December 2010
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November 2010
The Reconnect: I have discussed a variety of... →
disconnect2reconnect:
I have discussed a variety of topics and feelings I have had towards Facebook since deleting it, but up until today I have never discussed my relationships post-challlenge. To be quite honest I have not thought about it much until today.
Not having Facebook has made me feel isolated. I can…
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Google Wave Comes Back From the Dead in an Apache... →
Google Wave, which was thought to be all but extinct after Google ended development on the project, has been given new life, thanks to Apache.
Once considered the e-mail killer, Google Wave was one of the most-hyped launches of 2009. I’ll be the first to admit that I got swept up by the excitement.
At the time of launch though, I said that Google Wave would either succeed spectacularly or...
in the cloud: Action Plan for Successful... →
gjmueller:
Kelli Murphy, instructional technology specialist for the Gettysburg Area School District recommends the following 7 steps for successful technology integration.
Make technology integration a goal in your strategic plan, which allows leaders to prioritize funding.
Align technology with…
rondalynraw asked: Just wanted to say that I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog. It's so informative! I just had to recommend you today.
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What do you think of Wikileaks?
Are they “right” in releasing all of these sensitive documents, or are they a threat to national security? What do you think?
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“The security of the test bank emerged as a significant point of contention in...”
– Quick Takes: Publisher: Students in Cheating Scandal Shouldn’t Have Gotten Test - Inside Higher Ed
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“We in higher education do have major problems with cost and quality, and they...”
– Views: Commercialization Is Not the Problem - Inside Higher Ed
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The Innovative Educator’s 10 Recommendations to... →
1. Online learning should not be place-based Many of the online learning programs I learned about unnecessarily required students to follow the traditional system of having students together in classroom consuming the same material at the same time. Why? The content is online. Are we so stuck in our old methods that we are forcing a potentially innovative learning opportunity into the same old...
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“But many of today’s parents spent hours as kids sitting in front of...”
– Is texting worse than TV? | Stuff.co.nz
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How To Turn Google Translate Into Google Beatbox →
For reasons inexplicable, a “Today I Learned” thread on Reddit has turned into a treatise on how to make Google Translate beatbox for you, among other things. It must have taken some intense experimentation for Redditor Harrichr to get here but he somehow stumbled upon the following combination of steps.
1) Go to Google Translate 2) Set the translator to translate German to German 3) Copy +...
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“A free, online building game and community gives kids the opportunity to be...”
– Online Community Encourages Kids’ Creativity
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Going Mobile with Digital Storytelling →
Oh, and the iOS app that he mentions in this article (StoryRobe) is currently a free download in the App Store!
Using StoryRobe on iOS devices has allowed me to bring FAR less equipment to class than I have previously in facilitating digital storytelling projects. I used the app “Air Sharing” to copy all the finished student videos wirelessly to my iPhone from my laptop. Armed with...
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Professors Publish Guide to Copyright Issues of... →
Students often create multimedia projects for classes that blend in clips from YouTube videos or hit songs, and many want to post their creations online for a wider audience. But does that violate copyright law?
It might, and many students fail to understand the legal risks. A new study, titled “Copying Right and Copying Wrong With Web 2.0 Tools in the Teacher Education and Communications...
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Create a Career Tree from your LinkedIn Profile →
This diagram illustrates the career path of the American President – the branches represent his education and the work experience. I think the size of the circles represent the relative time spent in a particular role.
If you would like to have something similar for your own career, simple head over to Newsweek.com and import your LinkedIn profile.
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The Importance of Writing Skills: Online Tools to... →
Introducing Online Writing Tools There are several different ways to help develop students’ writing skills, but implementing online tools is one of the best choices. This is due to many students’ inherent interest in all things technological – a lot of students have a fascination with any new tool that can simplify a basic task (like writing). If you’re interested in using online tools to help...
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Should Teachers Be Trained More Like Doctors? →
A new report released yesterday from a panel convened by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) says teachers need to be trained in a model more akin to doctors going through residency—a sort of collaborative apprenticeship with more experienced instructors that offers clinical experience to better prepare them for the rigors of their actual classroom.
This this...
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Ten Steps to Better Web Research →
Teaching the Ten Steps to Better Web Research
View more presentations from SweetSearch.
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Publish Your Own Facebook Profile As A Book →
Self-publishing, or paying to have one’s own book published, keeps getting more affordable, and now a company’s offering to do it to your Facebook profile. Ninuku Archivist promises to turn do this for you at just $24 annually. The company lets you try out the service for free, creating three sample chapters for you to evaluate in deciding whether to buy the already super-cheap subscription.
...
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Academic Freedom vs. Mandated Course Content →
Recently, on a discipline-specific listserv, tempers flared and egos were bruised. The subject of this virtual brawl, a brawl that went on for weeks? A department’s (or chair’s) decision to control and standardize course content in that department’s course offerings. Also involved in this discussion: the academic freedom at risk for faculty when these mandates are imposed, and then the...
“eBook sales almost doubled over 2010 and now make up 9% of total consumer book...”
– Top Trends of 2010: Growth of eBooks & eReaders (via interestingsnippets)
Thanksgiving 2010 Myths and Facts →
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and family tuck into Thanksgiving dinner in 1953.
Photograph from Bettmann/Corbis
Before the big dinner, debunk the myths—for starters, the first “real” U.S. Thanksgiving wasn’t until the 1800s—and get to the roots of Thanksgiving 2010.
