April 2005
April 30, 2005
Montage a google
Montage-a-google is a simple web-based app that uses Google's image search to generate a large gridded montage of images based on keywords (search terms) entered by the user. Not only an interesting way of browsing the net, it can also be used to create desktop pictures or even posters (see examples below - more coming soon).
Grant Robinson : Montage-a-google launcher
Guess the google.
After creating Montage-a-google, several people wrote to me suggesting I make a game based on the same technology. Montage-a-google is a simple web app that uses Google's image search to generate a large gridded montage of images based on keywords (search terms) entered by the user. Guess-the-google reverses this process by picking the keywords for you, the player must then guess what keyword made up the image - it's surprisingly addictive.
Grant Robinson : Guess-the-google launcher
The Longevity game
Welcome to the Longevity Game! See how your lifestyle can affect you in the years to come by answering just 12 quick questions. Your expected age will show in the tabulator in the upper left corner. Keep in mind your answers may increase, decrease, or have no affect on your expected age.
April 29, 2005
Hyperdictionary
Welcome to our online dictionary. The new databases are online. There is still work to be done, but the website is functional and the word definitions are available. We are currently working on adding a spell checker for search terms. We thank everyone who submitted their feedback to us and encourage our users to continue to provide us with suggestions.
Online Dictionary - HyperDictionary.com
Foldoc
Free on-line dictionary of computing.
Blog Glossary
Like all internet formats, weblogs, also known as 'blogs', have developed many terms which may baffle newcomers. The Blogging glossary is a resource for people who want to decode and demystify the jargon they may encounter whilst cruising through the blogosphere.
Netlingo.com
Commonly seen wherever people get online, including instant messaging, cell phones, PDAs, Web sites, in newsgroup postings, and on blogs, these abbreviations are used to communicate with each other.
Acronyms have always been an integral part of computer culture, and they have since spawned a new language on the Internet. Commonly thought of as a series of letters that make up a "word" there is a distinction between acronyms and shorthand.
News at 10 X 10
An amazing way to get the news of the minute. You have to experience it!
10x10 / 100 Words and Pictures that Define the Time / by Jonathan J. Harris
Google Guide
Making Searching Even Easier.
Google Guide: Help with Searching
E-Learning Business Translator
E-Learning Business Translator for e-learning cynics.
Techtionary
World's first and largest animated magazine on technology. Explaing how technology works and its implications.
TECHtionary :: World's First and Largest Animated Magazine on TECHnology
Math Symbols in WebCT Assessments
Math and science instructors have been reluctant to fully embrace course management systems such as WebCT because of the difficulty associated with including symbols and equations in online assessments. The primary problem is that standard web browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Netscape, are incapable of displaying common math symbols. To deal with this limitation, instructors resort to turning symbols and equations into image files (e.g., gif) which can then be displayed by browsers. A second approach is to create symbols using a XML-based language called MathML, which then requires a MathML "plug-in" to be installed to a browser to display the symbol. A third approach is made possible through a web-based equation editor called WebEQ. WebEQ creates equations that are based in MathML, but doesn't require the user to manually install a plug-in to the browser. In addition, WebEQ runs alongside the course management system (such as WebCT) so that both instructor and student can insert equations in assessments and course content.
Respondus Update :: Math Symbols in WebCT Assessments
April 28, 2005
Internet Safety at School and at Home.
At Lausanne Collegiate School in Memphis, Tennessee, students in grades 7-12 carry their own laptop computers for use in their classes. In this, our fourth year of a technology immersion program, we have seen great improvements in writing skills and cooperative learning, and received much positive feedback from recent graduates. As the school's director of technology and media services, however, I felt that we still needed to become more proactive in educating our parents about the dangers that lurk online.
Education World ® Technology Center: Blogging?
Time for Training, Time for Studying
According to Clements, the online class works like a real high school classroom.
Highly qualified teachers from around the state - retired or normally off for the summer - were trained for six weeks to teach courses in their fields to an online class of about 25.
Students enrolled in a course would probably spend 15 to 20 hours a week on the work and can take up to two classes during the summer.
Virtual High School Meanderings: Time for Training, Time for Studying
April 27, 2005
Effective Color Contrast
This web page contains basic guidelines for making effective color choices that work for nearly everyone. To understand them best, you need to understand the three perceptual attributes of color: hue, lightness and saturation, in the particular way that vision scientists use them.
Online Internet High
I do not know how to say this in a politically correct way, but I believe high school as we know it is broken...and I am talking 'Humpty-Dumpty' broken. I was there. I helped push 'ole Humpty off the wall...and walked away for someone else to sweep up the pieces. Worse yet, I do not have a proposal for what needs to replace the broken institution...I am pretty sure that distance education and technology 'glue' will not fix it. I do believe, however, that high school without high levels of parental involvement/engagement/participation represent a formula for failure.
Chasing the Dragon's Tale: Online Internet High - Thoughts from a failed high school parent
Creativity - How can I get some?
Creativity is the lifeblood of innovation and marketing, but where does it come from and how should a company nurture this elusive trait? How does one explore creativity on the job--and use it to one's advantage?
HBS Working Knowledge: HBS Conference Coverage: Creativityâ€"How Can I Get Some?
Computers are just textbooks on steriods.
I love the fact that people out there are studying the effects of computers on the intelligence of students. See the blog posting before this one; "How computers make kids dumb." The computer combined with the internet is a textbook on steroids. In a classroom we do not hand a textbook even if it is on steriods to a student and expect it to teach them. We design lessons which utilize the tools at our disposal. If we happen to be lucky enough to have access to computers in our classrooms and if we are informed enough and literate enough then like a textbook, blackboard or overhead projector and it will help educate the students. Just placing a computer, textbook, blackboard or overhead projector in a classroom will have not have any effect positive or negative on the intelligence of the children within that room unless they are used and then the question is how they are used. Studies that look at a room that has a computer in it and then test the intelligence of the students in the room and then draw a conclusion that it is the computers fault if the intelligence scores are low might be jumping to conclusions.
