Selected by nashworld

• 
  Science teacher

• The Business Roundtable teaches biology

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:30 pm

  Vision: A quality science education fosters a population that...applies scientific knowledge and skills to increase economic productivity.2009 NJ Core Curriculum Content StandardsI am a science teacher, and occasionally a good one. I am certified by the state of New Jersey (Liberty and Prosperity), and paid by the Township of Bloomfield, which was bought from the Yancetaw Indians. Our first public school opened in 1758.This makes me a government agent.Prosperity (from our state motto) keeps getting confused with economic productivity, which smells like part of the Business Roundtable's…

• Thomas Hardy, science teacher

  7 Feb 2010 | 8:48 am

  I’m reading The Mayor of Casterbridge again—it has long been my favorite novel, though I only read it every decade or so. This is my first time reading it in my 6th decade.Thomas Hardy sees things, obvious things, I fail to see. That's why I read fiction.***Yesterday I wandered out into the our version of Snowmageddon to look for crocuses. (That we’re now referring to snowstorms in Biblical terms fit for the National Prayer Breakfast makes me shudder.)I didn’t find any crocuses, but I did see a patch of gold under the ice of the pond. I waited long enough to see it slide ever so…

• Assistive technology for southpaws

  6 Feb 2010 | 11:02 am

  I'm not a fan of SMART Boards™ for a few reasons, not the least of which is my left-handedness.Left-handers push words when we write. It's not a natural motion, and the SMART Board™ takes southpaws back to the fountain pen days, when our hand would smudge the not-quite-dry ink.When I write on a SMART Board™, my hand blocks the light. As I continue, my wrist, then my forearm block the light.Many left-handers can write backwards, though most may be unaware of this. If you're lefty, try it for a few minutes. You may amaze yourself more than you already do.Some of us can write backwards…

• Creo ergo sum

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:03 am

  I'd argue that school should be less about thinking, and more about creativity. In schools, creativity often means pulling out the crayons and posterboard and letting them draw.Barry BachenheimerBarry Bachenheimer lights up a room--he's energetic, charismatic, and bright. I've been to two of his presentations, and know he likes to tweak folks into thinking.A couple of days ago he tweaked me in his response to my last post."Drawing with crayons" is to creativity what punching calculator buttons is to thinking. Both are tools. (I'd argue that creativity is a subset of thinking, but it's…

• Gatto got it

  3 Feb 2010 | 3:06 pm

  Schools were designed by Horace Mann and Barnas Sears and W.R. Harper of the University of Chicago and Edward Thorndike of Columbia Teachers College and other to be instruments for the scientific management of a mass population. Schools are intended to produce, through the application of formulas, formulaic human beings whose behavior can be predicted and controlled. John Taylor GattoNYC's Teacher of the Year, 1989If public education truly created a thinking citizenry, it would be outlawed.Arne wants CEOs to run schools. Arne wants 15-year-olds to save the economy. Arne grasps desperately at…

• 
  Blue Skunk Blog

• What to do? Another snow day...

  Doug Johnson

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:38 am

  Once again nature is being a real mother and has left us here in Minne-snow-da with a few more inches of the white stuff, whipped into some rather amazing drifts. As readers know, I love a snow day. Here is how I plan to spend mine: 1. Review the materials for my ISTE SecondLife presentation this afternoon/evening. I am really looking forward to this and hope that both the curious and the knowledgable about cloud computing and GoogleApps for Education attend. I promise to be both tall and blue. The event is free and open to ISTE members and non-members. 2. Work on my TEDxASB talk, slides for…

• Deductive reasoning and exit strategies

  Doug Johnson

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:25 am

  How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?  Arthur Conan Doyle One of these things is not like the others,One of these things just doesn't belong, Can you tell which thing is not like the others By the time I finish my song? Sesame Street - Joe Raposo and Jon Stone A technician is a basically a good detective. When a problem with any technology pops up, most of us run through a little mental flowchart, eliminating possible causes until we are left with the real reason for the trouble. (It is only on…

• Augmented reality

  Doug Johnson

  6 Feb 2010 | 3:39 pm

  Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery - creating a mixed reality. - Wikipedia I'm currently reading Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta in anticipation of my trip to Mumabi in a couple weeks. Whether a longer work like Maximum City or Michner's Poland, or just a travel guidebook or hotel description on TripAdvisor, I always read about the places to which I travel prior to going there.* Why? Because, of course, it "augments"…

• Where are the savings in using GoogleApps?

  Doug Johnson

  5 Feb 2010 | 4:31 am

  In a lot of ways, I am a cheap SOB. I hate spending money stupidly. I think it's my taxpayer side that loves GoogleApps for Education as much as my teacher side. Savings by using Google Apps, really generally moving to a more cloud-based model of providing computer services ? Let me count the ways for our district (7200 students, 800 professional staff, 3000 supported computers in use (1000 staff, 2000 student). No internal mailserver and mail back-up costs (hardware, software, maintenance).$12,000 (We were due for a replacement and running out of storage capacity) No student/staff document…

• Big6 and tech skills - revised

  Doug Johnson

  3 Feb 2010 | 1:36 pm

  One of the writings of which I have always been most proud is the document "Computer Skills for Information Problem-Solving: Learning and Teaching Technology in Context." (1996, 2002) Co-authored with library gurus Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz, it's been one of the most widely used resources in our field. And for good reason - it's both visionary and practical. (Said in all modesty!) I am delighted to say that thanks to Mike's urging, we've now created an updated version - "Information, Communications, and Technology (ICT) Skills Curriculum Based on the Big6 Skills Approach to Information…

• 
  The Fischbowl

• Cory Doctorow Discussion Ustream Archive

  Karl Fisch

  2 Feb 2010 | 11:34 am

  Well, the technology worked fairly well for our Skype discussion with Cory Doctorow today. The audio on Skype wasn't perfect, but we could hear fairly well. And it froze up a couple of times for about 10 seconds, but then started transmitting again. We also lost the ustream once, which is why I've embedded two ustream archives below.Part 1 (about 17 minutes) is the first part (amazingly enough) of our discussion. We actually start about 3 minutes into the recording, as I hit record before we actually got started just to make sure I didn't forget. Then Part 2 is obviously the remaining portion…

• Discussing Little Brother with Cory Doctorow

  Karl Fisch

  29 Jan 2010 | 7:43 am

  Anne Smith and Maura Moritz's ninth graders are currently finishing up reading Cory Doctorow's Little Brother. Previously they read 1984 and their task is to look at both books and answer the questions:What have we learned - or what have we not learned - over the past 60 years [from Orwell's time to the present]? What does our future hold for us?This has been a fascinating unit to observe. Anne and Maura have brought in additional folks to speak to different aspects of each novel. They brought in our Western Civilization teachers to help our students understand what was going on in the 1930's…

• The Best (?) of The Fischbowl 2009

  Karl Fisch

  24 Jan 2010 | 11:03 am

  As I have the previous three years (2008, 2007, 2006), this is the post where I try to pull together some of the most interesting blog posts from my blog in 2009. These are not necessarily fantastic posts, but should give readers that are new to the blog a place to start to get a feel for what this blog is all about.I posted 88 times in 2009, down sharply from 141 in 2008, 148 in 2007 and 199 in 2006. This is my 624th post since beginning in September of 2005.Here we go.January (10 posts)Best: Take Me to Your Leaders(s)Honorable Mention: I Just Want to Say One Word to You:…

• 2010 AHS Faculty Dance Video

  Karl Fisch

  22 Jan 2010 | 1:48 pm

  As I've said several times before, we take a break from the regularly scheduled content of this blog to bring you the 2010 AHS Faculty Dance (performed at our Winter Pep Assembly).It might not show up in AYP, or help us get Race to the Top dollars, but I think this is still a huge part of what a learning community should look like.

• Learning 2.0: You Are Going, Aren't You?

