Education

  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    DetentionSlip.org

  • 22-year old man posed as high school student

    Hall Monitor
    6 Nov 2009 | 5:10 pm
    Story: Yuma High School Duped By 22-Year-Old Man Posing as Student So He Could Play BasketballFour months into the school year, it was finally discovered that this old man walking the halls was not the spring chicken he claimed to be. A lot of us have always said "If I could do high school over again..." Well, this guy got his wish. (Including having sex with high school girls). I guess it's easy for an 18-year old kid to enroll himself into high school with a birth certificate chalk-full of typo's in Arizona. I wonder if he has a real job he needs to get back to?

  • Teenager Shot on School Bus in West Philadelphia

    Hall Monitor
    6 Nov 2009 | 4:58 pm
    Story: Teenager Shot on School Bus in West PhiladelphiaSchool shooting stories have been popping up everywhere recently, but it doesn't seem like the national media has caught on yet. Maybe we have all just come to terms with teens carrying a firearm. But since this one was on a school bus, it begs the question- Where is Kaleb Eulls when you need him?

  • Florida teacher makes girl clean up classmates pee

    Hall Monitor
    6 Nov 2009 | 7:40 am
    Story: Florida Teacher Reportedly Suspended for Coercing 6-Year-Old Student to Clean Another's UrineI know 1000's of kids are missing school every day because of swine flu symptoms. I don't all the safest ways to prevent the spread of germs, but I have a hunch getting on your hands and knees and wiping up someones urine doesn't fall into that category. The girl was rewarded for her act by receiving fake classroom dollars though! It's probably a safe bet that if this teacher loses her job, 'janitorial services' won't be high on her potential careers list.

  • Fla. school district restricts athletes' clothing

    Hall Monitor
    5 Nov 2009 | 5:32 pm
    Story: Fla. school district restricts athletes' clothingIn Florida, it regularly reaches 100 degrees outside. That is hot. As a tradition, the athletes don't practice wearing extra layers. In fact, it's common to see the girls running in sports bras and the boys with their shirts off. As awesome of a sight that might be for classmates and pedophiles alike, a couple parents recently complained so of course a stricter dress code is now being enforced. I anticipate these same parents will be the first ones pointing fingers at the school when a student dies of heat exhaustion.

  • Teacher accused of pushing boy's head into desk

    Hall Monitor
    5 Nov 2009 | 5:21 pm
    Story: Aberdeen teacher accused of pushing boy's headWhen you don't know how to deal with kids, you tell them to put their heads down. When they don't listen to that, you slam their head into the desk. Problem solved, right?
 
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    2¢ Worth

  • Give me the Ridiculous

    David Warlick
    1 Nov 2009 | 5:12 pm
    It’s probably just me, but it’s the ridiculous that I want to see in a keynote address.  Large screen photo of 2009 Keynoter Malcolm Gladwell1 Ok, let me see if I can retrace the thoughts that led to that conclusion.  I am seeing more conferences, these days, embracing (and sometimes grasping at) collaborative Web applications (Web 2.0) to enhance and extend their event.  The Long Island Technology Summit, last week, announced early on that the Twitter hash tag for the conference would be #litechsummit09 — and to reinforce the point, they displayed a Twitter…

  • Information Artisans…

    David Warlick
    29 Oct 2009 | 4:57 am
    Education Leaders mesmerized by Will Richardson’s Keynote Address at the Long Island Technology Summit It was a good day yesterday and I do not believe that Will Richardson and I could have complimented each other’s messages any better if we’d planned it.  The theme seemed to be “hyperconnected youngsters” — and what that means in the broader sense of education.  Will does an amazing job of presenting a scenario, and then provoking educators to think about it from the perspective of students, their learning, and their future. I did two breakout…

  • Motion Chart of Internet Usage World Wide or fun with numbers

    David Warlick
    26 Oct 2009 | 8:06 am
    I surely needed to be doing something else today, but one of my deepest interests, data visualization, is such a seductive distraction for me — and ever since I saw Hans Rosling’s dazzling TEDTalk on “the best stats you’ve ever seen,” I have been intrigued by graphs that move. It seems, now, that Google has added the same sort of motion graph widget to Google Docs Spreadsheets, and I started playing around with things that I could demo in an upcoming presentation. I didn’t find anything that was perfect for the presentation, but pulling the “Internet…

  • Check the Wind First

    David Warlick
    25 Oct 2009 | 4:02 am
    I have not seen any compelling reason to upgrade my iPhone to a 3G system — until a few days ago when I read about Wikitude, a new iPhone app that turns your phone into an augmented reality device.  Point your phone and Wikipedia articles about the object(s) you are looking at float before your eyes (or in your palm). I’m still struggling with catching up on my e-mail.  The problem is those messages that I get stuck on, someone who’d like a new source added to Citation Machine, or “Blabberize embeds aren’t working with Class Blogmeister!” — and I…

  • Did I Say That?

    David Warlick
    21 Oct 2009 | 8:42 am
    My Article in NZ Interface Magazine Those of you who know me, can probably see me cringe, when I glance at a magazine article headed with “If you can’t Use Technology Get Out of Teaching!” And then I see that I’m quoted all over the article.  It is published in NZ Interface, a New Zealand education technology publication that I have followed since first working in that magnificent country several years ago. Of course there’s not a thing wrong with the title. After all, I’ve frequently claimed that a teacher who is not using contemporary information and…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Chronicle of Higher Education

  • Audio: Community Colleges Create a Measuring Stick

    11-06-2009 Joe D. May, president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College system, explains the need... ...

  • Men and Women Differ in How They Decide to Study Abroad, Study Finds

    11-06-2009 Women appear to be much more likely than men to choose to study abroad because of significant gender-based differences in how students are influenced by their backgrounds, academic environments, and social interactions, according to research results being presented here this week as part of the annual conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education. The findings suggest that advocates of study-abroad programs "need to craft targeted marketing strategies that recognize... ...

  • College Leaders Offer Blunt Advice for Campuses Hit by Hard Times

    11-05-2009 "Dumb public policies," like mandatory-sentencing laws that drive up states' costs for prisons and leave less for education, may be part of the reason colleges are in such financial straits, the leader of the California State University system said at a forum here on Thursday, but that's just a piece of the problem. The bigger issue is that most colleges are too concerned with trying to compete for prestige rather than serve their students and their communities, said... ...

  • Gaps in Immigrants' Education Levels Play Into Canada's Edge Over U.S., Researchers Say

    11-05-2009 One key reason that Canada fares better than the United States in international measures of college attainment is that it takes in a better-educated mix of immigrants and does better in educating their children, two representatives of a scholarship foundation established by the Canadian government told an audience here Thursday at the annual conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education. Andrew Parkin, associate executive director of the Canada Millennium Scholarship... ...

  • Austrian Protests Reveal Challenges in Europe Over Access to Higher Education

    11-05-2009 Thousands of students in Austria took to the streets in protest on Thursday, in their latest show of frustration over conditions at the country's 21 public universities. For the past two weeks, students have occupied the main lecture halls at universities in Vienna,... ...
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Teacher Leaders Network: Teacher Voices

  • A Compelling Case for Detracking Schools

    John Norton
    23 Oct 2009 | 10:56 am
    Detracking for Excellence and Equity
By Carol Corbett Burris and Delia T. Garrity(ASCD, 2008)Reviewed by Sherry L. AnneeBiotechnology TeacherBrebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School (IN)Teacher Leaders Network What are the indicators that a book has made a significant contribution within its discipline? It’s one that challenges and moves the reader to take notice of the information, internalize it, and act upon the new knowledge and one the reader quotes and reflects upon long after reading it. Detracking for Excellence and Equity by Burris and Garrity is such a book! For example, read these…

  • A Book to Inspire a Culture of Trust and Build Teacher Community

    John Norton
    21 Oct 2009 | 6:36 am
    Protocols for Professional Learning (The Professional Learning Community Series)By Lois Brown Easton(2009, ASCD)Reviewed by Michael FisherInstructional Coach and Consultant (New York)Teacher Leaders Network I appreciate the opportunity to read and review Lois Brown Easton’s book on Professional Learning Protocols. It is a book that I know will have an impact on my own practice as a staff developer, and I’ve already used and shared many ideas from the text.    Because I work with schools helping teachers to set up Professional Learning Networks, both in-house and…

  • I Want to Belong to This Club!

    John Norton
    19 Oct 2009 | 9:31 am
    A Sense of Belonging: Sustaining and Retaining New TeachersBy Jennifer Allen(2009, Stenhouse Publishers)Reviewed by Marti SchwartzTeacher, Novice-Teacher Educator (Rhode Island)Teacher Leaders Network I loved this book! When I began reading it in early September, I approached it through the lens of a coach/mentor for a group of novice teachers who spent a week with me in a seminar this past summer. From that perspective, I found the subtitle intriguing and hoped for good advice. Shortly thereafter, in a moment of optimism, I agreed to come out of semi-retirement and signed on for a totally…

  • You Can Be a Change Leader

    John Norton
    16 Oct 2009 | 7:22 am
    Leading Change in Your School: How to Conquer Myths, Build Commitment, and Get ResultsBy Douglas B. ReevesAssociation for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) (2009)Reviewed by Elizabeth SteinSpecial Education Teacher (New York)Teacher Leaders Network My interest in this book was first sparked by the title. After all, with words like "leading change" and "conquer," any action-minded educator is likely to get drawn in. It was the author who caught my attention next. Being familiar with Douglas Reeves's work on change leadership, including his monthly column in…

  • Multiple Intelligences in Your Classroom

    John Norton
    14 Oct 2009 | 10:50 am
     Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, 3rd editionBy Thomas Armstrong(ASCD, 2009)Reviewed by Kenneth Bernstein, NBCTHigh School Government & Social Studies (MD)Teacher Leaders NetworkIn 1983, after a number of years of research, Howard Gardner published a book with the title Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. He posited that there was not a single general intelligence such as that measured by traditional IQ tests. On the basis of his research on people with brain injuries, and the clear documentation of young geniuses who demonstrated each of what he called…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    U.S. Department of Education

  • Outstanding Principals Receive Bell Award

    6 Nov 2009 | 8:41 am
    Eight school principals who transformed their schools were given the Terrel H. Bell Award for Outstanding School Leadership.

  • Race to the Top

    4 Nov 2009 | 2:52 pm
    President Obama and Secretary Duncan visited Wright Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin, to highlight the Race to the Top Program.

  • ED Recovery Funds for Pennsylvania

    2 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm
    $1.4 billion in Recovery Funds are now available for Pennsylvania to save jobs and drive education reform.

  • ED Recovery Act Report

    2 Nov 2009 | 9:20 am
    Over $67 billion in ED Recovery Act formula grants have been awarded, and some 400,000 jobs have been saved or created through these ED grants.

  • Recovery Act: Over One Million Jobs

    2 Nov 2009 | 8:25 am
    Reports from recipients support estimates that overall the Recovery Act has created or saved over one million jobs to-date
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    LeaderTalk

  • Leadership and the Two-Handed Set Shot

    LeaderTalk Contributor
    6 Nov 2009 | 6:57 am
    I'm a tall person and from my earliest years was drafted into the world of basketball. I had a fair amount of success on the court ranging from high school and college teams to various tournaments and Men's leagues. I've coached at the HS level and when my children were born, I was privileged to coach their tyro teams and as they got older, their AAU clubs. When kids are young and learning to shoot basketballs in their driveways they have to generate a lot of motion and energy to get the ball up to the hoop which is 10 feet high. After all, they're little, and that's pretty far up. They grip…

  • 10 questions about books, libraries, librarians, and schools

    LeaderTalk Contributor
    3 Nov 2009 | 6:50 am
    October apparently was ‘Library Month’ for me. I was the keynote speaker for the Minnesota MEMO conference and did a breakout session for the Iowa Library Association (ILA) conference. I also brought Dr. Mike Eisenberg to Iowa for three days to talk with school administrators about technology and information literacy. As a result, I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on books, reading, and the future of libraries and librarians… Random questions What constitutes a “book” these days? When books become electronic and thus become searchable, hyperlinkable,…

  • What's the function of that behavior?

    LeaderTalk Contributor
    29 Oct 2009 | 1:30 am
    I'm surrounded by behaviors that are not always appropriate. I work in an alternative school and with children who are mainly here because their behaviors got them booted out of their home school. I attend many meetings in the districts of our cooperative that are about students and their lack of progress with academics because their behaviors are getting in the way. When I suggest that maybe we need to focus more on changing the behavior and less on the academics so learning CAN occur, I am looked at as if I suggested that we all wear our swim suits to school. What an appalling thought!! I…

  • Little House on the Digital Prairie

    LeaderTalk Contributor
    27 Oct 2009 | 7:04 pm
    If you are not familiar with the show "Little House on the Prairie," it is about a family in Minnesota that is trying to make a life in the 1870's and 1880's. One particular setting on the show is the one-room schoolhouse where one teacher presented different course material to the students who ranged in age from kindergarten through grade twelve. Fast forward to the current time and place. Cloud computing is now the age in which we are living. The Internet is a transporter of information, and, therefore, it can be argued that is has become the one-room schoolhouse of this generation. Similar…

  • How Much is Just Right?

    LeaderTalk Contributor
    22 Oct 2009 | 8:38 am
    You know that commercial for Bud Lite - Too much vs too little? I wrestled with that dilemma this week when we had to go into real lockdown mode and I had to explain the reason for it on various levels. We hadn't even had a drill yet when the real thing became necessary. It all happened during the last hour of the school day, when I received a call from the central security office informing me to lock down the school because a former employee who was acting erratically and volatile threatened to return to the school following a major blowup with district employees. We had some incidents in…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Education Perspectives

  • Facts are Stubborn Things

    Michael Sporer
    25 Oct 2009 | 8:55 am
    I place a great deal of importance on one word; credibility.  Because when you think about it, almost everything we do in our business, educational and personal lives revolve around seeking and attaining interpersonal credibility.  Credibility is important to people, whether they are choosing a physician or choosing a spouse.  And it is essential for positive change, from the negotiating table to the supper table; from the board room to the classroom! I believe credibility is the equilibrium in all human relationships. John Adams hit upon the foundation of credibility when…

  • Hands-On Learning with Video Games

    Michael Sporer
    18 Oct 2009 | 9:25 am
    Here is a great video about hands-on learning through video games. Thanks to Dan Pink for this great piece. 

  • Educational Leadership

    Michael Sporer
    10 Oct 2009 | 1:24 pm
    The career school where I work is the CTC of Lackawanna County located in Scranton, Pennsylvania.  The building is the Henry J. Dende Center, named after a truly incredible man.  He was an admired community leader and he laid the groundwork for the school which opened its doors in September, 1973.  Henry actually left public office in 1970, but he passed the torch to another proponent of vocational education, Alfred Sporer (my Dad).  He and my Dad were very close friends.  Henry Dende passed away in 2001, and my Dad passed in 2006.  This was a wonderful…

  • Hands-On Learning

    Michael Sporer
    2 Oct 2009 | 5:18 pm
    In a prior post, I briefly touched on the Career and Technical Education (CTE) methodology of "Tell me...Show me...Let me do it."  This multi-sensory method of teaching doesn't work in a straight line, rather it's a self-reinforcing process.  I've seen it in action, and I can tell you that it is en-grained in every CTE program.  The training facilities are set up in a way which is conducive to the process, with a classroom adjacent or very near the hands-on instructional area.  Let me illustrate this using a few…

  • "I Love you More than my Dog"

    Michael Sporer
    19 Sep 2009 | 8:26 am
    I recently read a book that compelled some thoughts about how our educational system could soar!  The book is “I Love You More Than my Dog; Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad” by Jeanne Bliss. Based on her experiences in what she calls “beloved companies”, Jeanne outlines the culture of very successful companies, and she explores how decisions made by those companies build a culture of customer loyalty.  She explores the human side of business in a way that drills to the core of every organization; an approach that truly values people;…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    National School Boards Assn: BoardBuzz

  • School Board News Today headlines

    Joetta Sack
    6 Nov 2009 | 2:07 pm
    Bruised by the gubernatorial losses in New Jersey and Virginia, and embattled by the ongoing health care reform debate, President Obama turned his attentions to education reform this week. On Wednesday the POTUS highlighted reforms in 10 states—most notably, moves to allow student data to be tied to teacher evaluations–that came about as a result of the Race to the Top funding incentive. And one day earlier, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan touted new data that showed the federal stimulus spending saved some 325,000 education jobs this year — but that data was quickly disputed…

  • Flu vaccinations within schools: still a possibility?

    Daniela Espinosa
    6 Nov 2009 | 12:17 pm
    The H1N1 virus is spreading more and more each day, and the seasonal flu may show up at any moment; yet we’re all facing the dilemma of not knowing where and how to go to get vaccinated since there is currently a shortage of both the H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines.  Although the H1N1 virus has caused mostly mild symptoms, it can be very dangerous to people with preexisting conditions such as asthma, and many children have asthma. According to the CDC, in 2007, 5.6 million school-aged children and youth (5-17 years old) were reported to have this condition.  In addition, outbreaks within…

  • Report cards go paperless

    Andrew Paulson
    6 Nov 2009 | 12:14 pm
    USA Today reports that Clarksville-Montgomery County school district in Tennessee decided to go mostly paperless with student report cards. The district now makes grades available to parents with secure online accounts. The same system, called Power School, is used by parents to access progress reports, attendance, and student lunch accounts. NSBA’s own Ann Flynn, Director of education technology, says that an increasing number of districts are deciding to use online reporting. Those making the change ”are no longer the exception. They are becoming the rule,” she says.

  • Critical thinking is important…but thinking about what??

    Andrew Paulson
    4 Nov 2009 | 5:47 am
    We hear a lot about 21st century skills these days, but what does it really mean? Will teaching our kids critical thinking skills really help them to function better in the “real world?” NYU Education professor and former assistant secretary of education Diane Ravitch believes that without the knowledge behind it, critical thinking is not worth much. In a recent article in The Boston Globe, Ravitch writes that “What matters most..is our capacity to make generalizations, to see beyond our own immediate experience.” Read the article here.   Diane Ravitch is one of the featured…

  • How far is too far?

    Christina Gordon
    2 Nov 2009 | 10:58 am
    AOL.com reports today that two high school sophomores in Indiana have sued their school for punishing them for “posting sexually suggestive photos on MySpace during their summer vacation.”  The ACLU (no surprise here) is representing the girls and argues that the school violated the girls’ free speech rights when it banned them from extracurricular activities for a joke that didn’t involve the school.”   The controversy has experts on both sides arguing about the role of schools in this era of online social networking.  Some say schools should play “a role in monitoring…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Angela Maiers Educational Services

  • Chalk Talk - 11/06/09

    Angela Maiers
    6 Nov 2009 | 8:50 pm
    Chalk Talk Friday represents conversations and brilliance I've discovered traversing my way through the Blogosphere.  From professional to personal development, these are the posts and links have in some way touched my head or my heart The Complete Guide to Google Wave - I think this is going to be a great, real-time collaborative tool (and there's more than that under the hood). More Google, this time Google Fusion Tables - possibly the next best assessment tool. A great wiki full of resources on Student Engagement 6 Fantastic Resources for Twitter in Education by my pal, Dr. Z…

  • Who has the Acronym pedia?

    Angela Maiers
    4 Nov 2009 | 4:46 am
    They help me learn, they assist me in teaching. I know some teachers have a love/hate relationship with acronyms.  Truth be told -- I love, love, love acronyms. How do you use acronyms, particularly acronym creating in your classrooms?  And does anyone have an Acronym-pedia?  An Acronymtionary?  Wouldn't that be a fun project? Here's a recent acronym I used to help explain how to G.R.O.W. learners (more on how I used it in a different piece): GROWView more presentations from angelamaiers. What's your favorite acronym and how do you use it?

  • Who Are Their Learning Heroes -- and Why?

    Angela Maiers
    3 Nov 2009 | 3:36 am
    Image via WikipediaIn my years as a classroom teacher -- busy with planning instruction, creating lessons, addressing a standard -- it is only after exploring learning success in a broader sense, that I really understood how to teach students to be successful learners and not just wish it upon them. By understanding the anatomy of those who have achieved success, it has allowed me to turn encouragement into action and instruction. For the successful learner, learning is not the end -- but the process they use to achieve goals and the feeling of pride and satisfaction in their…

  • Training like Champions

    Angela Maiers
    2 Nov 2009 | 3:15 am
    To Be a Champion, You Must Train Like a Champion" -Author Unknown- Every successful learner knows that if you want to be good at something, find someone who is better and learn from them. This timeless model of apprentice has been a successful training secret of all who have reached greatness. Even our wisest recognize the power of effective modeling; Aristotle kept a picture of Plato on his wall for guidance and inspiration. I have studied winning champions and heroes from every field. Great philosophers and world leaders, professional athletes and top business executives, parents and…

  • Reflections Of Octoberings

    Angela Maiers
    31 Oct 2009 | 9:34 am
    I like to use the transition of the monthly calendar  as a way to look back at the previous month's best posts (and the years before that)  October 2009 Are Your Students in Charge of Their Own Questioning? Professional Learning Together Discussion: Is Curiosity Valued in Your Classroom? IdeaPaint: Let Your Students Make Their Mark October 2008 Be Fearless! Poverty of Funds of Knowledge? Reading as an Act of Engagement Classroom Habitudes: Teaching 21st Century Learning Habits and Attitudes October 2007 Listen to Writing Reflecting on Reflection On Fire for Learning
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Bloghighed

  • Mark Greenfield - Higher Ed Web Consulting - Links for 2009-11-06 [del.icio.us]

    7 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am
    Future for Mobile Is More than Just Phones - The eMarketer Blog 3 New Social Media Studies Worth Reading | Social Media Examiner school of thought: If your school was a novel what would the opening line be

  • The Old College Try - Facebook in Education Page Debuts

    6 Nov 2009 | 1:24 pm
    In case you haven't seen or heard -- like me, until Chris, our social media wiz, pointed me toward it -- Facebook has started a page called "Facebook in Education."So far, it's spotlighting how educators use Facebook and offering tips. It's only been arou...

  • TargetX iThink Online - Writing the future of admissions

    6 Nov 2009 | 11:06 am
    Get ready for more work and greater stress — at least according to predictions by some of your colleagues who responded to the question, “What does the future hold for college recruiting” For his forthcoming book — Overthrowing De...

  • Higher Ed Marketing - Coming attractions: AACRAO, AMA

    6 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am
    This Sunday, I’ll be in Dallas to talk about social media at one of the pre-conference workshops offered prior to the AACRAO Strategic Enrollment Management Conference. I hope to see some of you there although I won’t be able to attend the ful...

  • .eduGuru - Kings of All Cosmos: How to Get Internal Knowledge Out There

    6 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am
    If you work in higher ed, you have people who have become fixtures.  They roll up all of the tiny details, the business processes and procedures, into their heads like a Katamari.Once it’s all there, that person is your knowledge base, your Karamari...
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    PILOTed

  • Mapping State Proficiency Standards

    Mitch Weisburgh
    29 Oct 2009 | 11:45 am
    Today the National Center for Education Statistics released its Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto NAEP Scales report. The full report is available here. The goal of the report is to highlight any changes in the way states report levels of academic proficiency in fourth and eighth grades. The report does not include Nebraska or Utah, neither of which has reported any data for 2007. In grade 4 reading, 31 states set the standard for Proficient lower than the Basic level of the NAEP; in the grade 8 tests, 15 states did. Math was not quite so skewed, only 7 states did this in grade 4 math…

  • Education Executives Day at Computers for Youth

    Mitch Weisburgh
    13 Oct 2009 | 7:37 pm
    I had a great day on Monday, October 13, 2009. I attended the Computers for Youth Education Executives day. The purpose of the day is for Title I Middle School students from New York City and education executives from around the country to evaluate learning software for the home. At the end of the day, three titles become finalists based on the following criteria: improves students' academic competencies promotes family involvement in education develops students' life-long learning skills (such as planning and reflection) motivates students to learn increases students' social…

  • New Writing Teacher Webinar

    Mitch Weisburgh
    25 Aug 2009 | 7:30 am
    Webinar Title Why Can't Suzie Write? Designing a Writing Program for the At-Risk Student Webinar Description With almost half of all students entering college needing remediation to bring them up to college level reading and writing, many colleges are struggling to support at-risk students. Dona Young, author of Writing from the Core and Which Comes First, the Comma or the Pause?, will describe the five steps that make a difference in designing a writing program for at-risk students. This webinar will help you structure your remediation programs around proven techniques. Why Can't…

  • Webinar on SIIA Postsecondary Market Report

    Mitch Weisburgh
    9 Jun 2009 | 6:18 am
    Farimah Schuerman, Matt Villano, and I recently completed the SIIA Postsecondary Market Report, and Farimah and I will be participating in a free webcast on the report's highlights on Wednesday, June 17 at 2:00 PM EDT.The executive summary of the report is available here: Download SIIAPostsecondaryExecOverview.pdf (180.6K).The report itself is over 100 pages and includes the following chapters: The Changing Characteristics of Postsecondary Institutions Growth and Rising Enrollments Changing Characteristics of the Student Population Rising Financial Pressures Technology Spending and…

  • SIIA Ed Tech Innovation Showcase Products

    Mitch Weisburgh
    7 May 2009 | 11:31 am
    12 Innovative Ed Tech Companies   At the SIIA Ed Tech Industry Summit (May 3 to 5, 2009), 12 products were showcased as innovative new products in education. ·         Adobe Flash Catalyst ·         ArchieMD: Virtual Autopsy Interactive 3D Platform ·         ClassLink Inquiry ·         Kidos Computer ·         Math Learning Exchange…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Cool Cat Teacher Blog

  • Daily Spotlight on Education 11/05/2009

    5 Nov 2009 | 1:30 am
    TICAL - Technology Information Center for Administrative LeadershipWill be speaking in Arkansas on February 17th at their TICAL conference. I'm so excited! This is information if you are in the area so that you may plan to attend. If you do, please plan to say "hi" - it really means a lot to meet the people from cyberworld, I guess it makes it all more "real."tags: education, coolcatteacher, inthenewsNetSmartzKids: TunesUse Clicky's Raps to teach your kids Internet safety. Lisa Durff recommended this site on Twitter. Cool tool.tags: education, digitalcitizenship, digiteenPosted from Diigo.

  • Daily Spotlight on Education 11/04/2009

    4 Nov 2009 | 1:30 am
    Social networks and kids: How young is too young? - CNN.comImportant article to read about children of all ages creating profiles. I believe this supports our driving need to incorporate instruction and discussion on this topic in schools.tags: education, learning, web2, digiteen, safety, digitalcitizenshipCrowdsourcing or Loudsourcing? | ISTE Connects - Educational TechnologyBlogged my thoughts on crowdsourcing the ISTE keynote this year.tags: education, iste, crowdsourcing, edu_newsFindings - Ethnographic Study Looks at Gossip in the Workplace - NYTimes.comOffice gossip (this study on an…

  • Get some Java and Spend some Time with Jane in Java

    29 Oct 2009 | 4:32 am
    Educators who share and really understand the transformative power of teaching and connecting are inspirations! They can be halfway across the world and their energy and zest for living and learning can be felt like the sun lights planet earth. So, a big shout of Thank you to my friend Julie Lindsay for finding Jane Ross (a/k/a Jane in Java) in Jakarta, Indonesia. Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/janeinjava Blog: 1:1 in Practice at Sinarmas World Academy - http://1to1inpractice.blogspot.com/ This is seriously one of the most choc full, amazing blogs I've seen in ages. From her amazing…

  • Daily Spotlight on Education 10/29/2009

    29 Oct 2009 | 2:30 am
    flatclassroom09-3 - Workflow Software - Discussion - Teacher Feedback from Mrs. DavisThis is an example of how I used Diigo to create an annotated link to give feedback on a wiki on Flat Classroom. I love using Diigo for giving wiki feedback because I can mark up the page. I like ot share them through groups that are private with my students and I and the annotated link feature is one of the best ways to do this.tags: flatclassroom, diigo, wiki, teaching, education, edu_trends, bestpracticesPosted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.This work is licensed under a Creative…

  • Twitter is a Tool not a Panacea

    28 Oct 2009 | 4:28 am
    Who on earth would research TWITTER? Just read an article over on Education and Tech entitled There is Not Research About Twitter ( a response to EdWeeks Article about Twitter in the Classroom.) "There is not research but as more and more teachers start using Twitter in a variety of classroom projects, it seems the practice will be the only empirical foundation to let children get away with their multitasking and huge capacity to use social media tools like Twitter." I don't know where Milton has his facts about teachers using twitter in a lot of classroom projects, but I don't see it. …
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Eduspaces: Christopher Sessums

  • Educational Technology Professor Position Announcement

    27 Oct 2009 | 5:38 am
    Assistant/Associate Professor in Education TechnologyCollege of EducationThe School of Teaching and Learning in the College of Education at the University of Florida (Gainesville, FL), a comprehensive land-grant research university and member of the Association of American Universities, invites applications for an Assistant or Associate Professor in Educational Technology to begin August 2010. This is a nine-month tenure-track position with a strong possibility of supplementary summer employment. The Educational Technology program facilitates studies and disseminates the ways in which…

  • Some additional thoughts on standards

    18 Oct 2009 | 9:43 am
    To follow up on the transblog discussion by Will Richardson and Tom Hoffman, I offer some additional reflections on the subject of standards from a "terrorist," William Ayers, and James O'Brien: "Standard setting, then, should not be the property of an expert class, the bureaucrats, or special interests. Rather, standard setting should be part of the everyday vocation of schools and communities, the heart and soul of education; it should engage the widest possible public. Standard setting means systematically examining and then reexamining what we care about, what we hope for,…

  • Whoops! I want to write a book about failure.

