tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-178190452024-03-13T22:31:45.796-04:00Technology in EducationWe set up this blog a while ago when we were teaching a multimedia in education course at UWI.
This is the blog that I put together for the students to ask questions and learn new stuff.
Now I am teaching EdTech at the University of Trinidad and Tobago, so have reactivated the blog!Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.comBlogger106125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-83977055622606924742012-07-11T08:00:00.001-04:002012-07-11T08:00:37.483-04:00Powerpoint backgrounds to download<a href="http://www.powerpointstyles.com/">http://www.powerpointstyles.com/</a>Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-71785755826626660732012-07-11T07:59:00.001-04:002012-07-11T07:59:57.611-04:00Soungle.com - Royalty free sound effects<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 15.454545021057129px; text-align: left;">If you are looking for royalty free sound effects for classroom movies try this site </span><a href="http://www.soungle.com/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 15.454545021057129px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.soungle.com/</a>Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-8144358704118823232012-07-11T07:41:00.000-04:002012-07-11T07:41:32.449-04:00Blogging is the new persuasive essayA very good article on using blogging in the classroom to teach persuasive writing. <a href="http://plpnetwork.com/2012/06/22/blogging-persuasive-essay/">http://plpnetwork.com/2012/06/22/blogging-persuasive-essay/</a><br />
The comments are extremely informative.Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-15500827957043009782011-06-05T10:45:00.000-04:002011-06-05T10:45:21.098-04:00Omeka.net - digital collection website<a href="http://www.omeka.net/">Omeka.net</a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; ">Omeka.net is a web-publishing platform that allows users to create or collaborate on a website to display collections and build digital exhibitions. Very useful idea to use for student work exhibitions.</span></div>Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-61605600415052225852011-06-05T10:23:00.000-04:002011-06-05T10:23:25.392-04:00Free for All: National Academies Press Puts All 4,000 Books Online at No Charge - Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education<div>Very good news. More open access to educational material!</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/free-for-all-national-academies-press-puts-all-4000-books-online-at-no-charge/31582">Free for All: National Academies Press Puts All 4,000 Books Online at No Charge - Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education</a>:<div><br /></div><div> "the National Academies Press announced it would offer its entire PDF catalog of books for free, as files that can be downloaded by anyone. The press is the publishing arm of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council, and publishes books and reports that scientists, educators, and policy makers rely on."</div>Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-19893128154765575502010-10-18T13:27:00.001-04:002010-10-18T13:29:36.115-04:00The Free Graphics StoreFound this link on <a href="http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com">Small Business Computing</a>, but useful for educators as well. See excerpt below, or read the whole article <a href="http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/biztools/article.php/3907846">here</a>.<br /><br /><p>"Free" is the most overused word on the Internet, but in this case, the <a href="http://www.ausmall.com.au/freegraf/">Free Graphics Store</a> really does mean it. This Web tool delivers exactly what it advertises: free graphics. </p> <p>The site offers a huge list of free graphics that you can use for your <a href="http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/emarketing/article.php/3904746/Small-Business-Web-Design-The-Power-of-Crowdsourcing.htm">website design</a>. For example, you can choose 15 Everyday Objects, 18 Assorted Graphics, 48 Bullets, Animations, Icons, Backgrounds, Tiled Backgrounds. That's just a small sampling; the list goes on and on.</p> Now is the site really free? Where can you use these graphics, and are there any restrictions? It says you’re free to use them on private or commercial sites. You can’t resell them, you can’t claim them as yours, and you can’t copy their pages. You just have to download the items you wanJacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-43730411237670529512010-10-17T20:15:00.002-04:002010-10-17T20:18:20.072-04:00An Easy Way to Introduce Inkscape Drawing Program to Youth and AdultsThis was written by <a href="http://twitter.com/philshapiro">@philshapiro</a> in 2008, but has come back up again. and Inkscape is pretty good and FREE, so I thought I'd bring it back here.<br /><br /><a href="http://inkscape.org/" target="_blank">Inkscape</a> is a fun, free and very powerful vector drawing program that runs on all major computer platforms: Linux, Macintosh and Windows. This program can give you endless hours of enjoyment, even if you're not <a href="http://inkscape.deviantart.com/favourites/" target="_blank">an artist.</a> And if you develop mastery of using Inkscape, someone wants to pay you money to create graphics for them.Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-32247337639305703882010-10-16T19:50:00.000-04:002010-10-16T19:50:20.474-04:00Welcome to Aviary<a href="http://www.aviary.com/">Aviary</a> is a free suite of powerful online creation tools: Photo-editing, logos, web templates, filters, color palettes, screen capture & more at Aviary.com.<br />This is a really great site of tools - almost everything that you need to make multimedia in the classroom, all free and online!Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-67989438038864368612010-08-04T11:34:00.003-04:002010-08-04T11:55:04.101-04:00Stock Footage for Free<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; ">I found this very cool <a href="http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/biztools/article.php/3896536">blog post</a> (excerpted below) that speaks to a point that I have been working on recently. As students start developing their own materials in class, they will not be required to really produce everything from scratch. One of the major problems is that if they cannot find suitable material that is available for use under fair use or other copyright regimes (creative commons, royalty free, etc), they will use any materials that they can access on the Internet. Therefore we need to have at hand a wide range of locations where students can access legal material to use in their class projects. That's why <a href="http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/biztools/article.php/3896536">this post</a> was so useful, even though it was designed for small business and not specifically for education.</p><h3>Stock Footage for Free</h3><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; ">If you produce projects that include video, one Web tool that you must know about is <a href="http://www.stockfootageforfree.com/" style="color: rgb(163, 0, 16); text-decoration: none; ">StockFootageforFree</a>. Here you’ll find both standard definition and high definition NTSC video that’s been shot exclusively for StockFootageforFree, and it’s been made available royalty-free. That means that you can not only download and use these clips for free, you can even use them in commercials. </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; "></p><table cellspacing="6" cellpadding="0" width="200" align="right" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; font-size: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; "><tbody><tr><td style="font-family: verdana, arial; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.5em; padding-left: 0.5em; "><div align="center" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/img/2010/08/0803stock.jpg" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(163, 0, 16); text-decoration: none; "><img border="0" hspace="10" alt="StockFootageforFree.com; web tools" src="http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/img/2010/08/0803stocksm.jpg" width="200" height="100" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; " /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000000;"><strong style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; ">StockFootageforFree.com </strong><a href="http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/img/2010/08/0803stock.jpg" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(163, 0, 16); text-decoration: none; "><br />(Click for larger image)</a>.</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; ">There are a few legal caveats to be aware of, so be sure to read the end-user license agreement to make sure you’re staying on the up-and-up. For example, you can’t re-sell this stock footage as your own; you can’t use it in trademarks, and they retain ownership of the footage. However once you become a registered member, you can download these clips and use them pretty much any way that you want.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; ">Registration is free, and it’s very easy. Simply provide them with a user name that you’ll use to log into the website, your email address and your first and last name. As a registered member, you have access to clips in a whole bunch of different categories like animals out in the wild; beaches, the waterfront, lakes, yachts, ships; construction and energy. There are some clips dealing with oil refineries and construction. </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; ">The site has a special category for high definition clips, so if you only produce high-definition video you would want to limit yourself to that category. Other categories include the holidays, mansions and wealth -- which is really useful if you’re an entrepreneur and you’re trying to convey a feeling of wealth and wealth-building -- sports, time-lapse photography, specific U.S. cities and transportation. </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; ">The site covers a lot of different categories and offers a lot of different standard and high-definition stock footage. It’s all available for free to use in your video projects. It's a great resource.</p></span>Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-79008232691233275122010-06-13T16:10:00.002-04:002010-06-13T16:24:31.769-04:00Microsoft's Web-based Office goes live<a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20007080-56.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheDownloadBlog">Microsoft's Web-based Office goes live (Beyond Binary - CNET News</a>)<div><br /></div><div>So <a href="http://office.live.com/">MS Office Live</a> is live. Another cloud-based service for document creation. Great things about it:</div><div><ol><li>it's Microsoft, so those of my students who totally refuse to consider anything not from Redmond can finally get into the collaborative writing assignments I want them to do</li><li>It comes with 25GB of storage! That is massive. And cool.