  Karl Fisch

  17 Jan 2010 | 7:38 pm

  Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation (2010 Edition) is fast approaching on February 20th - have you signed up yet?Let's review:Registration costs . . . $0Lunch costs . . . $0Sessions cost . . . $0Learning opportunity . . . priceless.We're about to hit the 100 mark in terms of registrants, well on our way to the 140 to 160 we've had the previous two years, and the session descriptions are now posted. You can attend physically or virtually, as we'll be streaming the sessions. While most folks will be from Colorado, you're all invited, and we have folks coming from Nebraska, Pennsylvania,…

• 
  NPR: Education

• Spared Cuts, Education Gets Special Attention

  6 Feb 2010 | 5:00 am

  This week, the Obama administration pledged to cut spending in order to bring down the national deficit, but not where education is concerned. It's put a good deal of money on the table for states which fall in line with the administration's ideas of a major education overhaul. Guest host Audie Cornish talks with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan about redesigning the standard-setting No Child Left Behind law and other Obama administration initiatives.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Obama Looks To Overhaul 'No Child Left Behind'

  2 Feb 2010 | 10:00 am

  The Bush Administration's No Child Left Behind Act ushered in sweeping changes to America's education system, but many argue it emphasizes testing over learning. NPR's Larry Abramson and Claudio Sanchez explain Obama's proposed education overhaul and assess his new Race to the Top initiative.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Alumni Come Out In Droves To Support Sumner High

  1 Feb 2010 | 12:00 pm

  Sumner High School in St. Louis has been one of the premiere institutions of black education in the U.S. — producing famous alumni like Chuck Berry, Tina Turner and Arthur Ashe. But recent safety concerns prompted the St. Louis Public Schools superintendent to consider closing it as a traditional high school if it doesn't meet academic and attendance standards by the end of the year.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 'No Child Left Behind' Impacted By Proposed Budget

  1 Feb 2010 | 12:00 pm

  President Obama's budget proposals call for some significant shifts in education policy. Some of the punitive and less popular portions of the No Child Left Behind Act would be replaced with more participatory and competitive incentives. » E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Virginia Islamic School's Expansion Met Protests

  30 Jan 2010 | 5:40 pm

  A Northern Virginia community had to decide whether to let a Saudi-funded Islamic school expand to serve more kids. The debate turned to the curriculum at the Islamic Saudi Academy and draws attention to the still-tenuous relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims in America.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 
  Dangerously Irrelevant

• Video - Online learning

  dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:24 pm

  Here’s a 10-minute video I helped make that advocates for P-12 online learning. Created by Intermediate District 287 in Minnesota, which heads up the Northern Star Online collaborative, the video features Mike Smart, 2007 Minnesota Teacher of the Year, and a number of other Minnesota educators and students. The video will be used for educational and policy advocacy purposes with community members, parents, administrators, and legislators. Here’s my favorite statement I made in the video (at 7:20): One of the things I think we have to ask ourselves as school leaders is ‘What’s our…

• Many service jobs will become globalized piece work

  dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:18 am

  I’m reading a fantastic book right now: Futurecast, by Robert Shapiro. In the section on globalization, Shapiro notes that the first waves of globalization primarily affected manufacturing. Millions of American jobs were 'offshored' in the 1970s and 1980s as global companies set up factories overseas instead of here in the U.S. For all of the current rhetoric about ‘Benedict Arnold’ corporations that offshore jobs, they essentially have to since their competitors are doing so. Few companies can survive in a hypercompetitive global economy when they’re paying labor rates 5 to 25 times…

• Video - The Class

  dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:00 am

  Here’s the latest educational technology video that’s making the rounds. I know a few professors like this! “If you are here, why are we Skyping?”

• Grading student projects: Separating content from delivery

  dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:33 am

  I am a big fan of student choice. When students work on projects, I think that they should have as much choice as possible regarding both the topic and the delivery. Choice increases student buy-in and ownership. Teachers allow choice of topics, not delivery When teachers and I talk about integrating technology into their lessons, I encourage them to try and build in more choice for students. Most teachers already allow students to choose topics of study, at least some of the time. For example, students are allowed to pick a historical figure, select a mystery book, decide what they sculpt…

• "Just tell me what to do"

  dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)

  6 Feb 2010 | 7:26 am

  Seth Godin wrote today that: People are just begging to be told what to do. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I think the biggest one is: "If you tell me what to do, the responsibility for the outcome is yours, not mine. I'm safe." I think another big reason is that most people spent at least 12 years of their life being deeply socialized in the “just tell me what to do” model. We know that schools strongly emphasize compliance in the name of order and discipline. We know that the fact-regurgitation model that still dominates schooling mostly leads to the student mentality of…

• 
  Generation YES Blog

• Maple Avenue Middle School students in the news

  Sylvia Martinez

  9 Feb 2010 | 1:27 am

  Students at Maple Avenue Middle School in Saratoga, NY got some well-deserved attention from their local newspaper, The Saratogian News. “Sixth-graders in Tom Coons’ computer class linger after the bell rings, asking for passes to come back during their study halls and lunch periods. The reason? They’re excited to use mini Flip Mino video recorders, digital photography, PowerPoint and computer animation to create projects that will earn them national recognition through “student technology literacy certification.” Maple Ave. is one of 45 schools participating in…

• Tinkering and Technology

  Sylvia Martinez

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:39 pm

  Before this all slips my mind, I wanted to post some thoughts about the conversation I led at Educon 2.2 last weekend called Tinkering Towards Technology Fluency. I had a few slides prepared, and a general list of things I thought would be interesting to discuss, and some questions in case there was a lot of deadly silence. Well, that didn’t happen! What happened was that we had a really interesting conversation, which wandered a bit but no one seemed to mind. That’s the cool part about Educon, the conversations are the point. I learned as much from everyone there as I hope they…

• This Wednesday: Science of the Winter Olympics Webinar

  Sylvia Martinez

  8 Feb 2010 | 2:20 pm

  Sounds cool! From the Learning Games Network: As part of our Learning Games webinar series, we invite you to join us this Wednesday, Feb 10, 2010 for Olympics Science: Online Resources for the Classroom from NBC Learn. Description: On February 12th, the torch will light over Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Join the Learning Games Network’s Alex Chisholm and special guest Norman Cohen, producer at NBC Learn, to bring the science of the Winter Olympics home to your classroom. NBC Learn has collaborated with the National Science Foundation to create this series of video…

• ACEC2010 contests – media awards and t-shirt design!

  Sylvia Martinez

  8 Feb 2010 | 2:09 pm

  In less than 2 months I’ll be going “down under” and keynoting the Australian Computers in Education Conference ACEC2010 in Melbourne Australia. When: 6 – 9 April 2010 Where: Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre Full details online: www.acec2010.info I’m excited about this and will write more soon about my keynote topic, but first, some fun stuff! From ACEC2010: The ACEC2010: Digital Diversity conference opens in just 58 days. There’s a lot going on in the ICTEV office as we get ready to put on the biggest ICT event for educators in Australia this…

• Constructivist Celebration at MACUL

  Sylvia Martinez

  4 Feb 2010 | 5:36 pm

  The Constructivist Consortium in partnership with SIGTELE is bringing the popular Constructivist Celebration to Michigan! Plan to join in this MACUL pre-conference learning experience on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 in Grand Rapids. Participants will receive the day’s educational program, a hearty lunch and free software from Constructivist Consortium members, including five free tools from Tech4Learning: Pixie, Frames, WebBlender, Twist, and ImageBlender. This hugely popular workshop, also offered as a pre-conference event at the National Education Computing Conference (NECC/ISTE) sells out…

• 
  Teach42

• Top 10 Web 2.0 for Educators – NICE Miniconference

  Steve

  30 Jan 2010 | 8:58 am

  Will be presenting in about 10 minutes at the NICE mini conference here in Illinois. Doing a revamped version of my Top 10 Web 2.0 for Educators. Most radical change is that I don’t have an aggregator in there. Still kinda torn about that. Part of it is that time is limited, but another piece is that I’m not positive that it’s as relevant as it used to be. Considering people are aggregating via their inbox, via iGoogle, via My Yahoo, within the browser and more. There’s so many ways to subscribe, that I’m not positive it’s worth including an aggregator in…

• Haiti 360

  Steve

  25 Jan 2010 | 9:38 am

  Image via Wikipedia With all the news about the disaster in Haiti, one of the more interesting things I’ve seen technologically recently came from there. I’ve seen 360 videos before, going all the way back to Quicktime VR and such. But this absolutely fascinates me. This video was shot on January 18th, and while watching it, you are able to use your mouse to look in any direction, up or down as well. Pretty stunning to say the least. And what an incredible way to provide students a window into the area. Can’t speak for you, but I’d love to see them run this through the…

• What could you do with Augmented Reality?

  Steve

  25 Jan 2010 | 8:05 am

  Image by Eric Rice via Flickr Augmented reality is one of the few technologies that have come out within the last few years that really have the ability to simply drop jaws. Primarily, it’s hung out in the marketing field, and been used in car ads and recently on the cover of Esquire magazine. Home versions include a DIY lightsasber and Addidas has announced plans to include an AR code into several of their upcoming shoes, allowing people to actually use the shoe as a controller for a video game. Seriously. I really couldn’t make that one up. The big question of course is, does…

• Vote for an ISTE Keynote

  Steve

  6 Jan 2010 | 11:45 am

  Image by jochenWolters via Flickr In case you haven’t been keeping up with ISTE’s dive into the crowdsourcing arena, the final voting is now open for the ultimate keynote presentation at this year’s conference. Your choices are: * Chris Lehmann * Alan November * Jeff Piontek * Peter H. Reynolds * Gary Stager I know most of the people on the list, and they’re all worthy choices. You should definitely stop by and cast a vote for your favorite. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what this has boiled down to. The process began with people proposing and voting on topics.

