February 2006
February 28, 2006
Blogs and learning communities
I spent much of last week at a retreat dealing with learning communities, "classes that are linked or clustered during an academic term, often around an interdisciplinary theme, and enroll a common cohort of students." Because writing can be applied to almost any discipline, writing courses are often parts of learning communities. One computer science professor, however, objected to the idea of combining his course with a writing course: "The problem with giving all these writing assignments is that then I gotta grade them."
Blogs and learning communities
Quote of the day
My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety-seven now, and we don't know where the hell she is.
Ellen DeGeneres
US comedian and actress
February 27, 2006
Students Visit Germany Without Leaving Class
The day's lesson was on economics and culture. The other goal: to foster international understanding, connecting high school students in America with their counterparts in Germany.
Students Visit Germany Without Leaving Class
The role and effectiveness of e-learning
This paper identifies the current role and effectiveness of e-learning and its key issues in an industrial context. The first objective is to identify the role of e-learning, particularly in staff training and executive education, where e-learning (online, computer-based or videoconferencing learning) has made significant impacts and contributions to several organisations such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, Cisco and Cap Gemini Earnst Young. With e-learning, staff train-ing and executive education provides more benefits and better efficiency than traditional means.
The role and effectiveness of e-learning: key issues in an industrial context
Quote of the day
The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.
Calvin Trillin
February 24, 2006
Neat Brain Tour
What happens in the brain of a person with Alzheimer's disease? This tour explains how the brain works and how Alzheimer's affects it.
Inside the Brain: An Interactive Tour
Actual student's reasons for attending Cyber School
I chose a online education because there isn't Christian Ethics in my new school.
I am pretty busy and I think this will help me do better in the class because I can manage my time better.
I had to switch maths so I had to drop a class. It was too late in the semester to begin a class at school so Cyber School seemed like a good option.
I did not have enough room in my schedule to do the Information Processing 10 course, so I decided to try it online.
Because i need my two math courses to be able to get into Commerce in the fall.
I needed more flexible hours.
I have trouble managing my time with math homework and other activities. I also have trouble with talking to everybody in my classroom.
It will be easier for me because i have a very busy schedule.
So I would be able to free up a class for next semester. In which case I will take another elective.
The online education offers a credit for a class that I've been wanting to take, and it gives me the opportunity to do it in my own time.
I decided to do online education because I see it as one more source for information for my class.
Because I am a independent Learner.
Because I wanted to get a head start on my math
because I couldn’t take the course either semesters at school and I wanted it done this year
Well first of all I was planning on talking Biology 20, that course wasn't happening at this moment in time. I wanted to finish it up and get a credit because I just recently switched schools. I was going to school in Saskatoon at Walter Murray Collegiate. So I just took whatever was available. Hopefully I could be a great independent learner and succeed in this course.
Because it would work better for me and work. Plus people said that it's fun.
I like working as an independent worker, and thought math would be a good course to do online. I also plan to use the spare to finish other homework someday, and I can do my math at home some days. it gives me more flexibility.
bad blood between a teacher she thought 7os are good i think 90s are better
because i have more free time. in terms of schooling i don't really attend because i have troubles waking up but with cyber i have a lot of free time so i choose to do it myself.
As a French Immersion student, I don't get a lot of electives. Cyber School allows us F.I. students to take the classes we need or electives we want to ease up our schedules.
I decided to do online education because I have a really hard semester next semester so i thought i would get one hard class done now.
because my friends is really doing really well and I wanted to try something new
In my final semester of grade 12, I was seriously injured in a car accident. From this accident I have acquired a severe back injury, including a herniated disc. The days in which I can function are limited, as well I am currently on morphine and other medications which don't allow me to function to my full ability. Cyber School will allow me to work at my own pace, and allow me to take advantage of my 'good' days.
because I am working and also I am 21 years old to go to High School
Motivational sayings
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Success is a journey, not a destination.
Energy and persistence will conquer all things.
Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows.
No one can predict to what heights you will soar. Even you will not know until you spread your wings.
Coming together is a beginning...keeping together is progress...working together is a success.
You cannot discover new oceans unless you have courage to lose sight of the shore.
Don't wait for your ship to come in...swim out to it.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Leaders are like eagles, they don't flock, you find them one at a time.
If we don't take care of the customer, somebody else will.