</li><li>It works like a stripped down Office application, so most people should know how to use it. (Given that 99% of the world uses Office... :( )</li><li>It connects with the off-line MS Office you spent all that money on, so you can use both seamlessly.</li><li>It's free. Did I not mention that earlier? Oops... yes, it's free, so many students can use it once they are connected. You don't NEED the expensive desktop applications to use it. It stands on its own, kind of like... <a href="http://docs.google.com">Google Docs</a>! </li><li>It works with all browsers, even Chrome! That's cool. </li></ol><div>Bad things about it:</div><div><ol><li>It's MS proprietary.</li></ol></div><div>So I hope that more online applications will get more students to use the systems to share and collaborate. Now there's almost an application for anyone and any style.</div></div><div><br /></div>Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-23687243458176720242010-05-16T14:20:00.002-04:002010-05-16T14:23:49.614-04:00Phone texting 'helps pupils to spellEveryone has been assuming that texting and the shorthand associated with it, is terrible for children and reduces their ability to spell, write and so on.<div>This article from the BBC references a study that shows - NOT SO! Texting is good! It helps children to learn language skills and does not necessarily create a world of poor spellers!</div><div><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8468351.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8468351.stm</a></div><div><br /></div><div>"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(70, 70, 70); line-height: 18px; "><b>Children who regularly use the abbreviated language of text messages are actually improving their ability to spell correctly, research suggests.</b></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(70, 70, 70); font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; ">A study of eight- to 12-year-olds found that rather than damaging reading and writing, "text speak" is associated with strong literacy skills.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; ">Researchers say text language uses word play and requires an awareness of how sounds relate to written English.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; ">This link between texting and literacy has proved a surprise, say researchers.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; ">These latest findings of an ongoing study at the University of Coventry contradict any expectation that prolonged exposure to texting will erode a child's ability to spell."</p></span>Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-22595671563689165022010-04-20T08:29:00.001-04:002010-04-20T08:32:07.611-04:00HP Slate with Adobe AIR applications and Flash.<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-p-RZAwQq0E&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-p-RZAwQq0E&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="640"></embed></object>Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-6800626617844291292010-03-08T11:29:00.000-04:002010-03-08T11:29:24.651-04:00Tech Tools: Student Blogging | Quisitivity<a href="http://www.quisitivity.org/2010/03/tech-tools-student-blogging/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Quisitivity+%28Quisitivity.org%29&utm_content=Google+Reader">Tech Tools: Student Blogging</a><br />"Twenty-first century learning is about communication, collaboration, problem solving, and technology, all of which are integral to blogging."<br /><br />A good post as to WHY blogging in the classroom works.Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-53709884990666772892010-03-07T11:39:00.000-04:002010-03-07T11:39:29.924-04:00on presenting | Ramblings<a href="http://www.flamingspork.com/blog/2010/02/23/on-presenting/">on presenting | Ramblings</a>:<br /><br />"This is totally not confined to at-work presentations.<br /><br />The number of sessions I have sat through that could have taken 5 minutes instead of 20,30,40 or even 60 is amazing. Remember: I have not flown half way around the globe to see you read. I have come to hear a story, to see how conclusions were formed and interact."<br /><br />"I (and anybody else in the audience who has learnt to read) can read your dot points faster than you can. <span style="font-weight: bold;">While I’m reading, I’m not listening to you</span>."<br /><br />I have been telling my students this FOREVER! And they DO NOT LISTEN TO ME. I try to model good presentation behaviour, and they want my slides to have every word I say. My slides are their notes. What's wrong with paying attention to a presentation, jotting down some thoughts and later, going over the notes and filling them out with material gleaned from my references (that they have gone and read through themselves) ?<br />No wonder when they present I have to continually pinch myself to stay awake and try to follow. And these students are prospective teachers. They will go into schools and bore children the same way they bore me.<br />At least one young lady has gotten totally into using Prezi - I am eagerly awaiting her presentation to see if she's managed to break through.Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-69294784458360655212010-03-06T17:41:00.000-04:002010-03-06T17:41:37.538-04:00Creative Commons and Open Educational Resources in the U.S. National Education Technology Plan - Creative Commons<a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/21054">Creative Commons and Open Educational Resources in the U.S. National Education Technology Plan - Creative Commons</a><br /><p>"The United States Department of Education <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/netp.pdf">2010 National Educational Technology Plan</a> (pdf) includes the following:</p> <p>Open Educational Resources (OER) are an important element of an infrastructure for learning. OER come in forms ranging from podcasts to digital libraries to textbooks, games, and courses. They are freely available to anyone over the web."</p> This is really great. Consider the sharing and the opportunity that this gives to disadvantaged students who do not have access to great teaching, great libraries or educational resources. Especially students in the developing world. I hope that we will also start producing and sharing our own content, as we cannot simply be consumers of the material, we also have to share our knowledge and experiences. They are important and valid.Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-26953531044092005072009-11-05T13:13:00.002-04:002009-11-05T13:17:22.087-04:00OOo4Kids - Open Office for Kidstaaa daaa! <div>Finally children have thier own office application suite. <a href="http://download.ooo4kids.org/en">Open Office 4 Kids</a> is a lighter version of Open Office, with the folowing specific features:<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; "><ul style="color: rgb(57, 52, 60); margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 2em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; list-style-type: none; "><li style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 19px; text-align: left; display: block; background-image: url(http://download.ooo4kids.org/themes/educoo/images/PostBullets.png); list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; line-height: 1.2em; background-repeat: no-repeat; ">Dedicated to 7-12 years</li><li style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 19px; text-align: left; display: block; background-image: url(http://download.ooo4kids.org/themes/educoo/images/PostBullets.png); list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; line-height: 1.2em; background-repeat: no-repeat; ">Specific adaptations to the world of education</li><li style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 19px; text-align: left; display: block; background-image: url(http://download.ooo4kids.org/themes/educoo/images/PostBullets.png); list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; line-height: 1.2em; background-repeat: no-repeat; ">Works everywhere (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows)</li><li style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 19px; text-align: left; display: block; background-image: url(http://download.ooo4kids.org/themes/educoo/images/PostBullets.png); list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; line-height: 1.2em; background-repeat: no-repeat; ">International / Multilingual</li></ul></span></div></div>Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-10425295502345567342009-10-07T11:54:00.000-04:002009-10-07T11:54:49.408-04:00Don Tapscott and learning from our kidsEthan Zuckerman writes in his blog on a presentation from Don <a href="http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/10/07/don-tapscott-and-learning-from-our-kids/">Tapscott re: learning from our kids</a>.<div>"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">A student, Joe O’Shea, reacted to this presentation, saying that it resonated, and confessing, “I don’t read books.” He explained, “I think I know what’s in books, but I get my information from the web, and I’ve got really good BS detectors. If I need to read in a book, I have Google Books.” Using that site, he approaches books like a website. The dean of the film school reacted, saying, “I don’t know if that’s really exciting or the end of modern society.”"</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Really interesting for teachers to try to understand our new students!</span></span></div>Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-813604336480719972009-09-28T10:10:00.001-04:002009-09-28T10:12:02.623-04:00Are dinosaur managers and poor teaching holding back Digital Britain?Interesting article on the results of an expert panel that is looking into the UK IT future. One very interesting note was that:<br />" if UK kids are technophiles in their spare time, they are technophobes at school "<br /><br /><p>"A recent <a href="http://management.silicon.com/careers/0,39024671,39529891,00.htm">report by the CBI</a> blamed poor teaching in schools for contributing to a shortage of graduates in science, technology, engineering and maths. "Scientific potential at the age of 14 is not being fully realised," the report noted.</p> <p>"If you talk to 12-year-olds they'll say I don't want to work in an office because what they're taught at 12 is [Microsoft] Word and Excel," Clarke added. "They're not taught what this profession is really about so I think that's fundamentally important to get the best kids looking at this profession."</p><br /><a href="http://management.silicon.com/careers/0,39024671,39532787,00.htm?s_cid=454">Are dinosaur managers and poor teaching holding back Digital Britain?</a>Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-4564225507315126752009-09-07T15:31:00.000-04:002009-09-07T15:31:17.316-04:00Back to School: 10 Terrific Web Apps for Teachers<a href="http://mashable.com/2009/09/07/web-apps-teachers/">Back to School: 10 Terrific Web Apps for Teachers</a><br />Some of these applications are really useful. My particular favorites are Curriki and edmodo.