• Would you blog?

  Steve

  5 Jan 2010 | 10:07 am

  Image by Josh Russell via Flickr Like many other bloggers that I consider to be colleagues, my blogging has tapered off quite a bit over the years, and while some of the fault lies in myself, I put most of the blame squarely on Twitter. Why take half an hour to write several paragraphs, hyperlink it up and find an appropriate image, when I can just spout off 140 characters and move on? It just makes sense, right? That’s why I’m rather looking forward to Flutter’s official launch. I jest, but it does bring out an obvious reason why blogging is becoming less and less of a…

• 
  Bud the Teacher

• The Week in Tweets for 2010-02-08

  bud@budtheteacher.com (Bud Hunt bud@budtheteacher.com)

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:15 am

  My beloved Prius will hit 99,000 miles today. It's not quite four years old. #Idrivelots # Cleaning my desk. Combined height of my two "to read" piles – 9.25 inches. That does not include my Instapaper account. # Has anyone written the definitive "Why YouTube Access for Students Doesn't Violate CIPA/eRate Requirements" post? # Just spent forty minutes working through some cognitive dissonance. http://twitpic.com/10wh4c # It's a Mac. It's a PC. Aw, who cares? Just get me to a browser. # @njtechteacher So worth it. When necessary. in reply to…

• The Week in Tweets for 2010-02-01

  bud@budtheteacher.com (Bud Hunt bud@budtheteacher.com)

  1 Feb 2010 | 5:15 am

  Good Monday, tweeps. Spending the morning in meetings. Then another one in the afternoon. And some email in the middle. # Turns out I like getting a paper on the nook. Just wish it was the Rocky. # ISTE tells me that I was wrong. Their "crowdsourced" keynote didn't self-nominate. His father, who nominated him, shares his name. # Forgive the error. # @msstewart Nah. The loss of advertising did the Rocky in. And bankrupted the group that publishes the _Denver Post_. in reply to msstewart # @wmchamberlain I can't say. But it appears that the nomination didn't violate that…

• SLA Isn’t THE Promised Land. (Emphasis on the THE.)

  bud@budtheteacher.com (Bud Hunt bud@budtheteacher.com)

  26 Jan 2010 | 9:42 pm

  I tweeted a possible title for this post out earlier tonight, and hurt some feelings.  Understandably.  My apologies – that wasn’t my intention, and sometimes my mouth gets ahead of my brain.  I have nothing but the highest respect for the Science Leadership Academy and my friend and colleague Chris Lehmann.  I think he’d agree with me on what I’m about to say.  We’ll see, I guess. This weekend, 500 or so folks will descend upon Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA for the third Educon conference.  It’s a wonderfully neat school, with a…

• I Am Not a Gadget (But I do like poetry)

  bud@budtheteacher.com (Bud Hunt bud@budtheteacher.com)

  25 Jan 2010 | 9:17 pm

  Jaron Lanier, in his new book You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto, writes: Every save-the-world cause has a list of suggestions for “what each of us can do”: bike to work, recycle, and so on. I can propose such a list related to the problems I’m talking about: Don’t post anonymously unless you really might be in danger. If you put effort into Wikipedia articles, put even more effort into using your personal voice and expression outside of the wiki to help attract people who don’t yet realize that they are interested in the topics you contributed to. Create a…

• The Week in Tweets for 2010-01-25

  bud@budtheteacher.com (Bud Hunt bud@budtheteacher.com)

  25 Jan 2010 | 5:15 am

  Horse. http://twitpic.com/yob6o # When did these come back? http://twitpic.com/yod4r http://twitpic.com/yod50 # @ktenkely All are home and resting. Thanks. in reply to ktenkely # Recovery day. Lucky. # Aw, nuts. (See previous RT.) # Starting my work week at a DLC team meeting at Hygiene. Great way to start the week. # Hygiene team will be building a "webliography." Fun word. # @jennar Theres will be. Looks like it's an established term. Even in Encarta's dictionary. in reply to jennar # @andrea_r My apologies. Pinged you earlier but I didn't see your situation. I'll…

• 
  Moving at the Speed of Creativity

• Beyond the Web 2.0 Hype: Focusing on What Really Matters by David Jakes

  Wesley Fryer

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:59 am

  These are my paltry notes from David Jakes’ METC 2010 presentation, “Beyond the Web 2.0 Hype: Focusing on What Really Matters.” I arrived a few minutes after this presentation started…. and unfortunately for my learning here (but good for my daughter) I had to step out to supervise a hotel swim before we check out later today. David’s preso is linked from: jakes.editme.com/hype. This entire session is being live-streamed and will be archived on the METC website. Beyond The Web 2.0 Hype View more presentations from David Jakes. www.ratemyteachers.com We need to be…

• Presentation links for #metc_CSD today (METC 2010 in St Louis)

  Wesley Fryer

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:58 am

  We’ve received some snow in St Louis, but the Midwest Educational Technology Conference (METC) goes on! Yesterday pre-conference workshops were held, and today and tomorrow are the “regular days” of the conference. Here are links to the resources I’ll be sharing in my sessions today. Storychasing Literacy (a.k.a. “StoryChasing: Empowering Students as Digital Witnesses”) Prior to the keynote this morning, I’m most likely going to share quotations from the Flickr group, “Great quotes about Learning and Change.” Both today and tomorrow,…

• Choose teaching

  Wesley Fryer

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:07 pm

  Great thoughts about why we should CHOOSE teaching from Gail Lovely: To be a teacher — choose it as a calling, not a job. Choose it to do something meaningful and powerful, with rewards only you might notice. Choose it to be a role model. Choose to be a teacher because you love learning. Choose to be a teacher because you love learners. Choose to be a teacher because you cannot imagine anything else so wonderful! Catch up with Gail by following her on Twitter. I had a wonderful opportunity today to visit with Gail both during Darren Kuropatwa’s afternoon workshop session (quietly…

• Telling a story with Google Search queries

  Wesley Fryer

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:54 pm

  If you were watching the Super Bowl last night on U.S. television, you likely saw Google’s advertisement, “Parisian Love,” during the third quarter. What a clever way to tell a story, through a series of Google searches and some well-timed sound clips. If you missed it, here it is, on YouTube (of course.) Is your school still blocking access to YouTube for everyone, including both teachers AND students? Time to unmask the digital truth. It would be great to see students use this method of “storytelling via screencasted Google search queries” to tell other…

• Notes from a Canadien Yoda: Darren Kuropatwa at METC 2010

  Wesley Fryer

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:42 pm

  These are my notes from a part of Darren Kuropatwa’s METC 2010 workshop, “Extreme (web 2.0) Lesson Plan Makeover.” I was only able to attend a little of the afternoon session. WOW. If you ever have a chance to hear Darren present in person, do not miss it. I do not use the title, “Yoda,” lightly here. It’s a term Marco Torres uses to refer to those people in our lives who are our wise mentors. If we could choose our own Yodas (and virtually, of course, we can to an extent) I would definitely choose Darren. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS BELOW ARE IN ALL CAPS…

• 
  The Thinking Stick

• Learning 2.010 Conference: Where do we go from here?

  Jeff Utecht

  3 Feb 2010 | 6:07 am

  For the 3rd year David Gran has created the logo for the conference. This year taking inspiration from the World Expo which will be happening during the conference in Shanghai. In a world where content is continually changing, and you can learn almost anything for free, what’s the point of going to a conference? This is the question we started with in designing your Learning 2.010 Conference experience. The content is free and easy. If you want to learn how to use Facebook in your classroom, a simple search on Google will bring you back many hits on how teachers are finding ways of…

• You mean the teacher still matters?

