Group items tagged

electricity, probability, flight, climate change, imaginary numbers, microbes, etc. -- stories of inventors who were ignored or ridiculed or so close so long before the world realized the importance of the discovery...

The new rules of engagement. Preparing our teachers and students for how we can learn now. Teachers have always been in the game of ensuring we have prepared our charges well for the world that awaits them. But are we doing that well enough today? The game has changed. The playing field is different; there are new rules, and we need to be the coaches and players in a world where the bases are loaded with a whole new set of entities.

Oct 21, 2009

"Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.There are now nearly 700 maps"  This link goes to a map showing UNDERWEIGHT CHILDREN -- though you can switch to other statistics

"This is a world in which public is the new default. Thought leader Michael Schrage (2010) notes that "the traditional two-page résumé has been turned into a 'personal productivity portal' that empowers prospective employers to quite literally interact with their candidate's work." The rules for building your personal brand are changing at light speed. It's not enough to suggest that we have those admirable skills of creativity, initiative, and entrepreneurship; now we have to show them in action online. In short, our résumé is becoming a Google search result, one that we build with the help of others and that requires our participation. Most students are beginning to face this reality without much assistance from the schools charged with preparing them for the world beyond school. That has to change. We need to help students understand more than just the safety and ethics of participating online; we also have to give them opportunities throughout the curriculum to find and follow their passions and publish meaningful, quality work for real global audiences to interact with." Article by Will RIchardson

A free online university course, but some of the readings might be useful to teachers in primary/secondary  - DESCRIPTION: "This is a course for those who are interested in the challenge posed by massive and persistent world poverty, and are hopeful that economists might have something useful to say about this challenge. The questions we will take up include: Is extreme poverty a thing of the past? What is economic life like when living under a dollar per day? Why do some countries grow fast and others fall further behind? Does growth help the poor? Are famines unavoidable? How can we end child labor-or should we? How do we make schools work for poor citizens? How do we deal with the disease burden? Is micro finance invaluable or overrated? Without property rights, is life destined to be "nasty, brutish and short"? Has globalization been good to the poor? Should we leave economic development to the market? Should we leave economic development to non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Does foreign aid help or hinder? Where is the best place to intervene?"

Allows you to search the world for family names, shows you where the highest concentration is, shows you the top first names that go with that family name etc

James Mollison  A photography book which shows pictures of where children sleep around the world. Combines a portrait of the child with a picture of their bedroom. Great book for see-think-wonder

Computational thinking is a phrase that has received considerable attention over the past several years - but there is little agreement about what computational thinking encompasses, and even less agreement about strategies for assessing the development of computational thinking in young people. We are interested in the ways that design-based learning activities - in particular, programming interactive media - support the development of computational thinking in young people. Over the past several years, we have developed a computational thinking framework that emerged from our studies of the activities of interactive media designers. Our context is Scratch - a programming environment that enables young people to create their own interactive stories, games, and simulations, and then share those creations in an online community with other young programmers from around the world. The first part of the paper describes the key dimensions of our computational thinking framework: computational concepts (the concepts designers engage with as they program, such as iteration, parallelism, etc.), computational practices (the practices designers develop as they engage with the concepts, such as debugging projects or remixing others' work), and computational perspectives (the perspectives designers form about the world around them and about themselves). The second part of the paper describes our evolving approach to assessing these dimensions, including project portfolio analysis, artifact-based interviews, and design scenarios. We end with a set of suggestions for assessing the learning that takes place when young people engage in programming.

Great connections between classic texts and the world today suggested by teenagers.

March 6 is World Read-Aloud Day

might be useful in grade 2

"..."Literacy" is more than just reading text on a page.Communicating in today's world includes multisensory, multimodal, and interactive experiences to engage audiences. What does this mean for teachers and students?"

"The National Archives of Singapore (NAS) houses the collective memory of Singapore. From government files, private memoirs, historical maps and photographs to oral history interviews and audio-visual materials, NAS is responsible for the collection, preservation and management of Singapore's public and private archival records, some of which date back to the early 19th century. One of the rich resources available for public access is our oral history interviews and archival materials relating to World War II and Japanese Occupation of Singapore."

"In the Web 2.0 world, self-directed learners must be adept at building and sustaining networks."

"In the Web 2.0 world, self-directed learners must be adept at building and sustaining networks."

Numbeo is the world's largest database of user contributed data about cities and countries worldwide. Numbeo provides current and timely information on world living conditions including cost of living, housing indicators, health care, traffic, crime and pollution.

"iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) is the world's largest non-profit global network that enables teachers and youth to use the Internet and other technologies to collaborate on projects that enhance learning and make a difference in the world."

How maps affect our worldview - interactive whiteboard stuff

"At the heart of the project is the BBC Radio 4 series A History of the World in 100 objects. 100 programmes, written and narrated by Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, and focusing on 100 objects from the British Museum's collection. The programmes will travel through two million years from the earliest object in the collection to retell the history of humanity through the objects we have made. Each week will be tied to a particular theme, such as 'after the ice age' or 'the beginning of science and literature', and the programmes will broadcast in three blocks, in January, May and September. Deep zoom imagery of the British Museum objects on the site lets you see the detail up close while listening to the programme. You can also watch short videos of many of the objects and download podcasts of each programme as it is broadcast."