    9 Oct 2009 | 11:09 am
    So much depends on failure(I love that word! It's almost taboo):Failure to get elected. Failure to arrive at a complete stop. Failure to place the lid back down. Failure to keep a secret. The list is simply infinite.Think of how much we gain from failure, how much knowledge we acquire from failing. Without failure we wouldn't know success. Failure is good and we should treat it that way.Especially in school, failure deserves loving kindness. We need to recognize that failure is a brief moment in time.Failure is funny and serious at the same time. It is rich in irony.We need to grow with it,…

  • Application Process for 2010 online EdD Cohort at the University of Florida

    22 Sep 2009 | 7:40 am
    The application process is now open until December 1, 2009 for applicants interested in becoming a participant in the 2010 online Educational Technology Ed.D. Cohort at the University of Florida.This degree is a major in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Educational Technology. The Educational Technology program at UF facilitates, studies and disseminates the ways in which innovative technologies and emerging physical, virtual and blended learning environments empower educators and learners and impact society.  The program serves and prepares K-12 educators and leaders,…

  • Reflections on Transforming Teaching and Learning

    19 Sep 2009 | 8:41 am
    Lucy Gray has posted another survey that got me, again, thinking and reflecting on my practice as an educator. Below I have shared my responses to her survey. I encourage you to do the same by participating in the survey as well as post your own reflections in your learning journal.How has technology impacted your professional development? How has it affected your own learning? Digital technologies have allowed me to effectively share, communicate, collaborate, and act with other educators around the globe. It has affected my own learning by removing the physical distance between us.If you…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Student Affairs Blog

  • Tuesday Tally - What's One Piece of Advice You Wish You Knew When You First Started College?

    nope
    3 Nov 2009 | 1:22 pm
    If you cannot view this poll click here.And here are the results from the last poll.

  • There's a pit in my stomach...

    nope
    3 Nov 2009 | 8:25 am
    Well, tonight is our first lecture event in the lecture series sponsored by our Student Government Association and I have a pit in my stomach.  This "pit feeling" is probably familiar to many of you, as it's defined by the "advisor's dictionary of run on sentences" as..."that pit in your stomach when you know you've supported your student leaders all you can without doing the program for them but no matter how many times you ask about specific details you still know that they aren't going to have a good attendance and aren't prepared because it doesn't seem like they are always paying…

  • Balancing demands: work vs. new baby

    nope
    2 Nov 2009 | 8:57 am
    On October 27, 2009 at exactly 4:36pm, I became a father for the first time.  The past week has been exhilarating, exciting, exhausting and elating.  But, now I'm back at work with a full slate of student appointments and meetings.  I'd love to hear advice from other student affairs pros about their first weeks after the arrival of a new baby and how you've balanced the demands of work and home.  All comments welcome. Here's a shot of the proud papa (me!) and our new little guy. Gary Alan Miller

  • Going Beyond Expectations

    nope
    1 Nov 2009 | 1:58 pm
    I couldn’t have been in my graduate assistantship more than 24 hours when I first heard about these “expectations” that they had for me as a Graduate Hall Director. I had to chuckle, given that the only recollection of expectations I had experienced prior to that point were courtesy of Mad TV’s “Lowered Expectations” sketches. Don’t get me wrong… I had been given expectations prior to that in my roles on campus and in the classroom, I just hadn’t recalled covering them with such zest. We discussed the expectations of us (in our roles), expectations we had of each other (as a…

  • The Value of State & Regional Professional Associations

    nope
    27 Oct 2009 | 5:59 pm
    I’ve had my fair share of memberships to national professional associations in my four+ years in student affairs, namely ACPA and ACUHO-I.  I’ve had the privilege to attend the national meeting of both organizations at least once.  Although I value what the national orgs do for our profession (especially publications and job placement), I must confess that at the moment I’m getting more professional development from my state association, WCPA.  Many of my colleagues belong to UMR-ACUHO, and likely feel the same way. Why I My State Professional Association No…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Swift Kick Central

  • The Value of Leveraging Network Nodes In The College Community

    Tom Krieglstein
    14 Oct 2009 | 10:36 am
    Last spring, I was traveling on a public bus from Laguardia Airport in New York to my hotel on the north side of Manhattan. When I got on the bus at the airport, the bus driver was in a heated argument with someone complaining about being charged twice for the ride. The bus driver was clearly not amused and went from zero to outrage in ten seconds. Trying not to be his next target, I smiled, paid and sat down in the first open seat. For the next 30 minutes, I watched the driver mumble under his breath and shake his head in a perpetual state of anger. Each new passenger who entered the bus…

  • Playing Catch Up: Colleges and the Web

    Kevin Prentiss
    17 Sep 2009 | 7:56 am
    (This is a cross post from the Student Affairs Blog) "We shape our tools and then our tools shape us." - Marshall McLuhan You've probably heard the term "Web 2.0."  The idea was that the changes in how the internet worked over the last 8 years were profound enough to warrant a whole new version. While the term has come to embody a whole host of ideas, for our purposes, I'm going to focus on one main idea: the shift from one to many to many to many.At the beginning of the web, pages were published and static. The web surfer could read or look at multimedia.

  • The Anyone, Anything, Anytime, Anywhere Education

    Tom Krieglstein
    3 Sep 2009 | 11:21 am
    Whether educational institutions like it or not, education is changing and walled gardens are evaporating. New ideas in education are emerging...or, probably better to say, old ideas are finally able to be technologically implemented. Whichever the case, the change is no longer bound by old ideas like nationality, income, time, or location.ANYONE: The One Laptop Per Child Association is a non-profit organization whose mission is to: Create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and…

  • At Student Orientation, Don't Forget About Bridging Social Capital

    Tom Krieglstein
    7 Aug 2009 | 10:31 am
    The Bystander Effect is a well-known psychological study conducted by Bibb Latane and John Darley that grew out of the stabbing death of Kitty Genovese in 1964 while eyewitnesses looked on but did nothing to help. According to Wikipedia:...individuals are less likely to offer help in an emergency situation when other people are present. The probability of help is inversely proportional to the number of bystanders. In other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help.Robert Putnam's famous book on the collapse of the American community,…

  • Stop Making Parents the Punchline and Include Them in the EdTech Conversation

    Tom Krieglstein
    16 Jul 2009 | 9:30 am
    Digitally ignorant parents find themselves once again the punchline of a new website dutifully called MyParentsJoinedFacebook.com. The site was created by a daughter after her dad joined Facebook and his social networking activity quickly became obnoxious to her. With a swift gain in popularity, MyParentsJoinedFacebook.com joins others in exploiting (right or wrong) parents' naivete as a way to add a few laughs and clicks.  Between the easy laughs and "Dateline" fear mongering, I can understand why a 2008 MacArthur Foundation supported study showed that parents tend to be…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

  • Robbing Students and Teachers of Joy

    Dean Shareski
    2 Nov 2009 | 10:02 am
    Maybe I'm just too lazy or unimaginative so I stole the title of my last post to make this one. Whatever. I'm not sure why but this topic runs pretty deep with me. I found Alfie Kohn's article this morning on twitter (I like the fact that he brings back stuff from the archives, I wish more people would do that. Old is not bad) and thought I'd highlight a few gems found inside it. While I recognize many peoples opposition to Kohn's highly progressive, Deweyesque slants, I find myself more in agreement with him than opposition. In the case of this article, I find it hard to…

  • Robbing Students of Recognition

    Dean Shareski
    30 Oct 2009 | 3:44 pm
    Cross Posted at the TechLearning blog Our district uses its front page to post success stories from our 40 schools. These range from academic achievements to athletic accomplishments of school teams. Schools post the stories to their own Website and submit them to me to post to the district page where generally there is more traffic. This one was sent to me earlier in the week. Tanner Spencer from Craik, SK, attended team Canada's World Junior top 35 camp in Orlando, Florida from October 5th to October 15th.  Tanner is the youngest Saskatchewan player ever chosen to go.  The…

  • Podcast 47…When You’re Not the Smartest Person in the Room

    Dean Shareski
    29 Oct 2009 | 6:00 am
    This is the audio and the slides from a presentation for SIAST Virtual Campus. When You're not the Smartest Person in the Room View more documents from shareski. You can subscribe to my podcasts in itunes.  

  • Follow up to a Rant

    Dean Shareski
    26 Oct 2009 | 8:41 am
    Last week I posted a rant entitiled, "We have to Stop Doing This to Teachers". I lamented about a number of conversations with teachers about the struggles of doing good work and dealing with change. Anytime you tag your post with the word "rant" it usually means there is some unfinished thoughts. (I guess you could say that about every one of my posts) Rather than commenting on each person, I thought I'd highlight some of the more salient remarks and perhaps add some commentary of my own.   Alan writes: I am less sanguine about the consensus for change. Competing…

  • Consider EduCon 2.2

    Dean Shareski
    22 Oct 2009 | 11:03 am
    For two years I've observed from a distance the energy and sharing of ideas that have taken place at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. The day after it ended in January 2009, I decided I wouldn't miss it again. My registration is in and my tickets are booked. In fact, I'm paying my own way for this one, it's that good. If you're looking to participate in a learning event that's different from the regular conference, this is it. Fortunately Chris and his staff and students have always made it available virtually so even if you can't attend in person, you…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    CogDogBlog

  • YMMV? MMDV! noticin.gs

    Alan Levine aka CogDog
    4 Nov 2009 | 8:33 pm
    Nothing is more sweeter than the serendipity of finding something online that grabs a breath from you, and such that you drop what you are doing to dig deeper. This has only happened to me, oh, estimating (counting on fingers…) maybe 18672 times. One more. A day or so ago, on scanning the flow of tweets, I saw this message from Roland Tanglao Who knows why one tweet grabs your mouse as opposed to another? But with that I was fallen into a fun time of exploring the noticings site which taps into many of my interests- flickrs+daily photos+geolocation+a bit of gaming, with a simple premise…

  • Write 50k 30d

    Alan Levine aka CogDog
    3 Nov 2009 | 10:39 pm
    cc licensed flickr photo shared by MikeOliveri I spew a lot of words (and typos) through this blog, but I’ve always harbored idyllic dreams of writing something…. more. But the epic idea has failed to materialize, so I am taking another interesting route by signing up for National Writing Novel Month or as most of the in crowd know as, NaNoWriMo. The basic premise is you write 50,000 words of a draft novel in 30 days, but track your progress in the NaNoWriMo web site, which employs almost every social media and support system one can think of– and it is massive. Its not with…

  • Pissing on the Wave

    Alan Levine aka CogDog
    1 Nov 2009 | 2:43 pm
    cc licensed flickr photo shared by Xuilla It’s like pissing in an ocean of piss I’m probably over-saturating, but until I can figure out something useful to do in Google Wave, its more fun to piss on all the silliness I see about it. I peek in every few days, and mostly I see Google Waves talking about Google Wave. Yawn. So far the main use is some place to have back and forth conversations, nothing any more novel than the email it is supposed to replace, listservs, web boards, twitter, etc. Or a place for people to try toss in media or various widget like things. Its a mess.

  • Barcelona Reflections: Paella of Culture, Architecture, and Open Education

    Alan Levine aka CogDog
    1 Nov 2009 | 9:44 am
        cc licensed flickr photo shared by cogdogblog and cc licensed flickr photo shared by cogdogblog It’s been a week since returning from Barcelona, where I was like 5 Yahtzees in a row luck enough to be a part of the Open EdTech 2009 summit co-organized by Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and the New Media Consortium (NMC). I remember hearing the raves of the 2008 meeting from my colleagues that got to go. This was actually my first trip to Europe since attending a Geology conference in Germany back in 1990. It seems patently obvious, but was slightly eye widening in a…

  • Windows Worth Looking Through

    Alan Levine aka CogDog
    31 Oct 2009 | 6:52 pm
    cc licensed flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Looking outside a window of the ruins of Scorpion Gulch, a home in south Phoenix built in the 1930s of local rock. southmountainhistory.blogspot.com/2009/05/scorpion-gulch-… Okay I admit the colors have been super scooched with Vibrancy and Saturation for a false color effect on the Palo Verde tree Words are not doing much justice to the view… The only thing missing was the big roadrunner who… ran across the road as I got out of my car.
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Educause

  • Rio Salado College President Joins EDUCAUSE Board

    cluckett
    5 Nov 2009 | 2:41 pm
    EDUCAUSE announced the appointment of Linda Thor, president of Rio Salado College, to a four-year term on the EDUCAUSE Board of Directors effective January 1, 2010. Thor’s appointment was confirmed by a unanimous vote of the board at its November 2 meeting. Read more in the press release.

  • ELI Releases New White Paper on Learning Environments

    pkurkowski
    30 Oct 2009 | 1:16 pm
    ELI has released a new white paper, Learning Environments: Where Space, Technology, and Culture Converge, by Thomas Warger (EduServe International) and Gregory Dobbin (EDUCAUSE).

  • New ELI 7 Things... Brief Explores Google Wave

    pkurkowski
    30 Oct 2009 | 9:08 am
    Google Wave is a web-based application that represents a rethinking of electronic communication. Users create online spaces called “waves,” which include multiple discrete messages and components that constitute a running, conversational document. Users access waves through the web, resulting in a model of communication in which rather than sending separate copies of multiple messages to different people, the content resides in a single space. Wave offers a compelling platform for personal learning environments because it provides a single location for collecting information from diverse…

  • Tune In November 13: Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing

    pkurkowski
    28 Oct 2009 | 8:45 am
    Universities have served important functions in society for more than a thousand years. They have done so in part by creating places that promote reflection, discussion, discovery and learning. For many people, the university-as-place is central to the purposes of the university. The university is also an idea and, increasingly, ideas—in the Internet—have enormous power to stimulate learning and discovery. Indeed, what many now describe as “Web 2.0” is a view that the web is evolving into a social environment that has the potential to extend the influence and reach of institutions and…

  • Latest Core Data Service Report on Campus IT Environments Released

    Lisa Gesner
    28 Oct 2009 | 8:01 am
    EDUCAUSE announces the release of the Core Data Service Fiscal Year 2008 Summary Report. It summarizes findings from the 2008 EDUCAUSE Core Data Service (CDS) survey, in which nearly 930 colleges and universities provided detailed information about their IT environments and practices in fiscal year 2008.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Techlearning

  • New ultra short-throw projectors offer cc, networking

    6 Nov 2009 | 7:20 am
     Epson has released its ultra short throw projectors – the Epson PowerLite® 450W and Epson PowerLite 460.

  • Keeping good Flash, blocking bad

    6 Nov 2009 | 6:05 am
     Web filtering vendor SmoothWall has attacked the problem from a different angle - by inspecting the content of flash files so they can be blocked or allowed based on what they contain.

  • Technology + mentoring helps failing schools achieve

    6 Nov 2009 | 4:35 am
    The new initiative, called SetPoint, pairs classroom technology with intensive coaching to build capacity for sustained change within the local district.

  • Interact with Mathematics

    5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Invites users to "Learn mathematics while you play with it " Using dozens of interactive demonstrations, this site covers all areas of math from algebra and trigonometry to statistics and calculus. Mini lessons include definitions, formulas, examples, and exercises connecting

  • Blank Verse, Burlesque, and more

    4 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Glossary of literary terms, from "apologue" to "western," complete with full definitions and examples. The definitions are easy to understand examples of texts represent the classic literary canon. There is also a convenient link to Dr. Harris's "Handbook of Rhetorical
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    NPR: Education

  • Obama Offers States Rewards For Overhauling Schools

    5 Nov 2009 | 3:07 am
    The Obama administration soon will be awarding billions of dollars in education grants to help local school districts raise the bar on student achievement. In order to qualify for the money, schools may have to grade not only students, but also teachers.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • N.Y. Harbor School Seeks Sea Change In Education

    1 Nov 2009 | 3:45 pm
    Murray Fisher had a dream: Take the 600 miles of New York City's coastline and all the water surrounding it, and start a maritime high school that would teach inner-city kids about their watery world. His school, the New York Harbor School, is housed in the heart of Brooklyn. But soon, it will move to Governors Island, a tree-covered jewel 800 yards off the coast of Manhattan.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • School Nurse On Sniffly Front Lines Of Swine Flu

    1 Nov 2009 | 5:49 am
    One school nurse in Sacramento, Calif., is at the center of the H1N1 swine flu epidemic, dabbing the noses of sick kids and comforting panicked parents as they push for vaccine, information and support.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Facing Identity Conflicts, Black Students Fall Behind

    31 Oct 2009 | 11:50 am
    Why do middle-class black and Latino teens often have lower test scores and college attendance rates than their white peers? Some researchers suggest media stereotypes might be to blame; others point to a peer culture of underachievement.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Racial Achievement Gap Still Plagues Schools

    30 Oct 2009 | 9:52 pm
    Black and Latino students consistently have lower test scores and attendance rates than their white counterparts. Placing struggling students in remedial classes has been a standard way to deal with the issue, but this method is coming under fire.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    elearnspace

  • Future of the social web

    gsiemens
    6 Nov 2009 | 2:53 pm
    Of course, the web is not social. Just like technology isn’t social. Or media isn’t social. We use these resources for social means, but that’s a function of use, not of the characteristics inherent in the web or media. We compress “social uses of the web” to social web for convenience sake. But we really don’t mean it like we say it. Anyway, in case you’re wondering what the social web will look like in the future, it’ll be about meaningful experiences: the past five years of Social Media evolution have focused on growth and adoption, but…

  • The age of the informavore

    gsiemens
    6 Nov 2009 | 2:43 pm
    A good name is often as good as (or better than) a good idea. The age of the informavore displays both provocative thinking and a memorable term. The video (about 30 min) is a loosely connected flow of thoughts on the impact of the web on humanity, information abundance, thinking outside of the human brain (i.e. network as a cognitive agent), and the lack of understanding most users have about the ideology of software. While we spend much time talking about change, the “becoming” aspect is overlooked. What are we becoming due to technology? Is it what we want to become? Which…

  • Openness and the Future of Education

    gsiemens
    6 Nov 2009 | 1:47 pm
    IRRODL just released a special issue on Openness and the Future of Education. Future of education is not an explicit focus in the articles, but can be anticipated as a result of the focus of the articles. Topics include: openess and textbooks, peer-to-peer learning, impact of openness, disaggregated future of higher education, and even an article reviewing CCK08 (the open course I taught with Stephen Downes last fall – the 2009 version is going strong as well). A strong issue – congrats to Terry Anderson, David Wiley, and John Hilton III. I keep returning to a question that is…

  • Can’t squeeze knowledge from a pixel

    gsiemens
    5 Nov 2009 | 6:38 pm
    Meaning is found in associations. It’s simple concept, but has substantial implications. To get an accurate picture of “something”, context first needs to be understood. This short video – can’t squeeze knowledge from a pixel – summarizes this point. An email address, for example, means very little unless we see it in a broader context and in light of associations formed between the address and other entities. Nothing new about that. However, information connectedness raises privacy and ethical concerns. Should my doctor know my credit rating? My driving…

  • Personal View of e-learning: Saudi Arabia

    gsiemens
    5 Nov 2009 | 2:40 pm
    I haven’t had the privilege of visiting Saudi Arabia. As a result, I particularly appreciated reading Tony Bates’ experiences of leading a series of workshops in his post: a personal view of e-learning. The limited adoption of technology in universities isn’t that unusual from my experience. A growing number of universities are more organized and structured in their online learning initiative, but many do so without strategic considerations. Technology use is driven at a grassroots level (which is fine, but for system-level implementation, some top down support and resources…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    A Difference

  • Google Never Forgets

    27 Oct 2009 | 7:23 am
    Copied in it's entirety from Seth Godin's blog this short post will be featured prominently in the next conversation I have with my students around digital ethics. A friend advertised on Craigslist for a housekeeper. Three interesting resumes came to the top. She googled each person's name. The first search turned up a MySpace page. There was a picture of the applicant, drinking beer from a funnel. Under hobbies, the first entry was, "binge drinking." The second search turned up a personal blog (a good one, actually). The most recent entry said something like, "I am applying for some menial…

  • New Math 10 Curriculum

    25 Oct 2009 | 1:48 pm
    There's a new curriculum coming. Gave a little talk about it and the text book that supports it. Here it is. You can download it if you like. All the links I shared in the session can be found by clicking around on the slides below. MHR Math10 WorkshopView more documents from dkuropatwa. UPDATE Joe, one of the folks who attended the session on Friday, has shared the Graphing Calculator Lease Form he uses in his school. You can see it here. Feel free to copy and edit or or just print it as is. Thanks Joe!

  • Social Media Counter

    22 Oct 2009 | 8:32 pm
    Thanks to a tweet from Alec I stumbled upon Gary's Social Media Count over at Gary Hayes blog. Interesting.

  • Scribes Spreading

    21 Oct 2009 | 5:48 pm
    Thanks to some blog love from Roland I put together a small, inadequate list of how the scribing blog love is spreading; check out these wonderful teachers: Chris Harbeck's class blog hub (innovator par excellence!) Ryan Maksymchuk's suite of class blogs (more scribing class blogs than you can shake a stick at!) Derrick Willard's class blog Jim Homan's Cathoilic Morality wiki Mr. Marti's precalculus class blog Reversearp's (an alias I believe) precalculus class blog Mrs. Everard's AP Calculus class blog Image by dkuropatwa via Flickr Every new day brings more new math (and non-math) bloggers.

  • I've Got 5 Minutes

    10 Oct 2009 | 11:15 am
    actually, it was 11 minutes and 45 seconds. This is the slidecast from one of three talks I gave on Friday October 9, 2009. I was in Virden Manitoba participating in the NIBBLE Conference for the Fort La Bosse School Division. More coming soon. Everything will be aggregated on the Senior Years Information and Communication Technology wiki I'm maintaining to share all the work I do in Manitoba with teachers across the province ... and you. I've Got 5 MinutesView more documents from dkuropatwa.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Dangerously Irrelevant

  • The (un)certainty of professional persistence

    dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)
    6 Nov 2009 | 7:13 am
    There has been a lot of good discussion on my post about the future of books, libraries, librarians, and schools (thank you, everyone). In addition to the comments on the post itself, there are some excellent thoughts elsewhere as well: Flat World Library Corporation Dangerously irrelevant libraries Ten hard questions Random questions on future libraries by Scott McLeod I was struck, however, by something that Erin Downey said in her own post: What has, does, and will distinguish us from [coffee shops, community centers, and Internet cafes] are LIBRARIANS. Your barista doesn't know…

  • Data-driven decision-making resources from CASTLE

    dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)
    4 Nov 2009 | 3:32 am
    I have done a lot of work over the years on various data-driven decision-making projects. I've taught courses, given workshops, delivered multi-day institutes for state departments of education and corporate partners, and written book chapters and white papers.I collected some of the highlights of that work on my new DDDM page here at Dangerously Irrelevant. Resources include some of the products from my work with Microsoft, the American Psychological Association, the Chicago Public Schools, the Minnesota Department of Education, and others. I hope these are useful to you. Happy reading!

  • Are we too connected?

    dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)
    3 Nov 2009 | 7:09 am
    WHO TV (Des Moines) aired a special report, Are we too connected?, on last night’s news broadcast. Among others, they interviewed me and Dr. Michael Bugeja, Professor and Director of Iowa State University’s Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication. I have interacted with Michael a couple of times. He’s a very good guy and a fun guy to talk with, but he’s also a nationally-visible technology critic who is interviewed often by the media. His technology skepticism is probably understandable given that his entire profession is struggling to reinvent itself because of the impacts…

  • 10 questions about books, libraries, librarians, and schools

    dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)
    3 Nov 2009 | 7:06 am
    [cross-posted at LeaderTalk] October apparently was ‘Library Month’ for me. I was the keynote speaker for the Minnesota MEMO conference and did a breakout session for the Iowa Library Association (ILA) conference. I also brought Dr. Mike Eisenberg to Iowa for three days to talk with school administrators about technology and information literacy. As a result, I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on books, reading, and the future of libraries and librarians… Random questions What constitutes a “book” these days? When books become electronic and thus become searchable,…

  • Marge Beatty, Nebraska ESU 16, talks about 1:1 laptop programs

    dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)
    1 Nov 2009 | 12:44 pm
    [cross-posted at CASTLE's 1-to-1 Schools blog] While at Nebraska’s first-ever Educational Administrators Technology Conference, I learned that 8 of the 16 districts in Educational Service Unit 16 have 1:1 laptop programs. Marge Beatty, chief administrator for the ESU, was willing to let me ask her a few questions. Happy viewing!
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    edu.blogs.com

  • Links for 2009-11-06 [del.icio.us]

    Ewan McIntosh
    7 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Derek's Blog » UK update #1 – computers in exams a project involving 14 colleges in Denmark that are piloting a new system of exams where students are allowed full access to the internet during their final exams. According to the article, in the exam, students can access any site they like, even Facebook, but they cannot message each other or email anyone outside the classroom. The Swedish government are quoted as saying, “if the internet is so much a part of daily life, it should be included in the classroom and in examinations.” Julian Bellamy on C4 & Creative…

  • Links for 2009-11-05 [del.icio.us]

    Ewan McIntosh
    6 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Culture of compliance is making British TV 'bland' says Channel 4 boss - Telegraph A “culture of compliance” in British television is in danger of making programmes bland, according to the head of Channel 4. Lesley Booth PR Social Isolation and New Technology | Pew Internet & American Life Project This Pew Internet Personal Networks and Community survey finds that Americans are not as isolated as has been previously reported. People’s use of the mobile phone and the internet is associated with larger and more diverse discussion networks. And, when we examine people’s full personal…

  • Links for 2009-11-04 [del.icio.us]

    Ewan McIntosh
    5 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    The New York Times - Innovation Portfolio Just beautifully presented Andy Duncan: Next on Channel 4 - Telegraph While pundits posit a future of 3D TV and mood-based programme selection, Duncan points out that what technology is capable of and what consumers actually want to do are two very separate things. He thinks people will continue to watch an average of 25 hours of TV a week, but it will be through a mixture of broadband-enabled TVs and PCs. Interestingly, he says the more “tecchy people” who use VOD service regularly, watch even more TV than the average person – so the myth of…

  • Links for 2009-11-03 [del.icio.us]

    Ewan McIntosh
    4 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    The Complete Guide to Google Wave: How to Use Google Wave

  • Shocker! | Cable TV News and Public Sector Leaders: They're The Same!

    ewan.mcintosh@blueyonder.co.uk (Ewan McIntosh)
    3 Nov 2009 | 6:52 am
    I love watching Jon Stewart's continued picking apart of the bias in cable TV news, notably in Fox (the YouTube clips should suffice as explanation). Now, Seth talks about how Cable TV News' attitudes can be seen in any board room around the world: Focus on the urgent instead of the important. Vivid emotions and the visuals that go with them as a selector for what's important. Emphasis on noise over thoughtful analysis. Unwillingness to reverse course and change one's mind. Xenophobic and jingoistic reactions (fear of outsiders). Defense of the status quo encouraged by an audience…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    College Admissions Counseling

  • 100 Best Values in Private Colleges

    Todd Johnson
    5 Nov 2009 | 5:25 pm
    Kiplinger has recently announced the 2009-2010 version of their 100 Best Values in Private Colleges. The list is broken down into the 50 Best Value Private Universities and the 50 Best Value Liberal Arts Colleges. You can sort the colleges on the list by overall rank, cost, quality measures or financial aid measures.  You can also search by state to see which colleges near you made the list. This list is a great way to find a private college that has strong academics and strong financial aid. Share on FacebookRSS Feed Content © Todd Johnson and College Admissions Partners100 Best Values…

  • Insider’s Guide to Financial Aid

    Todd Johnson
    5 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    Vanderbilt University has released a video entitled the “Insider’s Guide to Financial Aid“. This financial aid video is presented by Vanderbilt’s Dean of Admissions, Doug Christiansen, and is a follow up to his previous video “Insider’s Guide to Admissions“. I thought Dean Christiansen’s “Insider’s Guide to Admissions” was wonderful and have recommended it in the past. Unfortunately, I don’t think the the “Insider’s Guide to Financial Aid” is as strong a video. The video asks some good questions which…

  • Do College Sports Effect Academics?

