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When kids take math tests, most teachers require them to "show their work" instead of doing problems "in their heads." Or they require calculators. Teachers are preparing students to function in a world where pencils and calculators are generally available. Banning iPods is like banning pencils or calculators.
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Interactive stacks of words – adopt one
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The GigaPanSM process allows users to upload, share, and explore brilliant gigapixel+ panoramas from around the globe.
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Twitter users know a good tag when they see one, and immediately took to using it. People were able to share personal stories ("solar xmas lights were the only thing lighting our st") and spread the news they were seeing on websites and hearing on the radio and on TV.
Monthly Archives: January 2009
Networks
Let me start by saying that I am so happy that the results from the situation with US Airways Flight 1549 turned out the way that they did without loss of life. As I noted last night, it was an event where the social networking power of Twitter certainly outshone the big media networks in its immediacy, apolitical nature, photo angles, etc. in the first minutes following the event.
Later though, once the media outlets were aware and rushed their crews to the event, the coverage got more universal, in depth, and complete with pundits.
There is a lot of mention these days about people developing their PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) on resources like Twitter. I’ve been following this conversation and have been really analysing things but have been hesitant to throw my entire eggs in that basket. I see the potential, I actively try to participate in discussions, I follow interesting people and have some interesting people following me as well.
I still feel that there’s something missing though. I think it’s becoming clearer as I take a look at Twitter versus traditional media as above. It seems to me that an appropriate analogy is that Twitter is wide and the traditional approach is deep. I know that this may be upsetting to some but I feel that it’s the nature of the beast. At 140 characters, Twitter is like an instant index to the resources. And what an index! It’s also parallel in nature as well. Last night, there were comments flowing about the US Airways incident but at the same time, there were people who weren’t aware of it and life was progressing for them, and then there were also other news events flooding through.
Amid reports from New York, for example, there was a separate stream about a big black out in Toronto. There were also reports of the continued conflict in Gaza.
But, New York was persistent. As I read and learned and learned and read, I found a number of things.
- First pictures from the scene
- A Wikipedia entry
- Scary fact about Air Canada’s Jazz
- National Public Radio puts a Twitter photo upfront
- A picture of the airplane before the landing
There can be no doubt that such breadth of information is only available on a service like Twitter. However, it only goes so far. For true learning, we still have to turn to something else to dig deeper. Twitter is an integral part but it doesn’t stand alone.
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links for 2009-01-15
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Create RSS feeds based upon Twitter content
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Google Circles the Wagons, Kills Notebook, Jaiku, Dodgeball and More
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Great teachers help create great students, agreed? In fact, research shows that an inspiring and informed teacher is the single most important school-related factor influencing student achievement.
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US Airways Flight 1549 was a commercial flight en route from LaGuardia Airport in New York City to Charlotte, North Carolina on January 15, 2009, that was forced to make an emergency water landing shortly after takeoff
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Wiki devoted to visual literacy
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Janis Krums from Sarasota, Florida posts the first photo of U.S. Airways flight 1549 on Twitter from his iPhone.
Photos from ECO Schools 2009
Here are some pictures from the ECO Schools setup for 2009. Images were taken early in the morning before the students showed up.
Cover of the School Ground Greening Workbook
Setup at the Fogolar Furlan club. Notice the SMART Board in the centre of the room with two display screens on either side.
A closeup of the cart used to house the computer and data projector for the presentation.
Participant table
Each student left with an insulated lunch bag.
The cover of Sandwich Secondary Schools’ workbook.
Analysis of the Sandwich campus – note the sunlight areas, pathways in burgundy, active play area in red, water gathering in blue, and the prevailing winds.
The ECO Calculator – students enter the number of things used and recycled and results are compiled and displayed on a grid for later analysis.
Three card Froggy – Using the ECO Calculator, students determine the best “hand” depending upon amounts used and recycled.
ECO Bingo – Using the ECO Calculator, students track a day in the life of a school in five different recycling/resuing categories.
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And for the teachers…coffee from the biggest coffee machine I’ve ever seen.
It was quite a day and a wonderful adventure for the students. Good luck to them all as they return to their schools to work on and improve school numbers in reusing and recycling.
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Twitter as it Happens
This afternoon, a US Airways flight made an emergency landing in the Hudson River. Thankfully, the initial reports are that there were no fatalities and only minor injuries. I’m watching the news reports on television and it’s a pretty standard news coverage. I’m flipping through the major US news channels and the stories are all pretty much the same.
I also have Twitter open and there is a great deal of chatter happening about the event.
What’s different between the coverage is that Twitter is providing newer insights to what’s happening.
