Group items tagged

Societal, Ethical issues - printable color computer/technology skills, mini-posters and activity sheets.

Phun is a free game like 2D physics sandbox where you can play with physics like never before.

Phun is a free game like 2D physics sandbox where you can play with physics like never before. The playful synergy of science and art is novel, and makes Phun as educational as it is entertaining. Great for kids Phun is a fantastic toy for children, where they can learn and appreciate physics, science and simulations in an open ended gameplay with rich creative and artistic freedom, including colorful freehand drawing. and everyone else... But watch out, Phun is also totally addictive to the rest of us! Experienced users create fabulous machines and elaborate mechanism using Phun, as well as games, comics and contemporary art. See more of Phun in the media section, or go download it! ...and for free! We want to keep Phun freely available for non-commercial use, since we think and hope that Phun can make a difference in promoting science and art to the masses, in particular children and young people, through a constructionists learning paradigm. Contact us for sponsorship agreements, or for commercial licenses of Phun. We are also open to R&D collaboration, including pedagogic use of Phun.

Business people and management should read this article about the transformation of business by using workplace communities. "Workplace communities are designed to solve workplace-related challenges" -- they focus on tasks. I would find it interesting to see a business REALLY use technology to change things. Having the business in a business network (OK a NING) and let people tag their posts with the business related PROBLEMS they are having and blog, video, or photograph it-- the tag cloud would tell the business IMMEDIATELY what the problems are in the company. The problem with this model is that there are few corporate executives who REALLY want to know the problems within their organizations. They don't want to be problem solvers, just opportunity creators. However, when managers open their eyes (and I'm a former General Manager myself) and see that two things give business opportunity: problem solving and innovation. And they are directly related. True innovation solves problems. Read this article and think about how you may solve problems using the networks you may now create. If you don't want everyone to know, keep it private and only allow people in your company in.

FABULOUS books to teach grammar -- with teacher printable posters, coloring sheets, online word games, math and poetry

Search flickr by color-very cool!

Cool way to use Google Docs to teach charts and spreadsheets.

Cool survey results gadgets from Lucy Gray -- very very cool for use with children and to demonstrate spreadsheets and charts. I like the little worms she used on her favorite colors chart.

colors, numbers, abc, days, face, family, opposites, shapes, etc

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

on-line collection of animated historical maps

The map as historyThe largest on-line collection of animated historical maps For students: a learning tool to increase comprehension and retentionFor teachers: a ready-made teaching tool to add visual impact in the classroomFor history buffs: new technology to add new perspectivesOur on-line maps use animation, color and narration to bring history to life.

Photo-editing, logos, web templates, filters, color palettes, screen capture & more at Aviary.com. And it is free

This site offers a free map of the world with detailed 3D topography, natural environment colors, and thousands of place name labels. You can view the map interactively online or download it to disk for printing as a wall map. Two versions are available:

Students learn strategies for resolving misconceptions they may regarding why the sky is blue.

Wordle is a fun Web 2.0 tool to use with students. The most repeated word in a Wordle is the largest. Wordle also allows users to change the layout, colors, and font. NCTE provides some cool ideas for how to use it in the classroom.

Here are some lesson plans using Mouse Mischief. In particular I think the Angles lesson plan would be interesting for math teachers but there is also one on apostrophes, colors (for ESL students) and a science one on carnivores, omnivores and herbivores.

Type in a search term and your results come back coded by readability level The name "Twurdy" comes from a play on words with the question "Too Wordy?". The philosophy Everyone has different reading abilities. Some people searching the web are university professors and others are 5 year old children. Twurdy has been created to provide people with access to search results that suit their own readability level. What does it do? Twurdy uses text analysis software to "read" each page before it is displayed in the results. Then Twurdy gives each page a readability level. Twurdy then shows the readability level of the page along with a color coded system to help users determine how easy the page will be to understand.

Thinking Blocks is a suite of learning tools designed to help students solve math word problems accurately and efficiently. Using brightly colored blocks, students model mathematical relationships and identify known and unknown quantities. The model provides students with a powerful image that organizes information and simplifies the problem solving process. By modeling increasingly complex word problems, students develop strong reasoning skills which will facilitate the transition from arithmetic to algebra.

National Geographic, Airbus, and ePals have partnered to raise awareness of biodiversity worldwide, especially among young people. A major component of this effort is a summer photo contest for students age 6-16, called "See the Bigger Picture". Students can submit digital photos online or via mailed electronic media until September 8th. The contest is open to kids aged between 6 and 16*. Submit one color image that you think captures the spirit or idea of biodiversity. It could be a favourite tree or a plant, an animal or an insect, even a whole ecosystem (from your own back yard to somewhere you've visited on vacation) - your image should show people why biodiversity is a good thing that we should try to preserve.