This site from Purdue appears to provide a wealth of information on many aspects of writing and the writing process. I have linked you to the grade 7-12 resources. However, this site has far more than this. If you teach writing (and most of us do in some way linked to our disciplines), this site has something for you. Here are a few other sections you might want to explore:

• Writing across the curriculum (covers writing for science)
• Poetry in writing courses
• E-mail Etiquette
• College level writing

18.2 WearaBraille
http://youtu.be/G_QWtUFFAFQ

This is where technology is making a real difference in people’s lives and is one of the most amazing things I have seen in the field of adaptive technology. Watch this short 4-minute movie and you will not be sorry. Dr. Joshua Miele received his Ph.D in Psychoacoustics (who knew there was even such a field) and is a scientist at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute.

In this video, you will see Dr. Miele use this wearable Braille system and fully control an iPhone. What I like about this video and project, beyond that great good that is being done, is the way this type of problem is not owned by any one discipline. The research behind this device points toward the connections and synergy that exists between many different disciplines (mathematics, electronics, biology, language, design, physics, anatomy, programming, psychology and more).

For more on Joshua Miele’s work and that of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center, check out:

• http://www.ski.org/Rehab/JAMiele/
• http://www.mielelab.org/
• http://www.ski.org/Rehab/

18.3 Consumer Attitudes toward e-Book Reading
http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/01/bisg-data-readers-embracing-ereading-angela-bole-toc.html

Today’s site is more to help everyone keep up with trends. This is a post that shares the latest from a study that looked at consumer attitudes toward the use of e-books for reading. I just flew back from Chicago last night and noticed, for the first time, a large number of individuals reading e-books rather than traditional books. Yes, I did see the collection of movies playing on various devices but the number of Nooks, Kindles, iPads and Sony Readers was noticeably higher than I had ever seen. Enough so that I actually noticed the difference. There are some nice charts from the study included in the post. It is interesting to note that academic reading is still far behind the other categories listed in the study.

18.4 SOPA and PIPA Background Information
http://bigenhoc.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/sopa-pipa-and-the-anatomy-of-a-bad-idea/

Today’s site of the day provides context for the two images shown below (posted earlier this week- follow link above). These resources are a great place to start a discussion about copyright, laws, emerging technology and effects on society. SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act and PIPA is the Protect IP Act. You can learn more about both of these from the sites below. Start with the video by Clay Shirky then explore the other sites. You can learn more about Clay Shirky at http://www.shirky.com/. You will hear about this in the news tonight and likely for days to come.

18.5 OverDrive

http://www.overdrive.com

I share today’s site of the day out of a pure feeling of joy and excitement of a new way (for me) of accessing books and e-books to read and enjoy. While OverDrive is one of many ways you can get media to read and listen to on your iPad, Smartphone, e-reader and/or mp3 players, I have only recently experienced the ease with which I could check out a book or recording from the local public library and immediately start enjoying it through my Android phone.

This week, while driving to work, I have been listening to a fascinating read of Six Great Scientists: Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Marie Curie, Einstein. During this morning’s commute, I learned how Galileo invented the pendulum through the observation of a swinging chandelier during church followed by experimentation with string and a bullet while timing the swing to his pulse. Additionally, he devised a way to slow down falling objects and time accurately with water as a way to explore the rate at which objects fall. In short, he invented a water stopwatch to assist with his observations and measurements. Using an Overdrive App, this amazing audio-book was downloaded to my phone from the Richardson Public Library and is on loan to me for 21 days after which it is automatically checked back in- no late fees.

Here is how you get started.

1. Go to a public library near you where they have subscribed to the OverDrive service and secure a library card. There are many in the Dallas Metroplex area and across the country. You can find libraries near you by going to the homepage for OverDrive and entering your zip code. Today, there were 37 options when I entered the zip code for Greenhill.
2. Download the App for your device from the App store/Market etc. Depending on your device, you may have to also install a free application from Adobe or a special application for your Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader etc. Look for special instructions for your device.
3. Download the OverDrive Media Console from the OverDrive site. Install on your computer and follow instructions to activate and authorize your device. This is not necessary if you are running the OverDrive app directly on your iPad, Smartphone or e-reader.
4. Find your Library on the list through the OverDrive console and/or App and browse your library for books you want to read or hear.
5. Enjoy

It really is that easy. You can also add additional libraries to increase your selection and availability to books and media.