<br />I can see many teachers wanting to use docCop to check for plaigiarism.<br />But they are all worth a check.Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-60580375815179771192009-09-01T09:23:00.000-04:002009-09-01T09:23:15.260-04:00How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education | Fast Company<a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/138/who-needs-harvard.html?page=0%2C0">How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education </a><br />This article from Fast Company Magazine is an excellent roundup and review of initiatives in higher education that are using Web 2.0 and Internet technologies to change the education paradigm.Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-70182994332216971122009-08-23T20:08:00.000-04:002009-08-23T20:08:28.147-04:00iLearn Technology � Blog Archive � KideosGreat YouTube alternative for elementary students, categorized by age and subject.<br />"<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 255); font-family: Arial-BoldMT,Arial,sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 20px; opacity: 1;"> </span> <a href="http://kideos.com/">Kideos</a> is a collection of kid friendly videos. Each video featured on <a href="http://kideos.com/">Kideos</a> has been carefully screened by the <a href="http://kideos.com/">Kideos</a> Video Advisory Council (made up of a select group of parents and educators). The videos are categorized by age range (from 2 to 10) and by category. Categories include Baby Einstein, Barney, Book Characters, Cartoon Characters, Cute Animals, Disney Channel Programs, Disney Movies, Dr. Seuss, Educational Videos, Fairy Tales, Kids, Mickey Mouse and Friends, Muppets, Nursery Rhymes, Sesame Street, Songs, Teletubbies, Trains and Machines, and Wiggles. If you register with Kideos, you can set it up to only view your own selection of ages and characters. The videos are streamed from You Tube and placed inside a Kideo player ."<br /><br /><a href="http://kideos.com/">http://kideos.com/ </a><br /><a href="http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=1156"></a>Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-34037064371147631972009-07-28T21:57:00.000-04:002009-07-28T21:57:16.608-04:00Team WhiteBoarding with Twiddla<a href="http://www.twiddla.com/">Painless Team Collaboration for the Web</a>:<br /><br />"Mark up websites, graphics, and photos, or start brainstorming on a blank canvas. Browse the web with your friends or make that conference call more productive than ever. No plug-ins, downloads, or firewall voodoo - it's all here, ready to go when you are. Browser-agnostic, user-friendly."Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-85427088848910166572009-07-28T21:48:00.000-04:002009-07-28T21:48:39.953-04:0050 Open Source Apps Transforming Education<a href="http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3831751/50-Open-Source-Apps-Transforming-Education.htm">50 Open Source Apps Transforming Education — Datamation.com</a>:<br /><br />"While some educators have been quick to grasp the potential and promise of open source software, many others have been hesitant to stray from the comfortable zone of commercial applications. Yet that’s changing.<br /><br />More teachers and institutions are now participating with organizations like SchoolForge, the Open Source Education Foundation, and Open Source Schools. These educators are beginning to see that the open source philosophy has the power to transform education in several key ways."Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-3956639079760129452009-07-27T09:10:00.000-04:002009-07-27T09:10:26.505-04:00Howard Rheingold on essential media literaciesWe need to start changing the definition of literacy. We have to prepare students for the future, not for the past as we are doing. But a big problem is that the teachers, instructors, etc are themselves not literate in the new sense.<br />Where can the change start?<br /><br />Read the article here<br /><a href="http://www.socialmedia.biz/2009/07/18/howard-rheingold-on-essential-media-literacies/">Howard Rheingold on essential media literacies</a>Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17819045.post-86452718562890832142009-05-29T16:39:00.000-04:002009-05-29T16:39:27.788-04:00Banning Scientology doesn't make Wikipedia more credible"Our students, whether they are Googling, Bing-ing (just doesn’t have the same ring, does it?), or digging through Wikipedia should be able to identify sources of limited credibility. This isn’t just a web skill, either. It’s a matter of critical thought. Is there bias in a source? How much of a source is news and how much is personal spin?"<div><br /></div><div>One of the major things that I find I have to fight to get through to my students - it's not on the radar. Especially in Trinidad and Tobago, I hear far too often - "but it was in the papers", or "it was on the Internet" as if once it is in some sort of distribution medium, it is gospel truth and papally infallible.</div><div><br /></div><div>The text books are equally problematic - we don't see print as able to be wrong. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><br /></div><div>REad more - <a href="http://education.zdnet.com/?p=2621">http://education.zdnet.com/?p=2621</a></div></div>Jacquelinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409983204668610116noreply@blogger.com0