Thursday, December 20, 2007

Teens Internet Content Creation Grows

According to a report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project the creation of online content by teens continues to grow. At least one type of content is created by 64% of online teens. Most types of online content creation is dominated by girls except video. Boys are nearly twice as likely to have posted video online.

Read more ...
Pew Internet: Teens and Social Media

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Academia 2.0

Academia 2.0 - A video from Kansas State University exploring the changing academic landscape ...

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

A Picture is Worth How Many Words?

This picture by Matt Holland says a lot about how people are changing the ways in which they access information ...

Friday, December 14, 2007

Google Docs in the Classroom

Tips, Ideas, and Examples for Using Google Docs

Techlearning: Google Docs: December 14, 2007

Opening New Classroom Doors in Wisconsin

When students from her 10th-grade honors class returned from summer break, Arrowhead High School teacher Kathy Nelson organized an online open-house activity to discuss three novels they had read during their time off.
After six hours, the English teacher at the Hartland school had a 178-page transcript of her students' dialogue and a new appreciation of the power the remote technology of the Internet can lend to the sometimes intensely interpersonal field of teaching.
The approach makes sense not only pedagogically - based on the idea that students learn best from each other through sharing ideas - but also as preparation for higher education, in which combining online learning with lectures is fast becoming the norm, said Myragene Pettit, a librarian and technology director for Arrowhead.


Read more from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...
JS Online: Web opening new classroom doors

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Blogging in the Classroom

An English teacher tells about using blogs in her classes ...

Wikis in the Classroom

Georgia teacher Vicki Davis explains her use of wikis in the classroom ...

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Competing in a Global Economy

Educating our students with 21st century skills is imperative to establishing Pennsylvania in the global economy ...
Pennsylvania is fourth in the nation, according to the Organization for International Investment, a Washington, DC-based business association for U.S. subsidiaries of companies headquartered abroad, in “insourced” jobs – employment by companies based outside the United States. About 233,000 Pennsylvanians work for subsidiaries of foreign firms -- almost 35 percent of them in manufacturing, according to the association.
Read the full gantdaily.com story ...
DCED says PA Becoming Serious Player in Global Economy

Friday, December 7, 2007

Teachers Embrace Facebook

Language arts teacher Phil Overeem and social studies teacher Jami Thornsberry, both longtime educators and club sponsors, say the site Facebook provides a faster and more effective way to communicate with students than other methods. Students don’t pay attention to morning announcements, they said, and teens rarely check their school e-mail accounts.

"What it boils down to is that students think it’s the corniest and squarest thing in the world to use their student e-mail," Overeem said. "They just won’t. They will not regularly check their student e-mail, and that causes problems, especially for extracurricular sponsors who do a ton of stuff."


Read the entire article from the Columbia (Missouri) Daily Tribune ...
Warnings aside, teachers embrace Facebook

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Thought for the Day

If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes out of it but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled and no-one dares criticize it.
- Pierre Gallois

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Video Guide to PhotoStory3

PhotoStory3 is software for creating video slideshows from your own photos. You can add music, narration, and the Ken Burns effect.

Classrooms for the Future Shows Positive Impact

From gantdaily.com ...
An independent study of Pennsylvania’s innovative Classrooms for the Future initiative has found that the program is improving the quality of high school instruction, resulting in stronger engagement by students and teachers and an intensified focus on critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Read the whole article ...
Classrooms for the Future Shows Positive Impact

Monday, December 3, 2007

Use Google to Detect Plagiarism

You can easily use Google's advanced search feature to detect Internet plagiarism.

Step 1: From Google's main search page, click on Advanced Search
Step 2: Choose a suspect phrase from the paper and type it into the "with the exact phrase" search box ...
... then click the [Google Search] button.

Yahoo! for Teachers

From the Yahoo! for Teachers team:

Check out the all-new Yahoo! for Teachers Beta

We've been working hard to get Yahoo! for Teachers ready to use
in the classroom. We've made some improvements to help you easily
create and share classroom projects that meet state standards.

One thing hasn't changed -- Yahoo! for Teachers is FREE.
No annual dues. No membership fees.

Go to http://beta.teachers.yahoo.com and enter the following user
name and password to access Yahoo! for Teachers:

- User name: yhallpass
- Password: g0bbler (please note that your password uses the
numeral zero, not the letter O)


To start using Yahoo! for Teachers, enter your Yahoo! ID and fill
out a short (we promise!) registration form.

For a quick reminder of how Yahoo! for Teachers can help you in
the classroom, go to http://beta.teachers.yahoo.com/howto

We look forward to hearing what you think about the new
Yahoo! for Teachers.

Creating Picture Shapes in PowerPoint

Easy Atomic Learning tutorial on adding a touch of creativity to your PowerPoint presentations.

Techlearning > > Creating Picture Shapes in PowerPoint

Sunday, December 2, 2007

What Are We Doing?

We're teachers. What does that mean? It used to mean we were the disseminators of knowledge. We were like medieval priests. We knew things known to a select few and our job was to pass that information along to chosen others.

In the 21st century, everybody has access to all the information and knowledge of all the ages. No longer is the teacher the primary information source. Our job has changed. Now, we need to teach kids how to access, interpret, communicate, and produce information and knowledge.

The time a teacher spends lecturing and presenting information to large groups of students in traditional classroom settings is diminishing. The teacher is becoming a facilitator of learning and problem-solving, Working side-by-side with kids to help them acquire knowledge and develop skills on as-needed basis.

We need to have contact with our students, sit down beside them, talk with them, not at them.
Watch and listen. Guide and encourage.

If you aren't changing and evolving, you're falling behind.
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