Teaching & Technology @ NSA

Google For Educators

2008-11-03T23:05:00.001-05:00

Google For Educators is a collection of Google-based resources for educators. For their site:

"At Google, we support teachers in their efforts to empower students and expand the frontiers of human knowledge. That’s why we’ve assembled the information and tools you’ll find on this page.

Here, you’ll find a teacher’s guide to Google Tools for Your Classroom. And to spark your imagination, you'll find examples of innovative ways that other educators are using these tools in the classroom.

While you’re here, you can sign up for the quarterly Google for Educators newsletter, as well as check out the latest from The Infinite Thinking Machine, a Google-sponsored, WestEd-produced blog for educators, by educators."

Google Lit Trips

2008-11-03T22:55:00.001-05:00

Google Lit Trips is an experiment in teaching great literature in a very different way. Using Google Earth, students discover where in the world the greatest road trip stories of all time took place... and so much more!

Video Study Guides for High School Literature

2008-08-20T15:46:00.001-04:00

I just discovered a new web site: Video Study Guides: The Rocketbook Library. Did you know that after Facebook and MySpace, SparkNotes, is one of the most popular web sites accessed from schools? It is, especially in independent schools with rigorous literature programs.

Now, Rocketbooks takes SparkNotes and turns it into video. I've watched the site's video study guides for The Crucible and The Great Gatsby, two novels I teach, and the guides are pretty good. They include 6-10 minute summaries of each chapter, including all the greatest hits of theme, symbols, etc. Not sure how I'll use them when teaching units with available video study guides.

The Big Picture - Current Events with Photography

2008-06-23T15:35:00.004-04:00

Since its launch on June 1 this year, the Boston Globe's Big Picture weblog has gotten worldwide acclamation. The site is simple, includes minimal advertising and maximal visual information. Essentially, the Big Picture features a patchwork of large-sized photographs and minimal text, focusing on the "visual storytelling" aspect of news stories.

Check it out: The Big Picture - Boston.com

The World is Flat 3.0

2008-06-03T22:49:00.005-04:00

You've got to read Tom Friedman's book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. But maybe you don't think you have time to read the nearly 500-page book. Good news. You can view his talk at MIT, which summarizes the main arguments in just over 45 minutes. You need iTunes to watch it, which you should get if you don't have it already.

Back in 2000, Tom Friedman recounts, the world began to shrink and flatten, under the influence of digital interconnectivity. Elaborating on his World is Flat thesis, Friedman describes how this new global order puts creative, entrepreneurial individuals in the driver’s seat, and poses distinct new challenges and opportunities.

The digital platform that connects Bangalore, Boston and Beijing enables users from any of these places to “plug, play, compete, connect and collaborate,” and is changing everything, says Friedman. He lists some basics to keep in mind: Whatever can be done, will be done, “and the only question left is will it be done by you or to you.” Friedman describes a Budapest limo driver who asked him to refer friends traveling to Hungary to use his service -- as detailed in a website in Magyar, with English and German translations. And there’s the Sioux City- Winnebago Indian network, exporting construction tools to Kuwait. In our new era, individuals are limited only by their imaginations, so how well universities and schools enable and inspire students will determine who wins in global competition. Innovation, believes Friedman, will come from “having two or more specialties,” from those people able to connect the dots and mash them together.

But the U.S. has a real problem: We’ve “kind of lost our groove since 9/11,” and may end up ceding the global competition to China unless we get our act together, believes Friedman. We “cannot go on being as dumb as we want to be, and right now that is the motto of the U.S. Congress.” We have tons of natural attributes in this country we should be leveraging, he says. A bigger problem still is that three billion new players are streaming into this newly flat world, seeking their own version of the American dream, with cars, toasters, and microwaves. “If we don’t find a cleaner, more non-emitting way to power their dreams, we’re going to burn up, choke up, heat up and smoke up this planet so much faster than even Al Gore predicts.” Friedman scoffs at those who claim “a green revolution is going on,” calling it instead a green party, entailing no real sacrifice or pain. He says the only hope will be a “disruptive breakthrough” that brings a completely different mix of standards and taxes.” Friedman’s new mantra is, “Change your leaders, not your light bulbs.” Without new leaders to rewrite our laws and trigger the innovations, “we are cooked.”

Click here to watch the video on iTunes.

How do our students spend their two million minutes of high school?

2008-06-01T11:51:00.004-04:00

Regardless of nationality, as soon as a student completes the 8th grade, the clock starts ticking. From that very moment the child has approximately -

…Two Million Minutes until high school graduation…Two Million Minutes to build their intellectual foundation…Two Million Minutes to prepare for college and ultimately career…Two Million Minutes to go from a teenager to an adult

How a student spends their Two Million Minutes - in class, at home studying, playing sports, working, sleeping, socializing or just goofing off -- will affect their economic prospects for the rest of their lives.