Today’s site of the day provides context for the two images shown below. These resources are a great place to start a discussion about copyright, laws, emerging technology and effects on society. SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act and PIPA is the Protect IP Act. You can learn more about both of these from the sites below. Start with the video by Clay Shirky then explore the other sites. You can learn more about Clay Shirky at http://www.shirky.com/. You will hear about this in the news tonight and likely for days to come.

Google on January 18, 2012

Wikipedia on January 18, 2012

TED TALK: Clay Shirky-
Defend our freedom to share (or why SOPA is a bad idea)

Clay Shirky speaks about SOPA, PIPA at TED and places it in context and in terms we can clearly understand.
http://www.ted.com/talks/defend_our_freedom_to_share_or_why_sopa_is_a_bad_idea.html?awesm=on.ted.com_ACxO

You can learn more about Clay Shirky at http://www.shirky.com/
He has two very interesting and timely books and I recommend both
• Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
• Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON SOPA/PIPA

SOPA: Text of Bill from GPO.gov H.R. 3261
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr3261ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr3261ih.pdf

PIPA: Text of Bill from GPO.gov S.968
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s968rs/pdf/BILLS-112s968rs.pdf

Google on SOPA and PIPA
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/sopa-pipa/

Wikipedia on SOPA and PIPA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more

SOPA blackout: Bills lose three co-sponsors amid protests (L.A. Times)
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2012/01/sopa-blackout-sopa-and-pipa-lose-three-co-sponsors-in-congress.html

CNN- SOPA explained: What it is and why it matters
http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/17/technology/sopa_explained/index.htm

Welcome back from break. As we ring in 2012, I want to share this short video I discovered this morning that speaks volumes about how our brain works in the learning process. This short 3 minute video from TED is amazing. Watch out though, you will find yourself singing along.

Bobby sets up his audience with the beginnings of a pentatonic scale and without any verbal instruction, pulls them into a performance using this scale. When I saw this, I was amazed at how quickly the audience figured out what was going on and could play along. This makes me stop and think about the process of teaching and learning and the importance of briefly modeling then stepping out of the way to let the learning take place. So, enjoy 3 minutes with Bobby McFerrin as he hacks your brain with music.

17.2 Twitter Fall
http://www.twitterfall.com/

If you don’t know what Twitter is, Start Here with this 2 minute video: http://youtu.be/ddO9idmax0o

For those who are not sure about Twitter but hear about it each night on the news, here is a quick and easy way to start to explore the world of Twitter. This is Twitter Fall. It is a simple web-based program that allows you to enter searches and watch the tweets fall from the top of your screen. Tweets usually use something known as a #hashtag. This is a word with the “#” symbol attached to the front end. This is a way that an individual can categorize their tweet so others with similar interests might find it. Enter one of the following #hashtags in the search field on the left side of your screen. Click <ADD> then check the box to make that search active. You will see the tweets start to fall from the top. You can make adjustments to your feed under settings on the right and pause and start the twitter fall at the top of your screen. Here are some #hashtags to try.

#isedchat- This is hashtag used by independent school educators across the country. This group shares a tremendous amount of information and resources related to all aspects of teaching. This is a great place to learn from other educators

#edtech- This is another hashtag used by educators interested in the use of technology in education.

#teacher- This will give you a string of recent tweets that have been tagged as teacher and are likely of interest to teachers. This is a great way to find new resources and ideas.

#school- Again, this will give you tweets related to school. However, these may include tweets that are of interest to teachers as well as tweets from a student’s perspective. It is interesting to see this during the school day as there are often tweets by students who would rather not be at school. This tag seems to be more effective in the evenings.

#education- This is similar to the one above in terms of perspective but can be a great resource as well.

Of course, you don’t have to keep everything in English. Try the following

#escola

#educacion

What? You don’t speak Portuguese or Spanish? No problem…However, that tip will have to wait for another day. I will just say that some of my best new finds have come from following tweets in other languages.

You can try any word, name etc in the search field. This means you can follow any world event as it is happening. Still not sure about Twitter? Just ask Scott Cotton about his Twitter experience. I just hope we don’t have to start a TA support group.

Enjoy exploring the world of Twitter. I will share more about Twitter in future postings.

