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Hacking student passions through Genius Hour

Ransomware is a new kind of malware. The worst Ransomware to hit in some time is the Crypto virus. This virus encrypts your hard drive and you have to send them a $300 certificate (untraceable) so they'll give you the encryption key to decrypt your drive and get your data back. In an interesting twist, the US government disabled the servers running this ransomware scan and now all of the people with the virus have no hope of getting their decryption keys. This is another reason you should be very careful NOT to open suspicious attachments even from legitimate sounding sources. (Many of these messages appeared to be from Fedex and UPS.) The greatest internet filter ever created is the human brain. Educate teachers and others - not through fear but through a skeptical empowerment that always thinks before it clicks and especially before it downloads.

Often we search for meaningful ways to integrate digital technology in project based learning activities given to our students. We also would like our students to develop a thorough understanding of the concepts underlying the work - after all this is the purpose of the project. Giving students the opportunity to complete and present their project through a digital lens has one great advantage - student engagement. This in turn causes students to develop a more in depth understanding of concepts.

Blogging newcomer from educational mainstay Beth Holmes is a welcome addition to the edublogosphere.

Elizabeth "Beth" Holmes, former manager of the Center For Quality Teaching and Learning has been working with education and technology for a long time. She has started blogging and is now on my must read list. I said if she ever started blogging, I'd be a fan and I am -- this first post is an amazing call to action and also goes through the emotional internal debate we all have before moving into the edublogosphere. Beth has written for many educational magazines through the years and has the big picture understanding with also the practical back up of how things really work in the classroom. She's going to be a superstar and I'm glad she's blogging!

The mission of the Concord Consortium is to foster equity and self-realization through improved education. The greatest and most underexploited opportunity for advancing this mission is through educational technologies. We know that students at all ages are capable of learning more, earlier, and at a far deeper level than is currently achieved and we have seen this kind of learning in well-designed schools that have creative teachers and use excellent, computer-based materials. Our goal is to make this the norm.

5 Trends in Education Technology Leadership SETDA's "National Educational Technology Trends Report" spotlights state efforts to boost learning through the federal Enhancing Education Through Technology program. By David Nagel04/23/10

"Bell, F 2010, Network theories for technology-enabled learning and social change: Connectivism and actor network theory , in: Networked Learning Conference 2010: Seventh International Conference on Networked Learning, 3-4 May 2010, Aalborg, Denmark. PDF - Published Version Download (236Kb) http://usir.salford.ac.uk/9270/1/Bell.pdf Official URL: http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/ Abstract Learning never was confined to classrooms. We all learn in, out of, before, during and after episodes of formal education. The changing sociotechnical context offers a promise of new opportunities, and the sense that somehow things may be different. Use of the Internet and other emerging technologies is spreading in frequency, time and space. People and organizations wish to use technology to support learning seek theories to frame their understanding and their innovations. In this article we explore Connectivism, that is positioned as a theory for the digital age, in use on a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), Connectivism and Connective Knowledge, in 2008. We then compare Connectivism with another network theory, Actor Network Theory, to explore possible synergies. We found that Connectivism enables educators and learners to legitimise their use of technology to support teaching and learning. Connectivism, a relatively new theory, can benefit from a richer empirical base as it develops. Since the scope of educational change can vary from a specific learning setting through organisational and societal settings, we can develop theories through empirical exploration of cases across the range of settings to support our understanding and actions."

Web Wise Kids is about empowering today's youth to make wise choices online. Through state-of-the-art Internet Safety computer games (based on real-life scenarios) as well as Internet Safety tips for kids, teens and parents, Web Wise Kids creates a safer, friendlier internet experience. These, coupled with involvement of community, youth leaders and parents, provides an environment where your child's Internet Safety becomes their first line of defense while navigating through cyberspace.

via http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/04/fun-4-brain-great-educational-games.html

All games here were made by Exuberant Games. Each game goes through important information for a certain subject matter for grades Kindergarten through 6th grade. The math games are great if you need to review your math facts for addition, subtraction , or division. Be sure to check out our new games for other subjects. * English games to review parts of speech * Reading games to help learn sight words * Science tutorials and games are coming soon! via http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/04/fun-4-brain-great-educational-games.html

Whyzz is a website designed for the parents of three to eight year old children that are going through the "why" phase. Whyzz gives clear simple answers to the "why"questions like "why is the sky blue?" that children ask frequently. Parents can access the information on the site in two ways. The most direct way to find something on Whyzz is to type a "why" question in the "tell me" search bar at the top of every page. You can also browse the through topics in ten different categories. Click on a topic and you'll find a list of commonly asked "why" questions and their answers.

