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Oh, what a disturbing message. What if Google held our gmails for ransom? How much would you pay? Would it be right? This is the case with all of the things we have. Recent changes at Jott and Twitter should make us think! In fact, I couldn't even blog about it if it happened to me!

Recent happenings with Google accounts being disabled.

Discussion of why Generation X is inundating Second Life and why Gen Y is so underrepresented. I will say that my students LOVE Second Life, but you also have to remember that I teach students who, for the most part, grew up playing outside and have engaged in free play all of their lives. Perhaps this is also a function of the presence of free play in the lives of children. How many Gen Y kids truly had free play as part of their childhood? We've sort of structured and organized everything for them in many cases.

Overview of Linden Stats showing more Gen X than Gen Y in Second Life and the impact of using SL to teach.

I was pleased with how this introductory unit turned out. You'll notice, we created wikis, I had assigned 2 grades, one for technical (do they know how to do things) and another as the regular grade. For bonus for the test, students could make flashcards on proprofs (they are printable) or games on classtools.net and embed in the wiki. Also included is the assignment and my grading rubric made in excel. Sharing in case you'd like to use something similar. There are many ways to introduce wikis. First, each student created a sandbox page with basic requirements, then, this was their first group project.

Assignment for computer fundamentals - first wiki team project of 9th grade year.

Whistleblower lawsuit from an IT director.

Some push back in IT is happening such as this case with an IT director who said he was fired for "blowing the whistle" on innappropriate IT behavior such as problems with the grade reporting software and a computer with confidential student information that was breached without reporting it to the state. These sorts of things have both sides. The point that I would take here is to listen to IT directors when they have concerns: just because you don't understand the problem doesn't mean there is a problem, and that ethics must be applied when things are dealt with in IT.

A good blog post concerning James Boyle and his talk where the 'central theme was the relationship between where we are today with open science and where international computer networks were in 1992. He likened making the case for open science today with that of people suggesting in 1992 that the networks would benefit from being made freely accessible, freely useable, and based on open standards'.

This New York Times article on the Open Content Alliance is an essential article for librarians and media specialists to read. It is also important for those following the fight for information and control of that information. In this case, the Open Content Alliance wants to make books that they scan available to any search engine while Microsoft and google are aggressively approaching libraries for exclusive access to their content. (which could be rescanned by another later, possibly.) Librarians and media specialists should understand this... when will people approach schools to scan annuals or student produced works? Maybe that is a while off, but for now, be aware that it is probably inevitable.

An overview of the Open Content Alliance versus Google and Microsoft battling to take control of the content housed in libraries.

2008: software written in New Zealand. A pilot program where students respond to case studies which involve values. Responses are quantitatively collated. Good potential for further research for more academic inclined students.

Values Exchange. Students able to discuss current interests. Has formal approach to discussions.

The purpose of this site is to help instructors and parents better understand how the internet can facilitate plagiarism. We present strategies to prevent plagiarism, explain some of the underlying causes, and provide advice on dealing with cases of confirmed plagiarism.

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people.

Hundreds of articles, expert interviews, research, and resources highlighting success stories in K-12 education. Short videos provide case studies in technology integration, project-based learning, emotional intelligence, teacher preparation, assessment and more." /> metatext/html; charset=utf-8

Instructables is the Biggest How To and DIY community where people make and share inspiring, entertaining, and useful projects, recipes, and hacks.

a comprehensive database of do-it-yourself videos and articles.  The site is packed with homegrown tips, expertise and instructions on how to undertake thousands of useful activities.Want to turn an old NES cartridge into a functioning external hard drive with just a soldering iron and a screwdriver?  How about retrofitting your original 1984 Mac so it can run the current Apple operating system or training a guinea pig to play dead? It's all there for you to discover.You can also find solutions to problems that aren't quite answered by the array of videos.  Just post a query in their answers forum and one of the site's regular users (or "pros" in their lingo) will likely answer it (and turn the answer into a video).If you've got knowledge you want to contribute, click on the Submit button to post your own article or video. (You know, in case you want to give back a little).

Free creative commons licensed music for download!