17.3 Best Free Documentary Websites
http://educationaltech-med.blogspot.com/2011/07/best-free-documentary-websites.html

This resource post is from a blog that highlights educational technology and mobile learning. Are you looking for documentary material to augment what you are doing in the class? This site might just have a source of material. Here you will find thirteen different sites that offer documentary materials. What makes this collection good is that it crosses disciplines so if you can’t find what you are looking for on one site, you have 12 others that you can explore. However, make sure you check out the videos for bias and perspective. I have found that free documentaries sites often contain documentaries with very strong biases and can come from a single perspective. That being said, this would be a great place to find material to help illustrate this for students and increase their media awareness. Happy hunting.

17.4 Essay Tagger
http://www.essaytagger.com/

This site intrigues me. While I have not tried this, it looks like a site that might be useful for anyone who grades lots of student essays. The idea is that you load the student essay then use an interactive drag and drop rubric tool to tag parts of the essay and provide appropriate feedback. It is free to use while in open beta but will have a cost of $10 per month per teacher who wants to use the tool. Watch the short 4-minute video that shows how the tool works and see if it looks like something you might want to explore. If you set up a free account and test this during open beta, let me know your experience.

17.5 The Emancipation Proclamation: Freedom’s First Steps
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/emancipation-proclamation-freedoms-first-steps

Because of the timing of this site and were we are in the calendar related to Martin Luther King day, I felt I should send this out today rather than waiting until next week. This site provides lesson plans suitable for grades 9-12 (and possibly middle school with adaptation)that get at the guiding question: “Why was the Emancipation Proclamation important?” There are three different activities with links to many resources and suggestions for how you can expand on the lesson. This lesson comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities or EDSITEment. If you like what you see, check out some of the other resources available from http://edsitement.neh.gov/.

Here is another site for those who like or use maps in their teaching. This site is currently in Beta but has some interesting features. Build your interactive maps in layers using data related to climate, population, economics and more. What relationships can your kids discover between the economics of an area and the human footprint? What regions have the greatest population density? What relationship can be found between the major tectonic plates and the location of earthquakes? Is there also a relationship to surface elevation and these plates? There are many questions that can be explored with these easy to use maps.

16.2 National Geographic Education- Multimedia
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/multimedia/?ar_a=1

Today’s site is also from the new education site by National Geographic and features a collection of multimedia. This appears to be a rich collection of video and images from the National Geographic collection. You are sure to find material here for your classes. Use these videos to augment your class discussions or to provide context for a future lesson and discussion. Warning though, you can get lost in all of this great content. Plan to bookmark this site and visit often for small doses of visual spender and wonder.

16.3 Interactive Math Websites for Interactive Whiteboards
http://www.theteachersguide.com/InteractiveSitesMathSmartBoard.htm

This is a nice collection of interactive math tools and sites with additional collections of tools to use with your Smartboard and other interactive devices. From the wonderful National Library of Virtual Manipulatives to games for practice, this collection should have something for almost every level of math student. Use these sites in class with your board or assign them to be explored independently by your students to provide context for an upcoming lesson. This is a rich site and needs to be visited over time. Some of the material will require that you have the Smart Notebook installed while others are stand-alone interactive sites that could be freely used by students and teachers without the need for special software. What gems can you find in this collection?

16.4 Fostering a Culture of Inquiry posted on Edutopia

Today’s site comes from a posting in Edutopia that showcases the inquiry-based learning process as realized at the Calgary Science School in Alberta Canada. First a little about Edutopia. Edutopia is a site that highlights the work of the George Lucas Educational Foundation and is focused on innovation in education. This site is a rich resource for all who are involved in education today. This would make a great site to explore over vacation to see what others are doing as they reinvent education through innovative approaches to teaching and learning.

Fostering a Culture of Inquiry
The site I wish to highlight today is a post titled Fostering a Culture of Inquiry. This story provides a look at the work being done at the Calgary Science School in Alberta Canada as they implement inquiry-based approaches to learning across all areas of their curriculum. The story also provides a glimpse of their professional development model which includes Action Research and Lesson Study. By following the links in the article you may find your way to other resources including a wonderful 26 page document that walks you through the inquiry based learning approach with information that would be very helpful to those wishing to implement a similar approach in their practice. I have attached a pdf of the document which would also make a quick read and great reflective material for the holidays.

Implementing Inquiry Document- Link to PDF

16.5 Google Zeitgeist 2011
http://www.googlezeitgeist.com/en/

Inquiring minds want to know… That is the gist of the Google Zeitgeist, an annual report on what the world was searching for through Google. This year’s report is full of info graphics and ways to look at the data by region as well as global trends. This year’s to 10 list of global searches include

10 iPad2

9 Steve Jobs

8 東京 電力

7 Adele

6 iPhone 5

5 Battlefield 3

4 Casey Anthony

3 Ryan Dunn

2. Google+

And the most searched for term on a global scale for 2011 is….