  Jeff Utecht

  2 Feb 2010 | 7:13 am

  Four great articles have come to light lately that point to research being done and what many of us in the Ed Tech community have been saying for a long time might just be on the horizon. That is that this technology stuff can improve education. So let’s start at Mashable one of my favorite Web 2.0 blogs to read. Back in August they posted a fantastic article titled What is the Future of Teaching? Until recently, online learning has mainly been of the expository sort, essentially a traditional lecture format adapted for the web. But newer, social and multimedia technologies are allowing…

• The iPad: Not the Right Product for Education

  Jeff Utecht

  29 Jan 2010 | 2:08 am

  I’ve been reflecting the last couple days on Apple’s new iPad. The product that, before it’s announcement, some had claim would revolutionize education. If it does…..it will be a shock to me. I have nothing against Apple (I’m typing on a MacBook that I love), I just think this piece of hardware is not what we need in education. I had high hopes for this new piece of technology. Enough to stay up until 3am on a school night to watch the live announcement. Throughout the keynote, I was waiting to be wowed by something new, something different, something that would…

• Help a Newbie get to ISTE10

  Jeff Utecht

  27 Jan 2010 | 8:23 am

  Beth Still grabbed me at NECC in Washington D.C. this summer and introduced me to Richard Byrne who was attending his first NECC conference. We had a nice chat and Beth reminded me that Richard was here because of her Newbie Project. She told me then and there she’d be hitting me up to spread the word when the new newbie was chosen. This year Beth is sponsoring Jason Schrage, as she tries to help bring another person to ISTE10 this year in Denver. Beth writes about Jason: Jason is an 8th grade social studies teacher in upstate New York. He is not afraid to try different tools and…

• Active vs Inactive Screen Time

  Jeff Utecht

  25 Jan 2010 | 4:59 am

  A New York Times article was released this week. How did I find it? Our 23 year old Kindergarten teacher forwarded it to me from her iPhone. She only has the “essential apps” on her new iPhone….Facebook and the NYTimes. I’ve read the article a couple of times now and have rewritten this blog post no less than 3 as I try to make sense of what this means for kids today. The average young American now spends practically every waking minute — except for the time in school — using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device, according to a new study…

• 
  Weblogg-ed

• Transformative Technology? Really?

  Will Richardson

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:40 am

  So I ran across this Smart Ease of Use video in the course of one of our threads in a PLP cohort and I have to say, I can’t seem to shake it. I mean, maybe I’m missing something here, but if this is a vision of “transformative” technology, we’re in some serious trouble. Worse, if this marketing piece actually does the job and creates sales of Smart boards, we’re in even bigger trouble. Is this really a vision of classrooms and learning that we aspire to? Is it all about being “easy”? And what does it say when the manufacturer of one of the most…

• EduCon 2.2

  Will Richardson

  1 Feb 2010 | 6:31 am

  If I could put in a few phrases what I took away from this year’s Educon experience it was this: Stop complaining. Be the change. Love your students and do well by them. If that includes technology, so be it. And it was those first two that stood out, for me at least. I heard variations on those themes more in the last two days than the first two Educons combined. Maybe it was because there were more people this year. Maybe because we’re finally getting tired of talking about change, about waiting for something or someone else to change. Or maybe because when you get into a room…

• No Choice

  Will Richardson

  21 Jan 2010 | 5:18 am

  (Cross posted to the PLP Network blog) One of my favorite things that Sheryl says when she talks about the challenges that schools face right now is that this generation of kids in our schools is the first not to have a choice about technology. Most of us grew up in a time when technology was an add on, and for many of us, we still see it as a choice, especially in education. (Just the other day I was at a meeting of about 25 school leaders and teachers to discuss how social learning tools can be infused into an inquiry based curriculum and only one person was using technology to take…

• Change Congress

  Will Richardson

  20 Jan 2010 | 4:51 am

  It’s no secret that Lawrence Lessig is one of my heroes in the way that he takes on meaningful efforts to change the world for (what I think, at least) good and his ability to articulate those efforts in compelling ways. It’s also no secret that over the past year I’ve become more disillusioned with the government here in the US. Mostly it’s a frustration about how nothing changes (or will change), how money is the motivator for everything that happens, and how much it feels like we have lost the best of our democracy to special interests. I was a huge Obama supporter;…

• No More High School–Play Along

  Will Richardson

  14 Jan 2010 | 6:18 am

  So this might totally fall flat on its face, but I’m wondering how all you  out there who are deeply invested in social learning spaces might respond to this unlikely but hopefully compelling scenario: Imagine for a moment that high schools as educational places vanish from the earth. How would you go about educating the 14-18 year olds in your lives? What resources, programs, strategies, assessments would you use? Or what would we need to create in order for them to become “educated” in the current sense? What would that world look like? Could it even be done?

• 
  Beyond School

• My Australia Keynote Speech: A Serious Farce, in One Thousand Acts

  Clay Burell

  30 Jan 2010 | 5:53 am

  Speech Outline If you just want to watch my recent keynote address in Australia — which, as farce would have it, turned into two addresses — just click on the screenshots of each speech below. But I hope you read the little mock-heroic back-story. Learning Technologies 2009 Keynote, Part 1: Click image to view. The Missing Link: Texas Politics Distorts US Textbooks (watch before Speech Part 2. Slide to 5.15 for the kicker) Learning Technologies Keynote Part 2 (click image to view) Prologue: On Time and Other Thieves1 Anybody as oblivious to the passage of time and calendar pages…

• A Starter Kit of China Studies RSS Feeds

  Clay Burell

  25 Jan 2010 | 1:20 pm

  Just a quick share: I’m giving my Chinese history / China studies students this “starter kit” of RSS feeds about contemporary China from Asian and Western sources to start them on their self-directed explorations (and small group blog reports) about whatever they want to learn. It’s the cream of my own Google Reader “China” folder, which I created and populated over winter break. If anybody has more feeds to suggest, please add them in comments. Otherwise, I share them to spare any other China studies folks out there the necessity of re-inventing the wheel.

• Sunday – a Story

  Clay Burell

  24 Jan 2010 | 12:04 pm

  217 years ago last week, Louis XVI’s head rolled from a Paris guillotine. One of my students emailed me to tell me that, because we’d discussed that event on the very day of its anniversary. A few years after that bloody blade gave death to feudalism and birth to modernity, the French Revolution became so radical it tried to uproot the Christian church in France and replace it with what it considered a better alternative. This reminds me, sidewise, of a story I heard years back, and want to embellish in the telling. I’ve been using this space too much lately to merely blog,…

• Photoshop Help Wanted: Banner Needed for New Website

  Clay Burell

  22 Jan 2010 | 8:15 pm

  If you happen to be so good at Photoshop or Illustrator that you can knock out a decent website banner in 20 minutes or so — unlike me, for whom a miserably failed attempt takes hours — I’d appreciate your help. I’m ready to launch a new website that I think is important, and want it to look more than Bush League. I can’t pay you for it — I’m already paying for the website hosting and putting free hours into the concept and content, all for the sake of education, not profit — but I can give you credit and free advertising on this site and the…

• Students with Eyes, Let Them See: 27-Year-Old Chinese Blogs His Way to Fame

  Clay Burell

  12 Jan 2010 | 5:34 am

  An example worth sharing to students of a kid who figured out the power of simple blogging — combined, of course, with quality thinking and writing — and blogged his way to stardom by age 27. In China. From the excellent China Digital Times, with emphasis added: Han Han was named as the ‘Person of the Year” in 2009 by two influential publications: Guangzhou-based newspaper Southern Weekend（南方周末) and Hong Kong-based magazine Asia Weekly (亚洲周刊). Here are some excerpts of the relevant articles in both publications, translated by CDT: By Asia Weekly: Han Han:…

• 
  21st Century Learning

• Smarter- for being at Educon

  Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

  29 Jan 2010 | 8:22 pm

  Definitions of smart on the Web: showing mental alertness and calculation and resourcefulness chic: elegant and stylish; “chic elegance”; “a smart new dress”; “a suit of voguish cut” bright: characterized by quickness and ease in learning; “some children are brighter in one subject than another”; “smart children talk earlier than the average” fresh: improperly forward or bold; “don’t be fresh with me”; “impertinent of a child to lecture a grownup”; “an impudent boy given to insulting…

• Fruits of Labor

  Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

  28 Jan 2010 | 6:53 pm

  In education we do not get to see the fruit of our labor until many years have gone past. But when it happens it always makes a profound impact. Today was just such a day. As many of you know I worked with the Alabama Best Practices Center for four years in Alabama with schools across the state on a 21st Century Learners project. We worked with schools  on reconceptualizing their teaching, classrooms, schools and districts in ways that would meet the needs of the networked learner. We pushed hard for reculturing and a shift in curriculum toward project/problem based learning. I remember…

• Leadership is…

  Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

  27 Jan 2010 | 8:28 am

  Lately, I have been thinking quite a bit about the shift in educational leadership that has occurred or has to occur in these changing times. What aspects of leadership works in this new era and what needs to shift in order to help school remain relevant in the lives of the students we serve. I turned to my Twitter network to get their take. (You can add these smart people to your network too and learn from them like I do as their Twitter user names are in the parentheses) I asked them to complete the sentence: Leadership is.. I went first… Leadership is about learning together, and…

• Why Are We Here?

  Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

  13 Sep 2009 | 9:16 am

  Photo credit: http://thenewpostliterate.blogspot.com/2009/01/dr-john-m-bennetts-solo-and.html In the PLPNetbooks community (Australia work) this blog post surfaced after my interview with Steve Hargadon on The Future of Education The Title of the post is the same as mine.. Why Are We Here? It follows: Ok … Now I’ve got your attention I’ve just finished listening to the lastest episode of the “Ed Tech Live” podcast in which Steve Hargadon interviewed our very own community leader Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach. This is a great interview in which Sheryl talks about the PLP…

• PLP Described in Under a Minute.

  Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

  3 Aug 2009 | 6:17 pm

  Ever wondered what PLP is all about? Susan Carter Morgan shares about her PLP experience.

• 
  Drape's Takes

• Missing the Roadmap

  Darren Draper

  22 Jan 2010 | 5:56 pm

  George Siemens:Anytime someone provides a list of steps to achieve complex tasks, my reaction is to turn and run. Lists are generally only useful for the people who make them. Situations and contexts change rapidly. What works now in one organization will likely not work in the future in another organization. But, complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty are difficult to manage. So we turn to little techniques and ploys that provide us with a pseudo-sense of what’s really happening. Consider this article: The 10 Stages of Social Media Integration in Business. This is exactly how not to…

• Not If I Can Help It

  Darren Draper

  13 Jan 2010 | 6:04 am

  An interesting piece of interestingness was put out there a few weeks ago by Dean Shareski and John Pederson.While I love the first sentence and the possibilities that it brings, here's my reaction to the second:Not if I can help it.When I think about the kinds of things students need to prepare for college success, I think of those traits possessed by the autodidacts of today: persistence, drive, and easy access to numerous avenues of learning.What are you doing to help "schools" notice that some of the most powerful avenues of learning today are only a click away?

• What is the Purpose of IT?

  Darren Draper

  12 Jan 2010 | 6:04 am

  An important question has been posed by our district’s Superintendent that has heavily occupied my thoughts over the last few days. My initial take follows (complete with an ample supply of cutting-edge, 21st Century, digital-age buzz).What is the purpose of IT in preparing students for college success?To assist all educators in the task of teaching students to learn how to learn.To assist all educators in the task of teaching students to effectively function in the same kinds of technologically rich learning environments found on and around college campuses.To provide access to knowledge…

• Practical Theory

  Darren Draper

  4 Jan 2010 | 8:36 pm

  Chris Lehmann, in Principal Leadership magazine:Those of us who work in education talk a lot about student engagement, but I don’t think that goes far enough. Engagement is certainly better than boredom, but schools should set the bar for themselves is much higher. What schools should strive for is student empowerment.My questions:Once students are empowered, what need will they have for their teachers?If students (think they) no longer have a need for their teachers, what do they then do in school?What if students learn empowerment in Elementary school?My answers:There are more skills to…

• Open

  Darren Draper

  2 Jan 2010 | 9:28 pm

  More from where I sit on the open education debate, kind of hodge-podged together in a sorry-so-sloppy kind of way. All in all great stuff in the open education discourse, but I think it's telling how few practitioners engage in this dialogue, particularly in the K-12 arena. Until more idealists make it clearer how better an open education system can be than what tradition has spent years developing, then very few in the trenches will ever jump to embrace any seat, regardless of the table.That's just the way it is.Kicking it off...Dave Cormier:“What do you mean by open?” has become the…

• 
  Practical Theory

• EduCon 2.2 Reflections - What Do You Think?

  5 Feb 2010 | 8:10 pm

  "What Do You Think?" Somewhat unexpectedly, I hit upon an epiphany during my Leadership 2.0 session at EduCon 2.2. I had a very simple structure to the session -- I listed in the description three ideas that I hoped would be common to the people who showed up. The short description on the conference site stated: If we assume that the schools we need are inquiry-driven, technology-infused and communities of care, what do leaders have to be to engender and nurture those ideas? From there, my idea was to simply attempt to build some common language around those ideas and then talk about…

• 
  apophenia

• Upcoming Mary Gray talk on on "Out in the Country: Youth, Media & Queer Visibility in Rural America"

  zephoria

  28 Jan 2010 | 2:50 pm

  It used to be the case that all of the queer youth living in rural America ran away to the city to find others like them. The Internet has dramatically changed this. More and more, rural queer youth are building out networks of other queer rural youth, helping generate a rural queer identity. Think about what this means for the health and safety of queer youth. Think about what this means for the future of tolerance. It is with great pleasure that I will be hosting Mary Gray at Microsoft Research on February 10 to discuss her latest book: "Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer…

• Public by Default, Private when Necessary

  zephoria

  25 Jan 2010 | 9:48 am

  This post was originally written for the DML Central Blog. If you're interested in Digital Media and Learning, you definitely want to check this blog out. With Facebook systematically dismantling its revered privacy infrastructure, I think it's important to drill down on the issue of privacy as it relates to teens. There's an assumption that teens don't care about privacy but this is completely inaccurate. Teens care deeply about privacy, but their conceptualization of what this means may not make sense in a setting where privacy settings are a binary. What teens care about is the ability to…

• whose voice do you hear? gender issues and success

  zephoria

  19 Jan 2010 | 5:42 pm

  Growing up, I loved to debate. With anyone. My debating tone used to drive my mother batty because she thought I was yelling at her. Exasperated, I would often bark back that I was simply debating. Over the years, I realized that my debating tone is one of such confidence that people believe me to be stating facts, not opinions. My mother interpreted it as yelling; my classmates interpreted it as arrogance. I also began to realize that it was the same tone as that of my male peers. I never apologized for my opinions, never deflated them with "I may be wrong but I think..." I asserted.

• Facebook's move ain't about changes in privacy norms

  zephoria

  16 Jan 2010 | 5:55 pm

  When I learned that Mark Zuckerberg effectively argued that 'the age of privacy is over' (read: ReadWriteWeb), I wanted to scream. Actually, I did. And still am. The logic goes something like this: People I knew didn't used to like to be public. Now "everyone" is being public. Ergo, privacy is dead. This isn't new. This is the exact same logic that made me want to scream a decade ago when folks used David Brin to justify a transparent society. Privacy is dead, get over it. Right? Wrong! Privacy isn't a technological binary that you turn off and on. Privacy is about having control of a…

• Race and Social Network Sites: Putting Facebook's Data in Context

  zephoria

  29 Dec 2009 | 1:05 pm

  A few weeks ago, Facebook's data team released a set of data addressing a simple but complex question: How Diverse is Facebook? Given my own work over the last two years concerning the intersection of race/ethnicity/class and social network sites, I feel the need to respond. And, with pleasure, I'm going to respond by sharing a draft of a new paper. But first, I want to begin by thanking the Facebook data team for actually making this data available for public dialogue. Far too few companies are willing to share their internal analyses, especially about topics that make people uncomfortable.

• 
  nashworld

• The Extended Value of Classroom Networks

  nashworld

  5 Feb 2010 | 1:19 pm

  Connected An interesting thing happened on the way home from Educon 2.2 last Sunday night.  Walking through the terminal and against my exhaustion, I reflexively checked my mail.  Lazy eyes lifted open, I flicked my thumb scrolling… trolling for a demand of action.   I’m hyper-connected.  I pay for it.  And yet, I’m a better teacher and leader because of it.  Cutting to the chase, here is the simple, yet interesting email I received: Background Here are the things you must know/appreciate/love about the aforementioned interaction… Principles of Biology is the…

• Is This a Sluggish Strategy?

  nashworld

  18 Jan 2010 | 12:18 pm

  The following verse was created in response to and in reflection on the following mass-media story:  Sea Slug Surprise: It’s half-plant, half-animal.  Overall, this post starts with a bit of participation and play, continues with the story of how the “Sci-Po” fun began, how I gave it a shot in the classroom, and why this sort of thinking matters.  It then ends with a few specific resources for biology teachers. Is this a sluggish strategy? Thieving genes seems crazy to me When seeking food in the mighty sea. It doesn’t take a Phd To locate a parcel of green algae. And…

• Making Friends With Failure

  nashworld

  10 Jan 2010 | 9:33 pm

  Expectations So here’s the setup… today’s Daily Shoot challenge was to capture a silhouette of some sort.  My plan from the warm confines of my living room this afternoon? =>  Turn it around a bit.  Grab that copper likeness of the sun from a nearby wall, take it to the river with me and my little girl, and have her hold it out at arm’s length, directly in front of the sun… thereby creating a silhouette of the sun… by the sun. I’m here to tell you that it didn’t work out as smoothly as I had thought it might.  My near-three-year old…

• Decisions: The Currency of Educational Action

  nashworld

  31 Dec 2009 | 2:29 pm

  Choices… decisions… education. Three simple words deeply embedded within my world. For years I have been amazed while reflecting on the cascade of decisions a teacher makes in even one class period with a typical group of 20 or so students. I felt compelled to ponder this subject a bit more after reading Dr. Dial’s recent blog post “Making choices through an educational lens” Teacher Decisions The number of seemingly-small choices and decisions a teacher makes -in planning and on the fly- would melt the minds of many. I would further suggest that the more a…