A child who spends hour after hour on the computer is not automatically good at computers. This is a fact that we have proven over and over again in the Cyber School. A computer is a very versatile tool; it can be used for games, chatting as well as educating and countless other tasks. Some children can spend many an hour playing games but might not know how to use a word processor or attach an essay to an email. All of which are required skills for success in the cyber school. Last year we had to turned away 289 students from the Cyber School for not passing the required steps of our entrance course. Which resulted in many parents calling and stating "But my child is always on the computer!" The question I ask; "Doing what?" The key is how they use the computer. It is the same key when you are talking about computers in the classroom. Their presence alone is not enough to influence the intelligence of the students, just as spending hours on the computer might not make you a good candidate for the Cyber School.
The x-factor in the education formula is the educator. Informed, trained educators who understand the information era and the world in which the student will venture out into when they leave the system will utilize the available tools to achieve the goals of said system.
Another discussion could be; "What are the goals of the system and do they reflect the changing world? That is one that the cyber glasses will view in the future. Bill Gates has already expressed his views on this one with his statement; ""By obsolete, I don't just mean that they're broken, flawed or underfunded, though a case could be made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean our high schools _ even when they're working as designed _ cannot teach all our students what they need to know today."." The man is so subtle.
Being a high school teacher I still have faith in our obsolete system and I think we will be successful in adapting to this changing world.
April 26, 2005
How computers make kids dumb.
A study of 100,000 pupils in 31 countries around the world has concluded that using computers makes kids dumb. Avoiding PCs in the classroom and at home improved the literacy and numeracy of the children studied. The UK's Royal Economic Society finds no ground for the correlation that politicans make between IT use and education.
How computers make kids dumb | The Register
New RSS Mix
Mix any number of RSS feeds into one unique new feed!
You can then point a parser at the new feed and display a mix of stories from various sources on your website.
RSS Mix - Mix any number of RSS feeds into one unique new feed!
Reading Student Journals
But I think that there's something more important that these journals can be useful for in schools. But not all schools -- only those schools that are interested in students as human beings instead of products to be completed or vessels to be filled. Can you imagine the power of a school counselor getting an update or status check on a hundred students via a single mouse click? For those counselors willing to pay attention, and those students willing to share, online journals can be a valuable tool for assessing the well-being of students.
Weblogg-ed - The Read/Write Web in the Classroom :
Is Open Source LCMS really the way to go?
However, despite these three undeniably amazing advantages (*grin*), remember that the technical labor required to deploy, customize and manage the LCMS must be located within the school and is costly.
e-Learning Acupuncture: Is Open Source LCMS really the way to go?
Marriage of Blog and Website
The image map of the world is the front to a data bank of websites that pertain to the Asian Tsunami. This interactive image contains websites which are sorted based on world regions in which the sites were designed. The world is divide into the following regions; Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Middle East, North America and South America. The websites are further sorted into relief effort, online resources and news and personal accounts categories. Also included is a summary area heading which has all the regions within with their link listed within a single page. The technology behind this area of the website will incorporate the sorting, archiving and searching of relevant information through the use of a blog engine. A website visitor would most likely be unable to detect the use of a blog as the background databank; a look at the code would be the only way to determine this. Clearly, then, the blog will not be the site, but, rather, the engine for the site. This will make the site unique in its ability to display information with the Region-Specific Information heading.
Tsunami Region Specific Information
The Tsunami Aftermath Educational Resources
The site can be used not only by educators teaching student bodies of all ages, but also by students themselves, as well as curriculum developers and academic program teams. In particular, however, the goal of this site is to aid distance educators, in their Tsunami teachings. Educators worldwide are searching for both a useful base from which they can pull information, tools, resources and ideas to aid them in their teaching efforts.Tsunami Resources
April 25, 2005
Bridge the Digital Divide
Earlier this month, the World Intellectual Property Organization hosted groundbreaking discussions in Geneva. The U.N. agency, which for years has been associated with ever-increasing intellectual property protections for the developed world, held talks about initiating a new intellectual property development agenda that holds the potential to shift some of its focus to the needs of the developing world.
We Can Help Bridge the Digital Divide
Computers in the classroom lowering intelligence.
My university, like many universities, is invested in computer literacy. However, articles such as this and this give one pause. In short, both articles suggest that the multitasking nature of the computer is making students less adept at problem solving and analysis: that "[c]hildren are now awash with 'facts,' but don't know what to do with them."
Computers in the classroom lowering intelligence | Kairosnews
April 24, 2005
Custon Sim City
Thanks to Michelle N. Lamberson for dropping me a note about this article. This is very cool, how do I get them to design one for Saskatoon?
Fair View Junior School, in Gillingham, Kent, teamed up with the makers of Sim City, which lets users play around with computer-generated cities.
A special Medway version was created to include recognisable local landmarks.
Children use the game to learn about environmental and transport issues while redesigning their home town.
BBC NEWS | UK | England | Kent | School creates its own Sim City
April 23, 2005
SCCS Survey comments on the worst aspects.
The survey was given to the developer/teachers at the Saskatoon Catholic Cyber School. Most of the teachers teach in the face to face environment for a portion of their day and then drive to the pod (the cyber school) where they work onthe delivery, development of their cyber school courses. The following are some of the comments about the worst aspect(s) of being involved in the cyber school.
1.) class loads.
2.) The time commitment can consume my life, if I let it.
3.) Time commitment versus time given.
4.) Wish I were getting paid for the time I'm spending.
5.) Need more developmental time. Want to learn more technology, but no time.
6.) difficulties with tracking inactive students.
7.) No one respects the mac.
8.) I want to be there more!
9.) the huge amount of work to keep caught up with my students
10.) Students who do not participate fully.
11.) I have not had any bad experiences at Cyber.