Digital storytelling music site - just be careful, you may want to prescreen and download some yourself as there may be some profanity.

a source of free and legal music downloads. The music on Jamendo comes from the artists who upload it themselves. While not all of the music is licensed for re-use, there is a substantial collection of music labeled with a Creative Commons license. As always, before re-using any of the music you download make sure it is labeled for re-use.Applications for EducationJamendo could be a good source of music downloads for students to use in video and podcast projects. Some of the music does come with an "explicit" label so you probably don't want to send young students searching on Jamendo on their own. In that case it would be better for you to build a collection from which students choose.

Two people tweeted about this website and how student test scores went up with it. Wonder if others have had similar results? Might decide to use it with my own children if that is the case.

The new Computer Science survey is out from US high schools - the findings do not bode well for computer science: "the number of schools offering Advanced Placement Computer Science (AP CS) has declined significantly in the last six years. In 2005, 40 percent of respondents indicated AP CS was offered at their school. This number decreased to 32 percent in 2007 and to 27 percent in the 2009 survey. AP CS is in many cases the most rigorous course offered by schools. " I wonder how many programs are introducing programming concepts at other levels or using something like Scratch. Should Computer science just be defined as AP computer science?

Great post by Ben Grey on his participation in Constructing Modern knowledge - he hits several things including the fact that many at the conference said that computer programming should be mandatory for all students and a presenter who said that the problem with today is that too many people have a voice. My comments from Ben's blog are below. Great conversations happening here! Programming - OK, on the programming thing, here are my thoughts. In our curriculum our objective is not as much a specific LANGUAGE. One year I may use HTML with Javascript, this past year I used LSL - what I want kids to know that when they encounter programming and coding that there are certain conventions. Some are case sensitive, some are not. How do you find out how to add to what you know about programming? Do you know where to go to find prewritten code? Can you hack it to make it work to do what you want it to do? We spend about a week - two weeks but I require they know how to handcode hyperlinks and images - they are just too important. But to take 12 weeks or 6 weeks to learn a whole language - yes maybe some value - but to me the value is HOW is the language constructed or built. What are the conventions and how do I educate myself if I am interested in pursuing. What comes out of this time is kids who say either "I never want to do that" or "this is really cool, I love coding." They are doing very simplistic work (although the LSL object languages were pretty advanced) but since we don't have a full course nor time in our curriculum, I do see this as an essential part of what I teach. I'm not teaching it for the language sake but for the sake of understanding the whole body of how languages work - we talk about the different languages and what they are used for as part of Intro to Computer science and have an immersive experience. To me, this is somewhat a comprimise between leaving it out entirely or forcing everyone to take 12 weeks of it. I

Any 2.1Certified citizen will tell you that this story seems pretty vanilla and is not too shocking except for the fact that, in this case, the school was the C.E.L.

service iframe your video on top of a webpage - eg: to comment a webpage\n\nBenefits of Sending Branded Video E-mails:\nProfessional Looking: once you've subscribed and saved the Eyejot This! Bookmarklet onto your toolbar, shooting and sending a branded video email is easy. In fact, the whole process takes less than a few minutes (depending on the length of your message of course).Easier to Create than Written E-mail: In most cases, recorded a video email is easier than typing out a full on email. Why? Because on video, you're conversational and spoken word comes out more naturally. It's a great way to get face-to-face with clients (at least virtually) and works well with both existing clients and clients that you're trying to court.Great Way to Capture Attention and Have Site Visitors Spend More Time On-Site: my favorite part about Eyejot is the ability to share a webpage with someone while branding it with your email message. It's a great way of sharing relevant information with a personalized touch. Sharing a particular blog post, listing or teaching someone how to navigate/use the IDX on your blogsite increases the chances of someone spending more time on your site.

Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism as a child, talks about how her mind works -- sharing her ability to "think in pictures," which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids.

"Staff reacted with shock and disbelief as they learned of the defacement of tribute pages set up to honour 12-year-old Elliott Fletcher and eight-year-old Trinity Bates." This is an important article to discuss with students as the defacement of these pages happened because the group was set up for anyone to join and without moderation. Education Education prevents hurt and harm as happened in this case. Of course, it doesn't change the fact that Facebook, even though it is a global company, seems to have a centralized communications structure.

in case i'm not the last to know...