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"Waste too much time playing Asteroids in your youth? Perhaps it was worthwhile after all! This is a quirky assessment/quiz tool where players answer questions by playing Asteroids. Add questions by typing, uploading from a spreadsheet, or import from Quizlet."

The Washington Post has a quite distressing bug common remarks about Common Core exemplars. Is going too much by the common core doing to take us down to a lower common denominator than we are at already? I'm not sure but this type of article is very concerning. "Each teacher read individually through the exemplar lesson on Lincoln's speech. When we began discussing it, we all expressed the same conclusion: Most of it was too scripted. It spelled out what types of questions to ask, what types of questions not to ask, and essentially narrowed any discussion to obvious facts and ideas from the speech.

A fun maths addition game. Shoot an acrobat out of a cannon on to the correct answer. Play full screen at http://funschool.kaboose.com/gamesFiles/flash/kaboose/cannonMath/cannon.swf http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

A fun, fast flash addition game. Pop the balloons to answer the question. Play full screen at http://funschool.kaboose.com/gamesFiles/flash/kaboose/mathPopper/popper.swf http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

Make maths worksheets with this tool from microsoft. Just write one example question and the program will generate more questions of the same type and even provide an answer sheet. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

This is how you link to a specific starting point in a YouTube video. Basically, just add #t=XmYs to the end of the video URL.  X is the number of minutes and Y is the seconds you want skipped when the video is viewed.

Right after posting this, I realized there is now a Share option on the YouTube site that you can use to make this even easier. While viewing the YouTube video: 1) pause the video at the point where you want others to start watching, 2) click the Share button, 3) click options (directly under the link), 4) put a check in the Start at box, and finally 5) copy the link provided by YouTube. Note that you can also type in the start at time as minutes:seconds. The #t part of the link that makes the video start at the spot you specified is included in the link.

A set of maths rounding resources. Choose the correct answer from a choice of four. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

As I'm reading on inquiry based learning, I came across another article, I'd like to share. In this article, it discusses how inquiry-based learning projects are driven by students. This very much aligns with the questions we ask on the Flat Classroom and other projects. The one point of meaning that I'm working to understand (and finding different answers depending upon the site) is that some differentiate that students should develop the questions rather than teachers "handing them" the questions. I have a lesson plan I sent through Diigo where the instructor designed a lesson around the question "Can there be giants?" and called in inquiry based. Under this article, it may not be called true inquiry based, and yet, I'm wondering if the question is intriguing and of interest and can be used in a way to teach if it really matters where the question originates.  My class is a mix of student-created inquiries (Freshman project) and project-generated inquiries (Digiteen, Flat Classroom). Interesting. Look forward to reading and understanding more (and sharing with you.) This is another nice article on the topic. Feel free to share yours. "Inquiry-based learning" is one of many terms used to describe educational approaches that are driven more by a learner's questions than by a teacher's lessons. It is inspired by what is sometimes called a constructivist approach to education, which posits that there are many ways of constructing meaning from the building blocks of knowledge and that imparting the skills of "how to learn" is more important than any particular information being presented. Not all inquiry-based learning is constructivist, nor are all constructivist approaches inquiry-based, but the two have similarities and grow from similar philosophies.

Extending the school day may not have the benefits that some claim, especially since we're just giving kids more same-old same-old instruction time. This article from the Washington Post is worth a read. "But the extended day approach being implemented in many schools as a result of the department's push to increase instructional time  falls short.  It largely ignores the deep body of research on what makes effective expanded learning.   Instead, too many schools are merely adding another hour or so of regular class time onto the school day.  Not surprisingly, two very recent studies suggest we might not accomplish much with this approach to improving schools. "

A useful addition game where users 'handwrite' the answers in the box. The intro page is in Japanese, but the activity is in English. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

Jeopardy is a popular quiz show and a great format to use in the classroom. This is an easy to use Jeopardy quiz creator. Make your quiz by choosing a password and filling in the boxes for categories, questions and answers. Your quiz is published online along with many others to browse through. Use the search box to find what you want. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

A Dragons and Knights themed multiplication game. Click on the character with the correct answer. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

Students need to be open and use open content, however, there are still questions that haven't been answered about open content that need to be addressed. How long will it take to bring these issues to the forefront? Will many higher ed institutions have to become irrelevant first? Do colleges realize that there are things they can do that will make them more attractive (intellectual property rights, for example.)

Here is where you can explore a wide range of Google Search features. You can find different categories, such as Research or Fast Facts, to find new ways to search for information and get answers.

A good sport themed maths basic operations resource. Answer questions about + - x ÷ to make your swimmer faster to win the race. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

"LectureTools is a student response system that also allows students to take notes linked with the slides and videos presented in class, answer instructor generated questions and pose questions to the instructor. All notes, questions and activities are instantly synchronized with the LectureTools web application."

Smagorinsky nails the real origins of NCLB testing as a $20 billion cost to states that profit the testing/textbook companies.

Get a new maths question to solve every day of the year with this superb site. It's great for lesson starters and the answer and explanation can be shown with the click of a button. Search questions for other dates by clicking the link at the bottom of the screen. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

This is a useful QR code creator that allows you to add a password to your codes. You can use this to protect private information or make the passwords the answer to a question to access a new question to create a chain of questions for a QR code quiz. Encode for a web link, message, contact details or maps. All without needing to sign up! Sign in to get analysis of your codes. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Evernote and Moleskin announce the new smartnotebook which is very cool. While you can already snap pictures of notes to Evernote - this notebook has small dots that adjust the page to make it square and remove distortion. It includes stickers that will tag the pages for you and add emphasis and included in the price of the notebook ($30) is a free subscription to Evernote premium for 3 months. I love evernote and while their tech support leaves a lot to be desired (it took me 6 months to figure out how to fix an installation glitch which was answered by another user on their forum after Evernote kept telling me just to use Revo uninstaller) -- it can't be beat for usefulness - that is why it is one of the few apps I am willing to pay for. I'll definitely be asking for this notebook for Christmas to try it out. Hope the price comes down a tad, though.