    Todd Johnson
    3 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    Many people love watching college sports and we all know that college sports generate a lot of money for colleges. Unfortunately, what we all know, is wrong. The reality is that very few college sports programs, including the very largest, make money for a college and most require a college to put funds into the athletic department. So what does this have to do with academics at a college? Colleges have limited budgets and during the current financial crisis, even the wealthiest of colleges are making cuts. The more money that has to be put into the athletic budget, the less money there is…

  • “How Are Your Applications Coming?” Edition

    Todd Johnson
    28 Oct 2009 | 6:23 am
    Welcome to the October 28, 2009 edition of carnival of college admission. This is the “How are your applications coming along” edition for you seniors that are hard at work on applying to colleges. I know you’re busy but we have some great articles on the Carnival this week so take a few minutes and see what you can learn. Choosing the Right College Harold Gelien presents Top 50 Blogs to Help You Apply for College posted at Undergraduate Degree, saying, “Getting into college has become more challenging than ever. You face more competition, and there are increasing…

  • Do Elite Colleges Provide an Advantage?

    Todd Johnson
    28 Oct 2009 | 6:00 am
    I discussed yesterday a new report out that found that colleges in general are not more competitive than they were 40 years ago. However, that same report also discussed another important topic. The study found that the amount of spending on items related to student learning is much greater at the elite colleges than at other colleges. In fact, the gap in spending on student learning between the elite colleges and all others is actually increasing. In other words, some of the most selective colleges are spending the most on educating their students. Those attending the most selective colleges…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Steve Kinney

  • Tim Brown on Creativity and Play

    Steve Kinney
    26 Oct 2009 | 9:03 am
    At the 2008 Serious Play conference, designer Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play — with many examples you can try at home (and one that maybe you shouldn’t).

  • Noble Desktop Offering Free Digital Media Training in SoHo

    Steve Kinney
    29 Sep 2009 | 3:50 pm
    For those of you who live in New York City, Noble Desktop is offering free workshops on a number of different topics concerning digital media and web design. Most, but not all, deal with the Adobe Creative Suite. It’s a great opportunity at a great price. Click here to register.

  • Professors Avoid SMART Boards

    Steve Kinney
    13 Sep 2009 | 9:22 am
    Some Yale professors are giving up on SMART Boards. They claim that the boards often cause more problems than they solve. “The best kind of technology will be the invisible kind of technology,” [Justin Neuman, an assistant professor of English] explained in an interview before his decidedly opaque encounter with the SMART Board in class. “You want, to the extent possible, your technological prosthetics to fade into the background.” (via Yale Daily News)

  • Stanford Study: Media Multitaskers Pay Mental Price

    Steve Kinney
    9 Sep 2009 | 7:21 am
    We’re not built for multitasking and anyone who tells you they are is lying to you. There are some really smart people at Stanford who’d like to prove that to you. People who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information do not pay attention, control their memory or switch from one job to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task at a time, a group of Stanford researchers has found. That’s a good summary, but here’s my favorite quote from the article. “They’re suckers for irrelevancy,” said communication…

  • Smart Ed-Tech Strategies for Tough Times

    Steve Kinney
    8 Sep 2009 | 4:53 pm
    Go see some smart people talk about how to spend your technology budget better in Jersey City (or Chicago, if you have the frequent-flyer miles to burn). Join other superintendents, assistant superintendents and ed-tech leaders to discuss innovative technology solutions and proven techniques to drive student achievement, lower the cost of teacher professional development and maximize the use of your technology budget. (via EdWeek Leadership Forums)
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Creating Lifelong Learners

  • Dropbox: Remote Storage Accessible Everywhere

    Mathew Needleman
    27 Oct 2009 | 5:00 am
    It happens to everyone and it happened to me last year…my laptop hard drive died.  The Apple Store replaced it, of course, but along with it I lost all of my data.  I do regularly back up my data but if I back up every month or so, I lost a month or two of data. Since that time I use one of my favorite free applications, Dropbox which solves two problems for me at once. Dropbox gives you remote storage that is accessible on every computer you use.  This means your data is constantly backed up and that you can work on the same files from multiple computers. So, for example, I am…

  • Misunderstanding Mr. Winkle

    Mathew Needleman
    23 Oct 2009 | 2:44 pm
    With approximately 30,000 combined views from a variety of video sharing sites, Mr. Winkle Wakes, has had the largest audience of any movie I’ve made.  What’s cool about having a mini-viral video is that from time to time, the movie is rediscovered and its popularity spontaneously increases. Recently, thanks to Google Alerts, I found out that the movie was being used in Dr. Strange’s teacher education course in Alabama.  Students were asked to watch the movie and comment about it on their blog.  I had the privilege of Skyping in to say hello to some of his students. I…

  • Computer Using Educators: Los Angeles Tech Fair

    Mathew Needleman
    22 Oct 2009 | 11:26 am
    For those teachers in the Los Angeles area, you may wish to attend the CUELA (Computer Using Educators: Los Angeles) Tech Fair which is being held on November 14th at Mulholland Middle School. I am not presenting this year, but I am on the board of directors for the organization. We have compiled a fantastic list of presenters and workshop topics in the field of educational technology for a full day of learning and exploration.  Registration includes lunch, breakfast, and the possibility of winning some fantastic door prizes, including a Flip Video camera. Sign up here:…

  • Google Alerts

    Mathew Needleman
    20 Oct 2009 | 1:16 pm
    One of Google’s less popular and most useful tools is Google Alerts. Google Alerts allows you sign-up for e-mail notifications related to any search term.  I use it, for example, to track any mentions of “Mathew Needleman” (my name) or “Matthew Needleman” (the popular mispelling of my name).  It’s a narcissist’s dream.  But aside from the big head it may give you, it’s a good idea for any teacher to track their public persona, check for fake Myspace pages, etc. Bloggers should also set alerts for their blogs (I find it’s more reliable…

  • Film School with Me Online Today

    Mathew Needleman
    26 Sep 2009 | 7:02 am
    Sorry for the short notice but if you have 30 minutes to spare today I’ll be a guest on Ed Tech Talk to promote the upcoming free K12 Online Conference 2009. They will be showing a selection of some of the best previous K12 Conference presentations (but they’ve also included mine : ).  After the presentation, I’ll be there live to answer questions and talk about the project. My preso is the first one up.  I’ll be there at 11:00 Pacific Time.  You go to http://www.edtechtalk.com to see it/hear it.  Here’s a link for more information.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    GlobalHigherEd

  • From rhetoric to reality: unpacking the numbers and practices of global higher ed

    globalhighered
    5 Nov 2009 | 12:26 pm
    Numbers, partnerships, linkages, and collaboration: some key terms that seem to be bubbling up all over the place right now. On the numbers front, the ever active Cliff Adelman released, via the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), a new report titled The Spaces Between Numbers: Getting International Data on Higher Education Straight (November 2009). As the IHEP press release notes: The research report, The Spaces Between Numbers: Getting International Data on Higher Education Straight, reveals that U.S. graduation rates remain comparable to those of other developed countries despite…

  • Measuring the economic value of Canada’s international education “industry”

    globalhighered
    29 Oct 2009 | 10:34 am
    Yesterday, Canada unveiled a report assessing the economic contributions that international students make to the country. Entitled Economic Impact of International Education in Canada the report was presented by Stockwell Day, the Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, at a meeting of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC). Highlights from the report include the following: In 2008, international students to Canada contributed $6.5 billion (CAD) to the national economy, provided 83,000 jobs, and contributed $291 million (CAD) in…

  • Graphic feed: INDIA – Research and collaboration in the new geography of science

    globalhighered
    28 Oct 2009 | 5:50 pm
    Source: Adams, J, King, C., and Singh, V. (2009) INDIA: Research and collaboration in the new geography of science, October, Leeds: Evidence Ltd/Thomson Reuters, p. 5.

  • East Asia Summit calls for the revival of Nalanda University: thinking and acting beyond the nation?

    globalhighered
    25 Oct 2009 | 3:48 pm
    The emergence of new supra-national movements with respect to higher education and research continue apace.  From the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), through to international consortia of universities, through to bits of universities embedded in others within distant territories (e.g., Georgia Tech’s unit within the National University of Singapore), the higher education landscape is in the process of being reconfigured and globalized. Yet, is it really that novel in an historical sense? Today’s call at the East Asian Summit for the revival of Nalanda University (see…

  • Roger Martin via The Walrus: Who Killed Canada’s Education Advantage? A forensic investigation into the disappearance of public education investment in Canada

    globalhighered
    20 Oct 2009 | 12:15 pm
    Source: Martin, R. (2009) ‘Who Killed Canada’s Education Advantage? A forensic investigation into the disappearance of public education investment in Canada‘, The Walrus, 20 October. Editor’s note: Link to the title above for the full article. Roger Martin is Dean, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. The Walrus is a Canadian news magazine.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Jose Vilson: The Blog

  • The Proverbial Godfather to My Students

    Jose
    Yankee Stadium Gang This morning, I had a strange choice to make. Ever since the Yankees made the playoffs, I made a quasi-promise to myself that, should the New York Yankees win the championship, I’d take my students to the parade. While not educationally sound, I’ve been building that bridge from Inwood to South Bronx for my students since their 6th grade year. For their big class trip in 6th grade, I took them to the old Yankee Stadium a few months removed from when the owners closers its doors. For their 7th grade year, I took them to the new Yankee Stadium as well. Thus, it…

  • Why I Livetweeted the World Series [Or The Greatest Yankees Livetweeter Alive]

    Jose
    Me at the Old Yankee Stadium Imagine having to sit through an entire baseball game with announcers whose unseemly hate for your favorite team is too obvious after every inning, after every close play, or after  some “managerial” mistake. Imagine hearing the announcer just say the most random and irrelevant things at a ration that’s far too frequent for anyone to fully accept. Imagine one had a venue by which they could simultaneously criticize these announcers who dominate the game and have their own venue in playing the role of announcer for others. Well, that role last…

  • King Bloomberg and My Unrepentant Contradictions

    Jose
    Michael Bloomberg I’m living in a weird spot right now. I’m a die-hard Yankees fan who has a hard time supporting the construction of a stadium that, from within and without, stratified the rich and the poor and is supported by the one man who embraces that stratification like the millions of dollars he’s gained indirectly through the veins of this metropolis. I work for a school system that I can’t possibly supporting working from inside and outside it and simultaneously pay taxes to that very school system. I ride on a mass transit system that continually dupes its…

  • Retinas Flash in the Dark

    Jose
    Eye Last week, I had a bad experience with the only class I have to teach this year. It wasn’t a major deal, but on the day before Halloween, after lunch where they’re hopped up on lunch food and inordinate amounts of sweets, with no uniforms on, and the dean in an important meeting, the general security and relative calm of the day eludes us. I planned a whole project complete with rubrics, instructions, and the whole 9. I modeled it for them and I even did a single one that was a little simpler, hoping they’d have gotten it. It took hours for me to get together, and lots…

  • The Parts to the Whole

    Jose
    Jose Vilson I knew the first quarter of the academic school year would try my every fiber. Presently, I’m juggling between math teacher / coach for my school, president for my alumni organization, blogger for this site, writer for a few other projects, and all the personal duties I’ve undertaken, some of which have grown and developed and others which have taken a bit of a hit. The excitement of the prospects and accomplishments I’ve attained in this quarter coupled with the disappointment and pain of the dissolution of some of these relationships has made it easy to become…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Teachers Teaching Teachers

  • More about diigo, annotations and on-line, ongoing research - TTT169 - 9.23.09

    Paul Allison
    1 Nov 2009 | 10:55 am
    Download More about diigo, annotations and on-line, ongoing research - TTT169 - 9.23.09Chief Diigo Ambassador, Maggie Tsai joined us on this Wednesday evening, late in September. About a month before, we had a lively conversation about research and diigo: Teachers Teaching Teachers #165 - 08.26.09 - Meet Lisa Dick and George Haines: Talking about research [...]

  • Troy Hicks and The Digital Writing Workshop, Part 3 of 3 - Helping Students Craft Writing - TTT172 - 10.14.09

    Paul Allison
    18 Oct 2009 | 7:49 pm
    Download Troy Hicks and The Digital Writing Workshop, Part 3 of 3 - Helping Students Craft Writing - TTT172 - 10.14.09In this final episode of our three part series, our guest-host once again is Troy Hicks, author of The Digital Writing Workshop, and Director of the Chippewa River Writing Project at Central Michigan University. He [...]

  • Mapping Main Street in Flushing, Salt Lake City, and Brevig Mission - TTT168 - 9.16.09

    Paul Allison
    17 Oct 2009 | 8:00 pm
    Download Mapping Main Street in Flushing, Salt Lake City, and Brevig Mission - TTT168 - 9.16.09Teachers whose students post at Youth Voices are pretty excited about the “Mapping Main Street” collaborative project. Mapping Main Street is a collaborative documentary media project that creates a new map of the country through stories, photos and videos recorded [...]

  • Troy Hicks and The Digital Writing Workshop, Part 2 of 3 - Exploring Author’s Craft - TTT171- 10.07.09

    Paul Allison
    9 Oct 2009 | 7:14 pm
    Download Troy Hicks and The Digital Writing Workshop, Part 2 of 3 - Exploring Author's Craft - TTT171- 10.07.09In this second episode of a three-part series, our guest-host was Troy Hicks, author of The Digital Writing Workshop, and Director of the Chippewa River Writing Project at Central Michigan University. Troy continued to explore the principles [...]

  • Lennie Levin on Crossing to College - TTT 167 - 09.09.09

    Paul Allison
    8 Oct 2009 | 7:30 pm
    Download Lennie Levin on Crossing to College - TTT 167 - 09.09.09If you are already using Youth Voices " or planning to soon, we think you’ll enjoy this Teachers Teaching Teachers podcast, recorded about a month ago. We talked the Youth Voices curriculum, guides, and more! Lennie Irvin, who is having his first-year college writing [...]
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    So You Want To Teach?

  • Latest Carnival of Education Posted

    Joel
    3 Nov 2009 | 5:59 pm
    I have been asked to pass along a request. Unfortunately, I had a pep rally this morning and a football game this evening. I’m hosting the next EduCarnival at my blog (http://imadreamerteacher.blogspot.com/), and there aren’t a ton of submissions.  Since you have a widely read blog, I was wondering if you could post a short thing about how people could still submit today?  It’s too late to do it through the form, but they could email me links directly at imadreamerteacher@gmail.com. EDIT: It’s now too late to submit…but check out the EduCarnival V2 Issue 11…

  • 7 Steps To Financial Freedom

    Joel
    1 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm
    This is a video of Dave Ramsey presenting his 7 Baby Steps. Following the summary video are 10 more videos with more specific details. If you haven’t heard Dave Ramsey before, you need to subscribe to his podcast. Now. The Baby Steps Intro Budgeting Baby Steps Debt Snowball The Emergency Fund Retirement Investment College Savings Pay Off Mortgage Be A Giver Build Wealth Live Like No One Else Related Articles: Less Stress: Reduce Your Lifestyle 10 Things You Can Do To Spend Less Money This Summer The Adaptive Unconscious: You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression Life…

  • The Adaptive Unconscious: You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression

    Joel
    1 Nov 2009 | 3:44 pm
    Yesterday, I picked up a copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink (purchase on Amazon). Dave Ramsey has been recommending his latest book Outliers (purchase on Amazon) on his radio show lately but when I got to Barnes & Noble, I realized Blink was available in paperback and so was therefore quite a bit less expensive. I’ve heard Dave recommend it before, so I decided to go with the less costly alternative. I began reading it this afternoon and came across the following paragraph on pages 12-13: Whenever we meet someone for the first time, whenever we interview someone for a job,…

  • 7 More Taylor Mali Videos

    Joel
    24 Oct 2009 | 11:10 pm
    A couple of years ago, I saw a few videos on YouTube of Taylor Mali reciting some of his poetry. I reposted one of them last night, and thought I would dig around and see if I could find some more. Here’s what I came up with. The Impotence of Proofreading On Girls Lending Pens Reading Allowed I Could Be A Poet Speak With Conviction Miracle Workers Tony Steinberg: Brave Seventh-Grade Viking Warrior Related Articles: How to Empower Your Students 5 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers 20 Books Everyone Should Read Rule-Free Teaching Less Stress: Declutter Your Desk Reading Reader…

  • Video: What Do Teachers Make by Taylor Mali

    Joel
    24 Oct 2009 | 8:42 pm
    I’m sure the transcript of this has made the rounds of educational institutions worldwide, but when I saw it, the passion that Taylor Mali emits during the presentation is awesome. Related Articles: About Life Lesson 1: Experience Is The Best Teacher The Deep-Seated Problems With Public Education 15 Free Ed-Tech Resources to Implement in the Classroom A Community Is Developing Here! 7 More Taylor Mali Videos Help Me Change The World! Seriously 8 Ways Blogging Makes Me A Better Teacher A Customer Service Oriented Classroom Experience 5 Character Traits Of Great Teachers Readers who…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Reading Workshop

  • Your Homophone is Out of Order

    3 Nov 2009 | 10:19 am
    Is your writing ringing in the ear of the reader?  Have you checked for mistakes with homophones?  Since texting and IMing have become so popular, this has become the most frequent mistake in writing.  It’s also become extremely common among bloggers.Homophone--One of two or more words, such as night and knight, that are pronounced the same but differ in meaning, origin, and sometimes spelling. Here are three of the mistakes with homophones that show up over and over:1. Your vs. You’re All it takes to avoid this error is to take a second and think about what you’re trying…

  • Student Blog Score Sheet

    29 Oct 2009 | 7:21 am
    Students have spent time in Reading Workshop reading and writing blogs, so their grade should reflect their efforts.  In a previous post, we looked at How to Grade Student Blogs.  However, students need an easy method to evaluate their work, and  understand the grade that it merits.   A Blog Score Sheet is an easy way to accomplish this. Students can easily check the areas they have completed successfully.  This also provides the opportunity to look at different blogs, and show examples of excellent writing.Once students have evaluated their blog, then I…

  • Who Else is a Little Crazy Around Here?

    20 Oct 2009 | 6:30 am
    The word for today is sanity. Statistics say that one of four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, it's you.And what brings up the word for the day?  Tomorrow is the start of a five day break.  We may all be a little crazy, but I am sure when we return on Monday, after a little R & R, we will be rejuvinated, and chomping at the bit to get back in the educational saddle.Don't eat too much at the Pumpkin Show and enjoy the break!

  • A Writer's Voice

    19 Oct 2009 | 5:18 am
    When someone reads a post you wrote, do they know it's you?  Having a writer's voice and a style of your own comes from writing, writing some more, and writing some more.  Eventually, your writing will take on a style of its own. Authors with several books published are usually easy to recognize by their style.  Gary Paulsen with his wordy, descriptive, "I have been there and done it" style is consistent in his books.  John Scieszka with his choppy sentences, constant dialogue, and wacky events amuses his readers.Dr. Scott McLeod wrote the following on his blog,…

  • This is Sharing Your Thoughts

    15 Oct 2009 | 7:10 am
    As we start a new year in Reading Workshop, one of the main goals is making writing meaningful using descriptive writing with many supporting details.  It really does not matter whether the writing is a response to a question, a blog post, a journal, a letter, or any other type of writing.  Quality writing brings the reader into the mind and the heart of the writer.  Details help the reader see, and feel, and understand.When I read Katey's blog post, it grabbed me and I knew immediately, this was a great example of what I expect in  students' writing.  This was in…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    apophenia

  • Choosing the Right Grad School

    zephoria
    28 Oct 2009 | 12:16 pm
    Lately, I've been getting all sorts of emails from folks applying to grad school who are seeking advice. I noticed that I was starting to say the same thing over and over again so I thought maybe it'd be better off to write some of it down in a more publicly consumable way. So here goes... Choosing the Right Grad School If there are faculty or students out there reading this, I'd love your comments and suggestions too. I know that we all have different advice we give to potential grad students so I know that this isn't the end-all-be-all. Please feel free to comment, send links to your own…

  • Some thoughts on Twitter vs. Facebook Status Updates

    zephoria
    25 Oct 2009 | 1:24 pm
    The functional act of constructing a tweet or a status update is very similar. Produce text in roughly 140 characters or less inside a single line text box and click a button. Voila! Even the stream based ways in which the text gets consumed look awfully similar. Yet, the more I talk with people engaged in practices around Twitter and Facebook, the more I'm convinced these two things are not actually the same practice. Why? Audience. There are two critical structural differences between Facebook and Twitter that are essential to understand before discussing the practices: 1) social graph…

  • teaching, nursing, and second wave feminism

    zephoria
    19 Oct 2009 | 9:01 am
    I am deeply grateful for all that was accomplished by second wave feminism. I love living in a world in which my job opportunities are not constrained because of what's between my legs. That said, I also struggle with the externalities of the accomplishments in the 1970s. This week, I found myself thinking about the role of teaching and nursing in society and the relationship between feminism and those professions. When my mother was entering the professional world, there were pretty much three options for women: teacher, nurse, secretary. Many women did not work and those who did were highly…

  • Postdoctoral Researchers, Microsoft Research

    zephoria
    14 Oct 2009 | 3:32 pm
    If you're graduating with a PhD from a computer science program, applying to be a researcher or postdoc at Microsoft Research might seem obvious. But what I've learned is that few students in nearby departments are even aware that we hire postdocs and researchers who didn't graduate from CS programs. We do! At Microsoft Research New England, we are especially interested in attracting postdocs from the social sciences, economics, communications, information schools, etc. This may be true in other labs as well so I wanted to post a general call for those who might not think of Microsoft…

  • Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age

    zephoria
    2 Oct 2009 | 5:57 am
    Over the last 18 months, I have had the great honor of serving as a Commissioner on the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities. Today, it gives me great pleasure to announce that we have released our report: Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age We begin our report by asking, "What are the information needs of communities in a democracy?" Following this reflective analysis, we outline findings and recommendations, centered on three objectives: Maximize the availability of relevant and credible information to all Americans and their communities…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Flux

  • Virtual trenches immerse students in First World War poetry

    Bob Harrison
    2 Nov 2009 | 1:03 pm
    With Armistice Day fast approaching a JISC project team has taken an unusual approach to ensuring that people continue to learn about the First World War. The First World War Poetry Digital Archive and the Learning Technologies Group at Oxford University have collaborated on an exciting new project in the 3D virtual world Second Life to simulate areas of the Western Front 1914-18. The team believes this is the first time anything of its type has been done on Second Life. This project, which is funded by JISC, has arranged a range of digitised archival materials like poetry manuscripts,…

  • Shakespeare 2.0

    Sarah Grier
    2 Nov 2009 | 4:12 am
    Secondary school pupils can now access a live performance of Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ thanks to an audio recording from the National Strategies. A performance of the play, produced by Globe Education at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, has been captured as an audio recording to help pupils experience this tale of ‘star-crossed’ lovers. It can be downloaded free onto an MP3 player, iPod or computer and it appears on a dedicated teaching Shakespeare area which also boasts Secondary National Strategies resources on the Bard and his works. Alternatively, for those…

  • Digital media research hub

    Sarah Grier
    27 Oct 2009 | 9:46 am
    DMLcentral.net, a new website to support the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub at the University of California was announced today during the Sesame Workshop at Google HQ. A major new research initiative based in Irvine, California, the DML will assess the participatory ways in which digital media are transforming youth learning practices and lifelong learning opportunities. Prototype downloads of two games for learning (Mannahatta and Quest Atlantis) are already available on the site along with a range of resources including literature reviews and teaching resources. Visit DMLcentral…

  • The ischool intiative

    Bob Harrison
    26 Oct 2009 | 2:14 pm
    A few weeks ago I introduced Louise Duncan from Victoria to the “Best Practice” session at Handheld Learning where she spoke about her experience of introducing ipod touches to primary school children at Shepparton Primary School. http://future.ncsl.org.uk/News.aspx?ID=187 Her reward for winning the “Lindsay Thompson Fellowship” was to travel to the UK for HHL and then on to the USA to research mobile learning. Here she has discovered Travis Allen, founder of the ischool initiative and he is an inspiration. What do you think?

  • The educational Second Life

    Sarah Grier
    26 Oct 2009 | 7:32 am
    Second Life may usually be associated with unfeasibly proportioned avatars living out their creators’ fantasies but there is another side to the virtual world. There is a zone called Scilands where a variety of institutions including NASA have created virtual experiments and scientific experiences. Member organisations share borders of their individual regions in the hope of forging links between disciplines. One of the most compelling of the Scilands is that which enables the visitor to fly through a hurricane.
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Stephen's Web ~ OLDaily

  • The Gay Animal Kingdom Should Now Be Required Reading

    5 Nov 2009 | 12:59 pm
    From the "we'll never read about this kind of thing in the New World Order" file - "high school English honors teacher, Dan DeLong... was suspended for offering students the Seed magazine article "The Gay Animal Kingdom" by Jonah Lehrer as an optional extra credit assignment." He has now been reinstated - but it raises to mind what turns out to be a theme for today's issue, the confusion between science and mysticism in the public mind, and the attendant fall of the learned and democratic society we enjoy today. Eric Michael Johnson, The Primate Diaries, November 5, 2009 [Tags: Schools]…

  • Minnesota Studies in Philosophy of Science

    5 Nov 2009 | 12:46 pm
    Oh, I'm in heaven. I cannot count the hours I spent embroiled in the Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science. And now they're available online, complete, for free - including some of my absolute faves, like Language, Mind, and Knowledge (1975, ed. Keith Gunderson) and Scientific Explanation (1989, eds. Philip Kitcher & Wesley C. Salmon). Oh! This is fabulous stuff. I know I can't make these tomes required reading - but can't I urge that public policy makers at least read series editor Ronald Giere's completely worthwhile Understanding Scientific Reasoning? Eric Schliesser, It's…

  • Secret copyright treaty leaks. It's bad. Very bad.

    5 Nov 2009 | 12:39 pm
    If described accurately, the provisions outlined in secret negotiations on copyright amount to a sovereign coup - an usurpation of basic rights and freedoms by a corproate government entity. Don't take my word for it. The provisions include: - ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material (which basically makes it impossible to host user-created material, because of the cost of this) - ISPs have to cut off the Internet access of accused copyright infringers or face liability (which effectively terminates the presumption of innocence) - rules that require ISPs to…

  • Google Dashboard: Now You Know What Google Knows About You

    5 Nov 2009 | 12:27 pm
    Google knows a lot about you, more than you do. To help balance that a bit, there is now a Privacy Dashboard. It's not complete, and there are no doubt even more deep dark secrets Google knows. But it's a step in the right direction. Now - how to make this data portable? Stan Schroeder, Mashable, November 5, 2009 [Tags: Google] [Link] [Comment]

  • Write to Reply

    5 Nov 2009 | 12:23 pm
    Write to Reply, developed by Tony Hirst and Joss Winn, is a great concept that has yet to achieve mainstream status (perhaps if it were "invented" by one of the more famous internet pundits it would gain more traction - where is Boing Boing when we need it?). It allows people to comment, paragraph by paragraph, on reports, licenses (like the Kindle license), and other longish documents. Andy Powell, eFoundations, November 5, 2009 [Tags: Google] [Link] [Comment]
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Power of Educational Technology

  • Twitter List Screencast

    Mrs. Davis
    3 Nov 2009 | 9:51 am
    Recently Twitter introduced the ability to create and subscribe to lists. I've been playing around with this new feature and I think it has a lot of potential. I created this screencast to show a few of the things I've learned.In addition to my screencast, @_stevewoods wrote a great post describing Twitter lists. And, here is the direct link to the Twitter Gadget for embedding your list on a website.Please share your tips. What have you learned about lists? Do you like them? I'm still trying to figure out how to subscribe to a list in a reader. Does anyone know how to do that?P.S. This is the…

  • Article for Alumni Magazine

    Mrs. Davis
    31 Oct 2009 | 4:23 pm
    I just finished writing this article for the Belmont Hill Alumni magazine.What I've been up to for the last year and a bit..."Respecting tradition yet alive to innovation..." These words from the Belmont Hill mission statement illustrate the unique way that Belmont Hill marries technology with pedagogy. In a school where face to face relationships are primary, the faculty at Belmont Hill seek out technologies to support this mission, while remaining true to the traditions that have been at this school for decades. In my second year at Belmont Hill as the Director of Academic Technology, I…

  • 9 Common Principles for 21st Century Schools

    Mrs. Davis
    27 Sep 2009 | 2:51 pm
    I've been reading and talking about "21st Century Schools" lately and just remembered this post I wrote on a wiki a while ago. It is based on Ted Sizer's Common Principles for the Coalition of Essential Schools. I thought it was worth reviving here.What do you think? Do you agree with these? Am I missing something? Are these really "21st century" principles or principles for/from all time? Details last edit May 21, 2008 8:28 pm by lizbdavis - 10 revisions Tags none Type a tag name. Press comma or enter to add another. Cancel 9 Common Principles for21st Century Schools1. Build Community - The…

  • Letting Go...