12.) No negatives
13.) Time: The worst thing is never feeling like you can get enough done or always needing to do more. There is always more to be done which is a good thing but sometimes it is overwhelming. Even when you have the course complete there is lots more to edit and constantly change.
14.) Huge time commitment of hours, but I love it.
15.) Time management for students to make sure that they stay on task and not sufficient time allowed for instructors to both teach and upgrade courses.
16.) its an awful lot of work
17.) I can't really say what is the worse part except the time and work it takes to police inactive students.
18.) The amount of time needed to learn all that is needed to be effective.
19.) takes too much time
SCCS Survey Comments on the best aspects
The survey was given to the developer/teachers at the Saskatoon Catholic Cyber School. Most of the teachers teach in the face to face environment for a portion of their day and then drive to the pod (the cyber school) where they work onthe delivery, development of their cyber school courses. The following are some of the comments about the best aspect(s) of being involved in the cyber school.
1.) the staff, environment, and the flexibility
2.) Working environment (people, professionalism, relaxed atmosphere) The way it helped me think about my teaching and skills it helped me develop.
3.) It's new, it's a change, it's with colleagues
4.) For me, flixibility, and a job!
5.) Great atmosphere to work in. Accountability on the part of the students. (in my course) Always learning new technology.
6.) teaching in a new/different learning enirvonment
7.) The Pod. The balance cyber school offers between online learning and face to face contact.
8.) Moment to moment learning contributions by other teachers in the pod. Positive and encouraging attitudes by other teachers.
9.) Flexibility. The Pod environment.
10.) The staff and the atmosphere.
11.) The people with whom I work; the ability to research and learn/try new things.
12.) Flexibility of time
13.) There are many good things about Cyber school. I have had to learn to communicate effectively with students being not in a face to face situation as well as presenting course content through email or discussions. Also the staff...we have a great staff that are always there and willing to help each other out.
14.) The quality of the program is excellent.
15.) I have enjoyed the interaction with fellow Cyber School teachers - a great bunch of teachers (human beings) plus the clhallenge of developing a course and constantly learning new things.
16.) The opportunity, the possibilities, the steep learning curve.
17.) It provides students with the flexibility of accessing a class when it is conveinient for them but more importantly it forces them to become more responsible for their learning.
18.) it challenges you to create ways to get ideas and concepts across.
19.) Allows students to be responsible for their learning and creates independence. Opens possibilities to all students (special needs, homeschoolers, regular students' scheduling, etc.) to work at their own personal pace/time.
20.) The flexibility in hours.
21.) teaching students instead of content
SCCS Teacher/Developer Survey
The teachers/developers at the Saskatoon Catholic Cyber School were asked to fill out a survey. The following are a couple of questions asked and the results.
1.) How many years have you been involved in cyber school? If you round up to full years.
| N | 1 y | 2 y | 3 y | 4 y | 5 y | 6 y | 7 y | 8 y | 9 y | 10 y | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| 30.4% | 17.4% | 17.4% | 8.7% | 13.0% | 8.7% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | ||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||
2.) How many years have you taught? If you round it up to a full year.
| N | 1 y | 2 y | 3 y | 4 y | 5 y | 6 y | 7 y | 8 y | 9 y | 10-15 | 16-20 | 21-25 | 26-30+ | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 3 | |||||
| 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 4.3% | 0.0% | 4.3% | 0.0% | 8.7% | 0.0% | 30.4% | 21.7% | 4.3% | 13.0% | ||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
3.) Your computer skills when you started at the cyber school?
| N | Mean | SD | Median | Mode | - | beginner | intermediate | advanced | very ad | professional |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | 2.05 | 0.84 | 2.0 | b | 1 | 5 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 4.3% | 21.7% | 56.5% | 8.7% | 8.7% | 0.0% | |||||
|
||||||||||
4.) Your computer skills now?
| N | Mean | SD | Median | Mode | - | beginner | intermediate | advanced | very ad | professional |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | 2.91 | 0.68 | 3.0 | c | 1 | 0 | 6 | 12 | 4 | 0 |
| 4.3% | 0.0% | 26.1% | 52.2% | 17.4% | 0.0% | |||||
|
||||||||||
5.) Has the cyber school effected the way you teach your face to face class? (Most of our teachers teach in the face to face environment as well.)
| N | Mean | SD | Median | Mode | - | No | Somewhat | Very Much | Totally |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | 2.21 | 0.54 | 2.0 | b | 4 | 1 | 13 | 5 | 0 |
| 17.4% | 4.3% | 56.5% | 21.7% | 0.0% | |||||
|
|||||||||
TrackBack Spam Alert
Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies, a book by Susannah GardnerTrackBack Spam Alert: Dealing With Trackback Spam
Spammers appear to have discovered TrackBack in a more significant way today. The discussion on the Moveable Type professional developers mailing list is full of folks watching TrackBack spam grow.
Buzz Marketing with Blogs by Susannah Gardner: TrackBack Spam Alert: Dealing With Trackback Spam
What is Trackback?
What is trackback about?
Sometimes when you see a post on somebody's blog that you like, it's enough just to leave a comment on the other blog about that issue. But what if you've got something to say about the issue that you'd like to share with readers of your own blog? If you do post to your blog, you have to go and leave a comment in the other blog if you want the people there to know about your own blog entry.
This is where trackback comes in. Using trackback, you can automatically notify another blog about your new entry and a link to your entry will appear in that blog's list of trackback pings. Now visitors to the other blog will be able to come to your blog.
No Dresscode Required
The Underwear Anxiety dream can at best be described as traumatizing. The most common version is a dream about showing up in class in your underwear. Those who've experienced such a dream recall feelings of bewilderment, confusion, and mortification.
But what if you could attend class in your underwear and still retain your dignity? This isn't a fantasy but a reality made possible by online classes.
The New Paltz Oracle - Students May Take Online Classes This Summer, No Dresscode Required
Future of Math
Helping elementary & middle school teachers integrate learning technologies to achieve mathematical literacy in a standads-based world.
