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YouTube - YaleCourses's Channel
Yale has released several more high def courses hinging upon video posted on youtube. Wither you can use it with students, you could easily learn a lot. There are several videos including one on capitalism that would be great for an economics course.
Take your students to Yale for a day!
Yale has been busy with 20 something videos posted this week. They are also on itunes U. -
Funschool - Fun Blaster - Super Hyper Spider Typer
super hyper type spider recommended by @fsinfo on Twitter for typing.
"Hungry lizards with words on their backs are after Berry the hairy spider! Save Berry from these colorful, wacky creatures by typing words quickly as they appear on their backs and help her from becoming someone's lunch! Type in the letters or words you see on the lizard's backs as soon as they appear on the screen to clear them away. Some words will be harder than others so type really fast to win! Each round will end when the spider reaches the top of the tree. " -
Learn about 3 models for embedded librarianship: in a program, virtually and in a centre for teaching and learning
I need to ask some of my library friends about these three models and which they use. -
iPod Touch to help improve student learning - Live5News.com | Charleston, SC | News, Weather, Sports
I'm not sure how the licensing is working for them. I didn't think you could have one app and share on 40 ipods, but that is what the Charleston County School District says they are doing. After checking with Twitter friends - they confirmed that it is illegal. I wonder how they got this far and didn't know this.
From the article:
""Everything from vocabulary, to e-book reading, to art, to science," said CCSD Media Services Coordinator Connie Dopierala.
CCSD hopes to invest in a set of 40 iPod Touches for every school in the district, at $150 each. Students can learn math or grammar on inexpensive application programs.
"We can download a 99-cent app and load it on all 40 iPod Touches or however many, and that's very cost-effective with taxpayer dollars," said Dopierala." -
To boost student learning, improve student health, says panel
"Charles Basch, a professor of health education at Teachers College of Columbia University, presented highlights from his research on the relationship between student health and achievement. Basch’s research identifies major health risks that have a negative impact on learning, including asthma, teen pregnancy, poor vision and a lack of breakfast.
“It’s not a coincidence that children in the 5,000 lowest-performing schools are the same ones that experience the greatest health disparities,” he said." -
Joliprint | Print friendly & PDF your blogs and websites
Website that creates printer-friendly copies of articles. (Hat tip Free Tech for Teachers)
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Daily Education & Technology News for Schools 04/16/2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Flock is Dead: Try Rockmelt
Although the official Flock page recommends Google Chrome or Firefox (IE is strangely absent) - I recommend Rockmelt instead and I've reviewed this before. I use RockMelt when I feel like being a social surfer. I use Firefox for power browsing and Chrome when I need speed!
View of Rockmelt Browser from the Review I did in December about this cool social web browser
Top 10 Coolest (Mostly Free) Things for Teachers from Microsoft
1. Kodu Game Lab
This handy Game lab that lets you design X-box style games on your PC. (There is also a Kodu game for the X-box.) I find it interesting that the installation DOES NOT require admin privileges on the computer.
The Kodu Cup ( a pet project Microsoft Computer Science blogger Alfred Thompson) is a competition from Microsoft with a whopping $5K prize for the school and student creating the best game.
The reason this is my #1 favorite is that it has changed the life of my daughter. I've always known she was good at technology but she's never found anything that really sparked her interest. She was inhaled with Kodu Game Lab from the moment she opened it as part of the Digiteen Action project her team is doing and started writing video games after barely out of the tutorial. Kodu isn't super-simple and yet in some ways it is when you have a bent in this direction. She made several games and finally created "Coin Dozer" and we've installed it on the other computers in the lab. They are using it to teach mouse and arrow key functions to kindergarteners as part of their project that will teach technology and digital literacy to kindergarteners.
Cost: Free
It is free and I think every computer lab should install this and that parents who have gamers at home that they wish would consider programming should put this on their home computer and encourage their kids to play around.
