RCSPTW

"Online education has officially arrived. What five years ago was the ubiquitous domain of University of Phoenix, is now dominated by sexy start-ups like the recently announced edX by Harvard and MIT. The unprecedented boom of these education technology outfits has thrown the media into a tizzy about the coming of an education revolution. It certainly will happen, but there are some fundamental challenges it must tackle before it can disrupt and transform elite higher education."

"This is a really big deal. For the first time in history it is easy for non-specialists to explore and closely examine art from museums across the globe on a single website.... Here are two examples of how the Google Art Project opens the conversation. In 1889, Vincent van Gogh painted three canvases depicting his bedroom in Arles; these now reside in three different museums. Only the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam illustrates another version on its website and remarkably, none of the three museums link to the paintings at the other institutions."

Tips and ideas for using audio in your classroom.

"We teach numbers, then algebra, then calculus, then physics. Wrong!" exclaims the Massachusetts Institute of Technology mathematician, a pioneer in artificial intelligence. "Start with engineering, and from that abstract out physics, and from that abstract out ideas of calculus, and eventually separate off pure mathematics. So much better to have the first-grade kid or kindergarten kid doing engineering and leave it to the older ones to do pure mathematics than to do it the other way around."

Lots of ideas, from interviews to collaboration to assessment.

"In spring 2007 I invited the 200 students enrolled in the "small" version of my "Introduction to Cultural Anthropology" class to tell the world what they think of their education by helping me write a script for a video to be posted on YouTube. The result was the disheartening portrayal of disengagement you see below."

Skip Via explains personal learning networks, or PLNs. Slightly out of date at this point (e.g. Google Wave is gone) but a great explanation of how differentiated learning can happen online.

Site for leveling books according to Fountas and Pinnell

"Here's a comprehensive list of open education sites MindShift has covered." Includes MIT Open CourseWare, Curriki, OER, and many others.

A physics professor at SLU uses free software to deconstruct the physics of Angry Birds. He measures velocity and acceleration over time using Tracker Video Analysis. Nice way to connect science to gaming...

If you've got an Android phone, you can easily build a program on it using this software. It uses a graphical programming interface that's quite simple to learn.

Free materials to help support your PBL ideas. Not all are excellent, but there are some good ideas here that might be useful.

It's somewhat hard to visualize a billion, let alone seven. Still, this video does a nice job of describing the population explosion of the last couple centuries.

A teacher's extension of Michael Wesch's college-themed video. Similar themes and execution but aimed at K-12 instead.

Great video on the disconnect between today's students and their education.

Katie Gimbar explains the reasons she flipped her classroom.

Great slideshow overview of Action Research from Greg Waddell.

Amazing compendium of what we've learned about learning.

Recently, Christine Wiser T&L's Managing Editor, asked the Tech Advisors the following question: What do you think are the top three most important issues facing K-12 edtech this year? 1. Mobile device adoption. Especially bring your own device program implementation. 2. Getting people to really understand what is meant by 21st century teaching and learning. 3. Anytime, anywhere learning.

"the school's chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home."