Together everyone achieves more.
Teamwork is the ability to work toward a common vision.
The ability to direct indidvidual accomplishment toward organizational objectives.
It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.
The race is not always to the swift...but to those who keep on running.
You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
The race for quality has no finish line.
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.
There is a island of opportunity in the middle of every difficulty.
There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart...pursue those.
Some people dream of success...while others wake up and work hard at it.
You can't reach your goals without occasionally taking some long shots.
Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look at what they can do when they stick together.
Enthusiasm is like a ripple in the water...it spreads.
A mind once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
If once advances confidently in the direction of their dreams, and endeavors to lead a life by which they have imagined, they will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Nothing happens unless first a dream.
You become successful the moment you start moving toward a worthwhile goal.
Do not follow whrer the path may lead...go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
The key to happiness is having dreams...the key to success is making dreams some true.
Yesterday is but a dream. Tomorrow a vision of hope. Look to this day for it is life.
If everyone is moving forward together, then the success takes care of itself.
To be a winner, all you need to give is all you have.
Teamwork divides the task and doubles the success.
Accept the challenges so that you may accept the exhilaration of victory.
The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is the little extra.
If it is to be, it is up to me.
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your mind off your goals.
The sky's the limit when your heart is in it.
To stay the course...sometimes you have to make waves.
We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.
Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
The pleasure you get from your life is equal to the attitude you put into it.
The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible.
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.
In the confontation between the strean and the rock, the stream always wins. ..not through strength but persistence.
Integrity is one of several paths. It distinguishes itself from the others because it is the right path, and the only one upon which you will never get lost.
Clarity of purpose exposes the foundation of the inner heart.
Every obstacle is a stepping stone to your success.
Things to do to succeed
Twelve steps to success
1. Associate as much as possible with persons who are cheerful, optimistic, and successful. You will tend to imitate them.
2. Make it a habit to use enthusiastic, colorful language; speak in a cheerful manner; and use words which are positive rather than negative or neutral.
3. Act cheerful to be cheerful. Disposition is partly a matter of habit-get the smiling habit. "Smile and the world smiles with you." Be friendly first to the other people and he/she usually will reciprocate.
4. Do thoughtful things for other people. It will give you a feeling of mental well-being that is conducive to success.
5. Remember that you, like everyone else, are subject to emotional moods. Do not take occasional periods of discouragement seriously.
6. Work on the law of averages, rather that merely giving lip service. The more possibilities you have, the less you will worry about the outcome of any one sales attempt.
7. Remind yourself that everyone who is realistic with himself/herself feels inferior in several areas. Do not lower your self-confidence by comparing your weak points with the strong points of others.
8. Think back on past successful accomplishments, remembering these will make you confident that you will again be successful.
9. Keep an orderly place in which to work. A disorganized office gives you that "snowed under feeling" that leads to confusion, uncertainty, and inertia.
10. Get enough sleep and stay in good physical condition. It is difficult to be cheerful when you are tired.
11. Never stop learning. Additional knowledge is potential power. It gives you a wider choice and ability to influence what happens to you. Study human behaviour as well as the technical side of the business.
12 Do not expect perfection of yourself. Ther are numerous factors in any situation which you cannot control and do not even know about.
Quote of the Day
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
British scholar & fantasy novelist (1892 - 1973)
Clear intructions are important
THIS SIGN IS POSTED AT A GOLF CLUB in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
This demonstrates the need for clarity.
1. Back straight, knees bent, feet shoulder width apart.
2. Form a loose grip.
3 . Keep your head down.
4. Avoid a quick back swing.
5. Stay out of the water.
6 Try not to hit anyone.
7. If you are taking too long, please let others go ahead of you.
8. Don't stand directly in front of others.
9. Quiet please . while others are preparing to go.
10. Don't take extra strokes.
Well done!
Now flush the urinal, go outside, and tee off
February 23, 2006
The Virtual University
The notion of a "virtual university" is a potent vision of the future of higher education. This virtual university – a "university without walls" – is seen as an institution that has torn itself free from the geographical confines of the campus, using the new communications technologies to connect learners, potential learners, teachers, researchers, alumni, employers, research funders and administrators in flexible ever-changing network organisation. This vision has captured the imaginations of academics, university managers, educational policy-makers, corporate personnel and training managers and private entrepreneurs across the world. Steps towards the creation of the virtual universities are underway in existing institutions, while a wide range of new institutions, many based on new networks of existing organisations, are being set up.