2 - Kinect for Windows
Yes, the super cool Kinect device for the Xbox is headed to Windows. I'm quite fascinated by the potential to use this to navigate the Microsoft World Wide Telescope (if light conditions will allow it.) We'll see some interesting things here. The demo video shot by "Channel 9" has some cool things.
Cost: ?
3- Microsoft World Wide Telescope
One of my favorite things from MSIEF in South Africa was the time spent with the people running this program. You can make a homemade planetarium for your school and use a simple projector with an inexpensive mirror and your kids can navigate and explore the stars in ways that your local planetarium cannot begin to allow. All this for less than a thousand BUT the World Wide telescope is FREE.
I think that shop classes should be building these and that schools strapped for funds in their science programs should definitely download. Every science teacher covering astronomy needs this on their computer. Comparable to Google Sky and yet it is far beyond what Sky can do. Try it and download it.
Cost for Software: Free
Homemade Planetarium: Around $500 plus some building know how and a ton of binder clips. ;-)
4 - Windows SkyDrive
Windows Sky Drive is incredibly useful for teams using Microsoft Office products. While I liked the way that it's predecessor, Microsoft Office Live, interacted with Office, I'm getting used to this. Although simultaneous editing isn't allowed, it DOES allow one to edit a document through the web browser.
This means that if your student doesn't have office at home that they can have limited functionality to edit and work on the document from their web browser. This includes a whopping 25 GB of storage. I upload more than my powerpoints, etc.
Create team folders to share documents, etc. It is obvious that what Microsoft calls "cloud power" is part of their future strategy. I believe this will be good for all of us who use their operating systems and computers.
Every high school student and teacher should have one. Schools should create shared files. The advantage of this over Dropbox is that I find that this handles the sync process a little bit better. I've had dropbox get "unsyced" lately - if you're not opening the latest copy, Skydrive will tell you!
Cost: Free
5- Microsoft Office One Note
This gem is by far my favorite interactive white board tool bar none. When we are discussing topics that are tough (like binary number calculations) - I launch this program - capture my notes, links, recordings, and then easily print/ publish, and keep the notes. I have on my personal PD list to learn more about how to use One Note and publish notebooks to students. I've heard some incredible things from teachers who love it. I think it is an unsung wonder.
I love my Evernote but One Note is different. It is the most intuitive notetaking system for students that I've seen. I'm not really sure that Microsoft has really understood what a gem they have in this tool but they seem to be getting it. With the release of the OneNote app for my itouch and the One Note sync capabilities this is a super-powerful tool for business and schools - nothing even comes close.
You can grab screenshots (this feature was added to Powerpoint and Word 2010 but I saw it in One Note first.) You can also record the audio that goes along with the text. (I like the Livescribe pen best for this, but it is a handy feature.) There are tons of "to do list" features not available in Evernote (although the Egret List app lets you harvest the Evernote list feature - evernote itself doesn't.) There are cool tagging and studying feature. Honestly no one else comes close.
Cost: Pay for software. iPod app is free. Sync is free.
6 - Windows 8 Touch Capabilities
I haven't been excited about a Microsoft OS since Windows 3.1 and then 95. I was thrilled with the stability and deploy-ability of XP. Vista had some cool things. Windows 7 is really great - but has significant issues on my M90z touch screen computer. After talking to some of my inside sources and blogs, I am hugely excited about Windows 8 both for the touch capabilities and because I think Microsoft is back moving in exciting direction (of course brought on by the very competitive nature of technology today AND economic struggles hitting everyone.) No longer resting on their laurels, I think they are becoming fierce competitors (again.)
Cost: not free
7 - Microsoft Innovative Educator Forum
I believe competition is good for companies and it is obviously good for Microsoft. With incredible programs like their Microsoft Innovative Educator Forum (I highly recommend competing for this - Applications are due May 15).