April 22, 2005
A weblog webliography
Steven Downes states...This page lists (and provides links to) some 180 articles and essays about blogs in education and learning. It's hard to believe that much has been written about the subject. Incredibly, I think this is only a partial list.
A Weblog Webliography | Kairosnews
Edublog are go!
The idea of using blogs in education was getting knocked about a bit, people were playing with Userland's Manila (climaxing in the Weblogs @ Harvard project), thinking about the impact of blogs in education and, of course, mixing this in with their discipline, professional experience and lives. As blogs are wont to do.
IncSub - learning and development hosting, design and solutions for individuals and organisations
The New Gatekeepers
A stark look at the challenge of the old gatekeepers-- and the possible emergence of new ones.
As the number of cities in the United States with only a single newspaper ownership increases, news becomes increasingly nonessential to the newspaper.
The New Gatekeepers Part 1: Changing of the Guard | Civilities
Infomania worse than marijuana
Workers distracted by email and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers, new research has claimed.
BBC NEWS | UK | 'Infomania' worse than marijuana
The Uncertain Future of Libraries
I know since, I have become a cyber geek I have not set foot in a library for over five years. No need!
The Uncertain Future of Libraries | cyberdash
Teacher's Aid
When I was a grad student I often thought professors' complacency in teaching was astounding, and that was in a program where they actually cared about teaching. One of the things I've been working on is trying to spend less time on teaching (hopefully without it having disastrous effects), but I know I haven't been able to crank out research like others have because I care about students' experience. Sometimes it feels like I care more than they do.
April 21, 2005
Education goes global
Collaboration among institutions and a shift to student-centred learning using the internet are the future of tertiary education. That was the theme of an information technology conference in Auckland last week.
Educause 2005 brought together 560 delegates from educational IT, e-learning, library and research backgrounds.
Conference organiser Stephen Whiteside, director of IT at the University of Auckland, told delegates: "The real challenge for universities is to change their mindset from "chalk and talk" to embrace the different ways of learning we are now experiencing."
Elements of Effective e-Learning Design
Preparing and developing e-learning materials is a costly and time consuming enterprise. This paper highlights the elements of effective design that we consider assist in the development of high quality materials in a cost efficient way. We introduce six elements of design and discuss each in some detail. These elements focus on paying attention to the provision of a rich learning activity, situating this activity within an interesting story line, providing meaningful opportunities for student reflection and third party criticism, considering appropriate technologies for delivery, ensuring that the design is suitable for the context in which it will be used, and bearing in mind the personal, social, and environmental impact of the designed activities. Along the way, we describe how these design elements can be effectively utilized by contextualizing them with examples from an e-learning initiative.
IRRODL: Elements of Effective e-Learning Design
Teachers Avoiding Net in Class
While 85 percent of US public schools have Internet access, only 14 percent say that teachers use the Web as a teaching resource, according to a study by Market Data Retrieval (MDR).
The study found that in the 1997-1998 academic year, 85 percent of US schools were connected to the Internet, up from 36 percent two years previously. Further, 44 percent of all US classrooms had at least one computer with an Internet connection.
Teachers Avoiding Net in Class
Teachers Say Internet Improves Quality of Education.
I wonder how much of this has changed in four years?
More than eight out of ten teachers (84 percent) believe that computers and access to the Internet improve the quality of education, according to a survey by education technology nonprofit NetDay, and 75 percent of teachers said the Internet is an important tool for finding new resources to meet new standards.
Two-thirds of teachers, however, agree the Internet is not well integrated into their classrooms and only 26 percent of them feel pressure to use it in learning activities.
Teachers Say Internet Improves Quality of Education
US Department of Labor
After reading this why would anyone choose this profession.
Teachers-preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle, and secondary
PH.Dotcom
Imagine if the great thinkers of the past could have blogged, bouncing ideas off each other in real time, engaging in rapid-fire debates across borders. Would it have led to some kind of intellectual utopia, or total chaos? Would we be regaled with post after post from Adorno complaining about what he had for lunch that day?
village voice > arts > Education Supplement Spring 2005 by Geeta Dayal
I can't read my Handwriting
I have bad handwriting. The last class I took where I tried to handwrite my notes was a mess, the first week I took these great notes using a pen and paper. The second week before the class started I went to review my notes and found I could not read them. So, I charged up the laptop, I type faster than I can write anyways.
Globetechnology: Is the pen mightier than the keyboard?
China's Internet Censorship
"China operates the most extensive, technologically sophisticated, and broad-reaching system of Internet filtering in the world," said the report, which was released Thursday. Ronald Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab, University of Toronto, explained, "Deep beneath the subterranean layers of the Internet--among the routers, exchange points, and gateways--lies a variety of chokepoints where communications can be blocked and intercepted. Our study of Internet filtering in China provides a picture of a regime that has exploited these chokepoints to the fullest, implementing filtering and surveillance from the backbone to the cybercafé," the study said.
Chasing the Dragon's Tale: China's internet censorship - Dare we follow suit?
Teacher Blogger Guidelines
"So, here's a short list. This is open-text, remember, so we can all play along.
Tame the Web: Libraries and Technology: Will Richardson's Teacher Blogger Guidelines
April 20, 2005
10 Tips for Bloggers
Tips for creating a blog.
There are no hard and fast rules on how to blog. Having said that, bloggers will likely increase their exposure by following some simple blog guidelines.
April 19, 2005
YetiSports
I found the start of it all. If this doesn't waste away your day no site will.
..:::YETISPORTS:::.. by chris hilgert // powered by edelweiss medienwerkstatt
Smack the Penguin
Sorry to all the people out there who feel it is not right for a Yeti to smack a Penquin. I know I wasted about 1/2 hr smacking and felt better afterwards. A great stress relief for the smacker. My record was 323.4.
April 18, 2005
Supporting Online Students
Supporting Online Students with Personal Interaction
Providing high levels of personal, interactive support to students proved critical to the success of Florida State's online programs
EDUCAUSE Quarterly | Volume 28 Number 1 2005
When the blogger blogs...