1. Rebecca Black

Now, have some fun and dig into the global Zeitgeist by looking at the details behind these and other searches. What can you learn about human-interest stories on a global scale? What are the hot topics in the United States and how do those compare with popular searches of other regions of the world? How do these trends relate to the global climate and what was going on in the world? What do people really want to know? This list, the Google Zeitgeist, has so many possibilities in social studies, sociology, psychology, government and more. What can you do with this tally of digital traces left by billions of individual searches from 2011?

 A Zeitgeist Retrospective

For those who want to see how the Zeitgeist has changed over the past 11 years, this site contains links to all of the lists from 2001 to 2011. What do you remember about these years?

Here is a simple little productivity tool for everyone who works from lists. Workflowy is a list tool. With Workflowy, you can create a free account then create a list. This list can then be easily accessed from any device that has a browser- other computers, iPhone, Android Phone, iPad, Tablets etc.

• Prioritize your list by reordering- drag and drop.
• Add things to your list.
• Cross them off when completed.
• Share your list with others through a secrete link.
• Create a hierarchical list with main task and subtasks.
• Export your list.
• Annotate your list with notes.

In short, this little tool will be up and running in seconds and you will easily be able to plan a project, create a list or add order to your life and school projects.

15.2 Eyejot
http://www.eyejot.com

This little tool will allow you to create short (60 seconds or less) video messages. These videos can then be sent via email or posted on a website. The possibilities are endless- video prompts for new lessons, student reflections and exchanges, demonstrations of competence preserved for portfolios. To see this in use, you only need to ask Mary Tapia (e-mail me) who has been using this tool for over a year now with her Spanish and French classes. She is even hoping to use Eyejot as part of a virtual exchange with students in French Speaking Africa. Watch the 60 second clip below as an example of video created with Eyejot. This video was created last year at the NAIS Annual Conference in Washington D.C. as part of the online community. What would you “Jot” about with your own Eyejot account?

Sample Eyejot Video: Welcome to NAIS 2011

15.3 Invisible People TV
http://invisiblepeople.tv/blog/

With the colder weather arriving and the holidays around the corner, it reminds me that I have it really good. I have a family, friends and a home to go to each day. This is not the case for everyone. This site illustrates the power of sharing an idea through a simple blog. Through extensive video interviews with homeless individuals across the country and over multiple years, Invisible People TV have documented their stories for others to witness giving names to the homeless. Take some time over the next week or two to listen to some of these stories. You will not be sorry. This site and the peoples stories have powerful lessons for our students as well. Elements from this site could easily be worked into courses on Sociology, History and English. How about an exploration of the nature of language as captured in these stories. You could also look for common threads that run through the stories and compare them region to region. This site could also serve as inspiration for your own students to create their own version of story capture that helps make the world a better place. How will you be affected by the stories of these “Invisible People”?

15.4 Open Culture
http://www.openculture.com/

Open Culture bills itself as a source for the best free cultural and educational media on the web. I will leave it up to you to decide as I am always leery of anything that claims to be the best. That being said, it is an interesting space and one that is rich with possibilities. Here you will find free audio books, online courses, movies, language and literature lessons, eBooks and more. As an example of some of what you might find, this little gem came from the section labeled film.

Did you see the movie Dark Knight? Do you know what film critics mean when they say, “an action scene is flawed and violates the language of film making”? Take a look at this three part lesson titled- The Dark Knight: Anatomy of a Flawed Action Scene. Now you can extend the concept of grammar to that of film making and the importance of following rules for clarity of communication and intent.

Today’s site is a bit different. Yesterday I was touched by a video created by Sydney Steeves. Sydney, a student in New Brunswick, mixed a simple song with images of students sharing powerful messages about the effects of bullying and what you can do to step up and stop the abuse. I was touched that such a simple project could carry such a powerful message to thousands of people. The video was first posted on YouTube November 28^th and in less than a day had garnered close to 2000 views. When I discovered the video on December 1^st 2011, I was viewer 6790. As many of you know, I speak far and wide about bullying and specifically that which takes place using many forms of technology. This video will become a regular part of my presentation with the challenge that everyone take a moment to watch and reflect on the past, present and future- family, friends, acquaintances. Don’t forget to also stop in front of the mirror- the most powerful reflective stop of all. This is authentic student work at its best- created for and shared with an authentic audience-to make the world a better place. Enjoy…

The Scale of the Universe
http://www.htwins.net/scale/index.html

How large is the universe? How can we fathom this great expanse and the size of all that makes up this space? Here is a site that can help with this little problem and provide perspective on the immense and the very, very small. Welcome to “The Scale of the Universe”.

