Group items tagged

"Purpose: The units and related materials linked below are available for any elementary teacher or library media specialist to use, share, or adapt in order to integrate information literacy skills with the instruction of classroom content. As part of the flexibly-scheduled information literacy curriculum at Ephrata Area, integrated units should exhibit the following characteristics. 1. Development of the unit is collaboratively planned by a classroom teacher and a librarian. 2. Instruction is shared by the teacher and librarian. 3. Assessment both of the products and the process of research is shared by the teacher and librarian. 4. Students learn both classroom subject content along with imbedded information literacy skills. 5. Grades become part of the student's grade for the subject area being studied and are recorded by the teacher. The following units have been submitted by the elementary school library media specialists of the Ephrata Area School District. "

Science NetLinks is part of Thinkfinity, a partnership between the Verizon Foundation and 11 premier educational organizations. The Thinkfinity partners include the AAAS, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Council on Economic Education, the National Geographic Society, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and the Literacy Network.

"The Inaugural USA Science & Engineering Festival, hosted by Lockheed Martin, will be the country's first national science festival and will descend on the Washington, D.C. area in the Fall of 2010. The Festival promises to be the ultimate multi-cultural, multi-generational and multi-disciplinary celebration of science in the United States. The culmination of the Festival will be a two-day Expo in the nation's capital that will give over 500 science & engineering organizations from all over the United States the opportunity to present themselves with a hands-on, fun science activity to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers."

NBC Learn has launched this website called Finishing the Dream. It chronicles the h istory of the civil rights movement. It includes more then 100 stories from NBC News archives. Materials include documentaries on significan events over the course of 60 years, including the Montgomery bus boycott; the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.; the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas; the Freedom Riders; and more. The content provides the opportunity for community leaders, teachers, and students to discuss the impact of the civil rights movement and to consider related modern issues that affect people today.

"Picturing America, an exciting new initiative from the National Endowment for the Humanities, brings masterpieces of American art into classrooms and libraries nationwide. Through this innovative program, students and citizens will gain a deeper appreciation of our country's history and character through the study and understanding of its art. The nation's artistic heritage-our paintings, sculpture, architecture, fine crafts, and photography-offers unique insights into the character, ideals, and aspirations of our country. By bringing high-quality reproductions of notable American art into public and private schools, libraries, and communities, Picturing America gives participants the opportunity to learn about our nation's history and culture in a fresh and engaging way. The program uses art as a catalyst for the study of America-the cultural, political, and historical threads woven into our nation's fabric over time. Collectively, the masterpieces in Picturing America, used in conjunction with the Teachers Resource Book and program Web site, help students experience the humanity of history and enhance the teaching and understanding of America's past."

"MinyanLand is a virtual community designed to engage kids and families in games and interaction that are entertaining and educational. The world was conceived by Minyanville, a leader in financial infotainment and home to the icons of Wall Street and finance, "Hoofy" the Bull and "Boo" the Bear. Joining the effort is the Council for Economic Education, the nation's leader in economic and financial literacy. We created MinyanLand as a platform to entertain and educate a young generation so they understand the concept of a market and the basics of economics and finance on a real world level. The economic system of MinyanLand mimics the real-life pricing of general goods and services. As players participate in the system, their actions will affect the overall MinyanLand economy. This is how they will learn. "

"HOMEBREW AND HOW THE APPLE CAME TO BE by Stephen Wozniak Stephen Wozniak is the designer of the Apple II computer and cofounder of Apple Computer Inc. Without computer clubs there would probably be no Apple computers. Our club in the Silicon Valley, the Homebrew Computer Club, was among the first of its kind. It was in early 1975, and a lot of tech-type people would gather and trade integrated circuits back and forth. You could have called it Chips and Dips. We had similar interests and we were there to help other people, but we weren't official and we weren't formal. Our leader, Lee Felsenstein, who later designed the Osborne computer, would get up at every meeting and announce the convening of "the Homebrew Computer Club which does not exist" and everyone would applaud happily. The theme of the club was "Give to help others." Each session began with a "mapping period," when people would get up one by one and speak about some item of interest, a rumor, and have a discussion. Somebody would say, "I've got a new part," or somebody else would say he had some new data or ask if anybody had a certain kind of teletype. During the "random access period" that followed, you would wander outside and find people trading devices or information and helping each other. "

VodBurner Features * Create complete video productions directly from Skype calls. * Record both sides of any Skype video conversation, directly to your hard disk. * Captures at full frame rate and maximum resolution for the best quality possible. * Once the call is complete, generate a single complete video, incorporating both sides of the call, with just a couple of clicks. * Edit the video prior to publishing, using the built in Post-Production Console. * Alter which camera is used at any point (this side, other side or both sides). * Trim portions of the call so they do not appear in the final production. * Add text captions to the final production, with the ability to alter font, color and background. * Add pictures to the final production. * Add background audio to the final production, with professional fading options and volume control. * Generate ASF/WMV files suitable for uploading directly to YouTube and other services. * Upload directly to YouTube for public or private sharing. * Generate video with your choice of aspect ratio and resolution. * Anti-drift technology keeps both sides of the call in sync. * Ideal for podcast interview recording. * Ideal for recording shared desktop sessions.

"Thanks to the awesome CFF Coach Listserv from Pennsylvania for their collaboration on this list! These essential questions are to help to define what the 'good use' of technology looks like. They are meant to promote thinking about whether the use of technology is meaningful and relevant to the learning. Many of these questions could start with the word "Will" and be followed up with the question, "How?" I chose to start with how, since I think will is too easy to answer with a "Yes." The questions are phrased in a way that would be used in the Before of a Before-During-After coaching consultation or while designing a lesson. With some tweaking, the questions could also be used in the During phase - watching a lesson in action, or the After phase - for reflection."