There are about 10 million blogs out there, give or take, including one belonging to Niall Kennedy, an employee at Technorati, a small San Francisco-based company that, yes, tracks blogs.
Like many employees at many companies, Mr. Kennedy has opinions, even when he is not working. One evening last month, he channeled one of those off-duty opinions into a satiric bit of artwork - an appropriation of a "loose lips sink ships" World War II-era propaganda poster altered to provide a harsh comment on the growing fears among corporations over the blogging activities of their employees. He then posted it on his personal Web log.
Advertisement
But in a paradoxical turn, Mr. Kennedy's employer, having received some complaints about the artwork, stepped in and asked him to reconsider the posting and Mr. Kennedy complied, taking the image down.
April 17, 2005
An oldie but a goodie..Blue Web'n
Blue Web'n is an online library of 1952 outstanding Internet sites categorized by subject, grade level, and format (tools, references, lessons, hotlists, resources, tutorials, activities, projects).
You can search by grade level (Refined Search), broad subject area (Content Areas), or specific sub-categories (Subject Area).
Each week 5 new sites are added. You can get a description of these additions sent to you by signing up below for free weekly updates! We have moved our archive from Topica to Yahoo!Groups.
Blue Web'n
April 15, 2005
SCIgen
SCIgen is a program that generates random Computer Science research papers, including graphs, figures, and citations. It uses a hand-written context-free grammar to form all elements of the papers. Our aim here is to maximize amusement, rather than coherence.
One useful purpose for such a program is to auto-generate submissions to "fake" conferences; that is, conferences with no quality standards, which exist only to make money. A prime example, which you may recognize from spam in your inbox, is SCI/IIIS and its dozens of co-located conferences (for example, check out the gibberish on the WMSCI 2005 website). Using SCIgen to generate submissions for conferences like this gives us pleasure to no end. In fact, one of our papers was accepted to SCI 2005!
SCIgen - An Automatic CS Paper Generator
Articles for Educators
Welcome to Articles For Educators, a site with free resources--lesson plans, field trip ideas, tips and tricks for the classroom--for educators, and written by educators. Each of the articles posted on this site was written by someone in the educational field; teachers, administrators, guidance counselors, etc.
Articles For Educators: Free Resources For Educators
Attention Educators: look who is blogging
"Blogging has revolutionized the news media, but youth dominate its use: Ninety percent of those blogging are between 13 and 29 years old, according to a survey by Perseus Development Corporation, a company that designs software for online surveys. Of those, more than half are teenagers."
Chasing the Dragon's Tale: Attention educators: look who is blogging
April 14, 2005
I Feel Like I'm Part of Something.
But I wonder how many students are actually participating in this conversation. Are adults once again making decisions for students without their input? Wouldn't it be terrible if the decisions about blog use in classrooms were all made for students, instead of with them?
Weblogg-ed - The Read/Write Web in the Classroom :
Students as Creators
I'm always encouraging teaching staff to think about getting their students to create e-resources for peer and class-room use. There's a whole host of excellent reasons for doing so. Of course, we need to make sure that the students are properly supported in resource creation and that staff don't rely on student ability at the expense of developing their own skills - and having fun making e-stuff themselves.
EdTechUK: Students as creators
The Physical Attractiveness Phenomena
An ordinary looking woman, map in hand, stands on a crowded New York City sidewalk at midday asking passersby for directions. She may as well be invisible. At best, she's ignored.
A very attractive woman takes her place. In no time, she's inundated with help from both men and women. A passing van driver even pulls over in heavy traffic to offer his gallant counsel.
Unattractive children get less attention.
You might ask what this as to do with online education. Well, let me tell you...online education is the great equalizer. If parents treat their students differently it is not a great leap to assume that teachers would do the same. Attactive students would get more attention, if you can see them. In the Saskatoon Catholic Cyber School where video conferencing is not used we treat ugly students just like we treat attractive ones.
What a great selling point...All student at our school are treated the same...so if you are ugly come to our school we will treat you as well as we treat the attractive students.
Anyways you get the idea.
Harrell's findings are based on an observational study of children and shopping cart safety. With the approval of management at 14 different supermarkets, Harrell's team of researchers observed parents and their two to five-year-old children for 10 minutes each, noting if the child was buckled into the grocery-cart seat, and how often the child wandered more than 10 feet away. The researchers independently graded each child on a scale of one to 10 on attractiveness.
Findings showed that 1.2 per cent of the least attractive children were buckled in, compared with 13.3 per cent of the most attractive youngsters. The observers also noticed the less attractive children were allowed to wander further away and more often from their parents. In total, there were 426 observations at the 14 supermarkets.
Researchers show parents give unattractive children less attention
April 13, 2005
Mainstream Media Meltdown
Here is a partial answer to the question I had yesterday about the use of TV since the internet.
The Long Tail: Mainstream Media Meltdown
National PTA
National PTA is the largest volunteer child advocacy organization in the United States. A not-for-profit association of parents, educators, students, and other citizens active in their schools and communities, PTA is a leader in reminding our nation of its obligations to children.
Parent Link
ParentLink is the fastest, easiest, and most effective way to involve parents in their child's education. ParentLink offers detailed messages, customizable print-to-mail letters, comprehensive reports, and more.
ParentLink: the school-to-home communication system that increases parental involvement.
April 12, 2005
TV vs PC...are they competing?
So, after reading all the sites posted before this...are people watching less TV because of the internet? I don't have a clear picture, has anyone out there done any recent research?
I know I am watching less TV since I started the cyber school, but here in my office I have cable and do watch Star Trek for two hours a day. But everyone knows watching Star Trek is not like watching TV it is a necessity.
Making it so... (Trekkies will get that.)
D. Cannell
TV and PC in the same room.
Nearly all Internet users with a television and PC in the same room consume both media simultaneously at least some of the time
The majority of Internet activity during television viewing is not associated with television content
Half of U.S. Internet Users Have a Television and PC in the Same Room, Reports comScore Media Metrix
Television and the Internet: compatible after all.