The Virtual University is (paradoxically) the University Made Concrete
Quote of the Day
One thing about the school of experience is that it will repeat the lesson if you flunk the first time.
Author Unknown
February 22, 2006
G4 Tech TV
Having computer problems? Don't get mad! Just ...Call For Help!
Bye-Bye Blogging
Man, life is so unfair. Just as I get into this blogging thing, there are no end of articles telling me the craze is over. The most recent is this post from The Chicago Tribune. It says: “Gallup finds only 9 percent of Internet users saying they frequently read blogs, with 11 percent reading them occasionally. Thirteen percent of Internet users rarely bother, and 66 percent never read blogs.”
Bye Bye Blogging?
Quote of the Day
All Fords are exactly alike, but no two men are just alike. Every new life is a new thing under the sun; there has never been anything just like it before, never will be again. A young man ought to get that idea about himself; he should look for the single spark of individuality that makes him different from other folks, and develop that for all he is worth. Society and schools may try to iron it out of him; their tendency is to put it all in the same mold, but I say don't let that spark be lost; it is your only real claim to importance.
Henry Ford
US automobile industrialist (1863 - 1947)
Seven Principles of Good Teaching and Webct Tools
Webct Tools and seven principles displayed in flash application.
February 21, 2006
Webct Tools
Flash presentation of the webct tools.
February 20, 2006
If robots get too smart
In the classic sci-fi thriller "Blade Runner," a bounty hunter must exterminate intelligent androids that are both deadly and very unhappy with their creators.
Even in 1920, when the playwright Karel Capek gave English speakers the Czech word "robot" (laborer) in his play "R.U.R.," the androids at Rossum's Universal Robots were bent on wiping out the human race.
"If popular culture has taught us anything," Daniel H. Wilson says, "it is that someday mankind must face and destroy the growing robot menace." Luckily, Wilson is just the guy to help us do it.
If robots get too smart, he'll know how to stop them
FavIcon Generator
Use this online tool to easily create a favicon (favorites icon) for your site. A favicon is a small, 16x16 image that is shown inside the browser's location bar and bookmark menu when your site is called up. It is a good way to brand your site and increase it's prominence in your visitor's bookmark menu.
20 Ways To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity .
1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.
4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In."*
5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.
6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Smuggling Diamonds"
7. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy."*
8. Don't use any punctuation
9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.
10. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.*
11 Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."
12. Sing Along At The Opera.
13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme
14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day.
15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're Not In The Mood.
16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.
17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream "I Won!, I Won!"
18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling "Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!"
19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go."
20. And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity.....
Send someone to this blog entry To Make Them Smile.
It's called "therapy"...
EMPLOYEE EVALUATIONS
EMPLOYEE EVALUATIONS of my Online Teachers....(Not really)
For everyone who has ever had or given an evaluation - just remember, it could have been worse. These are actual quotes taken from Federal Government employee performance evaluations.
1. "Since my last report, this employee has reached rock-bottom and has started to dig."
2. "I would not allow this employee to breed."
3. "This employee is really not so much of a has-been, but more of a definite won't be."
4. "Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap."
5. "When she opens her mouth, it seems that it is only to change feet."
6."This young lady has delusions of adequacy."
7. "He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them."
8. "This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot."
9. "This employee should go far, and the sooner he starts the better."
10. "Got a full 6-pack, but lacks the plastic thingy to hold it all together."
11. "A gross ignoramus -- 144 times worse than an ordinary ignoramus."
12. "He doesn't have ulcers, but he's a carrier."
13. "He's been working with glue too much."
14. "He would argue with a signpost."
15. "He brings a lot of joy whenever he leaves the room."
16. "When his IQ reaches 50, he should sell."
17. "If you see two people talking and one looks bored, he's the other one."
18. "A photographic memory but with the lens cover glued on."
19. "A prime candidate for natural de-selection."
20. "Donated his brain to science before he was done using it."
21. "Gates are down, the lights are flashing, but the train isn't coming."
22. "He's got two brains cells, one is lost and the other is out looking for it."
23. "If he were any more stupid, he'd have to be watered twice a week."
24. "If you give him a penny for his thoughts, you'd get change."