    Mrs. Davis
    19 Sep 2009 | 5:10 am
    Change is hard. Change is painful. Change is frustrating. Change takes time. Blah Blah Blah...You have heard it all before. We humans get attached to things. We don't like to let go. In many ways this serves us well, especially when we are married with young children. At times my children are very lucky that I am so attached to them, but I digress...Teachers can get attached to certain technologies, certain email clients, certain ways of word processing. Moving from one application to another application can be a very painful process that involves a fair amount of anxiety, fear and whining.

  • The Power (and Peril) of the Retweet

    Mrs. Davis
    7 Sep 2009 | 10:56 am
    Back in the olden days (2006 ;-) when I first started using Twitter, we didn't have the Retweet. If I liked something someone said or shared on Twitter, I would pass it along with a comment like "Check out @xxx's great post" or Thanks @xxx for sharing... or I might reply @xxx great point, but I think... Now if someone posts something interesting people "retweet" it by adding the letters "RT" before the persons @username and then their original post (preserved as well as possible). Click here to learn how to Retweet.I have mixed feelings about the Retweet...POWER:On the positive side, the…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    eduStyle Blog

  • EDU Checkup: Claremont McKenna College, Tasmanian Academy, Duke University

    Nick DeNardis
    31 Oct 2009 | 10:15 am
    Another full week of episodes, three sites with completely different strategies. The first, Claremont had great intentions but when it came to executing it didn’t pan out so well. The homepage was overtaken by large graphical tabs with news and events in mixed columns. Last but not least cutting off their news titles won’t help users decide if the article looks interesting. Their site review got picked up by their online newsletter, CKC was great about responding to my comments and are on their way to solving existing issues. Tasmanian Academy took a non-traditional route to their…

  • EDU Checkup: Colorado State, Fairfield, Grove City College

    Nick DeNardis
    24 Oct 2009 | 8:11 am
    Last weekend marked the first birthday for EDU Checkup! With this exciting milestone comes a few goodies. The most important is a regular schedule and the return of the weekly wrap up on eduStyle. The others will be coming shortly. This week I reviewed three sites, Colorado State University, Fairfield University and Grove City College. Great stuff going on with all three especially in the area of design. My favorite was Colorado State, it was the most contemporary and spacing was very well defined. The use of photography really set the tone and identity for these schools, the weakest use of…

  • 5 Lessons from the eduStyle Awards

    Cody Foss
    1 Sep 2009 | 12:38 pm
    It’s been over a month now since the eduStyle Awards. I just wanted to share a few lessons we can learn from the nominees and winners. These are things that I think all higher-ed designers and web workers can take heart in. 1. Small Schools Can Rock Last year Boston University walked away with a lot of awards. Because of that, some assumed you had to be a big school to compete. Looking at this year’s list of the nominations it’s clear small schools can not only compete, they can win. You could argue that as a rule, small schools are generally better at creating great…

  • Three Design Insights from Law School Homepages

    Roger Skalbeck
    21 Aug 2009 | 9:14 am
    Below is a guest post from Roger V. Skalbeck. Roger is the Associate Law Librarian for Electronic Resources and Services at Georgetown Law Library and author of the Law School Website Design Study 2009. – During the beginning of 2009, I coordinated a project to collect and annotate screenshots of every law school homepage in the United States, as well as two in England.  This is the Law School Website Design Study 2009, which you can download or read online for free. There’s also a copy available to purchase from Lulu. All total, this collection includes information on 203 schools,…

  • Winners of the 2009 eduStyle Higher-Ed Web Awards

    Stewart Foss
    22 Jul 2009 | 1:37 pm
    The winners of the 2009 eduStyle Higher-Ed Web Awards, sponsored by finalsite, and CollegeWebEditor.com Blog Awards were announced yesterday at the eduWEB Conference in Chicago. Congratulations to all of the nominees and winners. With over 2000 nominations this year, these sites represent the best of higher-ed web design. See the full list of eduStyle Award winners. Thanks to Innogage and Jadu there is video of the event. Reactions In the coming months we’ll be posting some interviews so you can get some of the back story of what went into these amazing sites. A few of the winners have…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Hall Monitor

  • Assemblywoman to speak at Westchester Community College

    Noreen O'Donnell
    6 Nov 2009 | 3:08 pm
    Assemblywoman Amy Paulin will discuss her role in the Legislature next week at Westchester Community College. The Thursday presentation—Inside Albany: The Job of an Assemblywoman—is sponsored by the President’s Ad Hoc Committee on Women’s Educational Opportunity. The event will be at 11 a.m. in the Classroom Building, Room 200. It is free and open to the public. The [...]

  • Croton-Harmon honors alumni

    Noreen O'Donnell
    5 Nov 2009 | 3:28 pm
    Three alumni of Croton-Harmon High School were recently inducted into the school’s Hall of Distinguished Graduates. Inducted during the October 26 ceremony were: Rachel Whetten, class of 1987; Peggy Tuxen Akers, class of 1965; and Richard Albert, class of 1945. The Hall of Distinguished Graduates recognizes graduates who have made significant contributions to their professions or in [...]

  • “Meet The Principals” session in Greenburgh

    Dwight R. Worley
    4 Nov 2009 | 11:37 am
    Live in the Greenburgh school district and have a question about your local schools? You can take your inquiry right to the top at an upcoming “Meet The Principals” community meeting. On Nov. 10 at 6:30 p.m., the Parent Teacher Association is inviting residents Highview School, 200 North Central Ave., to meet and talk with the [...]

  • Ossining students study eels

    Noreen O'Donnell
    4 Nov 2009 | 10:03 am
    Two Ossining High School Seniors – Laura Hellmich and Dara Illowsky – teamed up to investigate the migratory habits of the American eel and were named semifinalists in the 2009-10 Siemens Competition in Science, Math and Technology for their study. Their research was done in collaboration with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. Ossining High School [...]

  • Middle school raises money for memorial

    Noreen O'Donnell
    3 Nov 2009 | 3:08 pm
    More than 200 students from Blue Mountain Middle School in Cortlandt Manor visited the World Trade Center site last month to present the planned memorial with $1,000 they had raised. It will go to sponsor a paver on the Memorial Plaza. The students prepared for their trip to the site by studying the Sept. 11 attacks and [...]
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Clear Admit: MBA Admissions Consultants Blog

  • Four Entrepreneurial Alumni to Work with Harvard Business School Students as Part of Residency Program

    Clear Admit
    6 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am
    As part of its Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EiR) program, Harvard Business School (HBS) invites accomplished entrepreneurs among the HBS alumni to spend a semester or full academic year on campus as counselors to current MBA students who hope to pursue careers in the entrepreneurial field. This year, four such residents have joined the HBS community, bringing a range of valuable entrepreneurial experience to the school. This year’s Entrepreneurs-in-Residence are Jeffrey Bussgang (MBA ’95), general partner at early-stage venture capital firm Flybridge Capital Partners; Susan Decker (MBA…

  • Fridays From The Frontline

    Clear Admit
    6 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Hi, and welcome to Fridays From The Frontline, Clear Admit’s weekly investigation of the lifestyles of MBA applicant and student bloggers. This week many were busy watching baseball or recuperating from their Halloween weekends, but it wasn’t all play. Some applicants had finishing touches for their applications, while others were getting good news. Students found themselves taking exams and looking toward the future, but were, on the whole, in good spirits. A Beautiful Mind arrived in Hyderabad and wrote out an approximate dialogue of his ISB interview. Steve dressed up as his…

  • USC Marshall Essay Topic Analysis 2009-2010

    Clear Admit
    5 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm
    Although this year’s essays topics and requirements are significantly different from last year’s, Marshall still demonstrates an interest in applicants’ contributions to their communities, international experiences, and personal growth.  Let’s take a look at the questions asked for USC for the 2009-2010 application season: Essay 1: What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will USC Marshall help you achieve these goals? If interested in a dual-degree program, please address in this essay. (750 words) This essay is similar to the career goals essay required by many of…

  • Cornell’s Johnson School of Management to Host 2009 Net Impact Conference

    Clear Admit
    5 Nov 2009 | 10:16 am
    More than 2,000 MBA students, sustainability practitioners, social entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders will descend upon the Johnson School of Management campus at Cornell University next week for the 2009 Net Impact Conference. Net Impact is an international nonprofit organization that seeks to encourage MBA students to use their business knowledge and training to advance social and environmental responsibility. Its annual conference, held at a different business school each year, highlights achievements and challenges in the sustainable global enterprise movement. This year’s conference,…

  • Twitter Thursdays: News from MBA Programs

    Clear Admit
    5 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am
    Welcome to November’s first edition of Twitter Thursdays, a weekly column in which we highlight the updates of the top MBA programs on Twitter!  If you’re not following Clear Admit already, be sure to check us out on Twitter for updates, special prizes, admissions tips and breaking news.  Now, as for the business schools… UCLA / Anderson’s Dean, Judy Olian, is back from a “great” trip to the University of Singapore and excited to welcome David Geffen to UCLA’s campus. Also returning from Asia, Rich Lyons, the Dean of the Haas School of Business, “tweeted” his favorite…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    always learning

  • Going Global: Culture Shock, Convergence, and the Future of Education

    Kim Cofino
    11 Oct 2009 | 5:40 am
    Cross-posted on the K12Online Conference blog I could not be more honored to be the pre-conference keynote speaker for this year’s K12 Online conference! I have been participating in this annual conference since its inception in 2006 and every year I am amazed at the quality of presentations shared by educators around the world. The opportunity to learn together over the course of the conference (and beyond) is one of the most inspiring and engaging experiences of the year for me. Of course, this year’s lineup is no different! When I was asked to keynote this year’s event, I…

  • How To Connect Your Students Globally

    Kim Cofino
    4 Oct 2009 | 4:21 am
    Cross-posted on the TechLearning Advisors Blog Two weeks after returning from the Flat Classroom Workshop in Hong Kong, I am still inspired and energized about what learning could (and should) look like. The key component for me was connecting students, both face to face and virtually, from a variety of backgrounds to work together to solve a common problem. Although we might not have the luxury of bringing together diverse groups of students every day, we certainly have the capability to connect them using technology. No matter what subject you teach, I truly believe adding a global…

  • Reflections on the Flat Classroom Workshop

    Kim Cofino
    27 Sep 2009 | 5:42 am
    Last weekend I had the honor of co-leading the Flat Classroom Workshop (pictures here) with Julie Lindsay at the 21st Century Learning Conference in Hong Kong. I have to admit that although I knew it would be amazing after everything I had heard about the Flat Classroom Conference in Doha earlier this year, I had no idea just how amazing the whole experience would turn out to be! Workshop Structure The flat classroom workshop is a 2.5-day project-based learning experience for both students and teachers. We had about 30 high-school students and 10 teachers participating face-to-face, and about…

  • Workshop ‘Till You Drop

    Kim Cofino
    13 Sep 2009 | 3:18 am
    Once again, this school year is shaping up to be my busiest yet! (Seriously, how is it even possible to be any busier?) In addition to moving into a slightly new role and continuing to teach courses for our SUNY Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy, I’m also very excited to be involved in a number of EARCOS weekend workshops around the Asia region. All of these workshops are open for registration now and we would absolutely love to have participants from schools all over the region (and beyond!). We’re just starting to promote them (with the exception of…

  • Difficult Conversations

    Kim Cofino
    6 Sep 2009 | 12:23 am
    One of the things I’m enjoying most about being on our coaching team here at ISB is the opportunity to openly share our challenges so that we can all work together to improve our practice. This week we had our first book club meeting to discuss the first chapter of Coaching: Approaches and Perspectives edited by Jim Knight. To facilitate our conversation, we followed the Final Word protocol. Each of us selected a particular section of the text which stood out during our reading, and following the protocol process, discussed what was so important about that statement in a round-robin…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Moving at the Speed of Creativity

  • Internet addiction a growing concern

    Wesley Fryer
    6 Nov 2009 | 10:04 pm
    Amanda MacMillan’s article last month for CNN Health, “Internet addiction linked to ADHD, depression in teens” highlights a troubling study from Taiwan pointing to widespread Internet addiction problems faced by adults as well as youth. This paragraph really got my attention: Our culture practically mandates time online, he (Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis of the Center for Child Health, Behavior, and Development, in Seattle) says, with Wi-Fi connections in coffee shops and BlackBerries and iPhones that allow Internet access almost anywhere. “It would be as if we mandated…

  • A proposed student social media protest campaign for NYSCATE

    Wesley Fryer
    6 Nov 2009 | 9:46 pm
    Sylvia Martinez is spot on in her post today, “Students are not the enemy.” Shame on the vendor and vendor representative, Sophos and Chris Ridgway, for sharing an upcoming session at NYSCATE (The New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education) conference titled, “The Enemy Within: Stop Students from Bypassing Your Web Filters.” Sylvia points out correctly that our students are NOT the enemy. Any professional who makes this claim should be reprimanded and corrected. Sadly, the title of this session makes visible the attitude of some school…

  • A perfect soup dumpling ending to our China adventure

    Wesley Fryer
    6 Nov 2009 | 8:05 am
    Wednesday night Shelly and I joined friends in Shanghai for a culminating dining experience at Din Tai Feng. If you ever have an opportunity to eat at one of their restaurants in China or elsewhere, don’t miss their soup dumplings. They are AMAZING! (Full panorama: 2758 x 870) (Full panorama: 3770 x 970) These iPhone panoramic photos were created using the $3 app Pano. I’ve shared seven panoramic photos from Shanghai and sixteen panoramic photos from Hangzhou in my Flickr collection, 21C Learning @ Hongzhou, China. My favorite is this one of the Chenghuang Miao area at night, in…

  • Podcast333: Reflections on Social Media, School Change, 21st Century Learning Skills, and China

    Wesley Fryer
    5 Nov 2009 | 12:15 pm
    This podcast is a reflection I recorded on a flight back to the United States from the October / November 2009  21st Century Learning Conference in Hongzhou, China. There are some issues about which I am reticent to blog, given their poliltical sensitivity in China, but want to share and reflect upon because of the importance they have for a variety of reasons. In this podcast I reflect about social media, the similarities faced by Chinese as well as U.S. educational leaders seeking to integrate digital technologies and 21st century skills into formal school settings, and the opportunities…

  • Creativity and Innovation in Chinese Society and Schools

    Wesley Fryer
    3 Nov 2009 | 3:54 pm
    Yesterday our international group (composed of educators from the UK, Australia, and the US) had the opportunity to visit both Hangzhou Normal University as well as Zhejiang University here in Hangzhou, China, just outside of Shanghai. (full panorama: 4154 x 976) Hangzhou currently has a population of about 13 million people, Shanghai has a population of about 26 million. In Oklahoma, were I live, our state population is about 3.5 million. Zhejiang is one of five major universities here in Hangzhou, and has 39,000 students. We visited two of their campuses. In this photograph, the translator…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Thinking Stick

  • EARCOS Admin Tech Cohort – Reflection

    Jeff Utecht
    5 Nov 2009 | 8:00 pm
    50+ Administrators talking about skllls needed in the new workplace Back at work and reflecting on the tech cohort that I tried to run at the EARCOS Admin Conference. I talked about it here and what my hopes were for the group. It’s the first time I’ve tried to embedd a cohort in a traditional conference model and to be honest I had very limited success. We met as a cohort during the first session. I was excited to meet the 33 admin who had signed up ahead of time to be apart of the project. During the first session we had 50+ people in the room. I was really excited as people…

  • What Do You Want Students To Do?

    Jeff Utecht
    3 Nov 2009 | 12:23 am
    Yesterday in our cohort reflecting session at the EARCOS Admin Conference we talked a lot about 1:1 programs. Everyone trying to figure out what works, what doesn’t, where to start, and the questions go on and on. I do think we can learn from each other as schools continue to strive to use technology at a true learning tool in the classroom. But, I do think we need to remember that especially in the international world….every school is different and every school will have to “Just Do It” at some point. There are some questions that I think schools can be asking as they…

  • ISB Round Up: Google Earth, YouTube, and Blogs

    Jeff Utecht
    27 Oct 2009 | 9:10 am
    There are so many great things happening at our school right now that I find I don’t have time to blog about one before I’m deep into another project with another teacher. All that I know is we’re having some fun! Let’s start in Mr. Jessee’s room where I wanted to share a great Google Earth project that the third grade team has been working on for the past month or so. I talked about this in an earlier post so won’t go into all the back ground here. But you can visit Mr. Jessee’s class blog and download Google Earth tours. This time the students…

  • Changing Conference Models

    Jeff Utecht
    27 Oct 2009 | 6:05 am
    In a weeks time I’ll be in Manila, Philippines to attend the EARCSO Administrators Conference. This will be the third year I’ve presented at the conference…guess it a good thing they invite me back every year. This year though I’m trying something different. With the permission of the head of EARCOS. I asked if I could set up a cohort of administrators who might want to go deep in learning about leadership in a digital world. Of course I didn’t even know at the time if any administrators in the region would want to do such a thing. Imagine being stuck learning…

  • Leo Laporte on New Media

    Jeff Utecht
    20 Oct 2009 | 10:51 pm
    Just finished watching this at Smarterware.org and thought I’d share here. The question at the end that is asked of Leo on what should companies be looking for, experience or skill I thought was an interesting one. If you are into new media and the changing landscape have a watch. Share this on del.icio.usDigg this!Post this on DiigoStumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUponShare this on TechnoratiPost this to MySpaceShare this on FacebookTweet This!Subscribe to the comments for this post?Share this on LinkedinShare this on FriendFeedAdd this to Google Bookmarks
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Open Classroom

  • Great collaborative podcast

    Jo McLeay
    26 Oct 2009 | 2:57 am
    Loving listening to the Spark podcast out of Canada. It is hosted by the mellifluous Nora Young, and she makes it engaging and inclusive. The website describes it as a "blog, radio show, podcast and an ongoing conversation about technology and culture. Spark is an online collaboration." She invites listeners to "leave your thoughts, stories, and ideas here, and together we'll make a radio show." I first heard about it on another podcast (I think it was the Edtech Posse) and after I gave it a listen I was hooked. Through this podcast I have learned about all sorts of things like spin…

  • I love my new job

    Jo McLeay
    25 Oct 2009 | 2:20 am
    There is a lot of pleasure to be had in my new job as Professional Learning Officer for VITTA. I have been there for a bit over 2 months now and it's really been a steep learning curve for me. The job has a lot of variety: writing a course for a new 13 week Certificate in Emerging Technologies to be offered next year (more details when they are available), editing Infonet, the quarterly Journal of VITTA, planning teacher professional development that we will be offering for teachers next year, preparing for the amazing 3 day conference we will be holding in November, and even giving the odd…

  • ICT and Careers Expo Experiences

    Jo McLeay
    4 Aug 2009 | 1:13 am
    On Saturday I went to the ICT and Careers Expo put on by VITTA, “an event designed to present diverse career opportunities in ICT to school leavers.” As usual at this type of event there were many exhibitors and workshops to help students make up their minds about future careers and showing them how ICT is involved in many careers. There were two sessions that I would like to highlight here as I learnt much from them and enjoyed them also.One of the sessions, and there were many to choose from in each time slot, was called “Want to make a difference? Find out how using Twitter and…

  • Life Changes

    Jo McLeay
    1 Aug 2009 | 10:48 pm
    For the last few months I have had some significant changes in my life. At the start of 2009 I started my new job at a new school and within a few days of starting my 17 year old son had a severe head injury which resulted in a brain operation, a stay in Intensive Care at Monash Hospital (a great place to end up if you are in the position of needing Intensive Care) and some time in the ordinary ward, as well as starting Year 12 a month after school started. It was stressful for the whole family, as he couldn’t be left on his own for the first two weeks at home. After a term and a half of…

  • Interview with Jenny Luca

    Jo McLeay
    7 Apr 2009 | 12:54 am
    Visit Working together 2 make a differenceI have just been listening to Jenny Luca being interviewed on the Wicked Decent Learning podcast. It is a very inspiring listen. Among other things Jenny explained about the ning she has set up to "detail the efforts of educators and their students who are doing their bit to think outside of themselves and raise funds for worthy causes. We encourage you to join this space, create a new page for your school and start detailing what you and your students are aiming to do to help others less fortunate than yourselves. Chart your progress on your page and…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Alfred Thompson

  • Pre-Collegiate Faculty Connection Redesign

    Alfred Thompson
    6 Nov 2009 | 10:57 am
    Back a year or so ago Microsoft opened the Pre-collegiate faculty connection web portal to share resources for computer science, computer programming, web development and other related teaching areas. It’s been a pretty successful site with tens of thousands of teachers visiting it for news and resources. This week it was time for a site refresh. The new site is now up and I think it looks pretty good. Of course I like blue themes. :-) More importantly the site navigation is (I think and hope you agree) cleaner and clearer. We’ve also added some colleague connections – links to other…

  • But I Don’t Want to be a Programmer

    Alfred Thompson
    5 Nov 2009 | 12:55 pm
    One of the things I hear pretty regularly is that not everyone needs (or wants) to be a programmer. Some people want or perhaps even need to do some programming or more generally programming like activities but they don’t want to be full time programmers or computer scientists. These people can be a lot more effective and productive if they at least learn the basics at a fairly good level. Mark Guzdial talks about some of this on a recent post called Talk on Meeting Everyone’s Needs for Computing The “bigger” problem is the number of people who program and who want to learn more…

  • Sequencing

    Alfred Thompson
    3 Nov 2009 | 2:26 am
    Imagine you had a pickup truck that you used for work. One day the person in charge of company vehicles says to you “we’re going to replace your pickup truck with a Prius. We’ll be saving money on gas. Isn’t that great?” You of course reply with something like “But I need the room in the back of a pickup truck to carry things.” And they reply “well you’ll find a way to work it out.” Can you see that happening? Does it sound like a good idea? Of course not. One lays out the needs and starts from what meets the needs and then works in other factors. A Prius is a great car…

  • Interesting Links Post November 2 2009

    Alfred Thompson
    2 Nov 2009 | 2:02 am
    One interesting thing that happened to me this past week was that Twitter enabled the list function for my Twitter account (@AlfredTwo) Lists are a way to create lists or groups of the people you follow on Twitter. One can open up your lists ( or public lists created by others) and see the recent tweets by the people on the list. I’ve created a couple of lists of my own and I’ve been added to some lists created by others. Some of the list people are creating look pretty useful. For example, Doug Peterson (@dougpete) has created a list of educators from Ontario. I’m looking forward to…

  • Loneliness of a Department of One

    Alfred Thompson
    29 Oct 2009 | 1:12 pm
    I read the blog post by Daniel Moix on the CSTA blog today (My Voice) with interest and a mix of emotions. His is a story I have heard before. The computer science teacher who is a department of one or merged into a department (sometimes science, sometimes math) where they just don’t really fit. Much as we talk about computer science being a course that could (should?) count for a math or science credit the fact is that few schools believe it fits either department. It’s a tough situation to be in but it is the norm for high school computer science teachers. What does it mean? It means no…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Edspresso

  • Daily Headlines for November 5, 2009

    Daily News
    5 Nov 2009 | 11:12 am
    NATIONAL Obama Administration Must Embrace Real Education Reform, Not Just RhetoricReuters, November 4, 2009As admirable as the Obama administration’s policy on charters may appear to be, the President and his Education Secretary are, too often, giving states credit for talking about charter schools rather than actually changing laws to improve the likelihood that children will have real school choice. Election Offers Varied Impact for Education Education Week, MD, November 4, 2009The results from yesterday’s state and local elections around the country offer some potentially…

  • We can get you that number

    edspresso
    5 Nov 2009 | 8:44 am
    Q: And how many charter schools are there in the country about? SECRETARY DUNCAN: I don’t have a hard number for you. We can get you that number. Q: Thousands? SECRETARY DUNCAN: Yes, thousands, thousands. Yes. (Press gaggle aboard Air Force One en route to Madison, WI - 11/4) 4,578. That’s the answer you were looking for aboard Air Force One yesterday, Mr. Secretary. We’ve counted it, reported it, documented it. Sorry it wasn’t at your fingertips. 4,578 charter schools. Thanks for supporting good charters. We actually support great charter schools, and we know that…

  • Daily News Clips for November 4, 2009

    Daily News
    4 Nov 2009 | 7:35 am
    NATIONAL Obama Coaxes States to Change With School DollarsAssociated Press, November 4, 20009One year after his election, President Barack Obama is coaxing states across the country to rewrite education laws and cut deals with unions as they pursue his vision for school reform. Obama is visiting Wisconsin, where lawmakers are poised to change a law to boost their state’s chances at $5 billion in education grants, the most money a president has ever had for overhauling schools. No Child Left Behind Wall Street Journal, November 4, 2009Opponents of school choice are running out of excuses…

  • The Paper Tiger Exposed

    coolreformchick
    4 Nov 2009 | 5:17 am
    It was Mao Zedong who once said that “all reactionaries are paper tigers.”  He thought that of the US, and told a journalist in 1956 that: “In appearance it is very powerful but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain.” Mao’s definition actually doesn’t fit the US, but it does fit well the reality of the teachers unions here, particularly when you consider what just happened in the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia. The New Jersey…

  • Daily Press Clips for November 3, 2009

    Daily News
    3 Nov 2009 | 8:46 am
    NATIONAL Conflict of Interest Arises as Concern in Standards PushEducation Week, MD, November 2, 2009A respected literacy-research organization is asking that a process be put in place to make more transparent potential conflicts of interest that writers of the common national academic standards might have, and to address them. Faith Schools Could Prove Virtuous For Black StudentsDetroit News, MI, November 3, 2009Americans cannot afford, financially or morally, to trap black males in criminal cultivators masquerading as schools. Even though charter schools, vouchers and tax-credit programs…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Technology for Learning

  • What kind of digital citizen are you?

    rdrunner
    27 Oct 2009 | 7:46 pm
    photo credit: quinn.anya Some time ago I read a post helping teachers determine what they should and should not post on their classroom websites. It was a very positive list from Mrs. Smoke who posts often with helpful hints. But when Alec Couros had a bad experience with someone favouriting his daughter’s photos on flickr, I [...]

  • GLEU2C?

    rdrunner
    26 Oct 2009 | 10:27 pm
    I had the chance to help a friend get her blog started. What a privilege. And now her blog already has a rich entry, where she explores the excitement of the language we are creating in our online world. She even invented a new word – GLEU2C (glu-tic). Check out her blog – Make a Difference [...]

  • Digital Footprints in the Sands of Time

    rdrunner
    6 Oct 2009 | 8:36 pm
    Footprints in the sand Originally uploaded by Welshdan Jesse Bradley, in his recent post about the invisible audience, touched on the trail of his person that was collecting in cyberspace. He wondered what his children would come to know about him through his digital footprint online. Gottsela touched on similar issues as she explored what should be posted [...]

  • The Social Web? Immerse, Model and Invite!

    rdrunner
    21 May 2009 | 9:14 pm
    I had the good fortune recently to keynote a technical symposium – about 70 IT professionals engaged in supporting technology in K-12 schools. I spoke about the social web and our need as IT professionals to understand the social web and its role in our schools. The call to action is to immerse yourself in order [...]

  • 4 Steps to Personalized Professional Development

    rdrunner
    12 Apr 2009 | 11:17 am
    photo credit: courosa Donna DesRoches recently tweeted about it, Matt Townsley blogged about it, Dr. Alec Couros is passionate about it. Learning for teachers that is open, connected, personal. As 21st century educators we are committed to personalizing learning for our students, so why not for ourselves? Authentic learning is as critical for the adults, yet [...]
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklatsch

  • "Can you hear me now?"

