Group items tagged

"'Debatabase is an authoritative collection of over five hundred debates mostly written by experienced debaters. They cover topics from the affirmative action to Zimbabwe, on all sorts of themes including politics, economics, religion, culture, science and society. For debaters they may provide useful preparation materials and examples but the debates will be useful to everyone. Debatabase topics provide both sides of the debate rather than giving just one side of the argument as most blogs, newspapers and other articles you can find online do. We want you to make up your own mind on these important issues and believe you need both sides of the argument to make an informed choice."

"A striking assumption animates arguments on both sides, namely that nonfiction is seldom literary and certainly not literature. Even Mr. Coleman erects his case on largely dispiriting, utilitarian grounds: nonfiction may help you win the corner office but won't necessarily nourish the soul. As an English teacher and writer who traffics in factual prose, I'm with Mr. Coleman. In my experience, students need more exposure to nonfiction, less to help with reading skills, but as a model for their own essays and expository writing, what Mr. Gladwell sought by ingesting "Talk of the Town" stories. I love fiction and poetry as much as the next former English major and often despair over the quality of what passes for "informational texts," few of which amount to narrative much less literary narrative. What schools really need isn't more nonfiction but better nonfiction, especially that which provides good models for student writing. Most students could use greater familiarity with what newspaper, magazine and book editors call "narrative nonfiction": writing that tells a factual story, sometimes even a personal one, but also makes an argument and conveys information in vivid, effective ways."

"What schools really need isn't more nonfiction but better nonfiction, especially that which provides good models for student writing. "  Totally supports my belief that nonfiction longreads are out there on the internet and are not being taken advantage of by teachers -- enough.

My argument is that new media and new opportunities for learning through digital technologies require new literacies.

a powerful argument for the power of videos for learning and innovation - crowd accelerated innovation -- based on 1) crowds, 2) light (clear visibility), and 3) desire

An argument for encouraging the positive criteria/skill of designing a document rather than prescriptive formatting requirements

Excellent post on what you would have gained yesterday if you were on twitter. Makes a compelling argument!

"How can you force YouTube videos to fill the browser and NOT show all the distracting stuff? If  the original YouTube video is located at .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNHR6IQJGZs  (This is the Matt Cutts video on "How search works") You can modify the URL to include the modified argument "watch_popup"  (as below) http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=BNHR6IQJGZs

There is an argument for creating videos as a means of engagement, as an approach involving doing something a little different; something that will hopefully result in a higher likelihood of it being committed to long term memory. These are additional benefits. The real value in these tasks is their requirement for genuine higher order thinking skills, and the resulting assessment of student understanding that can be used in a meaningful way.

Great Article via Ali F. The lecture has its place. Asking students to close their laptops has its place. But, failing to explore new possibilities for education prompted by emerging technologies does not serve the interests of either group.