For the first five years of its existence, the Internet was depicted as the TV-killer, dimming the pixels of a moribund living room box. Not so! According to analysis by the PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Entertainment and Media practice. It appears that prospects for the small screen are brighter than ever, and that the relationship between TV and the Internet might better be described as twins separated at birth, now reunited and revealing their true affinity.
Television and the Internet: compatible after all
Television vs. Internet
We now cite some survey data from the TGI.net Mexico survey. Within this sample of 11,040 persons between the ages of 12 and 64 years old, 11% of them indicated that they had used the Internet by some means within the last 90 days. Within these Internet users, the following statement was shown to them: "I prefer to navigate the Internet than watch television." 25% of them agreed completely with this statement, while 75% choose the other options: "somewhat agree", "neither agree nor disagree", "somewhat disagree" and "completely disagree."
Internet use takes a toll on television viewing.
Americans with Internet access are watching less television, according to the UCLA Internet Report 2001. The survey of 2,000 households also shows that, as users get more on-line experience, their television viewing declines further.
Most Internet users report that they spend about the same amount of time on non-computing activities at home as they did before they had the Internet. Internet users watch 4.5 hours less television weekly than do non-Internet users, however. And among users who have had Internet access for five or more years, almost 35 percent said their television viewing decreased, compared to about 30 percent among users who have been on-line for less than a year.
Internet use takes a toll on television viewing
How to Develop an Online Coures? Continued.
Entry taken from Virtual High School Meanderings Blog...Check it out.
Virtual High School Meanderings: How to Develop an Online Course?
Technology's 10 most inexcusable failures
As a former lab director, I was part of a testing and reviews team that lauded great products and raked the poorly done ones through the coals. Despite bad reviews, it was possible to lose sight of where technology was not only failing us but also doing so inexcusably.
Technology's 10 most inexcusable failures | Perspectives | CNET News.com
Why robots are scary--and cool
For early researchers in artificial intelligence who were out to play God, it turned out the devil was in the details.
Their efforts to re-create human intelligence in hardware and software have led to some very smart machines--just think of IBM's Deep Blue beating chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, whose genius for the game couldn't match the computer's high-speed calculations. But aside from that rarified skill, the machine would be no match for the average 3-year-old in figuring out how to get the best of a grown-up human.
Why robots are scary--and cool | Newsmakers | CNET News.com
Does it apply to Distance Learning?
Arthur Schopenhauer stated..."All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
Could you change the word truth for Distance Learning...Distance Learning passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
What stage do you think we are in?
April 11, 2005
How to Develop an Online Course
Web based training or Internet-based training is abuzz with hot new online courses that promise to electrify training programs and become a cost-effective part of the instructional mix in education.
But, stand-up trainers are skilled at developing and presenting their curriculum "live," but most do not have backgrounds in developing curriculum for computer-based delivery (instructional design and flowcharting) or in computer programming. Also, educational content is never identical. Design and delivery should follow the demands of your content. This course teaches you the rudimentary aspects of creating an online course.
Online Course Development Tutorial and Process Checklist
Principal Bans Blogging - or does he?
Everyone is pretty quick to jump all over the principal assuming that the news article includes the truth, the whole truth and nothing butthe truth. The reply from the principal quoted in the BoingBong blog as an update suggests pretty strongly that this is not the case. And no one should be surprised. Least of all bloggers. So far I don't see any indication that bloggers are reading that explaination with anything approching an open mind either.
Cyberspace People Watcher: Principal bans blogging - or does he?
SCCS Website Award
In June of each year an educational institution will be selected by the students of the Saskatoon Catholic Cyber School to recieve the SCCS Website Award. To nominate an educational institution for this award click on the award.
FAQ: Blogging on the Job
Suggestion for safe blogging...do a better job of hiding yourself. Do not write any information that would allow someone to trace it back to you.
Bad plan, how about don't write anything that you cannot be proud of...or anything that would make your mother blush, if she was standing behind you.
I would hope my employees would be the type of person who had mothers who taught them how to function in a society, so I will not have to fire them.
FAQ: Blogging on the job | CNET News.com
New guide aims to keep bloggers safe from pink slips
I find it interesting that an intelligent person would put something in writing that would be harmful to their job. Not only put something in writing but then post it on a world wide system that records everything and makes everything available to everyone. If you have the need to write uncensored thoughts maybe the internet is not the place to do it. Maybe you need one of those little books with a lock on it. If you lose your job for posting yourself on the net, maybe you were not suited for that job and when you were hired it was not you they were hiring but an image of you that was not true or a more intelligent you. I think we all contain information within ourselves that is not for the world wide consumption, writing into such a system is just plain silly and silly people deserve to get fired.
Ok, all of you who believe in a censor free internet take your shot.
I don't believe agencies should censor the internet, but I do believe people should learn to censor themselves.
New guide aims to keep bloggers safe from pink slips | CNET News.com
Ideas for Better Conversations
The following list of 'rules' or 'principles' or 'elements' of good conversation constitute my first attempt at identifying what we would need to learn, and teach, to be better conversationalists. Unfortunately, it seems likely that the quality of the conversation will inevitably be at the level of the poorest conversationalist, just as the performance of a dancing couple will reflect the least-accomplished partner. This list is the result of thinking out loud, and I'm sure it is far from complete.
Ideas for Better Conversations
The Importance of Excercise
As I sit at my desk all day punching away at the keys, I found this email a giggle. What better way to start a monday then with a laugh.
Importance of Walking
Walking can add minutes to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $5000 per month.
My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was 60.Now she's 97 years old and we don't know where the heck she is.
I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 bucks. Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to go there.
I have to exercise early in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing.
I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
I have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.
The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier.
If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.
And last but not least: I don't exercise because it makes the ice jump right out of my glass.