    Kathy Schrock
    11 Oct 2009 | 4:08 am
    I am still trying to figure out how best to send information to support my Personal Learning Network. There are 57 people subscribed via RSS to this blog (although that is no real indication of how many others are reading it). On the other hand, I have almost 5000 people following me on Twitter. Even if only 10% of my followers use Twitter on a regular basis, it means that my Twitter posts are getting out to almost 10 times the number of educators than the blog posts.Can Twitter, the micro-blogging tool, replace blogging? I don't think so. Since it is hard to say much in the 140 characters…

  • Wacom Bamboo Touch Tablet Review

    Kathy Schrock
    20 Sep 2009 | 11:27 am
    Based on a post last Thursday by a user who was able to find the new Wacom Bamboo Touch Tablet (Model: CTT-460) at his local Best Buy, I took a chance and visited my local store. There was no sign of it with the other Wacom tablets, but I asked a friendly salesperson who looked it up on the computer, and said they seemed to have one in stock. He went to the storeroom, but came out and said it was on the "new items" end-cap, which, in my store, was kind of out of the way. In any case, the one was there, and I scored! (I guess I might have given him the only hug he will get all day!) It is not…

  • Results from Twitter goals survey

    Kathy Schrock
    24 Aug 2009 | 6:26 pm
    I am preparing an introductory Twitter presentation and am using information from a blog post by Charlene Kingston dealing with setting goals for your own use of Twitter.I asked my Twitter PLN to answer a short survey on this topic. I sent the tweet out to my 4625 followers, and some of my followers re-tweeted the request to 4019 of their followers (who may or may not overlap with my followers.) I received 196 responses, many in the first few hours of posting the request on Twitter.The yes/no questions were as follows:I am a K-16 educator or pre-service educator.I use Twitter to talk to…

  • Wordle

    Kathy Schrock
    13 Aug 2009 | 3:19 am
    Blog URL: http://kathyschrock.net/blog/ I decided to run a Wordle query on this blog to get a sense for what I am really writing about. If you have never tried Wordle, the site defines Wordle as "a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text."I feel it is much more than a toy. Imagine students running Wordle queries on blogs they follow to see the author's most written about topics? Or creating a Wordle from the text in their own essay to see what topics they cover in depth?Tom…

  • File Magic review

    Kathy Schrock
    28 Jul 2009 | 6:08 pm
    Okay...this is pretty cool. Using Splash Data's File Magic desktop and iPhone app, I am typing this blog post in the email component of the File Magic desktop app. Once I am done, since I have no data connection from my laptop, I simply hit "send" and the email moves over to the open File Magic app on the iPhone, and then I can simply use the iPhone's cellular data connection to send this post! (Now, I know I could have typed this message directly on the iPhone, but it is quite long, and it is easier to use the full-size keyboard for this purpose!)However, that email component is secondary to…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Inside Higher Ed

  • More useful than fact

    6 Nov 2009 | 11:12 am
    G. Rendell

  • Senate Approves Spending Bill for Science Programs

    6 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a 2010 spending bill for many federal science programs that would provide $6.9 billion for the National Science Foundation, including $5.55 billion for research, $122 million for research equipment and facilities; and $857 million for the agency's education programs. In passing the bill, the Senate rejected an amendment that would have eliminated funding for the NSF's political science program -- though the amendment garnered 36 votes.

  • In Search of the Big Idea

    6 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    In a day of soul searching at TIAA-CREF's higher ed conference, college leaders wrestle with what lies ahead. A mix of optimism and fear ensues.

  • A Call for Copyright Rebellion

    6 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Lawrence Lessig asks why academe accepts rules that limit the spread of scholarship.

  • The Clock is Ticking

    6 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    It's only a matter of time before the Obama administration, like its predecessor, focuses intently on higher education accountability. College leaders shouldn't wait, writes David C. Paris.
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    PrincipalsPage The Blog

  • Sick Day. Work Day. Sick Day.

    Michael Smith
    6 Nov 2009 | 6:30 pm
    My Evil Spawn missed 3 days of school this week. Much to our surprise she wasn’t suspended.  Just sick.  Maybe the suspension will come later.  Or maybe she will just be incredibly sneaky and not get caught.  Either way, any chance of her having perfect attendance is gone. Someone will undoubtedly email me to let me know that I’m way too negative when I blog about my Evil Spawn/daughter (odds are the email will be long, angry, hate-filled, use abusive language, and question my ability to parent… and it’s 50/50 that it will be from her mother). I’m not…

  • Student Teaching: “You’ll Be Fine, I’ll Be in the Lounge.”

    Michael Smith
    4 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm
    I’ve almost hit the mid-point of my career in education.  At least I hope it’s the mid-point. It could be nearing the end, but time will tell (as always, if you hear anything let me know… resumes don’t update themselves). A few days ago it occurred to me it’s been over 15 years since I student taught. To a young person that probably seems like forever. But not to me.  It seems like it was only yesterday.  Then I look in the mirror and realize it wasn’t. My path towards teaching wasn’t a straight one.  I had a couple of careers (i.e. jobs) before I stumbled…

  • Germ-X Generation.

    Michael Smith
    31 Oct 2009 | 7:30 am
    The world works in a very specific way.  There’s a definite plan in how things should go. If certain things don’t happen, it is very likely the Earth will spin off its axis and slam right into a 1998 Ford Focus. And none of us want that (especially if the Focus isn’t insured). Dogs are supposed to bark at cats.  The Chicago Cubs are supposed to disappoint their fans each summer.  Gas prices are supposed to rise for no apparent reason 4 days before a holiday. And most importantly, junior high boys, without exception, are supposed to push each other for no other reason than…

  • Time Flies When You’re Having Fun. Or at School.

    Michael Smith
    30 Oct 2009 | 2:00 pm
    The school year is 25% over.  This is the only way to look at it. Saying we still have 75% of the school year left sounds… well, sounds like we still have three-quarters of the year left. Call me crazy, but for my own mental well-being I’m sticking with the idea that we are a quarter of the way done. As an added bonus, I should point out the year is flying by at an unprecedented quick pace. Although, I’m not sure why I’m excited because there will be another school year starting 3 months after this one ends (if all goes well… and I get a good evaluation. If you hear anything to…

  • Social Media vs. School Administrators.

    Michael Smith
    27 Oct 2009 | 12:26 pm
    As I travel across this great country (yes, one trip to Miami counts as traveling), I get asked two questions. The first being “Can you work me into one of your blog posts?”  Let me think. No. That was kind of harsh. Please let me apologize. I really should take some time to reconsider. On second thought.  No.  The only chance of getting mentioned is if your name is Buddy the Dog. He gets special treatment because he gets over the top excited, runs in circles, and whines ever so slightly when I return home from work.  Or when I come in from the garage.  Or from…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Eschool News: Safety & Security

  • Teens sue district in suggestive pix flap

    2 Nov 2009 | 8:10 am
    Two sophomore girls have sued their school district after they were punished for posting sexually suggestive photos on MySpace during their summer vacation. Key words: internet safety, online safety, MySpace safety, MySpace school, sexting, educational techology

  • Schools step up web-safety instruction

    13 Oct 2009 | 9:10 am
    As part of a new federal mandate that requires schools to teach internet safety to obtain e-Rate funding, schools are reaching out to internet safety awareness groups to establish programs that will educate both teachers and students about secure and proper online behavior. Key words: educational technology, Web Wise Kids, e-Rate, internet safety, internet safety education

  • Educators share H1N1 preparedness plans

    8 Oct 2009 | 9:10 am
    As H1N1 virus-related illnesses continue to increase, schools are hoping to keep students healthy and avoid closures--but many already have plans in place to sustain learning and keep students on track if prolonged absences or school closures become a reality. Key words: H1N1 virus, school flu, flu virus, educational technology

  • Computer virus steals $325K from district

    1 Oct 2009 | 9:10 am
    The FBI is investigating what it is calling an online computer intrusion that siphoned several hundred thousands of dollars from at least one Chicago area school district's bank accounts, prompting the school district to beef up its IT network security. Key words: computer virus, Clampi, educational technology, Crystal Lake School District, IT network security

  • Govt. calls distracted driving an 'epidemic'

    1 Oct 2009 | 9:10 am
    Driving while distracted is a growing peril in a nation reluctant to put down its cell phones and handheld devices even behind the wheel, the Obama administration declared on Sept. 30 -- and young people (drivers age 20 or younger) are said to be the biggest culprits. Key words: texting while driving, Ray Lahood, education technology, cell phone texting, distracted driving
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Eschool News: Technologies

  • eSN Special Report: Beyond virtual schools

    1 Nov 2009 | 8:08 am
    A child sits at home in front of his computer screen, working through a virtual-school lesson by mindlessly clicking through the multiple choices, never talking to a teacher or a fellow student or even glimpsing the great outdoors and interacting with the real world.

  • Teaching students with autism

    1 Nov 2009 | 8:08 am
    As autism diagnoses continue to rise, an alarming new statistic indicates that autism is now diagnosed in one out of every 91 children, instead of one out of every 150 children as previously thought.

  • Nanotechnology program targets schools

    29 Oct 2009 | 9:08 am
    The nanotechnology industry will employ an estimated 2 million people worldwide by 2015, and with President Obama calling on colleges to ready students for the field, an Illinois-based company has introduced a program designed to teach the complex subject to undergraduates. Key words: nanotechnologies, education technology, school technology, atomic microscope, NanoProfessor

  • How to be a leader with assistive technology

    27 Oct 2009 | 9:08 am
    Finding the right assistive technology (AT) to help students with special needs can be a daunting task -- but two leading AT trainers say the simplest tools often are best. Key words: assistive technology, education technology, special needs students, teaching tools

  • Clean Tech: Schools bet on the next big thing

    27 Oct 2009 | 9:08 am
    A new concept is gaining traction in the business world. It's called "clean tech"--alternative energy, more efficient power distribution, and new ways to store electricity, all with a reduced environmental impact. Now, schools and colleges are accelerating the trend by creating clean-tech programs that give students real-world training and expanded job possibilities. Key words: clean tech, cleantech, green computing, green energy, green technology, green design, educational technology
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Eschool News: Top News

  • Study: 2 in 5 teachers 'disheartened' with profession

    2 Nov 2009 | 8:08 am
    Recognizing the importance of teacher quality in transforming underperforming schools, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has made retaining and rewarding effective teachers a cornerstone of his school reform agenda. But a recent report that suggests 40 percent of U.S. teachers are disheartened with their profession indicates how difficult these challenges will be. Key words: effective teaching, teacher survey, school improvement, teachers salary, education technology, public agenda, learning point associates

  • Teens sue district in suggestive pix flap

    2 Nov 2009 | 8:08 am
    Two sophomore girls have sued their school district after they were punished for posting sexually suggestive photos on MySpace during their summer vacation. Key words: internet safety, online safety, MySpace safety, MySpace school, sexting, educational techology

  • Parents: Focus more on 21st-century skills

    30 Oct 2009 | 9:08 am
    Although parents, K-12 students, and educators agree that using technology is essential to learning and student success, parents are largely dissatisfied with the technology skills their children are learning in schools, according to a new analysis of survey data released Oct. 29 by the nonprofit Project Tomorrow and Blackboard Inc. Key words: Speak Up Survey, educational technology, 21st century skills, Project Tomorrow, Blackboard Inc., global competitiveness, school technology

  • Colleges axing student eMail accounts

    30 Oct 2009 | 9:08 am
    Some campuses are doing away with school-issued eMail addresses as students increasingly enter college with a personal eMail account, according to a nationwide survey by education-technology group EDUCAUSE. The survey also showed that more colleges and universities are offering 24-7 help-desk support for students and staff, and the vast majority employ some kind of bandwidth-shaping practices to manage traffic on their networks. Key words: Educause, education technology, school technology, eMail services, commercial eMail, computer help desk

  • Court: Public-records law covers 'metadata'

    30 Oct 2009 | 9:08 am
    Hidden data embedded in electronic public records must be disclosed under Arizona's public-records law, the state Supreme Court ruled Oct. 29 in a case that could have implications for public schools and colleges across the United States. Key words: public records, electronic data, state law, supreme court ruling, education technology, Arizona
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Graham Wegner - Open Educator

  • How To Get Students From Arguing To Debating

    Graham
    2 Nov 2009 | 3:42 am
    In English, I’ve been trying to weave the skills of debating into my classroom. It has been something that the majority have found quite difficult, with many mistaking the ability to argue in a contrary fashion for insightful and clever debate. Their confidence in combining oratory skills and a considered point of view has led me to go back several steps and try and nut out a better way to scaffold their way towards a successful in-class debate. I tried to use engaging topics to draw out their enthusiasm (Sport is more important than Science) but a lot found it hard to get beyond their…

  • Sharing … Eels

    Graham
    28 Oct 2009 | 4:17 am
    It would be no surprise to regular readers of this blog to find out that I’ve been struggling for motivation to write reflectively here of late. I seem to be surprisingly resentful of those colleagues who seem to find the time to vege out in front of the television, read a favourite book or other non-digital and non-education related pastimes. Don’t worry, I’m sure it will pass. So, instead of drafting insightful missives or spreading the comment love, I’ve been delving into online music. I’ve been listening and viewing clips from artists who I’ve had a…

  • Sharing … Blue King Brown

    Graham
    20 Oct 2009 | 5:12 am
    This song is a couple of years old but I’ve rediscovered it via Triple J’s Hottest 100 list and YouTube. Together with Aussie hiphop crew, The Herd, it is good to see good political music didn’t die when Peter Garrett became a Labor MP. Blue King Brown … awesome.

  • A Few Probing Questions

    Graham
    20 Oct 2009 | 4:36 am
    Ann, my principal, sent out an SOS email tonight in preparation for a presentation she has to give at a regional meeting. The questions she sent were good reflective ones so what better place to actually answer them than here. Any feedback always appreciated: 1. In what ways are you gaining as a professional by the way you work with others at LNPS ? 2. What are the skills and qualities you have appreciated in those who have supported you? You may give examples if that helps. The co-planning teams that we work in to design our inquiry units have really helped me to improve the quality of the…

  • Simple But Powerful

    Graham
    18 Oct 2009 | 4:14 am
    I was chatting with a colleague the other day about the most effective way to create a list of online Mathematics resources for our school. We were both thinking of delicious as we have a significant number of teachers with accounts. The idea was to use a group of teachers as the “curators” of these resources and tie them all together in some way. Initially, my colleague figured starting a new delicious account perhaps under the name lnpsmaths might be the best approach. But the problem was sharing the logon and password with the others participating in the initiative – and…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Terence Online

  • Google Wave First Impressions

    6 Nov 2009 | 12:19 pm
    I've been using Google Wave for a couple weeks now and can see how the Wave could be a home run like google's email system, GMAIL or a "swing and a miss" like Google's social network, Orkut. I say Orkut is a swing and a miss, because it's not a strike out. There's still a lot more pitches to hit. A swing and a miss is not necessarily about the idea but about the adoption and whether people will

  • The Social Media Revolution and the Tower

    2 Oct 2009 | 10:10 am
    This short video is worth 5 minutes of your time. It accurately captures the revolution that is social media. The desire to connect, to know, and to be known seems hardwired into our DNA as humans. Social media facilitates those connections. Does anyone else see an eerie similarity between the social media revolution and the Tower of Babel revolution, which took place thousands of years ago?

  • Google's World Changing Project -- You can vote!

    30 Sep 2009 | 6:04 am
    Google started a project last year in which they gathered ideas from all over the world on how to best change the world for the better and now people are voting on them. What idea from the list do you find most promising? Which ones should Google make happen? You tell them. Your vote for one of these ideas will help their advisory board choose up to 5 projects to fund, at which point they'll

  • A few of my distance learning principles for success

    17 Sep 2009 | 7:09 am
    First, you have to have a passion for learning new things. You can't ever be satisfied with the status quo, especially since we live in the "Information Age." My action steps for this principle are to start subscribing to prominent bloggers in your field today. And if you want to be looked upon as an expert in your field, start contributing to the conversations in your field by starting a blog

  • The World is Open

    27 Aug 2009 | 6:27 am
    News: 'The World Is Open' - Inside Higher EdTechnology is changing higher education in more ways than can be counted. Distance education has become common. Leading universities are putting course materials or even entire courses online -- free. The Obama plan for community colleges envisions free online courses that could be used nationwide. Curtis J. Bonk, a professor of instructional systems
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    BBC News: UK Education

  • Special treatment

    6 Nov 2009 | 5:14 pm
    Mike Baker on the row over widening university access

  • Council's family spying 'minimal'

    6 Nov 2009 | 10:27 am
    A council says it "minimally" invaded the privacy of a family it spied on to discover whether they lived in the catchment area of a school, a tribunal is told.

  • University fee review date set

    6 Nov 2009 | 9:18 am
    The terms of a planned review into fees paid by England's university students will be announced on Monday.

  • Academy sponsor told to up game

    6 Nov 2009 | 5:35 am
    Ministers have told England's largest sponsor of Academies it cannot take on any more schools until standards improve.

  • Forces children face 'time bomb'

    6 Nov 2009 | 5:01 am
    The UK is sitting on a ticking time bomb of problem for children whose parents have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Weblogg-ed

  • Teachers as Learners (Part 32)

    Will Richardson
    4 Nov 2009 | 3:06 am
    Recently at the beginning of a day long workshop, I used a Google form to get feedback on this question: If there was one part of your personal learning practice that you wanted to focus on today, what would it be? What questions would you seek to answer? Now I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not a perfect question in terms of trying to get some sense of the personal learning lives from the teachers who were participating. But in the context of a discussion we’d been having about the passion-based learning opportunities that the Web now affords, I was hoping to learn what…

  • Teaching, Testing and Counseling

    Will Richardson
    23 Oct 2009 | 2:58 pm
    It’s no secret that many of us who had high hopes that the Obama administration would start a meaningful conversation on re-envisioning education are feeling sorely disappointed these days. All of the hoopla over “The Race to the Top” as a catalyst of real “reform” is getting a bit much to take, and to be honest, I’m surprised that more educators aren’t voicing their displeasure at the idea of being paid based on the scores their students make on standardized tests (among other things.) But I have to tell you, David Brooks’ column in the Times…

  • On Common Standards

    Will Richardson
    16 Oct 2009 | 5:18 am
    So without bemoaning in the fact that I haven’t been able to find any time of late to get to this space to do some reading and thinking and synthesizing and extended writing and that I feel like a truly important part of my life is being slowly and painfully left behind and that there is a post that I really need to write about that at some point sooner rather than later… Tom Hoffman has been bugging many of us to blog about the English Language Arts Standards that are being written by Core Standards group as an attempt to provide some national standardization for ELA (and…

  • Don’t, Don’t, Don’t vs. Do, Do, Do

    Will Richardson
    20 Sep 2009 | 6:11 am
    Recently, I presented at a school on an opening day for teachers where the first thing that greeted everyone on the table in the lobby was an 8-page Acceptable Use Policy which staff members were picking up as they filed into the school. I picked one up too, and when I had a moment I started paging through it, looking at all the ways in which students (and teachers) could get themselves in trouble on the school network. The middle three pages were filled with an A-Y double spaced list (guess they were saving room for one more rule next year) which spelled out the many transgressions that were…

  • The Obama Speech

    Will Richardson
    5 Sep 2009 | 5:04 am
    In the midst of all of the “uproar” over the President’s planned speech to school kids on Tuesday, I keep thinking about what all of this says about schools, about what they are for, and about the perception that a lot of people in this country have of them. It would seem to me that there should be no better place for my children to watch that speech (or any other, for that matter) than in a place where ideas are encouraged, where critical thinking about those ideas is a natural part of the conversation, and where appropriate response and debate can flourish. Where the…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Education Futures

  • Jean Piaget on creativity and innovation in education

    John Moravec
    6 Nov 2009 | 2:45 pm
    Piaget: “We can classify education into two main categories: passive education relying primarily on memory, and active education relying on intelligent understanding and discovery. Our real problem is what is the goal of education? Are we forming children who are only capable of learning what is already known? Or should we try to develop creative and innovative minds capable of discovery from the preschool age on through life?”

  • Wanted: 30 Knowmads

    John Moravec
    3 Nov 2009 | 3:07 pm
    Remember Knowmads in Society 3.0? Something amazing is brewing in Europe. And, they’re looking for thirty candidates from around the world. Knowmads is a new school for the world of tomorrow, starting in January 2010 in The Netherlands. After two years of learning with and from KaosPilots (International School for New Business Design and Social Innovation) in Rotterdam, a couple of entrepreneurs will join together in Knowmads-land. KaosPilots Netherlands transformed and the body of thought is very much alive! Their purpose is to create a life-long learning community that starts with a…

  • November agenda: Boundless conversations

    John Moravec
    30 Oct 2009 | 3:13 pm
    The month of November promises to be a remarkable series of boundless conversations on the intersections of creativity, technology and innovation in education. First and foremost, I owe many thanks to Fons van der Berg for organizing Education Futures NL at the Creative Learning Lab in Amsterdam, November 2. The event will feature talks by me and Cristóbal Cobo, with additional activities facilitated by Fons. The Knowmads will also pay us a visit. Central to our conversations is the question: How shall we create new educational contexts that are relevant to Society 3.0? I will then travel to…

  • Friedman: U.S. education system endangering global competitiveness

    John Moravec
    21 Oct 2009 | 7:41 am
    New York times columnist Tom Friedman speaks out: A Washington lawyer friend recently told me about layoffs at his firm. I asked him who was getting axed. He said it was interesting: lawyers who were used to just showing up and having work handed to them were the first to go because with the bursting of the credit bubble, that flow of work just isn’t there. But those who have the ability to imagine new services, new opportunities and new ways to recruit work were being retained. They are the new untouchables. That is the key to understanding our full education challenge today. Those who are…

  • Kurzweil’s Transcendent Man

    John Moravec
    15 Oct 2009 | 7:24 am
    We haven’t had an opportunity to screen Ray Kurzweil’s the film, Transcendent Man, yet, but The Futurist magazine published a preview: Scene: A movie theater on the west side of Manhattan during the Tribeca Film Festival. The audience teems with hip New York film students eager to see the world premiere of a new documentary. They’re joined, unexpectedly, by computer scientists, geneticists, and futurists from Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong. The lights dim. After a brief opening, inventor Ray Kurzweil appears on the screen, looks squarely into the camera, and says,…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    dy/dan

  • No-Drop Zones

    Dan Meyer
    31 Oct 2009 | 9:44 am
    From the #iPhone-game-as-metaphor-for-curriculum-design hashtag, we have Geared, which I purchased because I'm almost completely obsessed with little spinny things, a purchase which I almost immediately regretted. Two reasons: The early levels are ridiculously easy. Not a serious problem in and of itself. The same is true of Flight Plan, which you'll recall I rather liked. But game play gets harder only over a series of completely nonsensical contrivances. You're dropping gears into a system, blitzing your way through easy. Then on level 21, as the game flips to medium, you're confronted with…

  • Redesigned: Kyle Webb

    Dan Meyer
    29 Oct 2009 | 8:38 am
    Kyle Webb drops a WCYDWT video on circle area and perimeter: Academic Green Circumference and Area Problem from Kyle Webb on Vimeo. First, let's pay respect to how fast the video moves, how it sets a scene and establishes a problem in just 14 slides and 57 seconds. Webb knows his audience and its attention span. Also, none of this is stock photography. Every photo selected is of high bandwidth and relates directly to the problem. After 12 seconds, we have three different views of the lawn. After 15 seconds, a panoramic shot. I'll begin my redesign 23 seconds in, when he mentions the lawn is…

  • I’d Like To Believe We Had Something To Do With This

    Dan Meyer
    26 Oct 2009 | 8:24 pm
    [previously]

  • New Tweecher Induction

    Dan Meyer
    22 Oct 2009 | 8:24 am
    Alison Blank: Everyone out there seems so full of love for the students and the job that it carries them through the long hours, but it hasn't been enough for me to break out of the vicious cycle of frantic work and procrastination I've been stuck in since first grade. This is as good a description of teaching's tumultuous first year as you'll find out there on the blogs. It also summarizes: teaching's great deception — "love your students and the rest will follow." teaching's jarring transition — from sleepwalking into your 08h00 MAT 180 class to teaching your own classroom of…

  • Ad Check

    Dan Meyer
    19 Oct 2009 | 2:20 pm
    I can't be the only person afflicted with these sidebar ads. The series is notable for taking guys who have at most 7% body fat and then Hulking them out even further through some form of isometrics or meditation or whatever. They doubled down on whatever game they're running, though, with this particular before/after set. You have to imagine it animating back and forth between the two: The deceit here is vaguely mathematical so I asked my first class of students, "What is it selling and how does it try to sell it?" Most identified the product as some kind of weight loss formula and/or…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Washington Post: Education

  • Austrians discuss Holocaust at Md. Jewish day school

    Michael Birnbaum
    6 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    To the history teacher at one of the country's biggest Jewish schools, it was a chance to show her students that Europe didn't freeze in place at the end of World War II. To the Austrian officials, it was an opportunity to talk about how their country deals with its past with a curious group of...

  • Montgomery County might sue Md. over school funding law

    Nelson Hernandez
    5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Top Montgomery County officials threatened Thursday to sue the state and "aggressively pursue" legislation that would change state law after Maryland's attorney general found that the county had failed to meet the state's minimum level of funding for education. The opinion renders it potentially...

  • Suspect in Fort Hood shootings attended Silver Spring mosque

    William Wan
    5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    The Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring was empty Thursday night, but inside, the phone didn't stop ringing. Members of the mosque where Maj. Nidal M. Hasan had been a regular attendee and members of the media wanted to know about the place where the suspect in the shootings at Fort Hood, Te...

  • Comedian urges Hispanic students to stay in school

    Michael Alison Chandler
    5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Los Angeles comedian Ernie G has a message for first-generation college-bound students in Washington.

  • Mental health hearing for mother who left girl in Va. creek

    Maria Glod
    5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    A Prince William County judge ordered a mental health evaluation Thursday for a woman who left her adopted 13-year-old daughter for dead in a frigid creek, prosecutors said.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    NYC Educator

  • The Vision Thing

    NYC Educator
    6 Nov 2009 | 1:31 am
    Another mayoral election has come and gone, and Mayor-for-life Bloomberg has once again prevailed, buying the election fair and square. Mayor Mike pulled a hundred million bucks out of his sizable pockets, blanketed the metropolitan area with vomit-inducing commercials and persuaded 5% more voters than Thompson did. To accomplish that, he spent 14 times as much as Thompson.In my discussions with UFT reps, they explained it was prudent to withhold an endorsement. Why? First of all, a Thompson endorsement would mean an immediate halt to contract negotiations. The incredible corruption evident…

  • One Day. One Test. One Score... (The 2009 Edition)

    Miss Eyre
    4 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    If you've been following my blog, you know that the Specialized High School Admissions Test has been a pet peeve of mine from the blog's earliest days. It bothers me that lazy, half-interested kids who happen to be good at taking tests get invited to the specialized schools while some kids who bust their butts and love learning don't because they don't ace the test. It bothers me that some kids feel that schools which are very excellent and rigorous are "second best" because they don't carry the "specialized" label. I have no idea what kind of message it sends to our kids that "one day, one…

  • A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

    NYC Educator
    4 Nov 2009 | 1:40 am
    by special guest contest-meister SchoolgalWith the contents of our new contract being held in a secret vault below UFT headquarters until the mayor's coronation, I found the photo at left quite telling. So NYC Educator and I came up with a fun idea. We would like the readers to create a caption for this photo. The winner will receive a possible early retirement incentive in the form of a NY Lottery ticket.Good luck!!!Important note from contest-meister Schoolgal:DUE TO THE RESULTS OF THE MAYORAL ELECTION, THIS CONTEST WILL END AT MIDNIGHT, FRIDAY THE 13TH.

  • Snowflake Syndrome

    Miss Eyre
    3 Nov 2009 | 2:01 pm
    I know that many of my colleagues and readers have had (or currently have) the problem of parents who are, shall we say, too involved in the education of their children, and by this mean involved to the actual detriment of their children. I have not faced this problem to a great degree until this academic year, but I thought I would share a few anecdotes on what seems to be becoming a bigger and bigger issue in education.One of my darlings recently gave a substitute teacher quite the hard time when I was out for some professional development. I try to be the kind of teacher who shows subs…

  • Stressed Out?

    NYC Educator
    2 Nov 2009 | 1:23 am
    Maybe you're in the wrong line of work. CNN states that high school teachers have one of the most stressful and poorly paid jobs anywhere. That's certainly not encouraging. It makes you think you aren't half as smart as you thought you were.Personally, I don't see it that way. Of course the job is stressful. There are constant demands from administration, both on-site and from the anti-union, anti-labor psychos at Tweed. And dealing with the demands of 170 teenagers on a daily basis can be harrowing. But those of us who've toughed out the first few years have found ways--we've learned from…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    LA Times: Education

  • Volunteers hear a silent call for help

    6 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    They went as temps to work at a Koreatown rehab center for deaf people. When funding dwindled, they stayed on without pay. None of them know sign language.

  • Thomas P. O'Malley dies at 79; former president of Loyola Marymount University

    6 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    The Jesuit priest also was a dean and professor at Boston College. Thomas P. O'Malley, an engaging and scholarly priest who headed Loyola Marymount University during a period of significant expansion in the 1990s, died in Boston on Wednesday, apparently of a heart attack. He was 79.

  • Enrollment dips at L.A. Unified

    5 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    The loss of students, apparently to charter schools in some cases, is bad news for the district's budget -- with funding based on attendance. It also has resulted in fewer teachers and larger classes. An apparent exodus of students to charter schools, combined with an overall enrollment decline, is disrupting Los Angeles-area schools and exacerbating an ongoing budget crisis.

