Flickr + LOC = Great January 16, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Tools.add a comment
A new resource from the Library of Congress and Flickr provides a great way to find primary source images and also invites participation on the part of visitors by tagging the images.
The key goals of this pilot project are to firstly give you a taste of the hidden treasures in the huge Library of Congress collection, and secondly to how your input of a tag or two can make the collection even richer.
2008 Education Blogosphere Survey January 16, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Data, Edubloggers.add a comment
The title kind of says it all. If you are an edublogger, take a survey.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=6StV_2bQlONrIuhBYx3O3cEA_3d_3d
Paper 2.0 January 13, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Hardware.3 comments
I’ve been interested in e-paper, or paper 2.0 to bring the phrase up to date, for many years now. For example, Xerox has been working on digital ink for a while now. Below is a link to a post by Vicki Davis on the Cool Cat Teacher Blog that summarizes some of the current efforts to bring digital ink to market, or at least to bring content to very small portable devices. The post includes some cool pictures of Polymer Vision’s Readius Handheld, as well as information about Amazon’s Kindle and other devices.
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2008/01/paper-is-in-your-hand-hard-proof-of.html
Disruptive Technology - Making a Difference January 11, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos.add a comment
Clarence Fisher on Remote Access has posted a terrific story of a student who needed to connect to the Internet to finish a project, and all of the computers available were occupied. Ultimately, the student turned to an iPod to connect to the school network and complete her work. I don’t know how many districts allow for students or teachers to connect to their network, but in this case, the disruption such access can create was worthwhile.
The point is just that the kids and I are both realizing more each day that the technology is just a channel, a pipe, a point of access to what is really important; the connection, the information, the people out there.
http://remoteaccess.typepad.com/remote_access/2008/01/who-cares-about.html
Disruptive Technology - Student Edition January 11, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos.add a comment
Doug Johnson covered a recent student walk-out at a high school where students were disciplined based on the content of their Facebook pictures. Students at the high school even used Facebook to organize a walk-out to protest the school response. This is a good example of how disruptive technology can be, especially where educators are not paying attention to the current world in which their students live.
If the figures from the article above are accurate, about 85% of Eden Prairie’s students have an online presence. Are educators adequately addressing these concerns? What percentage of educators are aware of these concerns?
http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2008/1/11/students-facebooking-suspension.html
Disruptive Technology January 11, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Hardware, Humor, Opinion.add a comment
If you ever needed an example of how disruptive technology can be, take a look at this example from the Consumer Electronics Show. No, I’m not talking about cool new stuff, I’m talking about what happens when people choose for themselves what happens to the technology used to show off all of the cool new stuff. This is one video worth watching. It definitely reminds me of what happens in the classroom when students decide for themselves what learning is going to take place.
http://gizmodo.com/343348/confessions-the-meanest-thing-gizmodo-did-at-ces
OLPC 2.0 January 10, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Hardware, OLPC.add a comment
Okay, here we go again. This time, the starting point is $75. We’ll see how far this can go, but the New York Times is reporting that a spin-out group from OLPC is proposing a $75 laptop. Specs and details in the link below. Pretty soon they’ll be giving these things away!
OLPC from Everex, or Maybe Packard Bell January 8, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Hardware, OLPC.add a comment
CES, the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is often a good predictor of future trends in technology. Take for example this $399 laptop from Everex. At least according to this CrunchGear article it will be manufactured by Everex when it hits the market in the US. While it isn’e a touch screen, and the battery life leaves something to be desired, the processor is faster than others in this price range, there is a full gigabyte of memory, and it inlcudes a 30 GB hard drive.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/01/08/look-out-eee-a-399-tiny-laptop-from-everex-is-afoot/
Hack This Device January 6, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Hardware, Tools.add a comment
The New York Times has published an article about a new product from Neuros Technology International that invites people to extend the functionality of the device. It is an example of open source hardware, similar to the Chumby I mentioned a few posts ago. The Neuros OSD is a device to archive, organize, playback, and transfer your video content to other devices. It will be interesting to see what happens if there is a market for hackable devices. Imagine customers deciding what capabilities are included in the products they purchase instead of the manufacturer. To provide an educational spin, imagine a classroom where students are empowered to decide what they are going to learn instead of the curriculum. Sounds very disruptive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/business/06novel.html
Blog Example #18 - Online Project January 6, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Edublogs.add a comment
Mrs. Tolisano, from the San Jose Episcopal Day School in Jacksonville, Florida, has set up a blog called Teddy Bears Around the World. Visit the link below if you would like to participate. For those of you who have participated in a Flat Stanley project before, this should be familiar ground.