You could print this out run this over to your friends but why not just
e-mail the address of the blog to them!
Hope it made you giggle.
April 10, 2005
The Pope and Technology -- Lessons for Education
I'm not a Catholic but when I was twelve, I went to confessional with my best friend, Rob Watcher. To be honest, I don't remember many details, but it must have been positive in some way because I went home and asked my mother if we could join.
Well, we never did, but that doesn't lessen my admiration for the Pope and what he represented to catholics and to the world in general.
One of the things I particularly admired about Pope John Paul was the fact that he was our first Internet pope and, in reality, did pretty well with the whole thing. In fact, the Catholic Church's gradual embracing of and success with the Internet has made me think about its usefulness in education this weekend. What lessons can we learn from the way churches in general use technology and how do those apply to education?
Free Blank Outline Maps of
Free Blank Outline Maps of the Countries and Continents of the World
April 8, 2005
Education as Toaster
Education is a toaster. We put bread in, and toast comes out. Teachers are the toaster operators. The field of educational technology is responsible for the engineering and marketing of the toasters. While this is a rather facile -- even flippant -- metaphor, I believe that it helps us get at some of the fundamental distinctions.
Cognitive Dissonance » Education as Toaster
Teacher leave grading up to the computer
A computer program developed at the University of Missouri may take some of the tedium out of teaching--it grades papers and offers students writing advice.
Teachers leave grading up to the computer | CNET News.com
Computer essay grading
Of course, digital essay graders are really nothing new. It's possible that what is developing is a critical mass of electronic essay grading. I think some of the more interesting questions about this sort of thing revolve around the perception that this kind of evaluation leads to students learning how to respond to the machine, rather than learning how to "write."
Computer essay grading | Kairosnews
Importance of Personal in PC
We talk about access to computers for students and pat ourselves on the back when a school system reaches the point where there is a computer in each classroom...never mind that it took 10 years, and that the ten year-old models are one step up from an electric abacus (I regress). Susan Patrick is quoted a number of times in "Official: Schools lag - PittsburghLIVE.com", but the following jumped off the page at me:
Chasing the Dragon's Tale: Importance of 'Personal' in PC - a new Digital Divide?
April 7, 2005
Understanding PISA
The headline was dramatic enough to cause a ripple in the reading public. "Students who use computers a lot at school have worse maths and reading performance," noted the BBC news article, citing a 2004 study by Ludger Woessmann and Thomas Fuchs (Fuchs and Woessman, 2004).
It was not long before the blogosphere took notice. Taking the theme and running with it, Alice and Bill ask, "Computers Make School Kids Dumber?" They theorize, "If you track the admitted decline of education, you'll probably notice that it follows along with the increase of technology in the classroom."
In a similar vein, James Bartholomew asks, "Do you think that the government will turn down the volume of its boasting about how it has spent billions introducing computers in schools (while keeping down the pay of teachers so much that there are shortages)? Do you think it will stop sending governors of state schools glossy pamphlets about insisting that computers are used in their schools as much as possible?"
The Active Web
Here is another posting that I am not sure how I feel about what is being said.
Can we get to the point where we believe our students can add value, can participate in meaningful ways even while they're still in high school (or middle school, or elementary school)? Better yet, can the mere opportunity to add value to a larger, broader body of knowledge motivate students to work with more passion and interest?
Weblogg-ed - The Read/Write Web in the Classroom :
A Billion Essays
One. Billion. Essays.
That is nothing short of incredible, and it's only secondarily about technology. Primarily, it's about writing, all this writing that's taking place in the world, and challenging all of these static, stolid institutions. They're rewriting the world around us, and the people in our field "don't have time" to investigate it? That's more than a little sad.
Weblogg-ed - The Read/Write Web in the Classroom :
The Conclusion Illusion: Blogging as Exploration
On Dec. 1, 2004, The Kitchen: How to Cook a Weblog posted an intriguing open question: Why Do You Blog? (Note: That link is not functioning for me right now, but I'm posting it anyway in case it's just a temporary glitch.)
Several bloggers have already answered that question. I promised myself I wouldn't respond until I could think of something more meaningful than "Because I can't shut up." Well, here goes my attempt:
Contentious » The Conclusion Illusion: Blogging as Exploration
April 6, 2005
Keyhole
I've been spending time playing with Keyhole (a company recently acquired by Google). I'm astonished at the potential of this tool to enable virtual travel - tremendous for teaching. Most people I talk to react with concern - "That's too wierd".
The Vee Pee's New Tee Vee
Former Vice President Al Gore unveiled a new interactive cable TV channel for the internet generation Monday that blends the immediacy of video blogging with the voyeurism of reality TV.
Wired News: The Vee Pee's New Tee Vee
E-Learning in Practical Training
In recent years, e-learning tools have been increasingly used to enhance both teaching and educational opportunities in universities and in other educational institutions. As these teaching and learning opportunities become more accessible, they also grow in complexity and sophistication. For those involved in pre-admission practical legal training (PLT) programs, the rapid development and acceptance of e-learning presents particular difficulties.
As PLT is an alternative to what is essentially a system of "apprenticeship", PLT programs rely on substantial staff-student contact both to teach the concrete tasks entailed in the practice of the legal profession as well as to engender in students the professional confidence, values and attributes that are a necessary part of the competent or successful practice of those tasks. How may e-learning tools, especially those designed to facilitate distance education, be utilised to enhance professional learning in this environment? This paper will explore the intersection of e-learning tools and practices and traditional face-to face teaching and learning models.
E-Learning in Practical Training: A Destination or a New Way of Looking At Things
Just in Time Teaching
Welcome to the presentation about "Just in Time Teaching"
Microsoft has a new product called "Producer" which allows video clips to be integrated with PowerPoint presentations. You don't need to download any extra software to view these files, but only Internet Explorer properly displays these files.
