Group items tagged

"Queensland's newly appointed anti-bullying guru has urged parents to grow "a digital spine" and set clear limits on their children's technology use."

" BBC News Technology of Business"

The excess use of technology in classroom can distract students. So how much should we rely on technology? do we still need to use tradional methods in teaching? which is better?

Is iPad the future? will the PC become obsolete at one point?

Be sure to check out the reader's comments. Online education is best known for serving older, nontraditional students who can not travel to colleges because of jobs and family. But the same technologies of "distance learning" are now finding their way onto brick-and-mortar campuses, especially public institutions hit hard by declining state funds.

Satellite technology has enabled us to understand the importance of the oceans in storing heat energy and regulating climate. Research scientist Lee Lueng-Fu explains how a satellite was able to track the development of the El Nino affect for the first time. El Nino caused weather events around the world - droughts, bushfires, storms. The latest generation of satellites are now used to improve climate change models. Computer graphics of satellite images show effects of climate change.

Geographic Information System (GIS) software uses the power of geography, spatial location to gather, analyze, and visualize vast amounts of information. See how this innovative technology can be used to investigate the fascinating lands of Asia.

An interesting article on how the US is finally allowing technology to be exported to these countries. Even more interesting is the reason: "to help...support opposition groups". Interesting for a discussion on how technology can be used to organize and rally support, for example, anti-government protest which would otherwise not be possible openly. (Its interesting to compare this with US Cold War foreign policy too, but that's another story...)

A series of videos that explain how different technologies work. A bit like the 'In Plain English' videos. Videos available include hardware, Email, and networking. Best suited for students with limited IT knowledge with whom you need to cover the basics.

The New Scientist's technology section has a lot of useful information, and a lot of it very easy to understand too. A useful source for articles for discussion, the technology section also breaks down into smaller topics like Computer Crime, Robotics, and Weapons. Some of the "Instant Expert" guides in here are well worth using in class, and some of the articles may also be suitable for Paper 2. (subscription required for some articles)

Neerjaal is an Information Communication Technology enabled water resource management system for grassroots communities. It is about collation of ground water related content and information and management of water resources with the available information. The Neerjaal software facilitates generating, storing and making public the water related information in a village.  The core objective of Neerjaal is to contribute towards managing scarce water resources across communities in India.

Througt the use of networks, cell phones and maping tools people are saving lives in Haiti

by taking people out of the hazardous real training environment this tech can save lives

"Gary Flake demos Pivot, a new way to browse and arrange massive amounts of images and data online. Built on breakthrough Seadragon technology, it enables spectacular zooms in and out of web databases, and the discovery of patterns and links invisible in standard web browsing."

"In Plain English" series of videos. These are no longer available on YouTube but can be seen here. A variety of topics are covered including Hardware, Software, Phishing, Blogs, and Wikis. Very clear explanations in a fun style.

Source of articles for Paper 2.

Article on digital citizenship by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis. Reviews current Flat Classroom Projects. How can we teach digital citizenship when the digital landscape is changing so rapidly? How can we teach proper online social interactions when the students are outside our classroom and thus outside our control? Will encouraging students to engage in global collaborative environments land teachers in hot water? These are the questions we hear from our peers around the world who are grappling with such issues in administrative offices and teachers' meetings every day. Digital citizenship is far more than digital literacy, just as 21st-century skills encompass much more than simply "skills." Digital citizenship is not about creating a list of things to do or a stagnant curriculum that you can use for the next 10 years. It's about transforming yourself into a professional who can effectively research technology trends, monitor the uses of technology in your school or district, avoid the fear factor that can easily paralyze you, and empower student-centered learning to create vibrant, exciting learning projects. As you embark on the path to becoming a digital teacher, we offer some advice to consider and pitfalls to avoid.

When a malaria research project in Uganda was expanded into a full-fledged malaria case-tracking effort across the country in 2006, health officials saw the move as a great opportunity to save lives... But after starting with such promise, the project quickly became mired in a series of technology shortcomings... It finally all came together this spring after the introduction of a few key high-tech tools -- a modern relational database, nine smartphones and a remote-access software application that was originally meant for a completely different use.