  • Ford Foundation gives $100 million to reform urban high schools

    5 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    The New York-based organization pledges the funds to seven cities, including Los Angeles, to research and improve teacher quality, student assessment and school funding, among other things. The Ford Foundation pledged $100 million Wednesday to "transform" urban high schools in the United States, focusing on seven cities, including Los Angeles.

  • Obama calls for end of 'firewall' rules that shield teachers

    5 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    In a tough talk on education, the president spells out criteria for winning $4.35 billion in federal grants. He challenges rules that say teachers should not be judged by how their students perform. Declaring there should be "no excuse for mediocrity" in public schools, President Obama on Wednesday pledged to push for recruitment of better teachers, better pay for those who succeed and dismissal of those who let their students down.
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Fischbowl

  • Twitter Lists & Aggregated Content: Are We Responsible?

    Karl Fisch
    3 Nov 2009 | 1:51 pm
    I was part of an interesting discussion on Twitter Friday night and I wanted to share it here, as well as add a few final thoughts. Participants that I reference are Bud Hunt, Brian Crosby, Dean Shareski, Anne Van Meter, Barbara Barreda, and Karen Fasimpaur. Thanks to all of you for helping me think through these ideas.The discussion started with a tweet from Bud Hunt where he shared some of what his school district is doing with Twitter. Here’s part of the tweet trail (I’m sure there were comments from other folks as well, but these are the ones I remembered and grabbed).I just want to…

  • How Do You Use Diigo Instructionally?

    Karl Fisch
    26 Oct 2009 | 11:48 am
    I asked a couple of weeks ago about Google Forms and the response was so great, I figured why not ask about Diigo?Do you use Diigo instructionally? If so, I'd appreciate you sharing that information via this Google Form, it will only take a couple of minutes at most. Feel free to share a description of how you're using it, including any links to blog posts, wikis, etc. that demonstrate how you're using it. You can also optionally include your name and email address if you don't mind being contacted by folks having additional questions (I will be sharing the results on the web, so please keep…

  • Neither Snow Nor Rain Nor . . . Tonsils

    Karl Fisch
    26 Oct 2009 | 9:59 am
    Maura Moritz's daughter just had her tonsils out. Being the good Mom that she is, she's staying home with her until she's feeling better. Being the good teacher that she is, she didn't want her class to lose out on valuable instructional time. They were scheduled to do a fishbowl with live blogging over Fahrenheit 451, so what to do?Well, it's a fishbowl with live blogging. The first thing she can do is participate in the live blog (period 3, period 4). The second thing she can do is Skype into class so that she can see and hear the in-class fishbowl discussion.Just one more example of how…

  • Warrior Work 10-23-09

    Karl Fisch
    23 Oct 2009 | 9:13 am
    Some recent work from our students and teachers.Michele asks:In a complete paragraph, starting with a focused topic sentence, agree or disagree (or somewhere in the middle) with the following statement: The individual is more important than the group.Greg wonders:Who is more heroic: Jason or Perseus?Who doesn’t want to know about:A summary of ionic bonding and Lewis dot structures along with a summary of lattice energy.Lary asks for Thematic Thesis Statements from Whale Rider.Jesse asks for reactions to the cadaver lab.What are you views on Censorship?1. Is it okay to have books on making…

  • Google Form Ideas: Results from my Previous Post

    Karl Fisch
    21 Oct 2009 | 8:56 am
    I posted a couple of weeks ago asking folks how they used Google Forms instructionally. Several people asked if I would share the results, so here you go (a quick-and-dirty Google Site I used for a brief lunchtime staff development session on this).Please note that the Google Form I used for this is still active, so you can still add to it if you wish (and please do). Since the results are embedded on that Google Site, they will automagically update if folks continue to add to it.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    CNN: Education

  • Give Obama A+ for school reform ideas

    6 Nov 2009 | 11:53 am
    President Obama deserves an A+ for his agenda for education reform. His decision to nominate Arne Duncan as U.S. education secretary was inspired, and his comments on holding the system accountable are honest, refreshing and insightful.

  • College: More expensive than ever

    20 Oct 2009 | 2:39 pm
    College costs are higher than ever, according to a new report, putting a degree even further out of reach for many Americans.

  • The CEO educator

    1 Oct 2009 | 9:55 am
    Joel Klein's title is New York City school chancellor, but he's really a CEO. He oversees America's largest public school system -- 1.1 million students -- with more authority than his counterparts in most other major cities, thanks to a landmark 2002 law that was just renewed for another five years.

  • Medical students reckless on Internet, sometimes at patients' expense

    22 Sep 2009 | 6:15 pm
    In 2007, a resident surgeon snapped a picture of a patient's tattoo -- the words Hot Rod on his penis -- and shared it with colleagues, making international news when the story was leaked to the press. At least the resident didn't post the picture on the Internet.

  • Commentary: Who says public schools need more money?

    10 Sep 2009 | 8:00 am
    Teachers unions and politicians are constantly claiming that K-12 public schools need more money in order to produce good academic results. But does the data support the argument that our schools need more money to succeed?
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    ASCD: In Service

  • Contrasting Attitudes of Japanese and American Teachers (1982)

    Ben Licciardi
    6 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am
    In the March 1982 issue of Educational Leadership, research associate Takiko Morimoto explores the attitudes of Japanese and American educators by comparing survey results from a small sample of teachers in Los Angeles with a small sample in Tokyo. Asked...

  • Facing First-Year Challenges

    ASCD Bloggers
    5 Nov 2009 | 12:24 pm
    Little support and even less classroom experience combined to make Deirdra Grode's first year teaching chaotic and almost her last. It didn't have to be that way. Grode says training on how to organize the classroom and learning, better understanding...

  • Platooning Ballooning at the Elementary Level

    ASCD Bloggers
    4 Nov 2009 | 1:13 pm
    Platooning, or departmentalizing instruction according to content area, is on the rise in elementary schools, according to last week's most popular SmartBrief story. High-stakes tests that target subject areas and grade levels are cited as the big motivator in this...

  • Measuring ARRA’s Impact on Education

    Melissa McCabe
    3 Nov 2009 | 8:01 am
    Late last week Vice President Joe Biden hosted an event to highlight jobs saved or created with money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Two ASCD members were featured at the event: Jill Neustadt, a math content coach...

  • Why Should We Care About Teacher Leadership?

    ASCD Bloggers
    3 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am
    Presenter Ann Nkiruka Ifekwunigwe posed this question to a room of attendees Sunday morning in her ASCD Fall Conference session, "Preparing Successful Teacher Leaders: What Have We Learned?" She then shared some research about why teacher leadership is a worthy...
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Scholastic: This Week In Education

  • Duncan's Weekly Media Schedule: Let It Be Your Guide.

    Alexander Russo
    9 Nov 2009 | 6:17 am
    Here's Duncan's media schedule for the week.  Plan your days around it.  Let it be your guide.  It is the center of the education universe.  There is nothing about it that is stale, empty, or without news value.  What Duncan says and where he says it is vastly more important (and easier to cover) than anything going on in a real school, district, or statehouse. Ignore all other temptations. PUBLIC SCHEDULE OF U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY ARNE DUNCAN THE WEEK AHEAD: Monday-Friday, Nov. 9-13, 2009 (All times local) Monday, Nov. 9 8:10-8:45 a.m. Remarks and Q&A, U.S. Chamber of…

  • Blogs: Time To Get Out Of The School Reform Bubble

    Alexander Russo
    6 Nov 2009 | 11:26 am
    Those inside the school reform bubble are pretty much solely focused on things like Race to the Top, mayoral control, and the like.  But everybody else out there -- teachers, principals, parents -- is probably focusing on more mundane (immediate) issues like H1N1 and the gang rape of a teenage girl in Richmond, California. In Richmond Rape, One Teen Did The Right Thing Jezebel"I'm like 'We should call the cops because that's the right thing to do.' I didn't think about it twice."Richmond rape survivor speaks out JezebelSchool officials are planning to…

  • Charters: The Art Of Manipulating Oversight Boards

    Alexander Russo
    6 Nov 2009 | 10:44 am
    "Without you saying anything to them, they will believe that they are responsible for making big decisions about budget matters, school policies, hiring of the principal and dozens of other matters." Imagine charter schools CEO Dennis Bakke in a recently revealed email about how to pick and manipulate charter boards. (Pick your board members carefully)

  • Thompson: Reclaiming Our Children

    john thompson
    6 Nov 2009 | 7:29 am
    After fretting over the most troubled students who undercut the opportunities of his lower-performing kids in his Study Skills classes, "Coach" may have stumbled across the solution, "why not send the knuckleheads to the rich schools? Instead of sending the troublemakers to alternative schools with the other troublemakers, let them see how great school can be." Oklahoma City is maxed out in terms of a market for charter schools - all of the more easily educated kids have been creamed off by all types of magnet schools - so our district would have leverage in negotiating…

  • News: FLA Lawsuit, $87 Per Kid, Income Not Race, & More

    Alexander Russo
    6 Nov 2009 | 5:37 am
    Florida Officials Fail to Provide Quality Education, Suit Claims NYT The American Civil Liberties Union, citing low graduation rates, says officials are violating a requirement in the Florida Constitution.Race to the Top education grant propels reforms USA TodayIf distributed to each of the USA's schools, which educate an estimated 50 million students, it would equal only $87 more per student. Obama Offers States Rewards For Overhauling Schools NPR In order to qualify for the money, schools may have to grade not only students, but also teachers.More districts use income, not race, as…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Ask-Dr-Kirk

  • Road Trip To Georgia

    Dr. Delaney Kirk
    4 Nov 2009 | 6:35 am
    I'm off to Savannah, Georgia, to teach a faculty development workshop at Savannah State University on Friday. The university's website states its goal is "a 'value added' education, resulting from classroom interactions, co-curricular activities, quality instruction, internships, practicum, research, and the infusing of technology into the curriculum...Thus, in addition to topics of teaching effectiveness and classroom management, I'll discuss using educational technology such as blogs, wikis, and Twitter in the classroom. I'm looking forward to it.

  • Accent The Positive

    Dr. Delaney Kirk
    3 Nov 2009 | 5:22 am
    Tom Vander Well writes on quality assurance and recently gave the following advice to call center employees: If you're working the phones today, I'd encourage you to keep a note pad or sticky-note on your desk. Each time you have a pleasant, friendly customer - jot down a hash mark or write the customer's name on your sheet. When one of those negative customers comes along, look down at your sheet and refresh your memory of all the pleasant customers you've talked with. Sometimes it takes a conscious effort to see the glass half full. I'm thinking this is excellent advice for us as teachers…

  • The Teaching Professor Has A Blog

    Dr. Delaney Kirk
    2 Nov 2009 | 5:33 am
    Check this out: The Teaching Professor has a blog with lots of free information on teaching and learning here.

  • Help In Putting Together That Tenure And Promotion Document

    Dr. Delaney Kirk
    29 Oct 2009 | 5:15 am
    I recently turned in my 49 page application (not counting supporting materials) for tenure and promotion to Full Professor at the University of South Florida in Sarasota. Came across these helpful resources as I was going through the process that I thought I would share. Professor David Silver (University of San Francisco) talks through his narrative on service. Dr. Fred Yaffe (Dean, College of Arts and Science, University of La Verne) shares this paper on putting together promotion and tenure portfolios.  Download Promotion and tenure portfolios

  • Creative Student Projects

    Dr. Delaney Kirk
    27 Oct 2009 | 9:48 am
    Digital Storytelling is a method educators could use to give students a creative way to express themselves. One way to do that is to have students digitally tell about a movie or book in one minute, using music, costumes, sound effects, etc. Check out this one minute video done by students on Forrest Gump  Found this via Dr. Strange who linked to Dr. Alec Couros’ student, Amy Perrey’s blog. What other ways could students use digital storytelling?
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Boston Globe: Education

  • Details emerge about Fort Hood suspect's history

    Brett J. Blackledge, Associated Press Writer
    6 Nov 2009 | 10:03 pm
    He was by turns caring and contentious, a man quick to say "I am blessed" in casual greeting yet one who seemed to stew in discontent that he could not always keep to himself.

  • Suffolk University extends president’s contract

    Tracy Jan, Globe Staff
    6 Nov 2009 | 9:59 pm
    Two days after critics assailed its president’s outlandish compensation, Suffolk University extended the contract of David Sargent until 2013 Wednesday, in a deal that will pay him between $700,000 and $800,000 a year.

  • Fort victims had different reasons for enlisting

    Caryn Rousseau and Robert Imrie, Associated Press Writers
    6 Nov 2009 | 9:31 pm
    The 13 people killed when an Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, included a pregnant woman who was preparing to return home, a man who quit a furniture company job to join the military about a year ago, a newlywed who had served in Iraq and a woman who had vowed to take on ...

  • Cardiologist and Boston Sci exec Baim dies at 60

    Matthew Perrone, AP Business Writer
    6 Nov 2009 | 6:59 pm
    Dr. Donald Baim, a renowned cardiologist and medical device executive, died Friday following surgery to treat a form of cancer, his family said in a statement. He was 60.

  • College presidents are flunking the salary test

    Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist
    6 Nov 2009 | 5:37 pm
    Compensation packages bear no resemblance to the world beneath college presidents. The American Dream is being fogged as parents drown in debt, students spend more time working to pay off campus fees rather than studying, and professors try to feed the brains of students with slashed resources.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Practical Theory

  • We Interrupt this Education Blog...

    28 Oct 2009 | 8:41 pm
    ... with the following important message: GOOOOOOOOOOO PHILLIES!!! Game One was a thing of beauty. How about that Cliff Lee? How about that Chase Utley? (And how about that Ruben Amaro? He took the World Champions and made them better without giving away the farm system.) GOOOOOO PHILLIES!!!

  • Visions of School -- The Student Perspective

    15 Oct 2009 | 10:28 pm
    So after reading E. D. Hirsch, Deborah Meier, Diane Ravich, Nel Noddings, President Obama's speech and Robert Pirsig, the students of Modern Educational Theory have written their first draft of their vision of what school should be. These are first passes at these ideas, and these are purpose statements that will evolve over the course of the year. Here was the structure of the assignment: We, at this point, looked at several different views of education, from Deborah Meier's vision of democratic education, to Robert Pirsig's "Church of Reason," to Diane Ravitch and E. D. Hirsch's views of…

  • The Other Thirteen

    11 Oct 2009 | 10:43 pm
    There is an inspiring article in today's New York Times about the Ted Ginn Academy -- a school started by a security guard / football coach. It is a story about an unlikely, non-traditional educator who built a school that is succeeding for students where others have failed. It is not unlike the stories being told about KIPP and Mastery Charter... a group of dedicated educators going above and beyond and saving every child. And that's where I have a problem. They aren't... and papers like the New York Times and the Washington Post are so excited for this narrative, that they are perpetuating…

  • Core Standards - Sound Bites and Standardization

    10 Oct 2009 | 6:40 pm
    [Tom Hoffman has been carrying the water for the ed-tech crew on this issue for the past few weeks -- if you haven't been reading him lately, do.] The Common Core State Standards Initiative has released its English standards, and the standards are open for comment until October 21st. I strongly encourage you to look at the standards and make comment - I find them hard to read, because I think they are poorly written, but standards often are. The National Standards movement obviously has its seeds in No Child Left Behind, but not just in the obvious ways. National Standards is an idea that…

  • ISTE Proposal: Beyond Tools: Thoughtful 21st Century School Reform

    6 Oct 2009 | 9:24 pm
    So here is one of what may be two proposals for ISTE this year... I've also been asked to be on a panel, so we'll see... but this proposal is a version of what I've been thinking and writing and talking about for the past few years, and with the current political winds, I think it is all the more urgently needed. Session Description: To have a say in the school reform debate, we must articulate a clear vision of what 21st Century schools can be. Join the conversation. Purpose & Objectives: What is the defining vision of the 21st Century school, and how do we create schools that can…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Remote Access

  • Calm Before the Storm

    When I was a kid growing up in Snow Lake, there were about 2 100 people here. Over the years (the last 5 or 6 especially), changing technology in mining, the globalization of the industry and falling base metal prices have all contributed to falling fortunes for the town. In the ...

  • Contstructing Knowledge

    I'm heading to Austin Texas in a few weeks to keynote Tech Forum Southwest. I was in Chicago for Tech Forum in April and truly enjoyed the format and the day that I was fortunate enough to spend there. Besides the fact that I'm expecting great conversations again and great ...

  • The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

    One of the perks of writing this blog that I rarely take advantage of is the free stuff that I get offered to me. It is rare the week that rolls by without an offer in my inbox for new software or a new product. But this one I couldn't pass ...

  • Wanted: One School, Two Jobs

    We're thinking that it might be time to move on. My wife and I have been teaching in Snow Lake for thirteen years through all sorts of ups and downs; but we are thinking of leaving. We are looking to move our family somewhere new and this post is the beginning ...

  • Helping to Grow a Community

    Helping a new classroom community to grow and take shape in a classroom is different each and every year. Much depends on the variables: the age of your students, their technology skills, your community context and need among others. There are many things to consider. Each community needs to be ...
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Borderland

  • This Machine Kills Fascists

    Doug Noon
    30 Oct 2009 | 1:29 am
    “A CRISIS is tearing through the American public education system like a tornado,” writes John Green, a member of the California Teachers Association State Council. “It threatens to uproot and overturn everything in its path.” He asks where the California Teachers Association is while teachers face budget cuts, high-stakes testing, the shredding of collective bargaining agreements, more and more charter schools, and pay-for-performance schemes. He sees his union cutting deals with politicians and paying lip service to effective collective action. It’s a worsening…

  • Terra Nullius

    Doug Noon
    28 Oct 2009 | 12:56 am
    It’s an old story: If anything, the stories of corruption and incompetence serve to mask this deeper scandal: the rise of a predatory form of disaster capitalism that uses the desperation and fear created by catastrophe to engage in radical social and economic engineering. And on this front, the reconstruction industry works so quickly and efficiently that the privatizations and land grabs are usually locked in before the local population knows what hit them – Naomi Klein (2005). The at-risk “local population,” I’m most familiar with would be teachers, school…

  • Owning the Change Process

    Doug Noon
    20 Oct 2009 | 12:35 am
    Today was a professional development day, and as these things go, it wasn’t bad. One thing that helped, I suspect, is that the school district curriculum department piggy-backed onto the Alaska State Literacy Association 2009 conference, so we were able to take advantage of some fresh ideas that weren’t part of the local institutional orthodoxy. The keynote was delivered by IRA president, Katherine Au. According to her philosophy statement on the IRA site, she believes that teacher expertise is more important than programs for sustaining student success. Her talk today addressed a…

  • K’naan

    Doug Noon
    1 Oct 2009 | 10:23 pm
    K’naan is from Mogadishu, Somalia. His family moved to New York in 1991 to escape the Somali civil war, and then later, to Toronto, Ontario. His aunt, Magool, was one of Somalia’s most famous singers. His grandfather, Haji Mohamed, was a poet. K’naan means “traveller” in the Somali language. I heard his song, Wavin’ Flag, today on Democracy Now, and I wanted to learn more about him. He did an interview with Amy Goodman back in August, in which he talked about his music and his country. He performed some of his songs in Democracy Now’s Firehouse…

  • An Ecology of Adolescent Literacy

    Doug Noon
    1 Oct 2009 | 1:04 am
    This post is tangential to a series of posts that Tom Hoffman has done recently, in which he eviscerates the new Common Core(porate) English Language Arts Standards. I don’t see category links on his blog, so maybe the best place to look for them all at this point is in the monthly archive. He summarized his objections today with 10 Reasons you should care about the Common Core State Standards Initiative’s Draft English Language Arts Standards. Tom’s close reading of the proposed standards leads him to conclude that these standards are an effort to narrow the field of…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Blue Skunk Blog

  • Dangerously irrelevant libraries

    Doug Johnson
    5 Nov 2009 | 3:48 am
    My friend Scott McLeod at the Dangerously Irrelevant blog posts a list of hard questions about books, libraries and librarians in "10 questions about books, librarians, and schools." He's been using these questions as the foundation of some (very good) keynotes given at library conferences, including one here in Minnesota. Now I don't normally cut and past large blocks of other folks' blog posts, but I'm going to do so now. His full post ought to be read, however. Two things: First it's incredibly important we have people like Scott from outside our profession giving us attention and asking…

  • Point/Counterpoint in L&L

    Doug Johnson
    1 Nov 2009 | 11:23 am
      Happy to see the question: Do Schools Still Need Bricks and Mortar Libraries? debated in Leading & Learning this month. Note that it is online as well and readers can leave comments. And when exactly did I go from being the young cute guy to the old grumpy one in most situations?

  • Distracting technologies

    Doug Johnson
    1 Nov 2009 | 6:36 am
    "Once you are at cruise, there's nothing to do. ... You're not allowed to read; you're not allowed to, as we've learned, use laptops. You're not allowed to listen to music. ... you're supposed to sit in the seat, stay awake, and pay attention." Northwest Airlines pilot Jack Neis quoted in Nov 1, 2009 Minneapolis Star Tribune article (Could also be said by most students taking a F2F classes.) Whenever the topic of students using technology in school comes up, observations of how distracting technology can be almost always follow. In response to a recent post, a number of readers suggested that…

  • Why 5-star hotels suck

    Doug Johnson
    29 Oct 2009 | 5:06 am
    OK, a little rant that has nothing to do with libraries or education. Just life. One of the great ironies when I travel is that the kind hearted, well-intentioned people who ask me to come speak and consult usually put me up in very, very nice hotels. You know the kind. Giant foyers. Lot's o' marble. Fountains in the lobby. Valet parking. Glass elevators. For, I suppose, 99% of travelers, staying in these places is something of a dream - luxury at its finest. But, at the real risk of sounding like a terrible ingrate, I have to say that unless the conference is right in the hotel itself, I'd…

  • Disheartened

    Doug Johnson
    28 Oct 2009 | 4:00 am
    In response to my recent post "13 Point Library Checklist for School Principals," an anonymous commenter left a rather sad observation:   If given the article, would my principal even understand what he'd read? signed Disheartened Personally, I've found that given enough time and enough effort, all administrators can learn. But it is up to the building librarians to be the instructor. Nobody else can or will do it for us. One of my earliest published articles, "Using Planning and Reporting to Build Library Support," appeared in the Book Report (now LMC) magazine way, way back when the…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    open thinking

  • Halloween Lesson

    Alec
    30 Oct 2009 | 9:06 pm
    This is a great example of a teacher using technology to have some fun with his students in his pre-Halloween class. It was made for a Nature of Math class at Biola University by Matthew Weathers, October 28, 2009. Great job, Matthew. Plurk This Post Delicious Digg This Post Reddit

  • Open Internet

    Alec
    25 Oct 2009 | 3:58 pm
    Net neutrality is one of the biggest issues that faces a free and democratic (knowledge) society. Here is a new video that details some of what is at stake. Plurk This Post Delicious Digg This Post Reddit

  • Roots of Connectivism – Siemens

    Alec
    2 Oct 2009 | 12:36 pm
    George Siemens presented “Roots of Connectivism” to our EC&I 831 group on September 29, 2009. George provided a basic understanding of various theories of knowledge & learning (e.g., behaviorism, cognitivism, social constructivism, constructionism, neuroscience) as he led us toward a theory of connectivism. I warned my students beforehand that the presentation would be theoretically heavy, and our presenter (no surprise) provided us with the challenge of (re)thinking of our assumptions on learning. As an aside, a tweet from one of the participants summed up what I have…

  • Pursuing the Elusive Metaphor of Community – Schwier

    Alec
    1 Oct 2009 | 6:59 pm
    Dr. Richard Schwier was our guest in my open course, EC&I 831, on September 22, 2009. Rick’s presentation, similar to the talk that he gave at Ed-Media in Honolulu this past June, raised some incredibly important questions regarding the role of informal learning as it pertains to those teaching (and learning) in K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. And if you’ve never seen Rick present, you certainly owe it to yourself to do so. He has been a great teacher, mentor, and friend to me, and I learn something new with him every time we connect. Greater detail of the…

  • Know Your Meme: David After Dentist Revisited

    Alec
    5 Sep 2009 | 1:34 pm
    Last February, I blogged about the Internet meme “David After the Dentist” and tried to frame the video in the context of media literacy and digital identity. Almost 6 months and 30 millions views later, Rocketboom has put together a short but detailed history of the meme that includes a description of its origin through “user error”, an overview of remixes and parodies, ties to the culture of childhood fame/ridicule, monetization of the meme, and David’s personal story. The short video is worth watching, and I do believe it is important that we better understand…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Kate Says

  • Book Review: The Luxe (Anna Godbersen)

    Kate Olson
    6 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Godbersen, A. (2007). The Luxe. New York: Harper Collins. Anna Godbersen has created a very enticing and addicting “teen” series – The Luxe. The books are set  in turn-of-the-century Manhattan in the center of high society. The series starts out with the book The Luxe, which begins the drama-filled saga of the Holland sisters and friends, along with the sisters’ lovers. Diana and Elizabeth Holland are at the peak of society, enjoying all of the luxuries that accompany this place of stature. However, in addition to luxuries come social responsibilities and formalities. These…

  • Book Review: Slumgirl Dreaming (Rubina Ali)

    Kate Olson
    5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Ali, R. (2009). Slumgirl dreaming: Rubina’s journey to the stars. New York: Delacorte Press. Title:  Slumgirl Dreaming: Rubina’s Journey to the Stars Author:  Ali, Rubina Publisher:  Delacorte Press Copyright date:  2009 Age/grade recommended:  4th – 12th grades I was fascinated by the movie Slumdog Millionaire and when I saw this book on the shelf at Barnes & Noble, I absolutely had to buy it. This is the account of the making of Slumdog Millionaire from the perspective of the child actress, Rubina Ali, who played the youngest version of the lead actress in the film. The…

  • Book Review: Someone Named Eva (Joan Wolf)

    Kate Olson
    4 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Wolf, J. (2007). Someone named Eva. New York: Scholastic. Title:  Someone Named Eva Author:  Joan Wolf Publisher:  Scholastic Copyright date:  2007 Age/grade recommended:  4th – 12th grades Someone Named Eva is a book about the Holocaust. It is set in Lidice, Czechoslovakia in 1942 and describes, from the point of view of a young girl, the horrific destruction of Lidice. Milada (later renamed Eva) describes the experience of being separated from her family and taken to a Lebensborn center to be “Germanized” – she was assessed and found to be Aryan enough to be passed off as…

  • Book Review: Marcelo in the Real World (F.X. Stork)

    Kate Olson
    3 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Stork, F. (2009). Marcelo in the Real World. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books. Marcelo is a teenager with an Asperger-like condition that kept him in a bit of a different world than others his age. As his senior year of high school approaches, his dad drops the bombshell that he wants Marcelo to work at his law firm for the summer rather than at Marcelo’s school stables. He believes Marcelo needs to learn to function in the real world, much to Marcelo’s discomfort and dismay. The plot twists and turns with heartbreaking honesty, touching areas of romance and morality. As a special…

  • Book Review: Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)

    Kate Olson
    2 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Collins, S. (2009). Catching fire. New York: Scholastic Press. Title:  Catching Fire Author:  Suzanne Collins Publisher:  Scholastic Press Copyright date:  2009 Age/grade recommended:  6th – 12th grades The fact that I don’t ever read fantasy or science fiction novels only held me back for a minute when I heard my middle school librarian describe Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. Determined to catch up with what the kids were reading, I dug right into The Hunger Games and after the first few pages, I was on Amazon ordering Catching Fire and praying it would…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Bud the Teacher

  • The Week in Tweets for 2009-11-01

    bud@budtheteacher.com (Bud Hunt bud@budtheteacher.com)
    1 Nov 2009 | 9:15 pm
    Orange glow behind us lighting up the fresh white snow on the mountains in front of us. # At the doctor's. Time for a physical. There is a gown on the table. Uh oh. # Looks like I'm good for another 30,000 miles. # RT @cshirky: "IT doesnt typically help forge new acquaintances; it mostly helps communicate with existing ones." http://bit.ly/zceII # @vgloucester I always try to tie new accounts to existing authentication services. More accounts, same credentials. in reply to vgloucester # @robwall That's because it is. in reply to robwall # Reviewing DLC applications with…

  • The Week in Tweets for 2009-10-26

    bud@budtheteacher.com (Bud Hunt bud@budtheteacher.com)
    25 Oct 2009 | 11:15 pm
    There's a thin pink-orange ribbon on the eastern edge of everything. Going to be a great sunrise. # Nice piece in today's paper about @learningdonna and her student poets. Good work. http://j.mp/1fseOm # RT @KyleneBeers: Interactive web broadcast of Nat'l Day on Writing celebration starting 9 EDT tomorrow http://tiny.cc/HIxcH Spread the word # You still have a few minutes if you want to play with the school board today. http://bit.ly/5XzK1 # RT @slense: @budtheteacher http://bit.ly/1D39rO Panel on @AdLit today w/ Catherine Snow, Mel Riddile, Don Deshler # Thanks to those of you…

  • The Podcast: I’m Writing Right Now

    bud@budtheteacher.com (Bud Hunt bud@budtheteacher.com)
    20 Oct 2009 | 4:50 pm
    Today is the National Day on Writing, which is the reason for this podcast, recorded as I headed home thinking about the writing I’ve been up to today. I’m so grateful for this time to think about writing and its place in my life. What a wonderful expression of the power of language and words and composition. How and when and where and how do you write and celebrate writing, both yours and others? Direct Link to Audio In the podcast, I mention these slides, which I promised I’d link to.