• Growing a Tree of Professional Development

  nashworld

  16 Dec 2009 | 9:47 am

  Arboreal aspirations? During a time of the year when perhaps sugarplums should be dancing in my head, I seem to be conjuring trees.  More precisely-  massive, skyward-reaching, luxurious and well-rooted trees.  I can’t seem to keep from dwelling in the metaphor of a tree as it relates to a professional development plan.  My school, and most recently my district, have been hurtling down the path of a 1:1 laptop implementation in the near future.  As an instructional coach in the school that is essentially leading the way down that path, I have spent a great deal of time spearheading…

• 
  The Edublogger

• Student Blogging Challenge – Time for teachers to register their classes

  Sue Waters

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:30 am

  Welcome to Student Blogging Challenge (March) 2010! All about having fun, improving blogging and reflective writing skills while connecting with a global audience! Now into our 3rd Year and 4th Challenge! We provide weekly tasks for 10 weeks that are like a buffet — you pick and choose what works best for you while we guide you and your students through the process! Your students don’t need their own blog! You can do the activities using your class blog or by commenting on other class and student blogs. The Student Blogging Challenge is coordinated by Sue Wyatt and Sue Waters. You can…

• Week 5 – Add Students To Your Class Blog So They Can Write Posts

  Sue Waters

  6 Feb 2010 | 7:12 am

  Each week for six weeks we’re giving you a new task, with how-to info, to help you with your class blogging. Here’s the previous tasks: Week 1 – Create A Class Blog Week 2:  Set Up Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines Week 3 – Add A Visitor Tracking Widget To Your Blog Sidebar Week 4 – Add your student blogs to your blogroll This week’s task is to add your students as users to your class blog so they can write posts on it. Why Add Students As Users To Class Blogs? Normally when a class blog is initially set up you’ll be responsible for writing posts, and the students respond…

• Guest Post by Dominique: J’adore les langues!

  Sue Waters

  2 Feb 2010 | 4:12 am

  It’s my great pleasure to introduce our first ever guest post on The Edublogger! But first let me tell you the history behind this post. About Our Guest Blogger Last year student bloggers wrote some amazing posts for our Share Your Tips– and win BIG! Competition and on my winner’s post I said: The winning posts submitted by the students are so ‘must read’ that it would be an honour if they guest posted on The Edublogger. Dominique, a Grade 8 student (13 years old), from USA decided to take me up on this offer (here’s her winning post). She continues to…

• Week 4 – Add your student blogs to your blogroll

  Sue Waters

  28 Jan 2010 | 6:26 am

  Each week for six weeks we’re giving you a new task, with how-to info, to help you with your class blogging. Here’s the previous tasks: Week 1 – Create A Class Blog Week 2: Set Up Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines Week 3 – Add A Visitor Tracking Widget To Your Blog Sidebar This week’s task is to add your student blogs to your blogroll (if you have student blogs). Alternatively you can follow these directions to add links to helpful websites. What is a Blogroll? A blogroll is a list of links that you display on your blog. Bloggers commonly use blogrolls to list their favourite…

• Setting up Feedburner RSS and Email subscription for your blog

  Sue Waters

  26 Jan 2010 | 8:53 am

  Lots of people have been asking me about RSS feeds and Feedburner over the past few weeks. So I’ve decided it’s time to update my ‘how to’ Feedburner info so that: All the required instructions are in one post It is current for the latest version of Edublogs and Feedburner What is RSS? The easiest way to receive latest posts from your favorite blogs is to subscribe to RSS using feed readers such as Google Reader, Bloglines, NetVibes. RSS (means Really Simple Syndication) retrieves the latest content from the sites you are interested and pulls them into your feed reader…

• 
  New Scientist

• New black hole simulator uses real star data

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:51 am

  A new interactive program that uses data from more than 100,000 stars reveals the spectacular light show you'd see if you wandered close to a black hole

• What the LHC could find at half-power

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:22 am

  Next week engineers will begin preparing the machine to run at half its maximum energy – so what can a half-power collider find?

• Today on New Scientist: 9 February 2010

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:00 am

  Today's stories on newscientist.com at a glance, including: the hunt for the world's missing whales, how bright the stars really are, and how to make your food more filling

• Airliner landing gear not fit for all emergencies

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:45 am

  An investigation into an airliner brought down by ice in its fuel tank has thrown up a design problem that may affect many aircraft

• Complex smells make food more filling

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:41 am

  Food that incorporates more complex aromas appears to make you feel more full

• 
  New Scientist - The Human Brain

• Giving the 'unconscious' a voice

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:00 pm

  It is now possible to communicate with people who seem to be in a vegetative state, by tapping into their brain activity

• 'Imaginary rabbit' breaks out of the body

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:22 am

  A classic tactile illusion can spread to objects outside the body, suggesting our brain's body map is more malleable than once thought

• 'Imaginary rabbit' illusion breaks out of the body

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:18 am

  A tactile illusion can spread to objects outside the body, suggesting our brain's body map is more malleable than once thought

• Matthieu Ricard: Meditate yourself better

  3 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am

  The Buddhist monk explains how meditation improves mind and body alike, and how altruism could transform economics

• Draw! The neuroscience behind Hollywood shoot-outs

  2 Feb 2010 | 4:01 pm

  In Hollywood westerns, the bad guy always draws first, but gets shot. Niels Bohr had a theory to explain why, and it's now been tested

• 
  neurodudes

• Network design algorithm of a slime mold

  Bayle

  28 Jan 2010 | 6:26 pm

  [The slime mold Physarum polycephalum] “can find the shortest path through a maze (15–17) or connect different arrays of food sources in an efficient manner with low total length… yet short average minimum distance… between pairs of food sources… with a high degree of fault tolerance… to accidental disconnection (11, 18, 19)” This paper provide a model of the slime mold’s network construction algorithm. “When [Physarum] grows on a nutrient-rich substratum, it covers the surface as a coherent layer (like a pancake). If nutrition becomes…

• Sixth Sense technology

  Stephen

  13 Dec 2009 | 8:14 pm

  The brilliant next-generation technology for wearable computing from the MIT media lab.  If you haven’t seen this yet, I highly recommend watching this video.

• Its alive! Soft morphing blob robot!

  Stephen

  13 Dec 2009 | 8:08 pm

  You’ve got to see this to believe it…!

• Bayesian truth serum

  Bayle

  8 Dec 2009 | 1:51 am

  Neville told me about this neat article from ‘04. It presents a way to offer rewards to people taking a poll in such a way so as to motivate them to be honest, with no prior information about what the distribution of correct answers is. Apparently, previous such techniques are based on the idea of rewarding people for agreeing with other people’s answers. This new thing about this technique for calculating the reward is that it provides people with an incentive to tell their true opinion even if they know that they hold a minority viewpoint. Drazen Prelec. A Bayesian Truth Serum…

• IBM Cat Brain Simulation Scuffle: Symbolic?

  Stephen

  4 Dec 2009 | 1:48 pm

  You’ve probably read by now about the announcement by IBM’s Cognitive Computing group that they had created a “computer system that simulates and emulates the brain’s abilities for sensation, perception, action, interaction and cognition” at the “scale of a cat cortex”.    For their work, the IBM team led by Dharmendra Modha was awarded the ACM Gordon Bell prize, which recognizes “outstanding achievement in high-performance computing”. A few days later, Henry Markram, leader of the Blue Brain Project at EPFL, sent off an e-mail to IBM CTO…

• 
  Mind Hacks

• Nine Legendary Hypochondriacs

  8 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am

  ABC Radio National's Late Night Live has a fascinating discussion with the author of a new book on nine famous hypochondriacs: James Boswell, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale, Alice James, Daniel Paul Schreber, Marcel Proust, Glenn Gould and Andy Warhol. I'm not sure Daniel Paul Schreber is necessarily the best example of someone with hypochondria is he is famous for writing a personal account of being genuinely mentally ill and floridly psychotic. However, I've not read the book and the programme focuses on better known figures so I am open to being convinced (certainly…

• Bonuses generate more heat than light

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:11 am

  The engaging behavioural economist Dan Ariely has just become a columnist for Wired UK and in his first article he describes how the promise of performance-related pay often backfires leading people to do more but perform worse. To see the effect of bonuses on performance, Nina Mazar (assistant professor of marketing, Toronto University), Uri Gneezy (professor of economics and strategy, University of California, San Diego), George Loewenstein (professor of economics, Carnegie Mellon, Pennsylvania) and I conducted three experiments. In one we gave subjects tasks that demanded attention,…

• 2010-02-05 Spike activity

  5 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am

  Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news: Sex addiction is a feminist victory, according to an article in Slate, apparently because it allows man shaming. Malevolence-based medicine rears its ugly head. The BPS Research Digest covers research finding CBT-based self-help books might do more harm than good for people who worry a lot. The public are asked for their opinion on the recent news that The Lancet retracts the Wakefield autism paper, by The Onion. Neurophilosophy has an excellent piece on big news that the first evidence for navigation essential grid cells in the human…

• Eureka brain special and more fighting

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:00 am

  The Times has just released its monthly science magazine, Eureka, with a special issue on the brain and all the articles freely available online. There doesn't seem to be a way to link to a whole issue, but inside you'll find an excellent piece on the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to temporarily switch off bits of the working brain, a profile of neurosurgeon Huma Sethi, an article on commercial brain-computer interfaces, a remarkable piece on how old injuries can 'return' to affect phantom limbs as well as an exploration of the link between brain activity and sporting skill.

