, free games and activities mapped to the Common Core and discussion forums. Teaching resources are divided by grade, subject and rating and include activities, puzzles, games, lesson plans, posters, assessments and more. 

"Should I turn my desktop computer off during a lightning storm? I've heard stories about lightning striking a house and ruining thousands of dollars of computer equipment. These people had all the anti-surge stuff and it didn't help. They even had the computer off; the on switch was still sending mains power to it from a wall. "

"What happens when a pirate meets a fox in the woods? You have the power to decide -- meeting new characters, going on great adventures and creating your very own story along the way. My StoryMaker lets you control characters and objects - and creates sentences for you! Once you are done with your story, you can print it out."