  • The Week in Tweets for 2009-10-19

    bud@budtheteacher.com (Bud Hunt bud@budtheteacher.com)
    18 Oct 2009 | 11:15 pm
    I <3 Screenr. Enough to use an emoticon. # @karlfisch True. But I'm working through it. And still warming up. in reply to karlfisch # Spent the morning fighting iTunes. I wish it'd quit trying to be smarter than me and just let one sync mixed media playlists to iPods. # Give Karl ten minutes. Then do something about what you discover there. Please. http://bit.ly/27tvBm # Revisiting my K12Online presentation from last year. There's more to explore in "The Lie of Community," I think. http://j.mp/4jflOM # Talking to a SMART company representative. # RT @secrettweet:…

  • The Week in Tweets for 2009-10-12

    bud@budtheteacher.com (Bud Hunt bud@budtheteacher.com)
    11 Oct 2009 | 11:15 pm
    @dwarlick Thanks – that was just the post I was looking for. in reply to dwarlick # Starting the morning with a 90's dance party. Because every Monday should start that way. # H1N1 sounds so clinical. I think we're going to refer to this thing as "90's Morning Dance Party Flu." # @jenorr Ew. in reply to jenorr # RT @educationweek Blog: Justices Decline Review of Pledge, Other School Cases http://bit.ly/1kpxH0 # RT @RickTanski RT @Wolfram_Alpha: Join us for the 1st-ever Wolfram|Alpha Homework Day October 21! http://bit.ly/TwRFt #wolframalpha # RT @hickstro Episode 2…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    A Millennial Professor's View of Higher Education

  • The After the Degree, Now What?" Conference - Our Fall 2009 Service-Learning Event

    Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
    21 Oct 2009 | 3:25 pm
    I am so proud of my students! Recently, my wonderful students sponsored a service learning event titled, The "After the Degree, Now What?" Conference. The idea for this conference was conceived last summer when I read a wealth of articles pertaining to the amount of Texans with four-year degrees that were facing layoffs. In addition, since I teach undergraduate students, I was very concerned with our students gaining employment (that they are passionate about) after graduating from our university in next few months. Then, I contacted another professor in the Communication Department and the…

  • Welcome Back! Millennial Professor is Back for the FA 09 Semester!

    Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
    19 Sep 2009 | 1:55 pm
    Hello Everyone!I admit, I have been hiding under a rock for the past couple of months. This past spring, I received a faculty research grant that funded my research during the Summer II semester. Thankfully, I was VERY productive this summer. Not only did I gather research from African American college students, but I also co-authored two publications with a colleague at Southern University at New Orleans. I hope and pray that our publications will be chosen for publication in the next few months.Aside from publishing, we had some wonderful travel plans this summer. During our adventures, I…

  • PowerPoint + Classroom = Student Boredom?

    Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
    22 Jul 2009 | 7:44 pm
    This morning, a colleague sent me an article titled, "When Computers Leave the Classroom, So Does Boredom". This article made me think about my own approach to teaching the content to students in the classroom. I use PowerPoint, but I also make the lecture interactive by using the following:a. Discussion Prompts on the PowerPointb. Interactive Surveys (students select an answer by raising their hands)c. Using Youtube videosI am married to a high school teacher and we commonly have discussions about students' learning styles (kinestic, auditory, visual, reading/writing). The article listed…

  • The Economy and Our Undergraduate Students

    Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
    20 Jul 2009 | 9:03 am
    As an undergraduate, my sorority sisters and I spent most of our meager salaries on restaurant meals, shopping, road trips, movies, and weekend "entertainment". I know that this is the budget for most active undergraduates. However, I know that current undergraduates might not be able to live such a "lavish, fun-filled" lifestyle in this economy. Some of the undergraduates in my classes went on road trips to South Padre Island for Spring Break. However, most of the undergraduates went to their hometown to make money at their old part-time jobs. When I was in college, it was an anomaly to hear…

  • Academic Travel on a Frugal Budget: Know Your Surroundings BEFORE You Leave Home!

    Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
    6 Jul 2009 | 7:02 am
    Last December, I discovered that Google Maps provided EVERYONE on the internet with a picture of my house (thank God the leaves were raked)! This was something that I had to adjust to, but I see Google Maps as a definite blessing now. For instance, if I have an upcoming conference, I log on to Google Maps to see the area outside of the hotels and the adjacent eating establishments.This helps me create a travel budget and to make a list of potential locations I would like to visit on my trip. When I visited Norfolk, VA for the Southern States Communication Conference, I discovered that there…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Learning In a Flat World

  • Faculty Resource Guide for Online Teaching

    Britt
    3 Nov 2009 | 10:45 am
    This week, we launched a project that has been in development for the past five months.  The past few years have seen significant growth in the development of online learning in both K-12 and higher education settings. With an estimated four million college students taking at least one online course this year, and forty-four states (including Virginia) now having significant online programs in their K-12 systems, many university faculty are beginning to explore the use of online instruction in their programs and courses. In response to this growing trend and VCU faculty interest, I worked…

  • Faculty Development in An Open World

    Britt
    28 Oct 2009 | 12:38 pm
    I just finished reading Curtis J. Bonk’s new book, The World is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education. In the spirit of full disclosure, I will tell you that Wiley, the publisher, emailed me after I reviewed Dan Willingham’s book in a previous post and asked if they could send me Bonk’s book for possible review (with no strings attached). I said yes and the next week received a copy of this book at no charge. With that said, this book has resonated with me and I found Bonk’s approach interesting. In many ways, Bonk is as much a fan boy of Thomas…

  • Who Blogs Anymore?

    Britt
    18 Oct 2009 | 10:10 am
    Apparently not me.  When I started blogging two years ago, I was averaging three posts a week.  Now I am down to one a month for the past few months. Luckily, there are those who do blog, as my Google Reader affirms daily!  I still enjoy reading blogs, but I have fallen out of the habit of routinely commenting and blogging myself. A few weeks back, I finished reading a fascinating book by Scott Rosenberg called Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters.  Having spent the past decade growing up with the internet, I found this book timely and full of…

  • Knee 2.0

    Britt
    14 Oct 2009 | 12:16 pm
    I have not posted for quite a while, with the primary reason being an upgrade of my old body.  My colleague Jeff Nugent termed my pending knee replacement as an upgrade to Knee 2.0, which seemed very appropriate. So a little over two weeks ago, the good team at West End Orthopaedic retooled me with titanium parts.  I have been recovering a home for the past 14 days, and see new improvements each day.  It was definitely time for the upgrade! It has also given me some time to think and ponder the retooling that education is undergoing! If you did not catch it earlier this month, Lisa Lane…

  • Why Don’t Students Like School?

    Britt
    15 Sep 2009 | 12:14 pm
    I just finished reading Dan Willingham’s (2009) book, Why Don’t Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom. It is an excellent book full of practical suggestions to improve teaching, both online and in the classroom. Dan Willingham is currently Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia.  His research focuses on the brain basis of learning and memory and the application of cognitive psychology to education. He writes the “Ask the Cognitive Scientist” column for American Educator…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Once Upon a School

  • #259 South Africa: Ubuntu Education Fundraising and Pen Pals

    Wendy Moro
    Our planWe wanted our children to think beyond the borders of Burlingame, CA and not just when there is a hurricane or earthquake somewhere in a reactive way. But to be proactive and gain insight into the plight of children in other countries--that want an education, but because of lack of buildings or widespread illnesses such as Aids--their ability to learn properly is hampered. Enter: Ubuntu. A small--but growing education non-profit with the goal of providing education to as many children in South Africa as possible. We teamed up with this organization, started a pen pal program and…

  • #258 Highschool screen-printing studio

    Scott Pauli
    Our plan We had just taught a screen printing class to a group of kids through the University of Wisconsin. It was well-received, and we enjoyed working with youth. Despite the fact that screen printed posters were becoming very popular around town, we noticed that there were not any posters for the shows at our local teen center, even though they were hosting national acts. The teen center had an empty room off of the kitchen that was no longer being used. It would be suitable for a little studio, so we approached the center and asked if we could set up a screen printing studio so that…

  • #257 Connecting Student Communities

    Mark Campbell
    Our planLiving in International House at the University of Melbourne is a very community-based lifestyle. You live together, eat together, study together and socialize together. This sounds great, however you quickly realise that even if you flew from the other side of the world to be here, you're not living in Melbourne, Australia, you're living at International House. Melbourne features a very diverse and rich culture and we decided to play to our strengths and get involved in a way that would benefit our city. We decided to support local High Schools and their students by providing free…

  • #256 Cafe run by teens, designed by teens, enjoyed by everyone.

    Scott Pauli
    Our planOur local community center was moving into a beautiful new building that was going to have a café run by teenagers as part of a teen mentoring program. We approached Ben Hunter, the head chef, and asked if the students coming to our after school art program could be involved. We decided to make this a full-fledged identity project for our students. A group of four or five design and writing professionals worked with a team of teens to produce the logo, menu, posters and t-shirts for the café. The students also named the café. The Ironworks Café is now a successful…

  • #255 Mess Decks

    Scott Pauli
    Our planOur after school art class is held next to a skate park. During the winter months most kids are stuck inside until the ramps de-frost. We wanted to reach out to these students with a project that would tie into their enthusiasm for skating. A skate deck design class was our project. We would introduce kids to graphic design by letting them design their own decks.What we did We contacted a local skate shop and were able to procure blank decks at a discounted price. We then wrote a small project grant to the city of Madison. Needless to say our grant proposal was the odd ball of the…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    HeyJude

  • Mobile Visual Search

    Judy O'Connell
    1 Nov 2009 | 6:29 pm
    Mobile visual search signals a very interesting shift in product marketing. Perhaps this is also a introducing a significant shift in information search  for students too? Right now we can ask:  What is the object? Where can I get it? What it is useful for?  What do others say about it? Does it help me understand (something I’m learning about )  a little better? In the future? more about “Mobile Visual Search“, posted with vodpod   Posted in Digital Media, Search

  • Personal Learning Network – want one?

    Judy O'Connell
    29 Oct 2009 | 1:59 am
    Convince your key stakeholders  of the importance of a Personal Learning Network – with the help of this excellent presentation (videos included)!!   Great work from  Mark Woolley! Posted in Australia, Personal Learning Network Tagged: PLN

  • Sending documents to Your International Kindle

    Judy O'Connell
    28 Oct 2009 | 3:21 am
    The Kindle 2 has a number of cool features that you need to get the hang of to maximize the value of your purchase.  Since I’ve played with my Kindle for nearly a whole week now – I’ve been asked to pass on information about basic document management. Documents to your Kindle Go to Your Account in the top right hand corner of Amazon. Once there, scroll down till you find the Manage Your Kindle Link Click on that link, and sign into your account. This Account Page is an important one for managing lots of things, but for now we’ll just focus on how to set up the email…

  • Kindle-ing discussion about learning

    Judy O'Connell
    25 Oct 2009 | 11:57 pm
    Lots of people have asked for a post about my first reactions to the Kindle.  I started writing this up, but found what I needed to say for people new to the Kindle was rather long -   so here are my first few day’s evalution rolled into a scribd document  ready to print and share with others. View this document on Scribd Posted in Australia, eBook Readers Tagged: Kindle

  • Mixed Reality Presentations

    Judy O'Connell
    25 Oct 2009 | 4:26 pm
    I’ve just picked up some information about Mixed Reality Presentations that might be worth checking out. The [Zone] Touch Screen Media Television with Searchable YouTube and Fl… is worth testing. What’s special about this in-world media TV? James O’Reilly explains: “You can substitute the uploading of Powerpoint texture slides into Second Life for L$10 each, and stream a Flickr slideshow into Second Life for presentation purposes for free. When in standby mode, the default screen can be replaced with your own picture by dropping a texture into the contents of the…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    the Sam Jackson College Experience

  • Dispatches from the Orient, vol 3: Pollution in Beijing and China

    Sam Jackson
    2 Nov 2009 | 4:38 am
    The issue of pollution in China is a very great one, and not a matter than can easily be summed up in one blog post, no matter how exhaustive. However, after several rain and then snowstorms over the weekend, the air quality today is so nice, and the scenery so beautiful as a result, that I just had to stop delaying and start writing a little bit about it. Today the air quality in Beijing, as measured by the US State Department monitoring station at the US Embassy, is at one of its best levels I have ever noticed in my following the reported figures. In fact, at this very moment, the current…

  • I’m no longer a teenager…

    Sam Jackson
    31 Oct 2009 | 10:17 pm
    That’s right, as of October 31st, 2009, I’m 20 years old. Very scary. The question remains as to when this birthday actually happened — was it on Beijing time, where I am at the time, or did it not happen until my birth-timezone, 12 hours behind? Then, do I count the day, or the hour? (A little after 5 o clock). Either way, by now what’s done is done, and two decades have elapsed. If you like to send me presents, cash, internships or other gifts, please either say so in the comments or contact me through the contact form; otherwise, I do have some presents to give out…

  • More about Yunnan Province (brief addendum)

    Sam Jackson
    27 Oct 2009 | 10:14 pm
    I just wanted to share this little slideshow from the New York Times about Heshun, which has been rated in the past the “most charmful village in China.” It’s definitely very charmful, though the NYT slideshow does not do it justice. Still, it’s fun to see the Times validate the charm of someplace that we visited during ourtrip to Yunnan. Click here for the slideshow [photos: Ariana Lindquist for The New York Times] Here are some of my own photos from Heshun: Waterway around Heshun village Public swimming hole next to a village temple sunset over the rice fields…

  • Shortest Scholarship App Ever: The Twitter 140 Scholarship

    Sam Jackson
    26 Oct 2009 | 9:20 am
    The wonderful* people at www.collegescholarships.org have set up an interesting scholarship that I just have to share. The Twitter 140 Scholarship is short and sweet: All you need to do, in 140 characters or less, is write a Tweet highlighting how we can use Twitter to improve the world. Here’s my application: I did put a fair amount of thought into it, but one can only worry so much about something when you’ve only invested 140 characters in it. (In my case, I believe, 139.) Now, what exactly is the motivation for completing this scholarship? Let us count the ways: Since Twitter…

  • Update about site: it’s clean now

    Sam Jackson
    17 Oct 2009 | 12:27 am
    Hey everyone – as has happened in the past, my site was recently hacked! : ( This doesn’t seem to be the same thing that happened last winter, but is rather just some strange little exploit that allowed someone to insert some evil javascript into some wordpress files. It only affected www.samjackson.org/college, not any other sites of mine. This happened while I was offline in Shanghai,and I fixed it when I returned – however, Google has not yet updated its “unsafe browsing” to remove my site as a risk. Therefore, if you use Firefox or Chrome, you will continue…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    UT: THE EYES OF TFA ARE UPON YOU!

  • UTMB ACCUSED OF AGE DISCRIMINATION

    George Reamy
    6 Nov 2009 | 4:53 am
    The Blogmeister doesn't know the merits of this individual's particular case, but it does remind me of Dr. Frances Nesti's case. In that instance, UTMB ran off a 70-year-old, female pediatrician (who had earlier, before UTMB had purged its EEO office in 2006, made a claim of discrimination that stuck) yet kept a much younger one with numerous, I mean NUMEROUS, serious complaints and allegations made against him. He wasn't 70 years old, though.  Click on the highlighted text to see an e-mail about Nesti's younger colleague from her former chair, and then move on to…

  • UNINSURED CARE: UTMB AND OTHERS OUTED IN REPORT

    George Reamy
    5 Nov 2009 | 5:19 am
    If readers care to use the blog search engine in the sidebar to the right and search on "indigent," "DAMP," or "uninsured," they'll find a stack of documentation supporting this report's findings.  For those who would like to hear more details than those contained in the Daily News story, the sponsor of the report, the Cancer Coalition of Galveston County, will present its findings today, November 5th, at St. Vincent's House, 2817 Post Office St., in Galveston. The Galveston County Daily NewsAccording to the report, surveyors called and visited…

  • PLAGIARISM-DETECTION SOFTWARE STRIKES AGAIN

    George Reamy
    4 Nov 2009 | 5:15 am
    ScienceDirect - International Journal of Cardiology : Retraction of a paper containing plagiarized material: The prognostic value of serum troponin T in unstable angina. Gökhan Cin V, Gök H, Kaptanoğlu B. Int J Cardiol. 1996 Mar;53(3):237–44We investigated the text of the two papers and we agreed that there was such a similarity that the later paper must have plagiarized the earlier paper, and in doing so infringed the copyright. In accordance with our previously published standards on ethical publishing in the Journal we hereby retract the paper “The prognostic value of serum troponin…

  • REVILL QUITS OHSU CFO JOB

    George Reamy
    4 Nov 2009 | 5:06 am
    Image via WikipediaTo read the whole story, readers will have to take a couple of minutes to complete Modern Healthcare's free registration process.  Modern Healthcare : LoginThe new chief financial officer of Oregon Health & Science University has resigned after just two weeks on the job, citing personal reasons. Larry Revill came to OHSU, in Portland, from University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where he had worked since 1991. He started on Oct. 15. Related articles by ZemantaOregon offers model to boost nursing faculty (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

  • ODDS AND ENDS

    George Reamy
    3 Nov 2009 | 6:04 am
    There doesn't seem to be a whole lot going today, so I thought I'd seize the opportunity to talk about a few things that wouldn't, by themselves, rate a separate post:Klebe v. UT: I know I said that the judge would issue a decision on October 22nd.  He didn't.  He's still considering the motions.  I'll give readers an update as soon as I get one.  Public Info Requests:  I've got a couple of irons in the fire in an attempt to get information.  I fired off another request to UTMB to get that contract with the private firm…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    FactCheckED.org

  • Term Of The Week: Xenophobia

    6 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm
    Xenophobia is an intense fear of foreigners. The word combines the prefix "xeno-", which means “foreigner” or “other,” and "phobia," which means “fear, horror or strong dislike.”  Xenophobia is a term that has surfaced in policy debates over revamping the nation’s immigration laws.

  • New Lesson: Oil Exaggerations

    19 Aug 2009 | 2:05 am
    Ever notice how political speeches and ads always mention “the worst,” “the best,” “the largest,” “the most”? It’s effective to use superlatives, but it isn’t always accurate. For instance, President Barack Obama has said that “we import more oil today than ever before” – but do we? How can you find out? What do the numbers really mean? And why would he say it if it wasn’t true? In this lesson, students will weigh Obama’s superlative claim against the facts.

  • Topical Lesson: Oil Exaggerations

    19 Aug 2009 | 2:05 am
    Ever notice how political speeches and ads always mention “the worst,” “the best,” “the largest,” “the most”? It’s effective to use superlatives, but it isn’t always accurate. For instance, President Barack Obama has said that “we import more oil today than ever before” – but do we? How can you find out? What do the numbers really mean? And why would he say it if it wasn’t true? In this lesson, students will weigh Obama’s superlative claim against the facts.

  • New Lesson: Seeing is Believing

    21 Apr 2009 | 11:30 pm
    You’ve heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, but which words? What are the images we see daily – in magazines, on billboards, on TV – really trying to tell us? Pictures and other visual elements can pack a lot of rhetorical punch, enhancing verbal arguments or making arguments of their own. This lesson gives students some tools for unpacking visual rhetoric in advertising and politics.

  • New Lesson: Building a Better Argument

    24 Nov 2008 | 3:41 am
    Whether it’s an ad for burger chains, the closing scene of a “Law & Order” spinoff, a discussion with the parents about your social life or a coach disputing a close call, arguments are an inescapable part of our lives. In this lesson, students will learn to create good arguments by getting a handle on the basic structure. The lesson will provide useful tips for picking out premises and conclusions and for analyzing the effectiveness of arguments.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Educational Discourse

  • Giving thanks

    kwhobbes
    10 Oct 2009 | 7:27 pm
    This weekend is the Thanksgiving holiday in Canada. It’s a time to sit back and be thankful for all that we have living in one of the greatest countries in the world. Given this, I thought this would be a good time to reflect on what has been going on since school began and to do some reflection. The first month and a half of school has just blown past. I started a new position at a new school in August and it’s been a bit of an adjustment. Besides being in a new school, I have to commute for about 40 minutes each way. The drive, which is mostly highway driving, gives me plenty of…

  • Oh how the mighty have fallen

    kwhobbes
    27 Jun 2009 | 10:21 pm
    Have you noticed a preoccupation by people to bring down people who are in positions of authority – willing to believe any bit of dirt or gossip. They’ll jump on a mistake, making sure that everyone knows that it has happened. Whether it’s people in celebrity positions or just those people in our society that are in positions of authority, people seem to take extra-pleasure in watching those in authority suffer for what they have done. I examine this because I’ve once again experienced it myself. Now, what happened isn’t really important but I made a mistake,…

  • Are blogs going the way of the Dodo?

    kwhobbes
    27 Jun 2009 | 8:33 pm
    Summer holidays have officially begun, thank goodness and I’m spending some time figuring out what exactly I might do this summer and what I would like to accomplish in the realm of my own development. My last week of school was less than inspiring with a number of things happening that reaffirmed my thoughts about people enjoying watching those above them suffer but that’s a different post. Today I began with looking at my Google Reader and was amazed that, really, given the lack of attention that I’ve given it, there weren’t as many posts there to read through as I…

  • It was bound to happen

    kwhobbes
    26 Jun 2009 | 3:35 pm
    Well, I almost made it through the year without making a stupid mistake for which I need to apologize. I won’t go into details because, basically, it wasn’t one of my better moments. Needless to say, it was just something that fell out of my mouth without me thinking about it. As an administrator, I’ve made a few major faux pas that have required me to go back and apologize. It isn’t always easy but it’s necessary since that is one thing I tell the students. Admitting a mistake is the path to healing and bringing closure to a situation. It’s something that…

  • It’s just a bag of dinosaurs

    kwhobbes
    22 Jun 2009 | 1:20 pm
    As I begin to wind down at my present school, I’m noticing a few things about people that I will definitely need to remember and transfer as I make the leap to a new, bigger building. As I see it, sometimes educators get so caught up with the little things that we forget to step back and look at things from a much broader perspective. This past week there were a few things that reminded me that we need to really make sure we are getting excited about things that will matter not just something to create a crisis about this moment. Point in fact, one of our younger students lost a bag of…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    EQ Planet

  • Every Emotion has a Purpose

    josh@6seconds.org (Joshua Freedman)
    2 Nov 2009 | 6:34 pm
    Every Emotion has a Purpose is a basic tenet of Emotional Intelligence.  I thought of this today when I heard about  a study quoted on national news: “Bad moods can actually be good for you, with an Australian study finding that being sad makes people less gullible, improves their ability to judge others and also boosts memory.” Here’s another quote:  “…research suggests that sadness … promotes information processing strategies best suited to dealing with more demanding situations.” Good to know that my moods can provide some benefits at work! You…

  • Kids and Noble Goals

    josh@6seconds.org (Joshua Freedman)
    30 Oct 2009 | 11:49 pm
    Great experience w my kids discovering a way to make a difference - and how that connection to purpose created emotional transformation.  Wrote it up on family travel blog… http://redsuitcase.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/j-orangutan-heart/

  • Awareness = Intelligence?

    josh@6seconds.org (Joshua Freedman)
    20 Oct 2009 | 11:23 am
    I admit it’s a terrible habit - again sitting in a restaurant listening to the next table… but the guy was so loud I could hardly not!  Three people, “Joe” and 2 friends, Joe says he’s so glad to see them again and launches into a story.  Eventually says, “but I don’t want us to just talk about my stories…” and the proceeds to dominate the conversation for half an hour of virtually nonstop monologue.  Every once in a while the others manage to slip in a word but Joe grabs back the conversation.  It seems like Joe KNOWS he dominates and…

  • Too Much Positive, Caring Nonsense

    josh@6seconds.org (Joshua Freedman)
    16 Oct 2009 | 10:39 pm
    From NurtureShock to Bright-sided, there are several new “anti-feel-good” books coming out, and they seem to be striking a chord with the current state of the world — and they are SO right.  I mean enough of this talking about feelings. As Marge Simpson said (more or less), “take those negative feelings and push them down inside yourself until you’re standing on them!”  What we need is more cold-hearted, analytic critics in the world, and clearly there’s good money to be made selling books that say so.  Look, suppression has worked for generations…

  • You Have a Healing Power

    josh@6seconds.org (Joshua Freedman)
    16 Oct 2009 | 8:57 am
    You have a tremendous power to heal others. Listen to them. Without interrupting. Watch what happens!
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    TCRecord

  • Taking Play Seriously: Children and Play in Early Childhood Education - an Exciting Challenge

    26 Oct 2009 | 1:46 pm
    Play and its power to teach and nurture begins at birth. Watch how a baby reacts to a mother’s playfulness. There are smiles, cooing, and signs of disappointment and discomfort when the mother stops or ignores the baby’s positive reactions. This “love dance,” or connection between mother and child, lays the foundation for trust and for positive affect, the beginnings of socialization. In Lillemyr’s book, Taking Play Seriously, written for parents, educators, and students, the author, himself, takes play too seriously. I wish that he had included more vignettes of how…

  • Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh

    26 Oct 2009 | 11:49 am
    The Milliken decision that struck down a metropolitan desegregation plan in Detroit was the beginning of the end of legal efforts to desegregate American schools. In Hope and Despair in the American City: Why there are no bad schools in Raleigh, Gerald Grant makes a compelling argument that the residential segregation that characterizes virtually all urban districts and their suburbs leaves inner city students in schools isolated by race/ethnicity and social class. The twin goals of desegregation and equal educational opportunity thus are largely unattainable. Based on extensive field…

  • Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture

    22 Oct 2009 | 8:35 am
    In recent years, probing the perils and pleasures of children’s consumer culture has developed into a cottage industry within the book publishing world.  Sociologists have produced gripping exposés of the lengths to which contemporary corporate marketers go to capture children’s brand loyalty, while historians have located the roots of such practices in the early twentieth century.  Contrary to conventional wisdom, the widespread anxieties surrounding children’s consumer culture are nothing new.  Yet, even as parents have decried manipulative corporate…

  • Improving Minority Academic Performance: How a Values-Affirmation Intervention Works

    23 Sep 2009 | 8:07 am
    Research testing a social-psychological intervention designed to improve minority student performance and reduce the racial achievement gap is summarized. Key to the intervention is the notion that the risk of confirming a negative stereotype aimed at one's group, stereotype threat, can elevate stress to a level that can inhibit academic performance in minority students. Self-affirmation, a process known to bolster individuals facing identity threat, was administered in the form of a brief in-class values-affirmation writing exercise to lessen such stress and mitigate its impact. Several…

  • Call for Proposals - NSSE Yearbooks to Join TCR

    20 Oct 2008 | 8:20 pm
    The editors of TCR announce a call for proposals for future volumes of the NSSE Yearbooks.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Facing History and Ourselves

  • Shooting at Fort Hood

    ilana
    6 Nov 2009 | 1:38 pm
    November 6, 2009 On this terrible day of mourning, Facing History and Ourselves is deeply saddened by the violence at the Fort Hood, Texas military post that left 13 dead and 30... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Debate on What It Means To Be French

    ilana
    6 Nov 2009 | 10:30 am
    November 6, 2009 In recent years there has been much debate about what it means to be French. This debate reflects the impact of globalization, immigration, and ethnic and... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Essential Questions

    nicolez
    5 Nov 2009 | 2:32 pm
    Discussion Rationale:  “To get at matters of deep and enduring understanding we need to use provocative and multilayered questions... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Four Corners

    nicolez
    5 Nov 2009 | 2:25 pm
    Discussion Rationale:  A Four Corners Debate requires students to show their position on a specific statement (strongly agree,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self, Text-to-World

    nicolez
    5 Nov 2009 | 2:09 pm
    Literacy Rationale:  Reading comes alive when we make recognize how the ideas in the text connect to our experiences and beliefs,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    EdTechTalk

  • Week of October 31 - November 6, 2009

    kcaise
    6 Nov 2009 | 5:07 pm
    Welcome to this week's EdTechTalk (ETT) newsletter! The ETT chatroom got a makeover that was received with mixed reviews. If you participated in any of the live shows you noticed the conversation in the chat. Be sure to weigh in on your view of the new chatroom and let the EdTechWeekly co-hosts this Sunday at 7pm EST. read more

  • 2009-11-5 ben N ben

    alicebarr
    5 Nov 2009 | 6:02 pm
    [19:24] <BenN_> Joe, Welcome! 43:23 minutes (39.72 MB)read more

  • 21st Century Learning #113: Roxbury Latin's Social Media Plan

    alex.ragone
    4 Nov 2009 | 6:51 pm
    21st Century Learning #112 October 20, 2009 Andrew Katz and Ken Hiat on Social Media at Roxbury Latin School A conversation with Andrew Katz and Ken Hiat about Roxbury Latin's Social Media strategy and the way their community is implementing their plan.     21st Century Learning #112 October 20, 2009 Andrew Katz and Ken Hiat on Social Media at Roxbury Latin School A conversation with Andrew Katz and Ken Hiat about Roxbury Latin's Social Media strategy and the way their community is implementing their plan.     Photo Credit <Chat Transcript>   20:54…

  • Parents as Partner Episode # 30 November 2, 2009

    Lornacos
    3 Nov 2009 | 9:15 am
     For most parents the most common interaction with their child's classroom teacher happens at parent teacher interviews. For years that process has been the norm, but now it is changing. In more and more schools, students are leading conferences, and, overall, the word is that they‚are doing a fine job. Conversations Edtechtalk show host Lisa Parisi and Ginger Lewman from Turning Point Learning Centre in Emporia, KS  joined Matt Lorna and Cindy to share their experiences using student led Parent Teacher conferences. Chat Log 64:57 minutes (29.73 MB)read more

  • EdTechWeekly #141

    JenM
    1 Nov 2009 | 5:45 pm
    Without Jeff, the boys and Jen do their best with this week's edtech news and resources. EdTechWeekly #141 November 1, 2009 This Week's Delicious Links Chat Log Below 47:01 minutes (21.53 MB)read more
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

  • Max’s Math Adventures

    Larry Ferlazzo
    6 Nov 2009 | 9:38 pm
    Max’s Math Adventures is from Scholastic, and offers a variety of relatively simple math games. The key feature, though, that makes it so useful to English Language Learners is that audio support is provided for much of the text. I’ve placed the link on my website under Math.