Gymnasium for the Brain
http://www.gymnasiumforbrain.com

Here is an interesting site full of exercises, puzzles, games and pointers for “exercising” you brain. Topics range from speed math at all levels to pattern recognition and drawing tips. This site has fun for everyone as you stretch your brain. My favorites were the puzzles. I always love a good puzzle. Have fun playing in the Gymnasium for the Brain.

13.1 YuDu
http://free.yudu.com

YuDu is a site that lets you publish documents from various formats into a digital magazine. You can also include images, websites and audio files in the publication. This seems to have interesting possibilities for student presentations, portfolios, class writings, history collections and more. There are several levels starting with this free version moving up to two different levels of paid versions. Imagine publishing a collection of essays or short stories from your creative writing classes. Through this site, students could publish selected projects over the course of a year to create a magazine documenting their learning journey in a single course or across multiple disciplines. This is just one of many tools that exist to support self-publication. What can you do with YuDu?

YuDu supports virtually any language…Here are some examples:

Petiscos: Numero1

Poets: Emily Dickinson
Created by a student for her English class

Planet Earth

There are many others to explore. While the Planet Earth link posted above is put out by the Natural Environment Research Council, there is no reason students couldn’t put together magazines on similar topics of equal quality. The resources that are available are amazing and we are only limited by the limits we set for ourselves.

13.2 Making the News
http://kmi4schools.e2bn.net/news_template/

This is a simple site with a lot of potential. This site allows you to easily create a newspaper through a web-based application. There are several templates to work with as well as options for creating e-mail links or printing. You can write the text on a word processor such as Word then copy and paste the text in boxes. This way you can have multiple authors. This has potential for individual class projects as well as collaborative papers. The tool is very easy to use and is suitable for a wide range of students. What stories do your kids have that are fit to print?

13.3 BIE: Project Based Learning for the 21^st Century
http://www.bie.org/tools/freebies

Project based learning is nothing new. Born in a medical school in the 1960’s out of the need to place content in context with real-life problems, PBL has become a standard method of instruction in all medical schools. At the heart of PLB is the ill-defined problem. This site provides a nice collection of resources to help you implement PBL in your classroom and has materials for all levels of instruction.  This site has many other resources that I may feature another time but don’t hesitate to look around. There are some great resources throughout the site.

13.4 Math Open Reference
http://www.mathopenref.com/index.html

Today’s site of the day is for those who teach math at any level and for those who want to brush up on their skills. This site has many resources broken out by topic. Many of these resources are simple manipulatives where students can manipulate objects on the screen to discover mathematical relationships. This would be a great site as follow-up on lessons presented or to serve as an exploratory pre-lesson experience. Additionally, you will find practice resources on mathematical concepts sorted by grade. Check out the collection of manipulative resources and explore ways you students can use them to discover mathematical relationships.

13.5 Screenr
http://www.screenr.com

Because of the nature of today’s site of the day, I wanted to assemble it a little differently. SCREENR is a very simple tool that allows you to create videos. The best part is, you don’t have to download any video software. However, it does use JAVA so you may need to download a free JAVA plug-in for your browser.

This tool can be used to capture any images you have on your screen. This means you can use Screenr to create short videos that teach small units of content. The video you create is automatically posted on the web and you simply need to share the URL for that video. Students can capture and create artifacts of understanding and place them in portfolios or projects. Screenr is free and allows you to create videos up to 5 minutes in length.

I have provided a sample video that teaches about using Twitter #hashtags in other languages with a tool called TweetDeck. This process has allowed me to expand the reach of my Personal Learning Network and learn from educators across the globe. The example shared shows how I have used #hashtags in Spanish to learn from educators in Spain and across much of Latin America. The video is 3:22 minutes long and was created with Screenr using a Toshiba Netbook. I mention this to illustrate how students with virtually any type of computer can use this type of web-based tool to create videos of understanding. Teachers on virtually any platform can create short videos to teach a concept.

