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Social Media Classroom Open Source Howard Rheingold 21st Century Literacies

I don't really give details about the sites I'm listing here because they're all very similar - the music and sounds here are royalty-free and it's just an easy matter of searching and downloading them. Of course, credit should be given to the source when they're used in online projects. I've also tried avoiding sites that have obvious content not appropriate for classroom use, but something might have slipped by me. I also don't believe that any of the sites here require any software download or registration. Here are my choices for The Best Places To Get Royalty-Free Music & Sound Effects:

Learn how to view primary resources as a historian. Download the "Six C's of Primary Source Analysis" developed by the UC Irvine History Project. Watch/Listen to the podcast video interview of using the 6 C's to see how it is done.

Mashup your data into stories * Tell your stories in a new way Photo albums are old school! Pick your sources, start and end date and your story is good to go. If necessary you can tweak it for a better flow.

this is the type of software mentioned in the wired article: Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_wozniak

Anki is a program designed to help you remember facts (such as words and phrases in a foreign language) as easily, quickly and efficiently as possible. To do this, it tracks how well you remember each fact, and uses that information to optimally schedule review times. Theoretically this will greatly increase the amount of material you remember, making study more productive. Free and open source, binaries available for Win, Mac and Debian ^_^

Permalink for a list of 157 Free Applications for the PC and MAC. This list includes all of the top apps, and some that may suprise you. If you are into open source or freeware, this article from PCMag is a must read.

Hundreds of thousands of people have participated in this educational program since it began in 1989. Participants receive a photograph of a real cow that produces milk for Stonyfield Farm, her biography that tells about life on the farm and seasonal updates from "their" cow. By exposing people to life on a modern day farm and some of the problems farmers face, we hope to cultivate an appreciation for healthy soil and a healthy planet - the ultimate source of our sustenance.

Quick video overviews of several renewable energy possibilities

Quick video clips that do an overview of a variety of renewable energy sources.

Covering 6000 years as described from the Bible and other sources. I designed a graphical chart detailing various historical events as seen from a Biblically conservative viewpoint.

Edublogs has it's own "youtube" geared for education. You can import youtube videos directly. Good video source for those districts where Youtube is blocked.

Children, teenagers, and adults need books to be able to learn to read and getting accessible books to them is the goal of the Tar Heel Reader.

Today on horizon, my students set up their PLN (personal learning network) in their RSS reader -- we use Netvibes although some switched to Google reader. Here is how I will assess this: I am assessing the students on this by having them print the page out and turn it in -- I'm also checking over their shoulders in lieu of printing -- but I may not get to everyone. -- In this blog post, I've REQUIRED 6 things on the page -- each is worth 10 points -- with 2 of those points being for a properly edited title in Netvibes (so that they may see what is what!) -- and then I have them find at least four additional sources of information for another 10 points each. Knowing how to set up a PLN for a topic of study is a VITAL skill for the 21st century researcher. I like Netvibes because it is very simple -- one page interface.

Best practice on setting up a PLN as done for the horizon project 2008.

Describes MI's problems w/ adding serious wind power to the existing electrical grid. Calls for an improvement of transmission lines to be able to handle new energy sources.

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Detailed UStream setup on Mac side

Blooms Taxonomy Pyramid Bloom's Taxonomy defines six different levels of thinking. The levels build in increasing order of difficulty from basic, rote memorization to higher (more difficult and sophisticated) levels of critical thinking skills. For example, a test question that requires simple factual recall shows that you have knowledge of the subject. Answering an essay question often requires that you comprehend the facts and perhaps apply the information to a problem. I wish to promote the analysis the subject matter, perhaps by having students break a complex historical process or event into constituent parts. I particularly want students to organize and present pieces of historical evidence it in a new way, to create or synthesize an argument. In order to do so, students must evaluate evidence, making judgments about the validity and accuracy of primary sources.

Pencil is an animation/drawing software for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. It lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics. Pencil is free and open source.

Digital Vaults gives you and your kids a place to find raw materials that are arranged in ways that may make more sense to them. The site is set up a bit like a social network. Data is organized by tags and linked to both the tags as well as other resources. Like a social network, you can make your favorites documents / materials your "friends," search for new "friends" by using tags and create "mashups" using primary sources.

Fabulous resource for Primary Sources! Very interactive.

Digital archives 2010

Finally, any theoretical benefit of practice homework must be weighed against the effect it has on students' interest in learning. If slogging through worksheets dampens one's desire to read or think, surely that wouldn't be worth an incremental improvement in skills. And when an activity feels like drudgery, the quality of learning tends to suffer, too. That so many children regard homework as something to finish as quickly as possible - or even as a significant source of stress -- helps to explain why it appears not to offer any academic advantage even for those who obediently sit down and complete the tasks they've been assigned. All that research showing little value to homework may not be so surprising after all.