This is the most diverse gathering of educators around the world that I have attended, largely because Microsoft flies the winners from their areas to the international competition. You get teachers in huts in africa with no electricity doing powerful things on cell phones, teachers from Arab countries collaborating and promoting peace and pride, and US educators like Pat Yongpradit who are interesting girls in computer science through after school game programming clubs. The closing ceremonies were so very touching. Some great work is being done through this program.
Cost: Your time to apply
8 - Windows Live Moviemaker
Some great improvements here, still not able to do chromakey and although iMovie smokes it, you can't beat it for a free, easy to use Movie Making program for the PC.
Cost: Free
9 - Free Teacher Tools
There are tons of free things that you can now get on their teacher website although some are add ins for existing programs.
10 - Alfred Thompson, my go-to Microsoft Blogger
Since I'm talking Microsoft, I have to put a word in for my friend Alfred Thompson. A big teddy-bear of a man, he was one of my first readers and commenters and has always genuinely been my friend before I was Cool Cat anything.
I sat with him at the first edubloggercon and we had great conversations. He has a talent for writing and is my go-to guy for anything Microsoft. The people at Microsoft will tell you that I am bullish on Alfred because he is the "real thing." A real person with a heart for kids and the classroom and, quite honestly, a huge fan of the company he works for. The kind of "salt of the earth" guy who should be escalated and recognized for his talent and good heart. Follow Alfred on blog and Twitter. He is a great guy and a wonderful resource of information on Microsoft. I find his content "real." I follow people not companies and he's someone I trust.
There are a lot of other great bloggers for Microsoft - and he was kind to me (like David Warlick was) when I had nothing to offer but skin, bones, and a whole lot of questions. I have to put in a word for him because he loves real teachers and I gotta put my money on that kind of person.
A Note from Vicki about this post.
Lots of new things from the trusty, faithful things you've used for years. Let's not let the war between Microsoft, Google, Apple, Adobe, Facebook, et.al (expect posts about them in the future) keep us from looking deeply and breathing in the really cool innovations that are happening in these many places. The truth is, few of us are all in the camp of any one company - at least we shouldn't be (unless we work for one of them.) There is room in the educational pond for many to make money and I'm of the opinion that competition benefits everyone. The exciting thing about education right now is that limited funds will force us to consider what REALLY works and start cutting out the fluff.
Full disclosure, Microsoft sent me to their incredible MSIEF (Microsoft Innovative Educator Forum) in South Africa last year. I do have friends at Microsoft. They do not pay me nor have they in any way. ;-)
This handy Game lab that lets you design X-box style games on your PC. (There is also a Kodu game for the X-box.) I find it interesting that the installation DOES NOT require admin privileges on the computer.
The reason this is my #1 favorite is that it has changed the life of my daughter. I've always known she was good at technology but she's never found anything that really sparked her interest. She was inhaled with Kodu Game Lab from the moment she opened it as part of the Digiteen Action project her team is doing and started writing video games after barely out of the tutorial. Kodu isn't super-simple and yet in some ways it is when you have a bent in this direction. She made several games and finally created "Coin Dozer" and we've installed it on the other computers in the lab. They are using it to teach mouse and arrow key functions to kindergarteners as part of their project that will teach technology and digital literacy to kindergarteners.
Cost: Free
It is free and I think every computer lab should install this and that parents who have gamers at home that they wish would consider programming should put this on their home computer and encourage their kids to play around.
2 - Kinect for Windows
Yes, the super cool Kinect device for the Xbox is headed to Windows. I'm quite fascinated by the potential to use this to navigate the Microsoft World Wide Telescope (if light conditions will allow it.) We'll see some interesting things here. The demo video shot by "Channel 9" has some cool things.
Cost: ?