SAMPLE VIDEO
How you can use #hashtags in other languages to learn from the world…
3:22 Minutes
http://www.screenr.com/jy4

11.1 Digital Quill
http://jonorech.wikispaces.com/

This is one of many resources available for those interested in digital storytelling. The site is comprehensive and provides examples along with tools and suggesting for helping you and your students document the stories that surrounds them. I have pulled a few sections to highlight from this site. This will give you a taste of what is available

Protecting Endangered, Indigenous Language through Digital Storytelling
(33 minute audio story)
http://jonorech.wikispaces.com/Leah+Shaw%27s+audio+documentary

What are ways our students can engage in powerful documentary digital storytelling? How can our students help document important stories of the humanity that surrounds them?

Seven Elements for a Good Story
http://jonorech.wikispaces.com/Teaching+The+Seven+Elements

Down and Dirty with Digital Storytelling
http://jonorech.wikispaces.com/Down+and+Dirty

This is a collection of tips and tricks to help you get started quickly with digital storytelling.

There is so much to explore on this site. Start with the three links above to get into the site then start to explore this collection of ideas, tips, tricks and examples of digital stories.

11.2 Visualizing 7 Billion

Today’s site of the day is less about one site and more about passing a new milestone- Human population passes 7 billion individuals. There are many different and interesting aspects to this event that make for fascinating discussions. I have supplied several sites below that can help to visualize 7 billion and can serve as a starting point for discussions around this human milestone. I imagine these discussions involving the social and environmental implications of this event. However, I can also see them as interesting gateways to discussions of history, art, humanity, science and mathematics. What can you do with this milestone in your classes?

Visualizing how a population grows to 7 billion

This great video produced by NPR looks at the way the human population grew from 0.3 billion to 7 billion. It is shore, visual, provides thoughts about how the population increased based on human innovation and leaves you with ethical questions to consider for the future of humanity.

GapMinder- Health and Wealth of Nations

This is one that I have shared before but wanted to place it in the context of this moment in time. The graph that I have included here is a look at the wealth and health of nations covering the period from 1800 to 2009. This would make a great follow-up video to the one linked above from NPR. This is also an interactive video in that you can hover your mouse over any bubble to get the data. Click on any bubble to create a country callout. Click on multiple countries to make a picture that contrasts selected countries and regions. Connect this with the information presented in the video above.

200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes

This is another site that I have shared in the past but should be considered in context of this moment in human history. This is the same graph presented above but with contextualization provided by Hans Rosling. This is an amazing presentation but also a great explanation as the graph changes over time.

World Population Statistics

This interactive space provides another way to visualize the global data. You can Change aspects of the treemap to visualize the data in many different configurations. Again, when taken in context of the prior visualizations, what does this data add to the human story? What can you learn by manipulating the different ways of representing the data?

The World’s Population, Concentrated

This is an interesting infographic that looks at comparisons of known cities with their population densities and city size by area. Imagine the following: How large by area would the city be if the 6.9 billion people all lived in a city with the population density of (Paris, San Francisco, New York, Singapore, London, Houston). What does this say about current population distributions?

Our Aging World

This is an interesting look at population distributions between age bands and gender across eight different countries. Compare the graphs over time as they show change starting in 1950 and projecting population growth and demographic distributions to 2050. What does this mean indicate about past and current trends in the representative countries and how does that effect the future trends? Can you find correlations with information presented in the earlier graphics?

Country Population: Past, Present, Future

This is an interactive visualization created using data from the UN covering 1950 to 2010 and projecting forward to 2100. Click on the countries to select data representations that are indicated at the bottom of the image.

The World of Seven Billion

This site provides four different infographics looking at different aspects of the global population. It provides additional information that can help frame discussions surrounding this moment in human history.

11.3 Refraction: Teaching Fractions through Gameplay
http://games.cs.washington.edu/refraction/

Learning through gameplay is a growing teaching practice and field of research. Games for learning are not new. However, many games in the past were simply “drill and kill” in sheep clothing. Here is a game, Refraction, that appears to be part of a research project out of the University of Washington. Through Refraction, students learn about fractions through the experience of learning and playing the game. The actual learning of fractions is embedded in game play allowing students (players) to discover important concepts about fractions: equal partitioning, addition, multiplication, mixed numbers, improper fraction and common denominators. Students discover these concepts by manipulating lasers to power spaceships. I started to explore this game and found myself pulled deeper and deeper into the world of Refraction as new concepts and tasks were revealed. For those who teach math, have young children or simply want to see how games can teach, check this out and see what you kids can discover about the world of fractions through Refraction.