• Time to think

  4 Feb 2010 | 4:00 am

  Bioemphemera has found some wonderfully left-field brain illustrations by Dutch graphic designer Rhonald Blommestijn. The image on the left is a brain made out of clocks. Blommestijn's blog is full of strikingly surreal eye-candy that manages both to inspire a feeling of wide-eyed wonder and illustrate scientific themes. They're certainly very original takes on the subject and the neuroscience images are particularly vivid. Link to Bioephemera on Blommestijn's brain illustrations. Link to Blommestijn's blog.

• 
  Brain And Consciousness Research

• Study maps the effects of acupuncture on the brain

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:00 pm

  New research from the University of York and the Hull York Medical School about the effects of acupuncture on the brain may provide an understanding of the complex mechanisms of acupuncture and could lead to a wider acceptability of the treatment.

• Depressed people feel more gray than blue

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:00 pm

  People with anxiety and depression are most likely to use a shade of gray to represent their mental state. Researchers writing in the open-access journal BMC Medical Research Methodology describe the development of a color chart, the Manchester Color Wheel, which can be used to study people's preferred pigment in relation to their state of mind.

• Melatonin precursor stimulates growth factor circuits in brain

  7 Feb 2010 | 11:00 pm

  N-acetylserotonin, the immediate precursor to melatonin, activates the same growth circuits in the brain as BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). The results have implications for how some antidepressants function and suggest that the molecules and pathways involved in mood regulation and circadian rhythms are intertwined.

• Pay it forward: Elevation leads to altruistic behavior

  7 Feb 2010 | 11:00 pm

  Seeing someone perform a virtuous deed (especially if they are helping another person), makes us feel good -- a positive, uplifting emotion, known as "elevation." New findings suggest that elevation may lead to helping behavior: participants who viewed an uplifting TV clip spent almost twice as long helping a research assistant than participants who saw a neutral TV clip or a comedy clip.

• New brain research: Hunger for stimulation driven by dopamine in the brain

  6 Feb 2010 | 11:00 pm

  Our need for stimulation and dopamine's action upon the brain are connected, which explains why people who constantly crave stimulation are in danger of addictive behavior such as drug abuse and gambling.

• 
  Information Literacy Weblog

• Research strategies

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:35 pm

  I am not sure that I have highlighted this book by William Badke. There is a full edition in printed form (or in pdf, price $6)Badke, W. (2008) Research Strategies:Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog. 3rd ed. iUniverse. ISBN-13: 978-0595477470.and there is also a free web-based version, shorter, and based on an earlier edition of the book. Helpfully, the author has notes in each section explaining how the web content relates to the printed version. The home page with links to the online material and to places selling the book is at http://www.acts.twu.ca/Library/textbook.htmPhoto by…

• Next-Generation Presentation Tools

  5 Feb 2010 | 11:59 am

  A new briefing from EDUCAUSE: 7 Things You Should Know About...Next-Generation Presentation Tools http://www.educause.edu/Resources/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutNextG/194558Photo by Sheila Webber: Sheffield, January 2010

• IL case studies

  4 Feb 2010 | 12:55 pm

  Interesting new free articleIrving, C. (2009) "Collecting case studies / exemplars of good practice to enrich The National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland)." Library and Information Research, 33 (105). "This paper discusses the challenges, process and reasons for collecting case studies / exemplars of good practice from practitioners to enrich The National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland). The lessons learned show that there is a tendency for people to think they are not doing anything special and therefore do not respond to emails for exemplars of good practice. They are…

• Working the room

  4 Feb 2010 | 12:44 pm

  CILIP UCR (SW region) has a free event on 25 February 2010 at the University of Exeter, UK: Working the room: a networking event (speed-dating style). Short presentations include: Plymouth - library promotional video made by students;Bath - Information Literacy using Moodle;University of Exeter in Cornwall - Developing online tutorials (Jing, Captivate & Echo360);UWE - IskillZone information literacy suite.Contact Alastair Sleat for more info alastair.sleat@uwe.ac.uk

• LIS-COPYSEEK Copyright Day Seminar

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:16 pm

  Linda Purdy (Sheffield Hallam), Mark Summers (Loughborough LISU) and Clare Scott (University of Sheffield) are key contributors to the LIS-COPYSEEK Copyright Day Seminar sponsored by JISCLegal taking place at the University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK, on 31 March 2010. There is a provisional programme and a registration form. If you would like to attend please fill in the form and return it to Mark Summers (m.a.c.summers@lboro.ac.uk) by the end of February 2010. Cost is £35.Photo by Sheila Webber: Patriachs Ponds, Moscow, December 2009.

• 
  THE NATIONAL CHILDREN'S BOOK AND LITERACY ALLIANCE

• Win a Visit From Katherine Paterson

  5 Feb 2010 | 1:54 pm

  Contest Organized to Offer Visit by America's National Ambassador for Young People's LiteratureThis past month author Katherine Paterson was named as the second National Ambassador for Young People's Literature by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. Paterson will serve in the position during 2010 and 2011; she succeeds Jon Scieszka, appointed in 2008, who was the first person to hold the title. Paterson has chosen “Read for Your Life” as the theme for her platform.The position of National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature was created to raise national awareness of the…

• Megan McDonald Pens Exquisite Corpse Adventure Episode

  1 Feb 2010 | 3:26 pm

  The Exquisite Corpse AdventureEpisode 10 LIVE Now on Read.GovIn the latest episode of The Exquisite Corpse Adventure our twin heroes Nancy and Joe are engaged by a disembodied voice...and they must answer its riddle before the voice will show itself! Can you answer the riddle? Do you recognize its source? Read the episode titled "Wolf at the Door," written by Megan McDonald and illustrated by James Ransome, now on Read.Gov!The Exquisite Corpse Adventure is a reading and writing outreach project jointly sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and the NCBLA. Created by a…

• In Case You Missed It! Read "In Arm's Way" by Nikki Grimes

  28 Jan 2010 | 4:03 am

  The Exquisite Corpse AdventureEpisode 9 is LIVE on Read.GovWritten by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by Chris Van Dusen, be sure to check out the latest installment of the online story game, The Exquisite Corpse Adventure, available FREE to all readers on Read.Gov!The Exquisite Corpse Adventure is a reading and writing outreach project jointly sponsored by the Library of Congress and the NCBLA. This rollicking story adventure is being created by nineteen of America's most gifted storytellers and artists, with a new episode being published every two weeks. To maximize the educational impact, the…

• State of the Union Address Tonight

  27 Jan 2010 | 4:01 am

  Helping Young People Connect with Contemporary EventsTonight President Obama will make his state of the union address to Congress. Will he find refuge in the White House movie theater sometime today to practice his delivery of tonight's speech, just as his predecessor President George W. Bush liked to do? What policies and legislative goals will the president be promoting tonight? Is the state of the union address important? Need we watch?In his 1949 state of the union address, President Harry S Truman proposed his program of social and economic reform, asserting that “Every segment of our…

• Exquisite Corpse Adventure: Interview with Nikki Grimes

  20 Jan 2010 | 6:58 am

  Nikki Grimes, Author of The Exquisite Corpse AdventureEpisode Nine, Talks About Her WorkEpisode Nine of The Exquisite Corpse Adventure, titled "In Arm's Way," is now live on Read.Gov. This latest installment in the online story game introduces a new character to the zany adventure of 11-year old twins Nancy and Joe--a pirate named Angel. Ms. Grimes is a New York Times bestselling author and the recipient of the 2006 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. Her distinguished works include the ALA Notable book, What is Goodbye?, the novels Jazmin's Notebook, Dark Sons, and The Road to…

• 
  Literacy Learning

• A Couple of Ways to Promote Literacy: Please Lend a Hand

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:51 am

  Hi everyone. Reach Out and Read does great work in getting books into the hands (and mouths) of young children. It is participating in the Pepsi Refresh project, an online challenge that could net them $250,000 to expand their work. I've been going on line every day and voting for them, and they have been inching up in the competition (this is getting me ready for the Olympics, I think). Can you imagine how well they would do, if you were voting for them, too? The directions are below and they are pretty simple. Easiest contribution I've made to literacy this month! Here’s how you can…

• More Ideas Not Everyone Will Like: Musings on Teacher Education

  30 Jan 2010 | 9:17 am

  This week I had the opportunity to spend some time with some old friends. One of them, Mary Beth Curtis, reminded me about a column I had published in Reading Today when I was IRA president. The column was about teaching and teacher education and it provoked a great deal of controversy and comment at the time, so I remembered it quite well. Her reminder seems timely given the big kerfluffle over teacher education right now, so I'm re-issuing that piece here and now (the original title was "More Ideas Not Everyone Will Like"--I've added the post colon description for this wider audience). Mark…

• How do kids learn to comprehend?

