The Village Green

Stephanie Sandifer, on LeaderTalk and Change Agency, posted a nice article on what to do once the realization has been made that something must change in education in response to the shift in the world around us that has already taken place. She does a nice job of moving the discussion from tools (what to buy) to people. Stephanie identifies everyone on campus, teacher, administrators, etc. as learners, and I agree with the assertion:

If we are serious about changing our learning environments so that our students leave fully prepared for life and work in a globally connected and collaborative environment, then we are definitely going to be moving the cheese of many people in our organizations — it won’t be easy and we can’t wait for all of the state and federal policies and mandates to catch up before we take action.

Stephanie goes on to point out that traditional methods of distributing change in educational systems, such as committees and pilot programs, are just too slow. She calls on the early adopters to virally spread change. While this is effective among the early adopter set, I don’t think this approach will impact those in the later (and larger) adopter groups. Unfortunately, I don’t have a suggestion for a better way to spread change, especially in educational institutions.

Stephanie does a great job of identifying roadblocks, such as tolerance toward technophobic attitudes and sufficient infrastructure. Some of these same elements I’ve written about in the ocassional ‘Necessary Ingredients’ series. On a side note, the post is nicely annotated with helpful links. Link to the article below:

http://www.ed421.com/?p=453 

• BiddingForGood.com - Online Charity Auctions and Non-Profit Fundraising(tags: philanthropy auction)
• Eat Low Carbon Diet Calculator - Bon Appétit Management CompanyDid you know that the food system creates 1/3 of global greenhouse gas emissions? Calculate the carbon impacts of food choices by using Bon
  Appetit Management Company’s Low Carbon Diet Calculator.(tags: Green nutrition ecology)
• Pencil - a traditional 2D animation software(tags: free art software windows_software Macintosh)
• YAKIToMe! - Free Text-To-Speech (TTS) Audio Book Podcastsweb-based voice synthesis for various file types and sources(tags: voice text_to_speech language)

By way of a post by Michael Arrington on TechCrunch, bloggers and others who regularly post to the Internet may sign up for complimentary access to the Encyclopedia Britannica. If they accept your submission, you can link directly to specific articles for your audience to read. This should allow annotation similar to what can be done with Wikipedia. I signed up and will let you know how it goes if I get access.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/18/encyclopedia-britannica-now-free-for-bloggers/ 

• Hab.la - Chat with visitors to your website using your IM client for free
  Real time language translator for chat clients
  (tags: im language translator)
• 750 pixel Pure CSS Layouts - Iron Myers
  Cool page of CSS templates - multi-columns
  (tags: webdesign css templates layout web2.0)
• Virtual Worlds Management
  List of 100 kid or teen focused virtual worlds with links to reviews.
  (tags: virtual_worlds link_collection)

We start the April update with MediaShift’s Guide to Net Neutrality by Mark Glaser. This guide will fill in any gaps you may have about the issues and what is at stake. In the interest of presenting an unbiased report, an argument for and one against Net Neutrality are both included. The article also includes a global take on the issue, since the Internet isn’t the exclusive property of any one country. There are also many helpful linked resources.

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/04/digging_deeperyour_guide_to_ne.html

Smart Mobs is reporting how to listen to the FCC hearing at Stanford after it is recorded Thursday. The subject of the discussion is supposed to be on the future of the Internet, and it will be live blogged by the Free Press Action Network.

http://www.smartmobs.com/2008/04/16/tune-in-online-to-fcc-hearing-on-future-of-the-internet/

In a turn of events, Wired reports that Comcast is asking for a ‘bill of rights’ for file-sharers and ISPs.  Comcast was the ISP that previously intentionally slowed down BitTorrent connections.

http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/C/COMCAST_FILE_SHARING 

• Technology Integration Matrix
  he Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students.
  (tags: integration standards)
• Tom Chapin - Not On The Test
  Very funny and sad at the same time. Video about education and what’s ‘not on the test.’
  (tags: video education assessment)

• Free Resources for Education
  
  Free software for education
  (tags: freeware free Macintosh windows_software)

By way of Lucy Gray’s del.icio.us account, here is a humorous and informative look at what to avoid when using PowerPoint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cagxPlVqrtM

• Welcome to Jiffle | Scheduling Made Simple
  Online calendaring tool that allows others to schedule, or request, your time
  (tags: calendar onlinetool)
• taggylicio.us (beta) - The power of tags
  Interesting aggregator search tool with tag cloud
  (tags: search)

• YouTube - Cyberbullying-Talent Show
  Great video about how wrong cyberbullying is
  (tags: safety YouTube)
• Stixy: For Flexible Online Creation Collaboration and Sharing
  Interesting ‘collaboration’ tool
  (tags: onlinetool collaboration startpages)
• Remember everything. | Evernote Corporation
  multi-platform save and search tool
  (tags: cell Macintosh windows_software)

Wes Fryer has posted a pair of terrific articles on his Moving at the Speed of Creativity blog related to Internet safety.  The first includes a video from Google and Common Sense Media that states most of the issues around Internet safety quite well.  The second is a nice collection of tips everyone can/should follow to avoid identity theft.  I’m not sure which is more likely, cyber bullying, or ID theft, but neither one sounds like much fun!

Safety - http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2008/04/10/a-common-sense-approach-to-internet-safety/

ID Theft - http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2008/04/10/tips-for-avoiding-identity-theft/

HP and Dell are also getting in on the lower cost laptops initially aimed at the developing world and education markets. I think this trend is really catching on and hope it continues.

HP low cost laptop preview from eSchool News:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=53439

Dell low cost laptop preview from TechSpot:
http://www.techspot.com/news/29659-Dell-to-join-lowcost-ultraportable-notebook-race.html

• Find The Best Cell Phone Plan For You | BillShrink
  This site compares your current cell phone plan with ‘every’ plan on the market to see if you can save some money. Might be a nice way to discuss personal finance.
  (tags: finance phone onlinetool)
• The Quackometer
  Interesting source for critical thinking activities
  (tags: pseudoscience science critical_thinking)
• Free Typing Tutor Online, Free Typing Lessons, Typing Test, Learn Typing - TypingWeb
  This looks like like a new online typing site for keyboarding
  (tags: keyboarding)
• BBC - Schools - Dance Mat Typing - Home
  (tags: keyboarding)
• November Learning - Archive of Articles
  (tags: article big_ideas)

Gapingvoid has posted a very funny cartoon that sums up the history of blogging, at least the last three years, in a cartoon that could fit on the back of a business card.

http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004480.html 

By way of a tweet from Scott Merrick, here is a nice, small, collection of 9 cool tools listed by Shifted Learning.  Each tool describes a bit about what the tool does, and also links to the tool itself.  If you are looking for a short list of items to get started, you could do worse than this list!

http://www.shiftedlearning.org/wiki/Cool_Tools