11.4 Documenting the American South
http://docsouth.unc.edu/index.html

Are you looking for primary documents to teach American History? The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has created a resource specific to Documenting the American South. This appears to be a rich resource of primary documents related to the American South. It will not take long to get lost in the collection of images, photos, maps, manuscripts, collections and letters from the early 1800’s to current day. Here are a few samples to pique your interest. I can only imagine the wonderful experiences students and teachers could have exploring this rich archive of historical documents. I am imaging an artifact of understanding similar to Ken Burns- The Civil War- that was written and produced by a class studying this period of history. Virtually everything you need is here and multiple stories could be told from this collection of artifacts.

SAMPLES

Confederate States of America
An Act Relative to Prisoners of War
[Montgomery?: s.n., 1861]

http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/csaacts/actpow.jpg

© This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text.

Aunt Sally: or, The Cross the Way of Freedom.
A Narrative of the Slave-life and Purchase of the Mother of
Rev. Isaac Williams, of Detroit Michigan

http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/sally/sally.html

© This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text.

11.5 Academic Earth
http://academicearth.org/

This is an amazing collection of video lectures and online open-courses from some of the top thinkers and lecturers in the world. Here you will find lectures, presentations and courses in multiple subjects. This is part of the open-learning, DIYU (Do It Yourself University), Open-knowledge movement that is positioned to reshape formal teaching and learning in significant ways. I have pulled out a few for you to explore but dig into the site and see what catches your eye. Beyond the possibility of using some or parts of these in your classes, this is a fabulous resource for personal learning. Find a topic you have always wanted to explore and dig in. Form an informal learning group and discuss what you are exploring with your peers. This site is just one of many that are out there and I will feature others in the future. I just happen to really like how this one is setup and much of the content is very impressive. Take the content and place it in the social context of a learning group and you are entering the new renaissance of learning in today’s world.

Physics 1: Classical Mechanics (Walter Lewin-MIT)
Interested in physics? How about sitting in on the 35 lectures by Walter Lewin from MIT’s Physics 1: Classical Mechanics.

The Morality of Murder and Cannibalism (Michael Sandel- Harvard)
This is an amazing collection of powerful lectures exploring a fascinating topic. It has powerful implications in ethics, values, morality and humanity. Caution: If you start watching this series, you may find your productivity decrease as you get pulled into these amazing conversations. This is just one of several interactive lectures in the Harvard course- Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?

What is it Like to Be a Baby: The Development of Thought (Paul Bloom- Yale)
This is lecture 5 in a series of 20 from Dr. Bloom’s Introduction to Psychology which he teaches at Yale. This lecture should be interesting to anyone with young children or works with young children. Paul Bloom takes you on a journey through cognitive development from the perspective of Piaget’s stages. You will briefly explore children as scientists, object permanence, A-not-B-task, theory of mind, conservation and more.

As for my defense, I was very pleased but was met with a little surprise. For those who know me, they know that I am very comfortable before a crowd and not shy about sharing my opinions and ideas. Comfortable speaking in front of crowds, I found that I was greeted last Thursday with a case of nerves during the first 5 minutes of my defense. This was a shock to my system and was not something I was expecting. You see, when the moment came to start, I realized that “This is it. This is for all the marbles”. While I did not enter the defense with any doubt about the outcome, the importance of the moment was not lost and for that, I am extremely grateful.

Today’s site is dedicated to the young author. Stone Soup is a magazine for kids by kids. All of the poems, stories and illustrations are created by children 13 years and younger. If you are looking for something for your classroom that connects kids to kids, this might just be a place to explore. For those with young budding authors and artists in their classes, you might consider having them submit work to Stone Soup for possible publication in a future issue. They produce 6 issues per year and one of those could contain works from some of your students. Stories may be any length up to 2500 words. Young authors can submit their stories without illustrations and young illustrators will create the images for their story or you can send them in already illustrated as either author illustrated or by a friend. In either case, there are opportunities for those handy with the written word or a paintbrush. The following note comes from their site and also must be considered as it seems they get many submissions per week.

We’re always looking for new writers and artists, and we really want to encourage all our young readers to send us their work. However, please keep in mind that we receive an average of 200 submissions a week; we are only able to publish a small percentage of the work we receive. Send us your work with a spirit of adventure, and try not to be too disappointed if we can’t use it.