This blog will provide the space to hang out and communicate with different teddy bears around the world to hear more about their lives and adventures. This will allow our students to see each other’s countries, customs and traditions through the eyes of our “teddy bears” and open their horizons through a more global perspective.
http://sjeds.com/blog/teddybear/
Size Matters January 5, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos.add a comment
Connecting the Dots posted about an announced 3M product that is an LED projector smaller than a tic-tac box. This is cool. Imagine one of these on a keyboard or touch pad with the rest of the computer underneath. Project your image on an nearby flat surface, and you have yourself a 1 pound or lighter portable computer. What would you do with a small projector?
http://www.iconnectdots.com/ctd/2008/01/is-that-an-lcd.html
Recut, Reframe, Recycle January 3, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Fair Use.add a comment
The Center for Social Media at American University has posted a terrific article with an embedded video discussing copyright and fair use. There is also an extensive list of links to videos that should be covered by fair use that include remixed, mashed, or rehashed copyrighted materials. This would be a great resource for encouraging a classroom discussion about copyright and ethical online behavior, but most of the links are probably blocked in most districts.
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/resources/publications/recut_reframe_recycle
Election 2008 January 3, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Opinion, Tools.1 comment so far
Looking for advice on who to support in the coming presidential election? Glassbooth is an interesting mashup that lets you indicate your top issues and matches them up with the position the candidates have taken. While this isn’t strictly educational (although education is one of the choices) it is a cool use of technology and a great way to see how your views match up with the candidates. My dream candidates? Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Mitt Romney all came within 4% of each other. My least compatible candidates? Ron Paul tops the list, with Rudy Giulianai not far behind. Keep in mind that no candidate matched my views on all of the issues I felt were important.
Blog Example #17 - Classroom Discussions January 2, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Edublogs.add a comment
Sometimes students are intimidated by a classroom of their peers and are reluctant to talk in front of others. Making judicious use of a blog is one way to allow participation on the part of all students. In this post on the Morey Matters blog from M. Dame, students contribute their own ideas on what skills they think are most important for the 21st century. The comments from the students are insightful and who better to ask than those who will need the skills themselves? Here are a couple of examples:
The internet has a vast amount of information, some of it creditable and some of it not. As research on the internet is necessary for completing high school, not to mention collage, it is important to learn how to find creditable information among the vast amount of junk.
It is important to know how to send a formal email because you cannot talk to a dean or someone from a future school you want to attend in shorthand. It’s not acceptable to say “im glad 2 apply 4 dis skool.”
To be successful in this generation you must need to know how to operate simple machines. It comes easy to us, but if you have the capacity to learn more you should. It will come in handy throughout the rest of your life.
I think that the children of today need to be able to design applications for computers as well as be able to fix and build one.
http://mdame.edublogs.org/2007/11/28/21st-century-literacy-skills/
Clipmarks January 2, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Tools.add a comment
I stumbled on Clipmarks today. It is a Firefox and IE extension that lets you ‘clip’ information from other web sites. If this worked correctly, you should see a clip from the Clipmarks site that sort of sums it up in a nutshell.
Hi! You should now see the clip button in your browser.
When you see something on the web you want to share or save, clip it.
Don’t see the clip button? Click here
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