Group items tagged

"September 6th, 2007 Librophiliac Love Letter: A Compendium of Beautiful Libraries Everyone has some kind of place that makes them feel transported to a magical realm. For some people it's castles with their noble history and crumbling towers. For others it's abandoned factories, ivy choked, a sense of foreboding around every corner. For us here at Curious Expeditions, there has always been something about libraries. Row after row, shelf after shelf, there is nothing more magical than a beautiful old library. We had a chance to see just such a library on our recent visit to Prague. Tucked away on the top of a hill in Prague is the Strahov Monestary, the second oldest monastery in Prague. Inside, divided into two major halls, is a breathtaking library. The amazing Theological Hall contains 18,000 religious texts, and the grand Philosophical Hall has over 42,000 ancient philosophical texts. Both are stunningly gorgeous. Strahov also contains a beautiful cabinet of curiosities, including bits of a Dodo bird, a large 18th century electrostatic device, numerous wonderfully old ocean specimens, and for unclear reasons many glass cases full of waxen fruit. Our delight was manifest. Shocked into a library induced euphoria, Curious Expeditions has attempted to gather together the world's most beautiful libraries for you starting with our own pictures of Strahov. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do."

"You never know what will come in handy for a craft project or fill a need around the house. Besides, recycling stuff is better than adding to the landfills and it's good for our environment! Here are some ideas for things you can use all that old stuff for. Everyday household stuff... Frisbie Bird Feeded Walkway Party Lantern Things you can do with Breyer's ice cream containers. Things you can do with old film cannisters. Things you can do with berry baskets Things you can do with old CD's Things you can do with old CD jewel cases Things you can do with old plastic pop bottles Things you can do with old cardboard tubes Things you can make with tin foil How to make lamps & vases from glass bottles Things you can do with old cardboard milk cartons Things you can do with wire hangers Things you can do with old egg cartons Things you can do with old garden hoses Things you can do with old newspaper How to make your own recycled paper How to preserve newspaper clippings Things you can do with old baby food jars Things you can make with wallpaper Things you can do with tuna cans Using Stuff In Nature Things you can make with walnut shells Things you can make with pine cones Things you can make with sea shells Recycle kitchen/cooking waste MORE Recycling Ideas... (Miscellaneous stuff - Light bulbs, brown paper bags, bleach bottles ...)"

"Reconsider the Use of the SAMR Model December 4, 2017 - Leave a comment The four-stage Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR) model introduced by Rueben Puentedura back in mid-2000 has not only grown in popularity there are people building upon this its unsubstantiated foundation. The SAMR model was initially intended to help K-12 teachers move the up the ladder of technology use by using tech for the creation of new tasks, tech for a significant redesign, tech as a direct substitute with functional improvement, and tech as a direct substitute, with no functional change. SAMR not only looks like an innocuous model of using technology it also seems to appeal to the way many people tend to approach the use of technology. If we look closely at the fundamental presupposition of its use then we will see that there are serious issues in how the model can enhance learning. The first time I was introduced to the SAMR model was over a decade ago and I recall thinking that this model has a fundamental flaw that many people will tend to overlook. While using technology to simply make an activity or task more efficient or to explore ways to enhance or even redefine that activity or task may seem innocuous or even worthwhile the problem that we run into with this sort of thinking is that we are ignoring the validity of the original task that SAMR is being applied to. For example if you use SAMR to move your paper-based fill in the black worksheet to a digital model (substitution) and then add some branching questions in a google form (augmentation) and then add enabled voice responses (modification) and finally allow your class to create a video to answer the questions (redefinition) the problem is you are still asking your students to regurgitate content regardless how sophisticated the regurgitation becomes. I have also noticed in my time working with hundreds of teachers and faculty that there is a tendency for most people to NOT move beyond t