3- Microsoft World Wide Telescope
One of my favorite things from MSIEF in South Africa was the time spent with the people running this program. You can make a homemade planetarium for your school and use a simple projector with an inexpensive mirror and your kids can navigate and explore the stars in ways that your local planetarium cannot begin to allow. All this for less than a thousand BUT the World Wide telescope is FREE.I think that shop classes should be building these and that schools strapped for funds in their science programs should definitely download. Every science teacher covering astronomy needs this on their computer. Comparable to Google Sky and yet it is far beyond what Sky can do. Try it and download it.
Cost for Software: Free
Homemade Planetarium: Around $500 plus some building know how and a ton of binder clips. ;-)
4 - Windows SkyDrive
This means that if your student doesn't have office at home that they can have limited functionality to edit and work on the document from their web browser. This includes a whopping 25 GB of storage. I upload more than my powerpoints, etc.
Create team folders to share documents, etc. It is obvious that what Microsoft calls "cloud power" is part of their future strategy. I believe this will be good for all of us who use their operating systems and computers.
Every high school student and teacher should have one. Schools should create shared files. The advantage of this over Dropbox is that I find that this handles the sync process a little bit better. I've had dropbox get "unsyced" lately - if you're not opening the latest copy, Skydrive will tell you!
Cost: Free
5- Microsoft Office One Note
I love my Evernote but One Note is different. It is the most intuitive notetaking system for students that I've seen. I'm not really sure that Microsoft has really understood what a gem they have in this tool but they seem to be getting it. With the release of the OneNote app for my itouch and the One Note sync capabilities this is a super-powerful tool for business and schools - nothing even comes close.
You can grab screenshots (this feature was added to Powerpoint and Word 2010 but I saw it in One Note first.) You can also record the audio that goes along with the text. (I like the Livescribe pen best for this, but it is a handy feature.) There are tons of "to do list" features not available in Evernote (although the Egret List app lets you harvest the Evernote list feature - evernote itself doesn't.) There are cool tagging and studying feature. Honestly no one else comes close.
Cost: Pay for software. iPod app is free. Sync is free.
6 - Windows 8 Touch Capabilities
I haven't been excited about a Microsoft OS since Windows 3.1 and then 95. I was thrilled with the stability and deploy-ability of XP. Vista had some cool things. Windows 7 is really great - but has significant issues on my M90z touch screen computer. After talking to some of my inside sources and blogs, I am hugely excited about Windows 8 both for the touch capabilities and because I think Microsoft is back moving in exciting direction (of course brought on by the very competitive nature of technology today AND economic struggles hitting everyone.) No longer resting on their laurels, I think they are becoming fierce competitors (again.)
Cost: not free
7 - Microsoft Innovative Educator Forum
I believe competition is good for companies and it is obviously good for Microsoft. With incredible programs like their Microsoft Innovative Educator Forum (I highly recommend competing for this - Applications are due May 15).
This is the most diverse gathering of educators around the world that I have attended, largely because Microsoft flies the winners from their areas to the international competition. You get teachers in huts in africa with no electricity doing powerful things on cell phones, teachers from Arab countries collaborating and promoting peace and pride, and US educators like Pat Yongpradit who are interesting girls in computer science through after school game programming clubs. The closing ceremonies were so very touching. Some great work is being done through this program.
Cost: Your time to apply
8 - Windows Live Moviemaker
Some great improvements here, still not able to do chromakey and although iMovie smokes it, you can't beat it for a free, easy to use Movie Making program for the PC.
Cost: Free
9 - Free Teacher Tools
There are tons of free things that you can now get on their teacher website although some are add ins for existing programs.
- Mouse Mischief Add in for Powerpoint (some hardware needed i.e. the Mice)
- Office Add in for Moodle
- Math Add in for Word and One Note 1:1 laptop programs should look at adding this over the summer for use in math class with some cool graphing capabilities. A must install for math teachers.
- Chemistry Add in for Word - You can put chemical equations, etc. in more easily. A must-install for chemistry teachers.