How do most American high school students spend this time? What about students in the rest of the world? How do family, friends and society influence a student's choices for time allocation? What implications do their choices have on their future and on a country's economic future?

This film takes a deeper look at how the three superpowers of the 21st Century - China, India and the United States - are preparing their students for the future. As we follow two students - a boy and a girl - from each of these countries, we compose a global snapshot of education, from the viewpoint of kids preparing for their future.

Here is the trailer for the film. I own a copy; let me know if you want to borrow it.

Read more about the film.

Alisa Miller: Why we know less than ever about the world

2008-05-14T22:37:00.000-04:00

Alisa Miller, head of Public Radio International, talks about why -- though we want to know more about the world than ever -- the US media is actually showing less. Eye-opening stats and graphs.

Teaching Physics with Crayons

2008-05-04T08:28:00.002-04:00

Crayon Physics Deluxe is about to come out. It just won an award for best independently produce computer game. Check out this YouTube demonstration:

Visit the game's web site.

Audiria.com - listening-based learning of Spanish

2008-04-28T10:00:00.000-04:00

Audiria is a new online tool which supports student learning of Spanish, offering multimedia audiofiles to increase knowledge of the language. And it's free:

Audiria.com - a listening-based learning

A Whole New Mind Book Club

2008-04-27T01:01:00.001-04:00

Maybe you've been in a book group: a group of people who get together to discuss a book they've all read. Here's an online book club discussion about Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind. There are four pages of posts, in reverse chronological order (most recent first). The link below takes you to the top of the first page. Scroll to the bottom to see the first post.

Read how other teachers reacted to A Whole New Mind:

Book Clubs at TeacherPlaces : A Whole New Mind with Pat Bassett

Frontline Shows Available for Free Online

2008-04-23T08:17:00.003-04:00

From Frontline's web site: "Since 1983, FRONTLINE has served as American public television's flagship public affairs series. Hailed upon its debut on PBS as "the last best hope for broadcast documentaries," FRONTLINE's stature over 25 seasons is reaffirmed each week through incisive documentaries covering the scope and complexity of the human experience."

We used to have to order and purchase Frontline videos. Now you can watch them online for free.

Checklist for Teachers

2008-04-19T22:21:00.002-04:00

Are your students learning the skills that they need to become fearless learners prepared to function effectively in the 21st Century? Alan November compiled this list of what he believes all schools should teach their students.

From the introduction:

It seems as if there is an onslaught of new tools coming to us via the Internet on a daily basis. What does this mean for school leaders who are striving to develop an educationally sound program? Here, we will cut through the hype and focus on essential questions. The list of questions below is our attempt to get you to look critically at your school’s program and begin measuring its effectiveness in teaching skills to today’s teachers and students that will outlast tomorrow’s changes in technology.

What are your thoughts on this list?

More Clips from Alan November Talks

2008-04-19T11:06:00.005-04:00

Here are a few more excerpts from his talks, in addition to what you can find on iTunes.

In this he describes three (3) key skills that parents and educators need to teach students for success in today's world:

Appearances can be deceiving! Do your students know who owns the websites that they're retrieving information from? Do you? Do you know how to get the information? In this short video Alan November discloses how:

Alan November shares some ideas for using technology in teaching

2008-04-19T00:53:00.005-04:00

I saw Alan November at the NYSAIS assistant heads conference in New Paltz. Alan is a whirlwind of big ideas and provocative questions. He thrives on confirming and challenging educators’ thoughts about what’s possible in the world of teaching and learning.

For more Alan November videos, launch iTunes, go to iTunes Store, then iTunes U, then on that screen there is a box titled Beyond Campus, click on PBS, then go to Thirteen-WNET, and then finally access Teaching and Learning Celebration ... Items #2, 4, 5, 12 feature videos ranging fro 1-8 minutes long. Thanks to David "Hock" Hochschartner for giving me the heads up about those iTunes resources.

A Vision of Students Today

2008-04-19T00:23:00.000-04:00

A short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.

A Whole New Mind in the Classroom: Right-Brained Future

2008-04-18T23:57:00.004-04:00

Brian, Peter and I attended this workshop at the NAIS conference. It illustrates some ways teachers can use some of the concepts described in A Whole New Mind.

From the NAIS web site:

This PowerPoint presents the theme of "right-brained" creativity, rooted in Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind, exploring the implications for teaching and learning in 21st Century schools. It examines the six core competencies of our right-brained future and illustrates exercises related to each: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning.

