Was that so hard?

Thankfully, Silver Fall's techies are nothing like this.  I hope I'm not, either...

New Technology Standards and Requirements

One of the main ways I try to use tech in the classroom is to foster creativity. For instance, I've pretty much moved away from editing published papers in MS Word. I usually have my students type their handwritten papers straight into Blogger, and edit it there. We teachers can also leave suggestions for revisions in the comments section. Using this strategy, I hit both the creativity and collaboration goals.

I also like to point the students to the internet when they ask me a question. One site that is fun to use with a somewhat recalcitrant student is lmgtfy.com. It basically does Google searches for a person, and gives you a tinyurl link to send to that person. For an example, go to http://tinyurl.com/cgp5uv.

When searching, however, there is invariably a mountain of information to sift through. I try to model the critical thinking skills that enable me to separate the diamonds from the garbage.

Which, of course, leads me to the garbage. I also have frequent conversations about how to be a valuable contributor to human knowledge. I also call this, "How not to be an Internet troll." Again, by having frequent discussions and modeling appropriate Internet citizenship, I hope to (ever so slightly) improve the quality of the internet experience.

On the use of a digital camera

The consequences of swimming without a suit

Thomas Friedman has an excellent op-ed piece about the economic impact of raising education spending and increasing academic performance.  It takes money to make money, and education is an investment, a point Friedman clearly makes.  I highly recommend reading the article.

Well, it had to happen sometime

Instead of people crying into their beers, they appear to be crying into their computer keyboards. I could be wrong (a novel thought!) but this is one possible conclusion one may reach when confronted with the news that there are now more professional bloggers than bartenders.  Also, is it true that more five year olds are now saying, "I want to be a blogger when I grow up!" than those who exclaim, "I want to be a fireman!"?

I will say, though, that the temptation to start monetizing this blog has never been stronger.  Visit often, and link away, my friends!

Teh Facebook is for sucks

Oh noes!  According to new research and sited by a new article in Time, Facebook users generally earn lower gradepoint averages than their non-networking peers.

Dangit!  And I just posted this to my Facebook page...

Oh Noes!

My iPhone is broken.  It has really highlighted how much I rely on this device in my daily work schedule.  Yes, I'm bidding on a replacement as we speak.  

Even the CIA has gone Web 2.0

See?  Web 2.0's possibilties are endless.  And yes...I would like to take a peek at Intellipedia, but I'm not stupid enough to try.

The future of scientific discovery?

If this holds out, the name of our most important scientist may one day be named HAL.

Opportunity!

There is a silver lining, especially for new teachers.  It's never quite as bad as the doomsayers suggest...