People who are on the rescue teams are providing a perspective and immediacy that is so unique and a credit to the concept of citizen journalism. With their telephones, they are up close and personal to the event providing images that the big networks could only dream about.
In the media world, the content would have to be bounced through a supervisor or producer who then makes a decision about whether or not to show the images and whether they tell or contribute to a story. With Twitter, the holder of the camera makes that decision and unilaterally makes the decision to display the image.
Apparently, Twitpic has slowed or crashed, and others are moving the images to Flickr. Andy Carvin has made the announcement and posted the image here. The front page of NPR publishes it as well. Notice that the attribution is given properly and includes the source “via Twitter”.
Let there be no doubt. We live in a new and changing world and everyone has the ability to share and make a difference. It certainly happened here.
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links for 2009-01-15
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Several templates on this page are developed only for SMART Notebook Software 10. If you are still running SMART Notebook Software older than 9.5, I would recommend upgrading to the newer version of SMART Notebook 10. You'll be amazed with the updates!
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MyCleenr is a unique way to sort your friends by their last tweets. It allows you to get rid off all the inactive and useless accounts that you are following!
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This will come handy when you are trying to recover an accidentally deleted website or you need to retrieve a web page that no longer exists at the original location.
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ry all 300 of our financial calculators! Each with dynamic graphs, customizable page layouts, colors and reports that are ready to put on your website!
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ew Mobile Learning Student Response App For iPhone and iPod touch Gets Students Engaged in Active Learning and Provides Educators With Instant Assessment
ECO Schools 2009
Today was the kick off of the 2009 version of ECO Schools in the Greater Essex County District School Board.
The event brings environmentally conscious students and teachers together to plan environmental issues surrounding their school community.
Last year’s focus was on refreshing the environment at the school. But, it wasn’t just about buying a few trees and planting them and seeing what would happen. It was about planning for sustainability and making intelligent decisions about what to get and where to put it.
During the process, student plotted pathways, areas that don’t drain on the school grounds, sun patterns, and more to determine the life of the school and its grounds. Each school was provided with an aerial view of the property in a SMART Notebook file and their job was to map out the property, identifying all areas, in order to make intelligent decisions about greening.
It worked out well and schools will get a chance to revisit this year.
Above and beyond that, we’re moving into a serious stage about recycling. More information is constantly available about the cost to the environment by some of our human habits.
This year, schools will work with the latest revision of the home grown ECO Calculator. Activities that takes the students deep inside the calculator will be a key component of the day.
I visited the setup this morning to make sure that the technology component is good and ready to go. It appeared to work well and I’m looking forward to hearing how the day went. Tomorrow, I’ll return and take some pictures which I’ll be sure to share.
To recap the events from last year, I live blogged here. A discussion of the planning happened here. And, pictures of the event were posted here.
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links for 2009-01-13
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I thought it might be fun to take a step back and look at some interesting/amazing social media, Web 2.0, crowdsourcing and internet statistics. I tried to find stats that are the most up-to-date as possible at the time of publishing this post.
links for 2009-01-12
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Record your own version of words and upload them.
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Ideas for document cameras/webcams
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The mobile phone is the primary connection tool for most people in the world. In 2020, while "one laptop per child" and other initiatives to bring networked digital communications to everyone are successful on many levels, the mobile phone—now with significant computing power—is the primary Internet connection and the only one for a majority of the people across the world, providing information in a portable, well-connected form at a relatively low price.
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ooVoo is the next evolution in online communication — a remarkably easy way to have a face-to-face video chat with friends, family or colleagues, no matter where they are in the world.
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While not totally comprehensive, here is a list of 50 things everyone should know how to do.
Day 1
For me, today was a sit back and watch day. Microsoft Windows 7 was released to wide-spread beta testing over the weekend.
According to reports, there were 2.5 million registration keys available.
Since the original announcement, this limit was removed. Everyone is entitled to download this Beta. It will run until August 1. As bugs are reported, updates will be pushed out through Windows Update.
I am impressed with what I’m watching. I haven’t heard a negative thing at this point. With the world’s desire to bash Microsoft at every opportunity, I’m not seeing it this time around at all.
I even read an article that indicated that Windows 7 could be a Linux killer. Now, that’s a very strong statement. A colleague of mine even did a test with SMART Ideas, a program that wouldn’t run under Microsoft Vista and then a patch allows it to run after switching to the Basic desktop setting.
This is boding well for Microsoft now and hopefully us in the future. Educational software doesn’t have a track record of being the most compatible. If Windows 7 can run it without problem, I’m really impressed.
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