I asked a social studies teacher, "who's the historian in your classroom?" After a bit of give and take, we concluded that in the traditional classroom, the students get to watch (and listen) to the teacher be historian

This year, I've designed non-exams for my Human Geo students that will assess their ability to apply what they've learned over the course of the year to real-world problems using full open access to the Net as well as collaboration with their peers during "exam time".

"I resolve to embrace a sense of vuja dé. We've all experienced déjà vu-looking at an unfamiliar situation and feeling like you've seen it before. Vuja dé is the flip side of that-looking at a familiar situation (an industry you've worked in for decades, problems you've worked on for years) as if you've never seen it before, and, with that fresh line of sight, developing a distinctive point of view on the future. The challenge for all of us is that too often, we let what we know limit what we can imagine. This is the year to face that challenge head-on."

"Here are some of his main ideas, in italics, with my thoughts interspersed. * 1. Why do we use report cards and assign grades to students' work? * 2. What purpose should report cards or grades serve? * 3. What elements should teachers use in determining students' grades? * We don't agree on the purpose of grades. That's the first problem. The various purposes are at adds with another."

"Mashpedia is an interesting service that matches reference articles from Wikipedia to materials from other sources like YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Digg, and the web in general. The purpose of drawing materials from multiple sources is to provide users with a comprehensive view of current news "

"Project Look Sharp is a media literacy initiative of Ithaca College to provide materials, training and support for the effective integration of media literacy with critical thinking into classroom curricula at all education levels."

Curriculum Kits and Lessons

Open Culture- best free cultural and educational media on the web

" Social Media Classroom Using social media to learn about social media issues Today's students live in a world in which all of the traditional elements of their education-texts, lectures, connections with the world outside the campus-have been transformed by the ubiquitous presence of laptops and Wi-Fi. In their lives outside the classroom, and in the lives of their families, communities, and fellow citizens, important questions arise about the effects of using digital media-questions about identity, relationships, community, collective action, public sphere, social capital"

"85+ Resources: Educator Guide for Integrating Social Media"

Backchannel space for people to come together.

Flexibility to create multimedia resources

Tips to effectively use Youtube in the classroom

Part of the Interesting Ways to Use series

Student Reporting labs connect students with a network of public broadcasting mentors, an innovative journalism curriculum and an online collaborative space to develop digital media, critical thinking and communication skills while producing original news reports

"Rag Linen is an educational archive of rare and historic newspapers, which serve as the first drafts of history and the critical primary source material for historians, authors and educators. "