Virtual Trip of Nova Scotia
Hop in and join Dr. Ralph (alias Air Wolf) on a scenic virtual flight around Nova Scotia. In the fantastic world of cyberspace we will enjoy some spectacular vistas from the air and occasionally land to look at the geology up close and personal
Virtual Field Trip, Landscapes of Nova Scotia
April 5, 2005
Blogging from East to West
What should we make of blogging? Is it simply the latest internet fad, a truly democratic tool for change or, as some have suggested, a vehicle for mob rule? David Reid finds blogs are rocking the boat both East and West.
BBC NEWS | Programmes | Click Online | Blogging from East to West
Exemplary Online Educators
Within most disciplines there are those who are recognized as being exceptionally competent practitioners. These people are sometimes called exceptional or exemplary. In the educational realm, students remember these individuals at the teachers who most positively influenced their learning. The commonality of these exemplary practitioners is that they do their work in a remarkable way and their teaching strategies and interpersonal interactions are regarded by their students as highly successful.
Although there has been a "virtual explosion of online education" (Thiele, 2003) the literature remains lacking in terms of studies focused on what makes some online educators more effective than others. This paper outlines the initial findings of a qualitative study that asked students who study online their perspectives on why they recall certain online educators as outstanding. The "Community of Inquiry" model developed by Garrison, Anderson and Archer provides a framework for analysis of the findings of this study (n.d.). Specifically, the data reveals that exemplary online teachers create a community of inquiry that is comprised of a strong social, cognitive and teaching presence.
The outcomes of this study have implications for all those who teach online and for administrators who are proposing to move their curriculum from class-room based to the online method of delivery. In order to develop high quality online teachers, we need to understand what makes online educators not only effective, but exemplary.
Exemplary Online Educators: Creating a Community of Inquiry
Substitute Teacher's sites
Tips, Tricks, Ideas, Suggestions, and Methods for Substitute Teachers
Brainfingers
I think this would be a very cool system to try to see if it could be used by some of our students or developers at the cyber school.
BlogPulse Conversation Tracker
When a blogger publishes a post and other bloggers link to it, the post becomes part of a conversation. The initial post is the "seed" of the conversation. What happens next is fascinating. Posts linking to the seed are themselves linked to, and so on. From the seed post grows a conversation graph. The nodes of the graph are posts and the arcs of the graph are permalink citations from post to post.
April 2, 2005
Learning Anxiety and the Online Student
Rehearsal and repetition may be bad for learning. They are even worse for learners at a distance for whom external influences such as work stress, frequent travel, deployment to war zones, and personal or family issues are creating learning anxiety. This is the conclusion reached by several learning specialists and educational psychologists who studied why students perform poorly even after adhering closely to the "practice makes perfect" traditional cognitive learning strategies of rehearsal, organization, and elaboration.
Edublogs.org
After having a chat with Steve Brooks of edugadget the other day I thought it might be rather a good idea to set up a hub for edublogs.
So. me being me and not one to hang around too long I ran off and bought edublogs.org (just a Drupal site sitting there at the mo, nothing more) and did some scribbling about what I would like it to be like.
Well, first up it'll be a great home for the edublog awards 2.0 in November but more importantly I think we, as a community, need something that's as good as Sarah's 2002 edublogs list at alterego.
incorporated subversion » edublogs.org
April 1, 2005
200-pound tumor at-large?
What happened inside a Tarzana surgery room March 27 has officials looking the other way. What happened afterwards has a neighborhood on edge.
thal computer virus spreads in humans
The first computer virus that passes from PCs to humans has been discovered in the wild. Leading anti-virus firms are putting users on high alert after Malwarlaria.B was spammed worldwide in the early hours of Friday morning.
Britannica takeover of Wikimedia
On April 1 2005, Encyclopædia Britannica, The Ligatured Encyclopædia, announced its immediate semi-hostile takeover of the Wikimedia Foundation (to be known henceforth as Wikimædia) and all of its projects, including Wikipedia (now Wikipædia), Wikisource, Wikiquote, Wikibooks, and Wikinews. Founder Jimmy Wales, giving a brief statement to the New York Times from his Maui survivalist compound, was reported to be "extremely pleased" with the £633.7 million severance package given to each of the five-and-a-half trustees of the Wikimædia Foundation. Wikipædia is best known as the "encyclop[a]edia" that any old fool can edit.
Wikipedia:April 1, 2005/-2005 Britannica takeover of Wikimedia- - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Google Gulp
At Google our mission is to organize the world's information and make it useful and accessible to our users. But any piece of information's usefulness derives, to a depressing degree, from the cognitive ability of the user who's using it. That's why we're pleased to announce Google Gulp (BETA)™ with Auto-Drink™ (LIMITED RELEASE), a line of "smart drinks" designed to maximize your surfing efficiency by making you more intelligent, and less thirsty.
Yahoo Slacker
Announcing Yahoo! Slacker
Today we're thrilled to be announcing an upcoming product that's near and dear to the heart of high school and college students around the world: Yahoo! Slacker.
What is it?
Yahoo! Slacker will be the culmination of several efforts to provide a set of integrated services for... well, slackers.
Yahoo! Search blog: Announcing Yahoo! Slacker
Preparing Instructors for Quality Online Instruction
With a growing number of courses offered online and degrees offered through the Internet, there is a considerable interest in online education, particularly as it relates to the quality of online instruction. The major concerns are centering on the following questions: What will be the new role for instructors in online education? How will students' learning outcomes be assured and improved in online learning environment? How will effective communication and interaction be established with students in the absence of face-to-face instruction? How will instructors motivate students to learn in the online learning environment? This paper will examine new challenges and barriers for online instructors, highlight major themes prevalent in the literature related to "quality control or assurance" in online education, and provide practical strategies for instructors to design and deliver effective online instruction. Recommendations will be made on how to prepare instructors for quality online instruction.
Preparing Instructors for Quality Online Instruction
High School Goes Virtual
All over the country, secondary school students are going online for classes. Will the virtual classroom redefine what it means to be a student -- or a teacher?
DDN Headline: High School Goes Virtual