Here are a few features of the site to check out:

• View a Sample Copy of Stone Soup
• Stone Soup Archive of Children’s Writing
• Writing and Art by Navajo Children
• Stone Soup Museum of Children’s Art

Follow these guidelines when helping your young author and artist get published

Guidelines for Stone Soup Contributors (How to be a young author or illustrator for Stone Soup)

9.2 Twitario
http://www.twitario.com

Yesterday I shared about a way your young students can publish in a wonderful children’s magazine. Today I bring you Twitario- a way to convert your tweets into a Journal/Diary format. Believe it or not, Twitter can be much more than talking about the burger you are eating or how you are trying to pick out ice cream at 31 flavors. For those not sure about this, let me challenge you to take a look at Twitter as a way to journal through the day. You can even have your students set up Twitter accounts and challenge them to use it for quick journal entries with the goal of collecting them at the end of the year. It is interesting what story a year of tweets can tell. These journals can be viewed electronically through a URL sent via e-mail or placed on a website.

You can also print them as a PDF. If you have a Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader or iPad, you might be interested in creating an eBook using the standard ePub format. I have created a journal from 200 of my tweets from the past year that you can explore.

SAMPLES-

Personal Reflection

The following are different formats of a diary of 200 of my tweets from the past year. I have looked these over and it I must tell you that it is an interesting reflection on the year. I can see just about every place I sent the tweet and what I was doing at that time. It also brought back moments of reflection triggered by 140 characters or less. Many wonder about the power of 140 characters. Give it a try and you will have another visualization of the journey that is your life. Here is some of my journey.

Link to electronic version on Twitario [Diary of Tweets by Chris Bigenho]
http://www.twitario.com/?diary=bigenhoc

Link to PDF version that can be printed
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1771779/SiteOfTheDay/Twitario-bigenhoc-PDF.pdf

eBook Format (ePub)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1771779/SiteOfTheDay/Twitario-bigenhoc.epub

9.3 Wordle
http://www.wordle.net/

Welcome to the world of visualization. Wordle is one of many tools (I shared another earlier this year) that will create a word cloud from text. A word cloud represents the frequency of words through text of different sizes. The more frequently a word is used in a text, the larger that word will appear in the word cloud. This is a fun way to visualize text. For your enjoyment, try the following comparisons presidential state of the union addresses. How do the resulting images mirror what was happening in our history at that time? What do the images indicate was important? How do they represent the change in the use of language over time? What was going on in the world?

Simply follow the link, copy and paste the text into the Wordle box and click go. Compare yours with the one I created by clicking the image link directly below the text link.

James Madison 1812
[Image 1812]

Abraham Lincoln 1863
[image 1863]

Franklin D Roosevelt 1944
[Image 1944]

John F Kennedy 1961
[Image 1961]       

George W. Bush 2002
[Image 2002]

For more fun, you can check out the complete list of SOTU addresses or explore the visualization of Inaugural Addresses over time.

9.4 Graphwords
http://graphwords.com

Keeping up the theme of visualization, Check out Graphwords. This is a very simple tool that will create a visualization of any word you enter. The example provided here: I entered the word debate. From there it created several nodes with words at the end of each node.

If you hover over the connecting node, you get a popup with that node defined providing the linkage between the target word and those on that node. Check this out with other words and explore the way words and different meanings are connected and related.

9.5 CBS Radio Mystery Theater
http://www.cbsrmt-shows.com/

Welcome to my childhood! Now, I must first say that I was unusual among my friends and most people I know. While born in 1963, I did not grow up with a TV in the house. For those who know me, this may explain a lot. However, I did become a huge fan of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater. I remember driving home from the ice rink as a kid and waiting in the driveway for the commercial break so we could run into the house and catch the end of the story without missing a word. Friends would come over to the house and I would invite them to sit around the radio and listen to the stories. Of course, this became fodder for some good ribbing as my friends would pretend to adjust the color and tint of my radio. If you have not enjoyed one of these little stories or would like to visit a period in time I like to think of as not that long ago, check out the stories at CBSRMT-Shows. They have the complete set from 1974 to 1982 for your listening pleasure.

Might I suggest that you try No Hiding Place or The House Without Mirrors? Oh yes, and as a bonus, enjoy the commercials and news promos from the past that might be embedded in the recordings.

No Hiding Place

The House without Mirrors

You might consider listening to these and finding some that match some of what you are exploring in your classes. While video seems to be all the rage, consider having your students prepare their own radio mystery show supplying the script, voices and sound effects.