- Some cool graphics/ video capabilities with PhotoStory and Autocollage. PhotoStory was my entrance into multimedia and a nice segue into the cool things we're doing now.
- I have to admit I don't understand all the cool things I hear you can do with PhotoSynth as it lets you explore places in 3D. I just haven't used it yet but have seen cool things.
- Some other tools are on the teacher download site as well.
10 - Alfred Thompson, my go-to Microsoft Blogger
Since I'm talking Microsoft, I have to put a word in for my friend Alfred Thompson. A big teddy-bear of a man, he was one of my first readers and commenters and has always genuinely been my friend before I was Cool Cat anything.
I sat with him at the first edubloggercon and we had great conversations. He has a talent for writing and is my go-to guy for anything Microsoft. The people at Microsoft will tell you that I am bullish on Alfred because he is the "real thing." A real person with a heart for kids and the classroom and, quite honestly, a huge fan of the company he works for. The kind of "salt of the earth" guy who should be escalated and recognized for his talent and good heart. Follow Alfred on blog and Twitter. He is a great guy and a wonderful resource of information on Microsoft. I find his content "real." I follow people not companies and he's someone I trust.
There are a lot of other great bloggers for Microsoft - and he was kind to me (like David Warlick was) when I had nothing to offer but skin, bones, and a whole lot of questions. I have to put in a word for him because he loves real teachers and I gotta put my money on that kind of person.
A Note from Vicki about this post.
Lots of new things from the trusty, faithful things you've used for years. Let's not let the war between Microsoft, Google, Apple, Adobe, Facebook, et.al (expect posts about them in the future) keep us from looking deeply and breathing in the really cool innovations that are happening in these many places. The truth is, few of us are all in the camp of any one company - at least we shouldn't be (unless we work for one of them.) There is room in the educational pond for many to make money and I'm of the opinion that competition benefits everyone. The exciting thing about education right now is that limited funds will force us to consider what REALLY works and start cutting out the fluff.
Full disclosure, Microsoft sent me to their incredible MSIEF (Microsoft Innovative Educator Forum) in South Africa last year. I do have friends at Microsoft. They do not pay me nor have they in any way. ;-)
Daily Education & Technology News for Schools 04/15/2011
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David Truss :: Pair-a-dimes for Your Thoughts » Facebook Revisited
Excellent Facebook revisited blog post by David Truss. this echoes many of my own thoughts on this.
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CNN Student News Transcript: April 14, 2011 - CNN.com
Next week is the anniversary of the oil spill. Here is a CNN student news segment to help you study this. (Hat Tip: Richard Byrne, Free Tech for Teachers)
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Turn the habit of failure upside down
In his post Turning the habit of self-criticism upside down, Seth Godin says
Recently, Seth has been critical of teachers, but many of us ARE moving past traditional assessment and academics into the higher order thinking, global collaboration, and technology finesse they need.
Let's turn this around and rephrase.
Harvest seeds of learning from failure and we produce students who reap lifelong benefits.
"What if the habit of the project review meeting was for each person to put their worst foot forward, to identify every item that they learned from? What if we took responsibility as a way of getting more authority next time?"
Recently, Seth has been critical of teachers, but many of us ARE moving past traditional assessment and academics into the higher order thinking, global collaboration, and technology finesse they need.
Let's turn this around and rephrase.
What if the habit of each semester's grade was for each student to put their worst learning experiences forward and to identify every item they struggled with and what they learned? What if students took responsibility for their own learning gaps as a way to excel and close learning gaps through self-motivated disclosure, study, and dialog?
Harvest seeds of learning from failure and we produce students who reap lifelong benefits.
Daily Education & Technology News for Schools 04/14/2011
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Steve Hargadon, and incredible leader in education and ambassador for Elluminate is a dear friend and someone I admire very much. He is branching out as the acquisition of Elluminate by Blackboard has sort of left him with only a part time position. Those that find themselves lucky enough to work with Steve are blessed indeed.