  23 Jan 2010 | 5:44 pm

  For many years, reading comprehension wasn't taught at all. American students read text aloud for much of the 19th century without a lot of discussion. Early in the 20th century, Thorndike found that if readers were asked questions about what they had read, they understood and remembered more. Soon after, publishers created teacher’s guides (an innovation of the ‘20s and ‘30s), and they all included questions for teachers to ask to facilitate comprehension. Things began to change again in the 1960s: the idea that we could guide students to think about text more effectively, not just by…

• When Time isn't the Only Thing

  19 Jan 2010 | 11:21 am

  For 20 years, my speeches and writing have been heavily oriented towards time--amount of instruction. I have made a big deal that schools with longer school days tend to do better as do countries with longer school years; that summer school programs increase achievement as do many after school programs; that snow days lower school achievement, as do student absences; that extended school years and all-day kindergartens work; that classrooms differ in how much instruction they provide and that these differences are related to student learning, and that guiding teachers to use time better…

• More on High School Phonics--From Marilyn Jager Adams

  7 Jan 2010 | 5:17 pm

  Usually, posts to this site just sit at the bottom of my blog entries. If you click on the title of one of my entries you can see what someone might have said about my thoughts.However, today, I was pleased to accept the entry of someone who I deeply admire, so I wanted to highlight it a bit. Marilyn Jager Adams weighed in on my high school phonics blog and argues for why technology might get us out of the unfortunate quandry that I described. As I say, normally, I do not tout the responses and that is especially true if I feel like the responder has something to sell. I usually don't push…

• 
  FOR-PD Literacy Blog

• Effective Reading Instruction in Secondary Grades (Feb 3)

  Vicky Zygouris-Coe

  29 Jan 2010 | 8:25 am

  Research has shown what effective reading instruction for adolescents should look like. Select one area from the following: word study, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, or motivation and share core challenges related with the area and key instructional suggestions to address the challenge at hand.

• Narrowing the Achievement Gap in Adolescent Literacy (Jan 27)

  Vicky Zygouris-Coe

  29 Jan 2010 | 8:22 am

  What are key factors that contribute to differences in reading comprehension? What do we need to do to narrow the achievement gap in adolescent literacy?

• Engagement, Motivation, and the Literacy Needs of Adolescent Readers

  Vicky Zygouris-Coe

  20 Jan 2010 | 1:48 pm

  So many of our adolescents struggle with reading in secondary schools. What can we do to to bridge the achievement gap and meet their needs? Why should we look into engagement and motivation?

• Reading in the Content Areas/Disciplinary Literacy

  Vicky Zygouris-Coe

  13 Jan 2010 | 11:52 am

  How do you define reading in the content areas? Does it look or “feel” different than reading in general? What are core reading needs of content area teachers?

• RTI: Guiding Principles for Educators from the International Reading Association

  FOR-PD

  7 Jan 2010 | 6:25 am

  To further clarify issues related to RTI with respect to language and literacy, the Commission offers the following set of principles as a guide to IRA members and others concerned with developing and implementing an RTI approach to improving the language and literacy learning of all students. http://www.reading.org/Libraries/Resources/RTI_brochure_web.sflb.ashx What do you think about these guidelines?

• 
  Box of Crayons

• Great Work Interview Seth Godin

  Michael

  9 Feb 2010 | 3:12 am

  I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing Seth’s blog is the most read in the world of business. In his blog, just as with his numerous and excellent books, (Linchpin, Tribes, Purple Cow etc.) Seth has an unparalleled capacity to offer up insights and ideas that challenge, provoke and support us all to do more Great Work. What does it mean to serve others? What does it mean to break the rules? What does it mean to do business in this changing world? It is quite an honour that Seth has contributed an original piece to Do More Great Work. In this interview we talk about: Why the…

• Why stories matter

  Michael

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:50 am

  Or rather, let me show you the power of a story. And all through the lens of a search engine. My vote for the best ad of the Superbowl. Related posts:Pulling back the curtains on glory

• Great Work Interview Leo Babauta

  Michael

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:08 am

  One of the giants in the self-development world, Leo Babauta. His blog Zen Habits is read by over 150,000 people, and with good reason. It’s practical, wise and committed to helping people create a better life for themselves through simple productivity. He’s also the author of The Power of Less, a best-selling book which helps declutter your life on every possible level. I’m thrilled to say Leo has  contributed a piece to my new book,  Do More Great Work. In this interview Leo and I talk about: How he balanced two jobs (and a family with six children) to launch Zen Habits…

• Great Work Quote #65 “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate…”

  Michael

  8 Feb 2010 | 2:15 am

  “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!” ~ Maya Angelou One of the great blessings of writing Do More Great Work was inviting some people I admire greatly to contribute to the book. Inviting them, and being accepted. This coming week I feature Great Work interviews with some of the contributors to Do More Great Work. Seth Godin, Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non-Conformity, Michael Port of the Think Big Revolution, Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, Penelope Trunk of Brazen Careerist and HR guru Dave Ulrich are all people who’ve written…

• Stop the busywork #1: 7 strategies to do more Great Work

  Michael

  6 Feb 2010 | 4:47 pm

  “Do more Great Work!” I say, full of vim and vigor and the wide-eyed enthusiasm of someone with a book about to be published. “Yeah yeah,” you say. “Don’t you know how busy I am, how many emails I have to get through, how many meetings I have to attend?” Well yes, I do. Or at least, I can guess. I saw a recent report that said that in Intel people spend an average of 20 hours a week ON EMAIL ALONE! Crazy. So if you’re looking for something practical tips, here we go. One page, seven tactics. (It’s the press release from my publisher, so if…

• 
  New York Times

• Findings: Will You Be E-Mailing This Column? It’s Awesome

  By JOHN TIERNEY

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:00 am

  A University of Pennsylvania study found that readers of news in print and online had more exalted tastes than might be expected.

• Sinatra Song Often Strikes Deadly Chord

  By NORIMITSU ONISHI

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:50 am

  The murders of people warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars have spawned urban legends about the song and left Filipinos groping for answers.

• In City Real Estate, Old Clans Are Shrewd Again

  By CHARLES V. BAGLI

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:30 am

  Some families with deep roots in Manhattan kept their heads a few years ago when the market overheated.

• Skeptics Find Fault With U.N. Climate Panel

  By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:56 am

  Rajendra K. Pachauri and the U.N. panel he leads face accusations of scientific sloppiness and conflicts of interest.

• Thirty Knots, With the Wind at Your Wings

  By HENRY FOUNTAIN

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:48 am

  The sailboats competing in the America’s Cup are the fastest ever built but about as delicate as a house of cards.

• 
  Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?

• pumpin iron:

  Cheezburger Network

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am

  pumpin iron: ur doin it wrong but i needz to keep mah rezolushun Picture by: dunno source Caption by: msmith3492 via Our LOL Builder » Recaption This! » View All Captions

• Dont be so surprised. She’s

  Cheezburger Network

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:00 am

  Dont be so surprised. She’s got thumbs and knows where the gusshy fud is. Also I kind of like her. mabee moar dan kinda Picture by: dunno source Caption by: tovha via Advanced Lol Builder » Recaption This! » View All Captions

• Scooter vaguely remember a

  Cheezburger Network

  9 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am

  Scooter vaguely remember a voice saying, “we can rebuild him, we have the technology…if not the budget…” teh robot. ur doin it rong Picture by: Iwan Nieuwland Caption by: oneforsorrow13 via Advanced Lol Builder » Recaption This! » View All Captions

• teh gun show.

  Cheezburger Network

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:00 pm

  teh gun show. I winned it. Picture by: Steve Caption by: dasmudge via Our LOL Builder » Recaption This! » View All Captions

• ‘”Whatacutiepiekittahbooboo”

  Cheezburger Network

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:00 pm

  ‘”Whatacutiepiekittahbooboo” is not a word in English language mebbe try nother langwage? Picture by: dunno source Caption by: momofzoo via Our LOL Builder » Recaption This! » View All Captions