  • So This Is What Obama Was Talking About…

    Larry Ferlazzo
    6 Nov 2009 | 8:02 pm
    In response to my request for help in figuring out what President Obama was referring to in his speech this week when he spoke about a national competition to identify better assessments different from having students “fill out a bubble” (An Interesting Thing In Obama’s Speech This Week), “chalkdusty” shared an article that appeared in Education Week two weeks ago titled Experts, Public to Weigh In on Common Tests. Unfortunately, the article certainly doesn’t leave the impression (at least, in my reading of it) that they are going to seriously consider new…

  • An Interesting Thing In Obama’s Speech This Week

    Larry Ferlazzo
    6 Nov 2009 | 5:20 pm
    (I found out what Obama was talking about. See So This Is What Obama Was Talking About….) Unfortunately, this week President Obama echoed the typical stuff that has been coming out of his administration about schools in his speech at a Wisconsin school. However, there was one part that I found intriguing. Maybe others know what he’s referring to in the last line of this excerpt. If you do, please leave a comment. But what we want to do — what we want to do is finally get testing right. So it’s not about more tests, it’s about being smarter about our assessments.

  • Part Forty-One Of The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly

    Larry Ferlazzo
    6 Nov 2009 | 4:50 pm
    The first part of this post is my usual introduction to this series. If you’re familiar with it already, just skip down to the listing of new sites… Here’s the latest installment in my series on The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly. As you may remember, in order to make it on this list, the web tool has to: * be easily accessible to English Language Learners and/or non-tech savvy computer users. * allow people to create engaging content within minutes. * host the user’s creation on the site itself indefinitely, and allow a direct link to be able to be posted on…

  • Neat Lincoln Memorial Interactive

    Larry Ferlazzo
    6 Nov 2009 | 4:55 am
    The National Parks Service has put together a really exceptional interactive on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. I’m adding it to The Best Resources About President’s Day.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  • Geography Awareness Week, November 15-21

    Ed Darrell
    6 Nov 2009 | 12:08 pm
    Geography Awareness week is sneaking up — November 15-21. Got your special lesson plans ready, teachers? Posted in Education, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, Lesson plans Tagged: Education, geography, Geography Awareness Week, Lesson plans

  • Texas flags at half-staff today, remembering Fort Hood

    Ed Darrell
    6 Nov 2009 | 5:32 am
    Texas Gov. Rick Perry has ordered flags in Texas to be flown at half-staff through Sunday, November 8, in remembrance of the victims of the shootings at Fort Hood.  The statement from Perry’s office follows. AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today issued the following statement regarding the shootings at Fort Hood: “The Texas family suffered a significant loss today with the tragedy at Fort Hood. Along with all Texans, Anita and I are keeping those affected by today’s incidents in our thoughts and prayers. “We are deeply saddened by today’s events, but resolve to continue supporting…

  • What books and papers literally turned history around?

    Ed Darrell
    6 Nov 2009 | 3:13 am
    Debating the effects  of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring got me wondering about the true influence of that book.  That quickly turned into wondering about the true influence of other writings, books and papers that might be credited with having turned around history in a given field, or in the United States (I’m focusing on U.S. history this year since that’s what I’m teaching). What books and writings — not events, not inventions — literally changed U.S. history? I have a quick list, not in chronological order, nor any other order, really: The Jungle, by…

  • Surely we’ve found everything by now

    Ed Darrell
    4 Nov 2009 | 5:06 am
    Well, no, we haven’t.  Nice little post by a photographer urging people to go look to see what they can find, with a brilliantly concise set of arguments about big things discovered just in the past few years. Nice photos, too — go see. Posted in Adventure, Education, Explorers and Exploration, Geography - Physical, History, photography, Science Tagged: Adventure, Biology, Discovery, Education, Exploring and Exploration, geography, History, Science

  • Al Gore shows green investing works

    Ed Darrell
    3 Nov 2009 | 2:54 am
    Among the more amusing about-faces in conservative knee-jerk politics is conservative criticism of Al Gore for being a successful investor. No, I’m not kidding. Back in April, Gore testified to a House Energy and Commerce Committee in April — one of the committees where Gore was a shining star when he was a Member — and he ran into a challenge from Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blakburn who tried to play bad cop in grilling Gore about his investment work.  Since leaving politics Gore has worked to put his money where his advocacy is, backing green industries and energy efficiency…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org

  • Poor Ignaz and Edublogger Buddies

    5 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm
    Seth Godin hits us all between the eyes with some nifty examples and a question:It took Ignaz Semmelweis more than twenty years (he died before it happened, actually) to persuade doctors that washing their hands could save the lives of mothers giving birth. He had the data, he had the proof, but that wasn't enough to change minds.Data mining and the proximity of the internet to most of what we do is changing the proximity of proof to decision. Now, you don't need to do a lot of research, the data is just a click away.What are you going to do when your hunches don't match the data that's now…

  • The Home Run

    4 Nov 2009 | 5:39 pm
    Watch the Home RunSubscribe to Around the Corner-MGuhlin.orgEverything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

  • Moodle vs Elgg - Teacher vs Learner-Centered

    4 Nov 2009 | 3:58 am
    Source: http://21stcenturylearning.wikispaces.com/file/view/change.jpg/35223089Mark at Learning Conversations shares the following chart comparing Moodle and Elgg. After reading it, I'm not entirely sure of the features of either, only that I must confess to a certain disappointment that I have yet to install Elgg in our learning environment. The key difference between the two tools is put succinctly in this way:Jane is a very effective advocate of Elgg, the open source social networking and social publishing platform. She calls it [Elgg] a social-learning platform, and uses it as the base…

  • DiigoNotes - Convert or Close Down?

    3 Nov 2009 | 6:45 am
    Educational Equity, Politics & Policy in Texas: The Turnaround Dilemma: Convert or Close Down? The report out last week on the results of a study looking at Chicago's efforts to close down failing schools got me thinking. In its study, the Consortium on Chicago School Research examined the impact on students of shutting down 18 chronically low-performing elementary schools in the Windy City. The bottom line, according to this study, was that the students who were displaced by the closings just ended up at other low-performing schools in the district. Their achievement, as measured by test…

  • TCEA TechEdge Editor Leaving

    3 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Source: TCEA TechEdge ArchiveThe TCEA association journal and quarterly magazine, the TechEdge, is published four times a year and contains articles about TCEA events and activities, how-to articles and descriptive commentary on technology in education, tips on the latest software and hardware, and other timely information. The TechEdge spring, summer, fall, and winter issues are mailed to our membership of approximately 8,000 educators throughout Texas and the United States. We also offer advertising in the TechEdge in either color or black and white formats.Source: TCEA Web SiteA few weeks…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Steve Hargadon

  • This Week's LearnCentral Event Listing

    Steve Hargadon
    2 Nov 2009 | 1:09 pm
    Be sure to check out the sections below which also introduce you to groups and recordings that have been created in LearnCentral that are noteworthy.  Look for them below the events! Public EventsThe time of the events below will show up automatically in your time zone when you registered in LearnCentral and when you have chosen your time zone in your profile.  Remember that event recordings are posted and available after the events if you aren't able to attend them live.We hope you'll consider hosting your own public webinars using the LearnCentral public room--instructions are…

  • Today Live: Innosight Report on Florida Virtual School with Katherine Mackey and Michael Horn

    Steve Hargadon
    2 Nov 2009 | 10:49 am
    Part of the FutureofEducation.com interview series. Date: Monday, November 2nd, 2009 Time: 2:30pm Pacific / 5:30pm Eastern / 10:30pm GMT (international times here)Duration: 1 hourLocation: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event.In this live and interactive interview with Michael Horn and Katherine Mackey of…

  • SRI on Tapped In, Educational Networking, and the Future

    Steve Hargadon
    19 Oct 2009 | 8:09 am
    Part of the Future of Education interactive interview series.Date: Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am GMT (next day) (international times here)Duration: 1 hourLocation: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tinyurl.com/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event.Event Page:…

  • Esther Wojcicki on Creative Commons and Open Education

    Steve Hargadon
    12 Oct 2009 | 4:47 pm
    A FutureofEducation.com interview.Date: Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am GMT (next day) (international times here)Duration: 1 hourLocation: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tinyurl.com/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event.Event Page: http://www.futureofeducation.com/forum/topics/esther-wojcicki-on-creativeEsther…

  • Howard Rheingold Presents "Thinking Tools" on Howard's Brainstorms!

    Steve Hargadon
    12 Oct 2009 | 4:29 pm
    Join us as Howard Rheingold starts a series in Elluminate called "Howard's Brainstorms!" He'll spend an interactive hour with you discussing education, literacies, and anything else on his mind!The topic for the show this Thursday evening: "Thinking Tools: PersonalBrain, Devonthink, Social Bookmarking, Outlining, Visualization, and More." Date: Thursday, October 15th, 2009 Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am GMT (next day) (international times here)Duration: 1 hourLocation: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tinyurl.com/convnet. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Sue Waters Blog

  • Here’s how to get help while I’m on holidays!

    Sue Waters
    16 Oct 2009 | 4:24 pm
    Yes I know unusual post But the problem is every day I receive requests for assistance via my personal email account, Twitter, IM, comments on blog posts etc. So I need to provide some alternatives while I’m away for 8 days. So here’s other ways you can get help: Step 1: Read through the Getting Started With Your Blogs information on Edublogs Help and Support site Step 2: See if the answer is on Edublogs Help and Support site Step 3: Ask for help in the Edublogs Forum Step 4: Leave a comment on one of Sue Wyatt’s posts — she will help you with most common questions and…

  • Here’s What I Said On Educational blogging! What Would You Say?

    Sue Waters
    9 Oct 2009 | 5:25 am
    Commenters on my What Are Your Thoughts on Educational Blogging? post asked if I would share the essence of my presentation from Alec Couros‘ s EC&I 831: Social Media & Open Education course — so as promised here it is! You can watch an Elluminate recording of the session here. Pre-presentation Preparation One of the best aspects of Alec’s course is that participants post reflections on their blogs.  Wouldn’t that be nice if you could research and interact with participants before every presentation to be better prepared? By checking out their Shared Google Reader…

  • A Year Later And Are We Using Different Tools To Connect To Our PLNs?

    Sue Waters
    3 Oct 2009 | 7:23 pm
    One year ago I asked my network to complete a survey on Personal Learning Network. The survey was used in a series of presentations and to build my PLN Yourself website. Being a year later I’m wondering how much has changes?  Are we using different tools to connect?  Are the tools we would recommend to new people different? Can you help in the following ways: Can you please complete my new Personal Learning Networks Survey? There are only 2 questions Can you promote my Personal Learning Networks Survey to your network using a range of tools? For example blog post, twitter, plurk,…

  • What Are Your Thoughts on Educational Blogging?

    Sue Waters
    29 Sep 2009 | 12:20 am
    I’m doing a presentation next week for Alec Couros‘ s EC&I 831: Social Media & Open Education course and as part of it I’ve need to organise some required reading one week prior to the presentation. I’ve been asked to focus on educational blogging and building personal learning networks so I’m hoping you can help as I want to: Demonstrate how conversations in blog comments provides greater knowledge gain for all involved, because each individual sees a different perspective of the task – giving everyone greater “food for thought!” Model personal…

  • Here’s My Blogging Story! What’s Yours?

    Sue Waters
    18 Sep 2009 | 2:56 am
    Well I’m a bit late  to help John Connell with his session at BBC’s Glasgow HQ! But I like the blogging questions and think others would be intrigued by my answers. 1.  How did you get into blogging? I’m sure lots of people that are very glad I’m blogger would be totally surprised by the fact that initially I really struggled with the concept of blogging — Why anyone would blog and why others read their blogs? It took almost a year from being shown what a blog was to becoming a blogger. The turning point were a result of: Subscribing to blogs (which gave me a…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Teach42

  • Mobiles to Help Learning? High School in UK says OK

    Steve
    25 Oct 2009 | 10:30 am
    Image via Wikipedia Via @TerryFreedman: Looks like Notre Dame high school in the UK is taking the bull by the horns and moving forward with an initiative to allow the use of mobile phones for educational purposes during class time. Assistant headteacher Paul Haigh said mobiles, MP3 players and gaming devices were “untapped resources” for teaching and learning. “We realise as a comprehensive state school we could never afford to buy every student all the IT and mobile devices we would like them to have. He added: “But most students own many of these devices anyway…

  • If you Tweet, will anybody hear it?

    Steve
    20 Oct 2009 | 10:10 am
    Image via Wikipedia I think that many people (myself included) that share sites like Twitter at conferences inadvertently do our attendees a disservice. In the effort of attempting to demonstrate how wonderful, simple, powerful and dynamic it is, we make it seem much more effortless than it really is. For example… How many times per day do you see somebody say, “Give a shout out to the people in Nepal who are attending my presentation about social networks about using the Luge to teach physics!” And then 30-40 people reply with a hearty “Hello”. So attendees…

  • Ted Talks… for Kids

    Steve
    13 Oct 2009 | 8:01 am
    Looks like TEDxSMU has organized the first ever Ted Talks for kids. TedxKids was the first of its kind and invited local students to share their thoughts in the TED format, as well as attend presentations. The organize of the conference had this to say: “It’s important to get kids interested at an early age and one of the hopes is that TEDxKids will be a meaningful experience for both us and other kids.” The event was a couple of days ago and as of now, there haven’t been any videos released from it, but I did find this blog post mentioning it. On Friday, the TEDxSMU team also…

  • WAVE to the ITEC conference

    Steve
    12 Oct 2009 | 7:57 am
    Not sure if this is going to work, but going to try to embed in a Google Wave for following the ITEC conference. Unfortunately, yes you do need to already have a Wave account to see it, but them’s the breaks. Looks like it works! If you can’t see it, I apologize. But these are the eggs we’re cracking to learn how to make an omlette!

  • CDWG presents: Dembo and Davidson on Web 2.0

    Steve
    9 Oct 2009 | 9:53 am
    Speaking of tools (no pun intended), Hall and I had the pleasure of spending a few days in Discovery’s green screen studio recently to create a series of videos focusing on Web 2.0. They’ve been released as part of CDWG’s Conquering Technophobia mini-site, which has the videos we created as well as a slew of resources for teachers who are looking to learn more about new technologies. I have to admit, we had an absolute blast creating these. Hall is a creative genius and really had some wonderful vision for how to make these fun yet informative. We broke Web 2.0 down into 6…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    History Is Elementary

  • Glober Trekker

    Elementaryhistoryteacher
    4 Nov 2009 | 8:22 am
    I have this deep dark secret.I’ve never really shared it with anyone.My secret doesn’t exactly fit the image many have of me….the quiet unassuming married school marm who in the past has lugged home not just one but two large bags each night filled to capacity with papers to grade, materials to review and to plan lessons with, paperwork to complete, and an assortment of other effects that teachers just seem to accumulate.Teachers just have that image...always doing the right thing, always saying the right thing, always being where they are expected to be, but I have this desire…If I…

  • ....If the Creeks Don't Rise

    Elementaryhistoryteacher
    26 Oct 2009 | 7:56 pm
    There are so many interesting points to bring up when discussing the War of 1812 – the writing of the Star Spangled Banner, the tornado that actually killed more British during the Washington D.C. invasion than bullets, General Andrew Jackson’s successful attempt to unite the people of New Orleans for its defense, Dolly Madison’s quick action to save the Gilbert Stuart painting of President George Washington – and the list goes on.It’s sad really that so few Americans know about this time in American history, but I believe our first performance on the world stage defending American…

  • Staking My Claim...Again

    Elementaryhistoryteacher
    12 Oct 2009 | 6:35 am
    Some things just bear repeating.I’ve been at the beach…again…for the last couple of days, so it’s more than appropriate to share a repeat of an earlier post written on this very same beach three years ago this month…..Mr. EHT and I were up and out very early this morning enjoying yet another sunrise on MY beach.It is not lost on me how things change….and how they remain the same.Enjoy my post I Conquer This Beach in the Name of ElementaryHistoryTeacher!

  • Lovely Latin

    Elementaryhistoryteacher
    8 Oct 2009 | 6:40 am
    Somehow or another I tend to trip down the path of Latin around the time of year students examine Ancient Indians . Since so many of our references to time refer to B.C. I launch into a discussion regarding our system of time reference.B.C. and A.D.We learn about the Julian and Gregorian calendars and discuss the entire Before Christ (B.C.) or Before the Common Era (B.C.E.) thing.We learn that the Anno Domini dating system came to be mainly to figure out the dates for the Christian Eastern observance by a monk fondly remembered as Dennis the Little or Dennis the Short. The name was devised…

  • Parallel

    Elementaryhistoryteacher
    23 Sep 2009 | 6:26 pm
    Out of all the historical content I have shared with students over the years the content that I find most satisfying to share with them is the information and activities I present regarding how our government came to be and how it works. As citizens we are all about our rights….in fact, these days it seems we all overdose a little about what government should be doing for us. We often forget that an important aspect of being a citizen of the United States involves not just having a laundry list of rights….that list includes responsibilities as well. YES! There are things that WE….we the…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Infinite Thinking Machine

  • Today Live: Innosight Report on Florida Virtual School with Katherine Mackey and Michael Horn

    2 Nov 2009 | 10:49 am
    Part of the FutureofEducation.com interview series. Date: Monday, November 2nd, 2009 Time: 2:30pm Pacific / 5:30pm Eastern / 10:30pm GMT (international times here)Duration: 1 hourLocation: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event.In this live and interactive interview with Michael Horn and Katherine Mackey of…

  • Education Summit @Google

    25 Oct 2009 | 9:45 am
    As I've mentioned in a previous post, Google is co-sponsoring an education summit along with the Joan Ganz Cooney Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and Commonsense Media. An interesting blend of business, technology, and education leaders will be discussing their work on Tuesday, October 27, and Wednesday, October 28, at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California. You, too, can participate. Get involved in the following ways:1) Read blog posts of some of the attendees and presenters. Leave some comments!2) Ask burning questions via a tool called Google Moderator.3) Sign up to…

  • "Educate the Fear Out of Them"

    25 Oct 2009 | 8:16 am
    Thank you, Cheri Toledo, for this phrase.In Google Wave, several educators have been discussing the fact that all the great tools and learning environments that we regularly explore are blocked in many districts.This blog post by Ewan McIntosh also has me thinking:http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2009/10/why-backward-socialnetworkbanning-education-authorities-are-wrong.htmlI think we need a significant repository of schools where Web 2.0 technologies are welcomed and used in a safe and thoughtful manner. These stories would serve to educate districts out there who are grappling with…

  • Google Teacher Academy in Washington, DC

    20 Oct 2009 | 12:25 am
    The next Google Teacher Academy (GTA) has been announced! I've said this several times before, but I’m thrilled to be involved with this project - and to share it with you here on this blog. As with all previous GTA events, tech savvy educators and professional developers in the local area can apply to participate in the special full-day workshop. And as with the last four events, the application process is also open to anyone, including educators out of the area, out of the state, or even out of the country (with the understanding that Google doesn’t cover travel or lodging). In other…

  • SRI on Tapped In, Educational Social Networking, and the Future

    19 Oct 2009 | 8:11 am
    Part of the Future of Education interactive interview series.Date: Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am GMT (next day) (international times here)Duration: 1 hourLocation: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tinyurl.com/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event.Event Page:…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    AssortedStuff

  • And The Winners (?) Are…

    Tim
    4 Nov 2009 | 5:53 pm
    Jay Mathews and a colleague at the Post are soliciting suggestions for their lists of the ten best education blogs of 2009. I had the honor of being placed on Uncle Jay’s list of favorites last year, primarily due to my frequent rants about the pseudo mathematics behind his “challenge” index, with side trips into criticism of his regular AP and KIPP fan club postings. So, what might the two of them be looking for in their list of the “best”? Well, Mathews notes that he has a “weak spot for blogs that target me as the spawn of the devil and consign me to a…

  • Cutting the Future to Make the Present Look Better

    Tim
    2 Nov 2009 | 2:38 pm
    Back to the continuing budget mess here in the overly-large school district. The superintendent and others have been holding meetings with employee groups and community members (and distributing poorly worded surveys) to get suggestions on what programs and people should be cut to make things balance financially. However, he’s asking the wrong question. Instead the discussion needs to be framed around what we are all willing to pay for. Just about anywhere you go in the US, it’s pretty much a political given that no elected official would even talk about raising taxes. And around…

  • EduCon Proposal

    Tim
    1 Nov 2009 | 5:37 pm
    Since EduCon 2.2 proposals were due today, of course I submitted mine just a few hours ago. Nothing new… I usually do my other homework assignments at the last minute as well. :-) EduCon is something unique among the many education-related conferences out there. Sessions don’t involved being lectured at or about playing with the coolest new tools. It’s all about the “opportunity to discuss and debate ideas” dealing with just about anything to do with education and learning. Anyway, my little proposal borrows ideas from the book Disrupting Class, in which the…

  • Disrupting College

    Tim
    28 Oct 2009 | 5:26 pm
    In their current issue, Washington Monthly has an interesting article about one vision of the future of a college education. The article profiles a company called StraighterLine that is using a Netflix model to offer all-you-can-handle online courses for only $99 a month. According to the writer, this is just part of the overall trend in our society. In recent years, Americans have grown accustomed to living amid the smoking wreckage of various once-proud industries—automakers bankrupt, brand-name Wall Street banks in ruins, newspapers dying by the dozen. It’s tempting in such…

  • For Better Test Scores, Use Better Tests

    Tim
    21 Oct 2009 | 5:15 pm
    I guess the problem with international assessments, the ones that show US kids doing poorly compared to their peers in other countries, is that we’re using the wrong ones. At least according to the expert Jay Mathews interviewed. He says the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)) is a bad one because it doesn’t fit “the way U.S. students are taught” and aligns to the “losing” side in the debate over how to teach math. Which is to say that the designers of the PISA expect that schools are using curriculums that “make math…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    O'DonnellWeb

  • Thank you to the mysterious alphabetizer of Evolved Homeschoolers

    COD
    3 Nov 2009 | 7:37 pm
    I clicked into the Evolved Homeschooler Wiki for the first time in ages and immediately noticed that somebody had cleaned up the disorganized mess of links by sorting them alphabetically and adding headings. If you want to out yourself in the comments feel free. If you would prefer to remain anonymous that is fine too. Thank you either way

  • Relaunch of codcomm.com

    COD
    1 Nov 2009 | 4:53 pm
    Phase 1 a couple of weeks ago was moving the blog to design.odonnellweb.com. Just about anything that is published on the design blog will also be here. I segregated the Internet business / design stuff for those that are just interested in that. So now Phase II is done – the redesign of C.O.D. Communications. I used Stacey to do the site, for no other reason that I was curious about it. It was fun to go old school and spend time editing html files in a text editor. It’s been a while since I did anything outside of Wordpress. I’m still not sure if I’m 100% happy with…

  • So how does Farmville and Mafia Wars make money?

    COD
    1 Nov 2009 | 4:24 pm
    If you are on Facebook you undoubtedly know those two games. If you aren’t obsessed with at least one of them, you know somebody who is. (For the record, I got bored with Mafia Wars in a couple of weeks and soon thereafter blocked the application. I blocked Farmville without ever playing it, and I’ve blocked most of the rest too.) The short answer is advertising. Many of those “take this quiz and we’ll give you Mafia hit points” are really a scam to trick you into subscribing to various $10 services that spam your phone. There is a legitimate business model in…

  • Guerrilla Proselytizing at Halloween

    COD
    1 Nov 2009 | 9:04 am
    We are all familiar with families that instead of just ignoring a holiday they don’t agree with, try to co-opt for their own purposes. The most familiar example is the neighborhood family that pretends to participate in Halloween but is really just luring unsuspecting kids to the door so they can proselytize to them by dropping bible stories or bible verses into their treat bag. Those families don’t get many repeat visitors from one Halloween to the next. Last night we had a group of kids come to the door dressed like typical trick or treaters. The costumes were a little demure as…

  • Homeschooling and Nature Deficit Disorder

    COD
    29 Oct 2009 | 7:22 am
    Fred First, naturalist and long time “Imaginary Internet Friend” is interested in a homeschooling related project around getting kids more in tune with the natural world. Parents and grandparents today realize the widening distance between their children-charges and the world of nature that was so formative in their own growing-up years. I’m interested in help from the homeschooling population to help me identify how this issue has already been addressed in existing resources so I can focus my future efforts on what remains to be done with regard to the “nature…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    iterating toward openness

  • A New Kind of Media Comparison Study

    david
    3 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm
    I’ve written about this before, but here we go again… In educational research there is a long and storied history of people conducting studies along the lines of “is video-based instruction more effective than audio-based instruction?” or “is text-based instruction more effective than audio-based instruction?” or “”is video-based instruction more effective than text-based instruction?,” etc. This pointless family of research has a name, the “No Significant Difference Phenomenon,” and even has it’s own website:…

  • Durbin Open Textbook Bill Finally Introduced!

    david
    30 Sep 2009 | 9:23 am
    Earlier this year I blogged about what I thought should go into an open textbook bill (with clarifications the next day). I’m extremely pleased that Senator Durbin has introduced a bill which closely resembles these recommendations and therefore, to my mind, is on exactly the right track. You can read Durbin’s remarks as he introduced the bill, and then study the full text of S. 1714 on GovTrack (where you can also subscribe to a feed of all bill-related activity). The bill creates a competitive grant program supporting the creation of open textbooks, and most importantly requires…

  • The LHC and Education

    david
    28 Sep 2009 | 4:16 pm
    I’ve always been impressed by the idea of the Large Hadron Collider. It’s an unthinkably expensive, large-scale experimental apparatus designed for the sole purpose of generating and collecting data. Why would countries spend so much money on data? Why would so many people dedicate the better part of their lives to a project like the LHC? Because the so-called “hard” sciences – fields like physics and astronomy – have made the remarkable progress they have in understanding the structure of matter and the nature of the universe because they really care about…

  • Rimsky-Korsakov and OCW

    david
    20 Sep 2009 | 10:40 pm
    Driving home from a meeting last week I heard a truly atrocious recording of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, one of my favorite pieces for orchestra. The conductor’s interpretation (or complete lack thereof) had me screaming at the radio and almost putting my head through the steering wheel on a couple of occasions. The best recording of this fabulous piece of music is, in my not so humble opinion, John Mauceri leading the London Symphony Orchestra – (previews available from Amazon at Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade). How does this relate to OCW, you ask? For a number of years…

  • Eric Frank of Flat World Knowledge on CBC Radio