Thanksgiving Dinner: Recipe for Food Coma?
Key to any Thanksgiving Day menu is a fat turkey and cranberry...
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“Users need to realise that these new features increase the attack surface on the...”
– Facebook messaging poses risks for users: watchdog - Yahoo! News
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“By ignoring the motivational realities of seventh graders, the teacher missed a...”
– Why Standardized Tests Kill the Joy of Learning - Education - GOOD
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10 Reasons Students Say They Prefer Learning... →
4. I can move at my own pace A tremendous benefit of learning online is that, when done right, students can learn at their own pace. For some, this might mean they can demonstrate competency upfront and get credit for the class. For others this may mean moving at a slower pace and receiving additional supports if necessary. 5. I don’t have to compete to share my thoughts and ideas Students...
With the coming holiday...
…I’m going to set the Queue to only publish a story a day starting tomorrow morning. Things will be back in full swing by next Monday.
Happy Turkey Day everybody!
PS: If you want to win people over with a delicious holiday desert, check out one of my favorite Tumblrs: Bake it in a Cake
I’d pay good money for anything they make over there.
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8 Videos to Stimulate Conversations About... →
Here are the video topics.
High School 2.0: Talking Change for Today and Tomorrow with Vallerie Cave and Mike Hall
Progressive Learning Environments: What do they Look Like?with Chris Lehmann
Cells in the Classroom: From Banning to Embracing with Lisa Nielsen and WillynWeb
Internet 2 and High-Bandwidth Connectivity: How and Why to Jump on Board with Dr. Joseph Barrow and Mike Porter
...
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Survey: Half Of Teachers Say Facebook Hurts Grades →
Online social networks have helped us reunite with old friends, connect with like-minded folks a world apart and broadcast our thoughts at the click of a mouse. But is Facebook distracting our youth to the point that their grades and critical thinking skills suffer? Half of 500 teachers polled by UK-based school trips provider JCA seem to think so.
In fact, the report found that students with...
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Eight strategies for using blogs in a course →
Like my former self, most people have a preconceived list of circumstances under which they believe blogs may be valuable – and in some cases that list is pretty short. This article aims to help folks broaden that list. It might even give you an idea for a strategy that uses a blog to meet a need in a course that you teach.
Strategies for using blogs in a course
Academic reflection – students...
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A Good Case for Learning a Second Language →
Yesterday, I read an interesting post about the value of knowing a second language on Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis’ blog. Leonsis is also a former president of AOL. In his post The Global Economy May Leave Our Children Behind, Leonsis points out that more Fortune 500 companies are seeking out and hiring more CEOs that can speak a second language. I encourage you to read his whole...
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Watchinterestingsnippets:
When Facebook becomes a book (by Siavosh Zabeti)
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Online Drawing and Painting Tools →
After a few tweets, my network have shared with me some fantastic and unique online drawing and paint tools. I thought the list was worthy of sharing properly in a blog post. Here goes:
ABCya! Paint – simple and easy to save as an image file.
Poisson Rouge Colouring Bugs – lovely early years tool within the amazing Poisson Rouge world.
Odosketch – I like the tones to the colours in this...
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Challenge on Textbook Pricing →
If the case Costco Wholesale Corporation v. Omega, S.A., falls for Costco (the high court heard oral arguments last Monday), the textbook publishers could see the U.S. market flooded with less fancy editions they have produced for students in poorer countries. The foreign editions might be flimsier, but their content is the same as in the editions the textbook companies sell to U.S. students —...
Online Drawing and Painting Tools →
thingsforteachers:
Includes links to simple paint programs and other creative artistic programs, as well as collaborative whiteboarding tools.
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UWI Talk by Brian Croxall on Prezi →
UWI Talk on Prezi
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The Year of Facebook: U.S. Traffic Has Grown by... →
Watch out, Google: U.S. traffic to Facebook has risen by a whopping 55% in the last year, according to data sent to us by comScore.
In October 2009, Facebook had 97.37 million unique U.S. visitors. In October 2010 though, the world’s largest network garnered a whopping 151.13 million U.S. uniques. That’s a growth rate of 55.2% year-over-year.
Let’s think about just how far Facebook has come in...
“Though the technology is relatively new, preliminary studies at Harvard and Ohio...”
– (via gjmueller)
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Google Offered To Buy Twitter For $2.5-$4 Billion →
Earlier this year, as part of an on-going dialogue between Google’s corporate development team and Twitter, Google floated the idea of an acquisition with a price around $2.5 billion, we’ve heard from a source close to an executive involved in the talks.
andresegovia1-deactivated2011011 asked: Do you know if Path.com is US-only?
“To me, this isn’t groundbreaking news since I already knew it from personal...”
– http://yanchen.people.si.umich.edu/papers/VOS_20101115.pdf (via interestingsnippets)
Video Killed the Faculty Star →
infoneer-pulse:
In what seems the TMZ-ification of higher education, three separate professors have found themselves the subjects of “gotcha” YouTube segments in recent days.
While the cases differ widely, faculty members at Cornell University, Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge and the University of Central Florida have all seen pieces of their lectures go viral in the last several...
How one teacher is using wikis in the classroom →
dkp28:
What a good example of a truly practical application of educational technology. Ledesma has 6 research based applications of wikis to strengthening vocabulary. It would probably work in higher ed too!
Comments about article “Are Your Students Using Wikis to Strengthen Vocabulary Skills?” by Patrick Ledesma from Teacher Magazine