25. "If you stand close enough to him, you can hear the ocean."
26. "It's hard to believe he beat out 1,000,000 other sperm"
27. "One neuron short of a synapse."
28. "Some drink from the fountain of knowledge; he only gargled."
29. "Takes him 2 hours to watch '60-minutes'."
30. "The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead"
Survey: Parents need help online
A new survey from the Associated Press and America Online suggests that schools could do a better job of directing parents to educational resources on the internet: Though 86 percent of parents say their children turn to them for homework help, just 57 percent say they more more than their kids about where to find homework help online--and only 21 percent say they use the internet themselves to help their kids with homework.
Schools could do a better job steering parents toward homework-help web sites, poll suggests
February 10, 2006
Get Smart
VICTORIAN students making the daily trip to and from school have more than books and pencil cases in their backpacks. Laptops, PDAs and flash drives jostle with mobile phones and digital music players as technology blurs the divide between home and school.
Think outside the semester box.
"My big complaint about WebCT is that it cuts students off from the real internet. I especially hate that the messaging system is not real email and doesn't allow you to email outside of the program. It creates these little communities and then abruptly disbands them at the end of the semester instead of allowing the continued networking of real internet communities."
Blogging from the Barrio : Blogging from the Barrio
Quote of the day
Don't use a big word where a diminutive one will suffice.
Unknown
February 9, 2006
Just Monkeys
I am not sure what to think about this site...Let me know what you think.
Quote of the Day
My definition of an expert in any field is a person who knows enough about what's really going on to be scared.
P. J. Plauger, Computer Language, March 1983
Watch what you post.
With the rise in social networking sites such as MySpace.com, experts are warning that students need to exercise more discretion in what they post about themselves online. Besides the obvious danger of posting personally identifying information, they say, the potential exists for embarrassing information to come back to bite students later in life when they apply for college or a job.
February 8, 2006
Quote of the Day
If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door.
Paul Beatty
February 7, 2006
All Kinds of Minds
All Kinds of Minds is a non-profit Institute that helps students who struggle with learning measurably improve their success in school and life by providing programs that integrate educational, scientific, and clinical expertise.
How Do You Spell Parental Involvement?
There was a time when parental involvement meant packing the child a sack lunch every day and showing up on Back to School Night. That level of participation would pass for neglect nowadays, given the opportunities new Web-based technologies are providing parents to stay on top of their child's academic life.
Student Information Systems >> How Do You Spell Parental Involvement? S-I-S
The new legal frontier
A new survey finds that 5 percent of American workers maintain personal blogs and only 15 percent of their employers have a policy directly addressing blogging activities.
Employee blogs--the new legal frontier
Quote of the Day
Imagination is more important than knowledge...
Albert Einstein
US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)
February 6, 2006
The Relevance of Textbooks
In 1997, I spent time speaking to teachers and administrators throughout Oklahoma on the topic of computers and education. At my first three talks, the QA portion of the sessions always began with the same question -- "Do you think computers will replace teachers?" My answer, stated as diplomatically as possible (the State Department of Education was footing the bill), was that technology does a better job of disseminating information that teachers ever will. And, I would continue, if all that teachers are doing is passing along information, then they not only can be replaced by computers but they should be.
Blogs and e-learning
People have always felt the need to express themselves and cave paintings are arguably the earliest blogs. We now have tens of millions of blogs on what is the biggest, most exciting, expanding cave we have ever seen – the web.
Donald Clark,formerly of Epic has written a fine paper on the subject of Blogs and e-learning.
Quote of the Day
I used to dread getting older because I thought I would not be able to do all the things I wanted to do, but now that I am older I find that I don't want to do them.
Nancy Astor, interview, 1959
British politician (1879 - 1964)
February 2, 2006
Publish your elementary school blog.
I'm glad that the issue of technology and education is being addressed in the media. Articles such as the NYTimes piece on Bob Sprankle and now the CNET article on web-logging will bring greater exposure to what is severely lacking in our schools. In reading the comments of many of the readers of the CNET article the issue of why and what this classroom tool is being used for is questioned and discussed.
What Does "publish to your weblog" Mean for an Elementary School Student?
Darren Math Test...
I never was good at math, but maybe they should have made the question clearer.
What is a quarter horse?
It made me laugh...
February 1, 2006
TO ALL THE KIDS
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.
and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
