"Let's face it: Technology and etiquette have been colliding for some time now, and things have finally boiled over if the recent spate of media criticisms is anything to go by. There's the voicemail, not to be left unless you're "dying." There's the e-mail signoff that we need to "kill." And then there's the observation that what was once normal - like asking someone for directions - is now considered "uncivilized."
Cyber-savvy folks are arguing for such new etiquette rules because in an information-overloaded world, time-wasting communication is not just outdated - it's rude. But while living according to the gospel of technological efficiency and frictionless sharing is fine as a Silicon Valley innovation ethos, it makes for a downright depressing social ethic."
"There are many ways to build student engagement in the classroom. What we need to get away from is the adult in the classroom answering their own questions, and fostering an atmosphere where students can rely on each other and work in collaboration. As with anything, this requires balance because we want to make sure the student who doesn't want to answer questions actually takes the opportunity to do so.
As Hattie says learning is hard work and it offers us challenges. We know that as adults but want to prevent our students from seeing the challenge because it doesn't always feel good. We need to change our expectations to make sure that students understand they do have to take ownership over their own learning, and not giving them the answers sometimes may be the place to start. "
What is the difference between blogging and curation if they are both about finding and sharing great content?
According to Deanna Dahlsad at Kitsch-Slapped, is the focus. While bloggers often cover anything that interests them as the are online where as curators are characterized by a strong focus on a specific topic.
Via Richard Byrne "SugarSync is a cloud storage service that offers apps for iOS and Android. Using the apps you can take pictures of anything including those handwritten notes and upload them to your account. SugarSync synchronizes your files across all of your devices so that you can access your files anytime you are connected to the web."
"Spongelab Interactive is a group of scientists, teachers, animators, artists, and programmers passionate about science education. We believe that cutting-edge technology and stunning interactive media should be available to everyone, regardless of fiscal constraints.
Most of the content on our site is free. Like what you see? It's yours. To use anything identified as premium (usually full games, interactives or case studies) you can:
Redeem the credits you have earned while using our site - each piece of premium content is marked with a "P" and can be redeemed when you select it from the search results page
Buy a bank of credits through our PayPal ordering system - In the My Profile area, order blocks of credits in the Buy Credits section.
Purchase a Site License - Get access to all content, unlimited student seats, all for $600 CAD, contact us and we do the rest. "
"Minecraft is more than a game. It's like having a blank canvas to do and be anything. It's like having a master key to your greatest adventure.
The worst thing that can happen if we let kids play is that they will learn much more than our standards sometimes allow. Those who play minecraft know this but the problem is that most people in charge of schools and curriculum do not. So, how can we change that?"
Save Stories, Photos, and Videos on a Collaborative Timeline. A free tool for building a collaborative family history project over the internet, this timeline generator can adapt to fit a timeline of anything It goes beyond blogging to permanently capture life's stories in words and photos. You can publish or share the stories privately with family and friends.
The teachers understood that learning doesn’t have to be measured in order to be
assessed.
It focused on teachers’ personal “connection[s] with our subject area” as the
basis for helping students to think “like mathematicians or historians or
writers or scientists, instead of drilling them in the vocabulary of those
subject areas or breaking down the skills.” In a word, the teachers put
kids before data.
All that does is corrupt the measure (unless it’s a test score, in which case
it’s already misleading), undermine collaboration among teachers, and make
teaching less joyful and therefore less effective by meaningful criteria.
"While some education conferences are genuinely inspiring,
others serve mostly to demonstrate how even intelligent educators can be
remarkably credulous, nodding agreeably at descriptions of programs that ought
to elicit fury or laughter, avidly copying down hollow phrases from a
consultant's PowerPoint presentation, awed by anything that's borrowed from the
business world or involves digital technology.
Many companies and consultants thrive on this credulity,
and also on teachers' isolation, fatalism, and fear (of demands by clueless
officials to raise test scores at any cost).
With a good dose of critical
thinking and courage, a willingness to say "This is bad for kids and we won't
have any part of it," we could drive these outfits out of business -- and begin
to take back our schools."
This is a great Livebinders collection of all things Google including search, apps, docs, Earth amongst others. Lots of references to documents, video and slideshares etc. If anything there is just a little "too much" goodness to look through :).
This website is a wiki, provided by pbwiki.com. It contains the complete novel, as well as glossaries, appendices, pictures, maps and anything else the author, Paul Stewart could pack in.
Smart video collections keep appearing on YouTube. But rather antithetical to the ethos of its parent company (Google), YouTube unfortunately makes these collections difficult to find. So we've decided to do the job for them. These enriching/educational videos come from media outlets, cultural institutions, universities and non-profits. There are about 70 collections in total, and the list will grow over time. If we're missing anything good, feel free to let us know, and we'll happily add them. You can find the complete list below the jump.
"this app is a great demonstration of where mobile shopping is heading. With the abilities that are shown in this app, more and more apps are going to start including features like this that will offer information on virtually anything we can think of."
"you can use wallwisher for:
* Personal note taking
* To-do lists
* Party Invitations
* Feedback Collection
* Wishing people on occasions, like birthdays, anniversaries
* Anything that might need input from a lot of people, eg. a Mac Vs PC wall (that'll be a war, not a wall actually). "
Uses the sticky note concept and looks very promising. Reminds me of when my HSC daughter had Post It Notes all over her walls in her bedroom while doing the HSC.
One of the problems facing many teachers is trying to make students aware of the need to respect copyright and fair use of digital content. Even though students can generally appreciate the principles behind the need to pay due regard to the originators of these artefacts too often they are unable to locate anything other than copyright material. Locating suitable Creative Commons licenced content can be a real nightmare for students and teachers alike. To this end
SitePoint has gathered up over 30 of the best resources online for audio, video, images and more for finding just the perfect Creative Commons licensed item for use in your next project. So, have a look around and get inspired!
Visualization is a technique to graphically represent sets of data. When data is large or abstract, visualization can help make the data easier to read or understand. There are visualization tools for search, music, networks, online communities, and almost anything else you can think of. Whether you want a desktop application or a web-based tool, there are many specific tools are available on the web that let you visualize all kinds of data.