**PLEASE NOTE -- This is a rather large file (49 MB). For a more efficient viewing experience, please right-click on the link to save a copy to your desktop.

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

2008-04-18T22:00:00.004-04:00

Sir Ken Robinson was a featured speaker at the NAIS conference I attended in NYC this winter with Peter, Kelly and Brain. In this talk, which is very similar to the talk we saw, Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. The universality of his message is evidenced by its rampant popularity online. A typical review: "If you have not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, please stop whatever you're doing and watch it now."

It's Not on the Test

2008-04-18T21:38:00.002-04:00

Am I the only teacher who cringes when a student asks, "Is this going to be on the test?"

Robot Games, the Need for Engineers, and a Whole New Mind

2008-04-18T21:28:00.006-04:00

I listened to this story on NPR today on the way home from work. It's a quick look at a robotics competition in Georgia and how teams from high schools in Michigan dominate these events, thanks to the significant support from the auto industry there.

As the story was airing I was thinking about Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind. He emphasized over and over again that left brain, spreadsheet, SAT thinking was no longer sufficient for success in the post-information age, yet these future engineers were being touted as the desperately needed future. Then a student spoke about his work, saying what was great was the group working together to innovate and create new ideas. What's most important isn't so much the science, although that's certainly important (a robot that doesn't work isn't a robot), but rather the collaboration and creativity the students exercised to build the robots.

I think about the 20 major global problems that humanity faces in the coming decades and each will require unprecedented collaboration, empathy, meaning-making and creativity - in addition to the left-brain skills.

How to get a $3,000 interactive whiteboard for about $75

2008-04-13T20:20:00.008-04:00

Interactive white boards, like the Smart Board, cost thousands of dollars, but you can get nearly everything a Smart Board offers (and even more, believe it or not) for less than the cost of a tank of gas.

Using infrared (IR) light pens and the Wii Remote, it is possible to create very low-cost multi-point interactive whiteboards and multi-point tablet displays. Johnny Chung Lee, a student at Carnegie Mellon University, created the software to turn your Wii remote into a highly functional interactive white board, and his YouTube videos have been widely watched. The software can be downloaded at http://johnnylee.net. Check out his video explanation below. You can bet I'm going to try to make this work this spring in my classroom.

Here's his TedTalk on the topic:

WikiEducator

2008-04-11T23:06:00.003-04:00

WikiEducator is a fledgling collection of teaching resources and community education projects. It has an ambitious goal of providing a complete education curriculum by 2015. You can upload teaching resources or browse for resources you can use in your classes.

First check out the page on using WikiEducator.

OER Commons

2008-04-11T22:37:00.001-04:00

I recently came across and now highly recommend OER (Open Educational Resources) Commons, a teaching and learning network, from K-12 lesson plans to college courseware, from algebra to zoology, open to everyone to use and add to. Take a few topics you teach and search for resources on those topics and I bet you'll find something that could improve your teaching.

OER Commons is the first comprehensive open learning network where teachers and professors (from pre-K to graduate school) can access their colleagues’ course materials, share their own, and collaborate on affecting today’s classrooms. It uses Web 2.0 features (tags, ratings, comments, reviews, and social networking) to create an online experience that engages educators in sharing their best teaching and learning practices.

The mission of OER Commons is to expand educational opportunities by increasing access to high-quality Open Educational Resources (OER), and facilitating the creation, use, and re-use of OER, for instructors, students, and self-learners.

Find them at http://www.oercommons.org/.

A list of topics (called a tag cloud) on OER Commons is also available.

Nearly 2,000 Courses Online for Free

2008-04-11T22:24:00.003-04:00

As I noted in a previous post, MIT's OpenCourseWare is a great innovation. From their web site:

MIT is committed to advancing education and discovery through knowledge open to everyone.

OCW shares free lecture notes, exams, and other resources from more than 1800 courses spanning MIT's entire curriculum.

I was looking for good resources for our foreign language teachers recently and found this section on foreign languages at MIT.

As the Christian Science Monitor noted, you can now go to MIT for free.

Research Resources

2008-04-08T11:54:00.001-04:00

On my web site, http://www.readwritethinkspeak.com, I've collected resources for writing a research paper, including:

"It's a rather good collection of resources," he said modestly. I've had several alumni say they go back to it in college when faced with a research assignment.

Library of Congress Teacher Site

2008-04-07T21:35:00.002-04:00

You have access to the largest library in the world, including ten million primary sources. Not bad for a little school in remote Lake Placid:

For Teachers (Library of Congress)

The online catalog is a good place to start your search.