account training becomes an added advantage if you do not wish to hire your personal accountant to manage your accounts. Accounting involves a lot of activities like book-keeping, preparing balance sheet, maintaining tax records and payroll and so on. There is no way you can avoid these tasks. Every functional organisation has to stick to these activities for the smooth functioning of the firm. Many organisations in the past have suffered from enormous losses only because their employees did not have the required accounting training and thus were unable to handle the accounting services and important financial documents and statements. For overall success, any firm should have a firm grip over the company's accounts and financial position. You can do a lot of things to ensure you are always informed about your company's financial position. First and foremost, you can ask experienced professionals from your company to undergo accounting training courses. By brushing up their knowledge through accounting training courses, these professionals will be in a better position to handle the accounting of the firm. Another option you have is to outsource the task to outside professionals who are competent enough to handle the accounting job. Apart from this, you can also hire accounting firms who can assure you transparency in all the dealings apart from impeccable services. By outsourcing your work to an outside firm, you can save a lot of time of your firm which can be utilised for other management tasks. However, you have to be ready to shell out a bomb to avail of these services and hence it is always a good thing to have your company's own professionals well versed in this task. Once your company professionals go through competent accounting training courses at a reputed accounting training centre, they can be ready to handle different tasks like preparing sales tax reports, creating monthly or mid-monthly reports, calculating reports with perfect sales figure,

A.I. Duet is a great Artificial Intelligence computer piano keyboard that responds to sequences input through your computer keyboard. Developed using Google's Magenta project, the algorithm uses a neural network to learn how to respond through to the key strokes. Simply use a keyboard, use your computer keys, or even plug in a MIDI keyboard. A.I. Duet is built by Yotam Mann with friends on the Magenta and Creative Lab teams at Google.

Most employers do not want employees who hate their work but persist through it anyway. It is a fallacy to believe that we are teaching our kids that the heart of innovative capability (and therefore their future job prospects) is best served by doing something you hate for an extended period of time no matter the consequences.

Your use of the Internet security vulnerability profiling services on this site constitutes your FORMAL PERMISSION for us to conduct these tests and requests our transmission of Internet packets to your computer. ShieldsUP!! benignly probes the target computer at your location. Since these probings must travel from our server to your computer, you should be certain to have administrative right-of-way to conduct probative protocol tests through any and all equipment located between your computer and the Internet

Your use of the Internet security vulnerability profiling services on this site constitutes your FORMAL PERMISSION for us to conduct these tests and requests our transmission of Internet packets to your computer. ShieldsUP!! benignly probes the target computer at your location. Since these probings must travel from our server to your computer, you should be certain to have administrative right-of-way to conduct probative protocol tests through any and all equipment located between your computer and the Internet

A superb assessment resource which allows you to gain real-time feed back through tests, quizzes and even allowing students to annotate a document that you upload. Set up your quiz/test using true/false statements, longer text answers or students can draw the answer. You can setup a marking key meaning that the site will mark the answers for you and give instant data on who is correct. Your student can either have there own free account or they can access the material using a link. The site works across a wide range of devices.

A superb assessment resource which allows you to gain real-time feed back through tests, quizzes and even allowing students to annotate a document that you upload. Set up your quiz/test using true/false statements, longer text answers or students can draw the answer. You can setup a marking key meaning that the site will mark the answers for you and give instant data on who is correct. Your student can either have there own free account or they can access the material using a link. The site works across a wide range of devices.

Speech given by Arne Duncan, May 17, 2010 regarding international collaboration and engagement in US Education

Kim Cofino's diagram about The Collaboration Cycle: Building Independence Through Partnership from Coaching and Mentoring to Partial and Full Collaboration.

Collaboration Cycle of PD.

I agree with Jeff Utecht that Kim Cofino is on to something with the collaboration cycle of "building indpendence through partnership" in terms of mentoring and helping teachers with their pd and technology integration.

7 steps to a flat classroom is being given away free from Atomic Learning through the end of October. Let me know how you like it!

7 steps to a flat classroom, free through October 2008.

So with the caveat that I am only halfway through Mark Bauerline's book The Dumbest Generation, I have some early impressions to throw out there. While I think there is some merit to this side of the debate (much like Keen's Cult of the Amateur) what really bothers me about this book so far is, as the title suggests, this sense that our kids are at fault. Let me put it plainly: our kids are not "dumb" nor is this generation "dumb" simply because they spend a lot of time in front of television screens and computers or because they haven't worked out for themselves how to get smarter using the Read/Write Web.