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Free Dyslexia Testing – Screen Your Child | Lexercise
Would love my accessibility experts to test this "dyxlexia screener" online. Does it work? Is it accurate?
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Advanced search overview from Michael Gorman.
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Nice post from my computer science go-to guy in education- Alfred Thompson. He contemplates why a college like Stanford is seeing a growth in Computer Science while high schools aren't. Interesting conversation and one we need to be having -- computer science jobs are some of the few that they just can't seem to staff fast enough.
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From Groups to Teams: The Key to Powering up PBL | Edutopia
Nice article at Edutopia by Thom Markam.My favorite quote about pbl is:
"But its ultimate benefit is to help students think, learn, and operate in the new century by challenging them at deeper levels. That requires reversing the equation between skills and content: PBL is method for teaching students to find, process, understand, and share information, not a way to extend the industrial landscape of regurgitation and recall." -
From Daniela Birch, Education Community Coordinator for Adobe that is helping me learn about the new Adobe Education Leader program that has allowed me to join and participate (very excited about the potential learning I can get there as we are heavy users of PhotoShop, Dreamweaver, and I'm a bit rusty on Flash.)
From Daniela
Hi Y’All-
MIT and the Smithsonian have created a two-month-long online game for students that involves games and discovery along with collaboration to uncover messages from the future and solve a mystery. This highly engaging project was built using Flex and Flash, which is what is what put us in touch with the developers.
Encourage your students to explore this.Thousands have already begun participating, many as individuals and many as a part of their classwork.
Enjoy!
-Daniela -
Learning analytics presentation (a trend from the Horizon 2011 report) from George Siemens.
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Wolfram Demonstrations Project: Wolfram Demonstrations Challenge
This is an excellent use of technology for math, statistics, and information literacy!
Watch ideas and concepts come to life as you solve each of the challenge questions by exploring interactive Demonstrations. Answering eight questions correctly earns you a chance to win great prizes, including:
GRAND PRIZE: A copy of the computational supertool Mathematica 8,
a $300 ThinkGeek gift card + a Wolfram Spikey sculpture kit
2ND–4TH PLACE: $100 ThinkGeek gift cards + a Wolfram Spikey sculpture kit
FIRST 100 CORRECT SUBMISSIONS: Our sought-after Wolfram Spikey sculpture kit
Hurry! The contest ends April 18, 2011.
Sign up today » -
Kindle kids corner is on facebook and the students are reviewing books. We're planning to add some schools in the future - we have over 20 that have applied to join us!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Kindle Kids Corner now on Facebook: Kids Need to Write Web content
The fact is that most students will be writing web content as part of their future careers and academic pursuits and understanding the unique nature of writing for the web is vital. Westwood continues to lead and innovate in all areas of social media in schools. We're very proud of Deana Rogers and Betty Shiver and all they are doing in this area. Vicki Davis.
The Kindle Kids Corner is now on Facebook for those who want to follow the book reviews being written by our middle school and elementary school. So far, we have the sixth grade writing reviews for the renowed Stephen Windwalker's Kids Kindle blog. Using inkjet money, Boston Butt money, and donations as well as a donation from Windwalker - we now have five Kindles (3 in service and 2 ordered.)
If you are on Facebook you can "like" this page and get the reviews sent to your wall when they post.
The Kindle Kids Corner is now on Facebook for those who want to follow the book reviews being written by our middle school and elementary school. So far, we have the sixth grade writing reviews for the renowed Stephen Windwalker's Kids Kindle blog. Using inkjet money, Boston Butt money, and donations as well as a donation from Windwalker - we now have five Kindles (3 in service and 2 ordered.)
If you are on Facebook you can "like" this page and get the reviews sent to your wall when they post.
- Kindle Kids Blog http://kids.kindlenationdaily.com
- Kindle Kids Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/KindleKidsCorner?sk=wall
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