The purpose of this resource is to provide "Just in Time" training through an online interface for K-12 educators based on the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T). These standards are the basic technology skills every educator should possess. In the process, educators will develop their own skills and discover what students need in order to meet the NETS for Students, as well as the new MMC Online Experience requirement. Participants who fulfill all of the requirements have the opportunity to earn SBCEU's. To learn more about the session, look under the tab "The 21 Things". We hope you take advantage of this unique opportunity.

"To obtain permission to use a work protected by copyright, you must determine who is the copyright owner of the material you intend to use, contact the owner, and request the right to use the work in the territory and format you intend, and -- in some cases -- pay the owner a fee. Often the most difficult part of this process is finding the owner to ask permission to use the work. To make that a little easier, we have provided some information about researching copyright ownership for music, with addresses of record companies and music publishers, as well as film and television producers, publishers and other entities through which you might be able to clear rights. In addition, we have provided sample permission letters for you to use in drafting your letter to the copyright owners once you have identified them."

There are a lot of cool things about DataMasher: the available datasets, the community built around that data, the unique visualization tools, and the easy-to-use interface of the site. What is truly intriguing about the site is the way users take two different datasets and create visual hypotheses. For example, to visualize the Most Reproductive States (US), one user combined the number of US births witH population figures from the 2008 US Census.

Did you notice what happens when you click the "Analyze This" link (right side)? Not sure how to take that. It's funny, but does it also, then, discredit any data that you find there?

History matters is a database of coursework, guides, and primary-source documetns on topics in American history, History Matters was produced by two academic programs at the City Unviersity of New York and George Mason University. The site is most useful for high school history teachers and studetns, and educators can use it as a professional-development resource. The Digital Blackboard page offersr curriculum guides with links to third-party reference sites. Another page hosts a series of Q & A interviews with history teachers, who reveal the secrets behind teaching a successful history course. The Students as Historians page links to web-based projects created by high school and college students. And don't forget to check out the primary-source search engine, located on the Many Pasts page. The search enging links to more than a thousand images, audio, and text-based documenets from American history sites across the Internet.

t's the 21st century and I'm sure your school district has been embracing technology. With budget cuts, however, can your school keep up with the need for new and updated computers? I work in Bergen County (N.J.) where we have the highest property taxes in the nation, and yet this fall I'm not sure whether or not our media center will see more computers for our students. (Thank you, Governor Christie) I know of districts where every student has their own laptop. Not where I am. Still, I try to use what we have to prepare our students for when they graduate and go out into the world. No matter what they will do in their career, whether it's an auto mechanic or a lawyer, they will need these digital skills. If you are still wary about technology, it is time to jump into the water. We don't want you and your students left behind.

"a group of researchers in MIT's Education Arcade are trying to harness the power of MMO games to teach high school students to think like scientists and mathematicians. Their game, The Radix Endeavor, is designed to be an educational game, and capitalizes on the interactions students can have as a way to build their knowledge and skills. Radix, as it's known, is aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards for biology, focusing on topics like genetics, evolution, ecology and human body systems. In math, the game is aligned to the Common Core and has particular focuses on algebra, probability and statistics, as well as geometry. The researchers worked with Filament Games and are funded by the Gates Foundation for the three-year project."

Murder under the Microscope is an online environmental game for school students in years 5 to 10, typically children aged 9 to 14 years. From 29 April 2009 the Catchment Headquarters website will be live. In the weeks that follow, clues will be uncovered. Once the game begins, teams of students will research and analyze the evidence to solve the crime. The project culminates with the students submitting a plan to protect the environment.

With Symbaloo, you can now create your own desktop on internet, including your favorite websites and sources. The advantage is that you can navigate easily to the most important websites, without remembering the links. Just try to click on one of the coloured blocks. You will see that it is possible to search from the centerbox in useful websites, such as Google or Youtube. More options… Much more is possible with Symbaloo. Listening to the radio, reading the news or reading to your new mail quickly… If you click on an empty grey field, you will enter a new world of blocks! The best fun is to find out all of the features yourself, and explore Symbaloo step by step.

KidderLit is a fun way to discover new books and authors. Every morning, while sensible people are sleeping, the folks at KidderLit and its sister site TwitrLit are hard at work, combing through the stacks of the local library. Why? So that when you wake up and rush to your computer, there will be a new literary teaser waiting for you. Every morning we'll post the first line of a young adult or children's book here at KidderLit.com. The trick is that we don't tell you what the book is or who the author is. To find out, you have to click the link to be taken to the book's page on Amazon.

This is a kid Twitter thing!

Spirograph in Calculus: The images depended on three variables: the radius of the fixed circle, the radius of the moving circle, and the placement of the pen. Would it be possible to derive eqations for the position of the pen? If so, could we then write our own Spirograph program?

My name is Sallie Ann. I was made in Gettysburg PA, and I'm named after the mascot of the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry from the Civil War. My job is to travel around the U.S. looking for Civil War battlefields or museums and schools learning about the Civil War. Along the way, I hope to teach kids more about the Civil War while also helping them to learn about using technology. I'll start out in Gettysburg, PA ,and learn about the battle that took place there. My visit to you will last about one week, but before I leave, I hope that you will put something from the battlefield, museum or your school in my backpack so I can keep it as a memento of my visit.