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• Soundation

  Create your own music. Use clips from their library and record your own.

  tags: music, tools

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Post weekly (weekly)

• The Technology Facade

  "Abstract: This paper reports on the design, development, and application of a Checklist intended to assist educators in recognizing strengths and weaknesses in their technology-based programs at their institutions. The Checklist sampled public and private schools to validate the existence and impact of the Technology Facade. Initial findings indicate that schools have masked the effective use of computers labs and classroom computers behind the auspices of teacher activities, student participation, and parental involvement. The study and suggests possible courses of action to address deficiencies in the use of technology, the construction of the necessary infrastructure, and the design of a viable instructional strategy."

  tags: technology

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

First Species whose parent is a computer!

If that's all you heard, "This is the first self-replicating species we've had on this planet whose parent is a computer.", what would you think? Would you be concerned about the end of mankind? Inevitable doom? Would you think about the potential for good? The cure for diseases, or a species that eats oil, maybe? Would you worry that it would become an invasive species that we couldn't stop, or would you be full of hope for Alzheimer patients and cancer patients and diabetics?

What would your students feel?

How advanced is science? Well, when they became concerned that they wouldn't be able to distinguish real DNA from synthetic DNA they decided to put "watermarks" in the synthetic DNA. Let that sink in a bit.

How's this for a writing prompt idea? This video is not likely to keep many high school students awake, but your favorite science teacher can easily explain it to the students well enough to have them understand what's going on. Then, let them brainstorm about possible good results of this technology and then possible bad results. Bring those lists together, then ask them to write a paragraph or two about where they stand on the idea. Provide a rubric on what you're looking for in the assignment, of course, and let them write.

Here's the video:

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• Zooburst

  Create your own 3d popup books - augmented reality style. THIS is the site I was looking for a while back and couldn't find.

  tags: augmented reality

• Goofram - Search Google and Wolfram Alpha at the same time!

  Yields two results when you search. Google search results on the left, and WolframAlpha results on the right. Especially helpful since the Google/Wolframalpha FF addon no longer works with the new Google results layout.

  tags: google, wolfram

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

How about THIS for a game-changer?

By now you've seen the ge augmented reality demo and one or two of the VERY cool  augmented reality book videos on youtube and you've thought, "I can't wait to be able to have my STUDENTS make these."

Well, drop what you're doing and rush to Zooburst where you can make augmented reality story books just like the one below. This is still in its infancy, but imagine what this will be like in 5 years. Imagine what our textbooks will/should look like.

GREAT stuff!

(Make sure you click WebCam View in the top right corner if you've got a web cam attached.)

Another writing prompt idea

I wish I could find a video that's uplifting in nature to use as a writing prompt. It's not like I'm not looking for one.

But I think that this is another video that our students should see. It's depressing as all get out. Is it an accurate depiction of the future of the ocean? Is it too late to reverse these trends?

Or, maybe this is just too intense to be used as a writing prompt. Too overwhelming, perhaps. And, while he paints a horrible picture of the ocean, he really doesn't tell us what we need to do to stop these trends.

Still, I'm certain that our Earth Science students will have an opinion, and a writing prompt would give them a chance to express it.

Post weekly (weekly)

• Screenr - Create screencasts and screen recordings the easy way

  Instant screencasts for twitter - or anywhere. Embed them, too.

  tags: screencast

• Webspiration: Online Visual Thinking Tool | mywebspiration.com

  Inspiration for the web (just getting this saved)

  tags: mindmapping

• Grockit Signup

  To help groups study

  tags: socialnetworking, study

• Twiducate.com - Social Networking For Schools

  Social network for classes, controlled by the teacher.

  tags: socialnetworking

• Governor's Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness | State of Louisiana

  Gov of Louisiana uses Google Earth KML file to project oil spill trajectory

  tags: googleearth

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

NOW it's inexcusable to BLOCK Google Docs

This was shared on Twitter this evening: All Google Services to be available in Google Apps Later this year.

That kind of news makes it SO VERY hard to tolerate the idea of blocking that site or nor going with it for your district. I want to say, "If YOU'RE not going to make this available to my students and staff I'll find someone who will!"

Do YOU know a student like this?

If you've not seen Avatar (in 3D) then you have REALLY missed something special. Watch for it to appear at your nearest iMax theater and GO SEE IT!

But, watch this video of James Cameron at TED.  Listen to how he talks about his life growing up, and how he behaved in school. Do you know a student who seems lost in his own world? What do you do with that? As he says, "...your imagination creating a reality." Do you yell at him/her to get them to focus on your content ("For once!") Or, do you find the time to talk with him/her later to find out what the interest is? I wish I could say I did the latter.

Listen to his advice on life. I think this is an EXCELLENT video to show to your students. This is a fantastic writing prompt.

Watch this video. You won't regret it.

This guy will change EVERYTHING!

There are a few reasons why I think this is a fascinating video. First, it stpes us through his thought process. He talks about what he did and what he was thinking when he did it. Second, it is SO far ahead of its time that it's hard to get your mind around it.

This technology was introduced at TED by another person a while back, but this is from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

When you watch this, what are you thinking? Is this a good use of technology, or not? Is this a vision of a world in which you would want to live - or not. Would this make a GREAT writing prompt, or not? :-)

"We perish for want of wonder, not for want of wonders." - CK Chesterton

Post weekly (weekly)

• WolframTones: An Experiment in a New Kind of Music

  Another amazing facet of the WolfrmAlpha projects. Share this with your music teachers.

  tags: music, wolframalpha

• Wolfram Demonstrations Project

  More of the wondrous WolframAlpha project. This is the demonstration site that shows some of the most astounding computations that this search engine is capable of doing.

  tags: math, wolframalpha

• Social Media Engagement for Schools - Copy / Paste by Peter Pappas

  Isn't this a great video to help explain the power of social networks, and in particular the power of a PLN? Thanks to Sue Sheffer for sharing that with me. It was in her RSS reader.

  tags: media

• YouTube - lang lang playing flight of the bumblebee...on an iPad

  tags: no_tag

• TPCK - Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge - TPCK

  Bookmarking this for my LTMS class

  tags: tpck, pedagogy

• Google Earth Design: Photos in Google Earth via Google Docs

  A nice post about how to use Google Docs to be able to put images in a Google Earth Placemark.

  tags: googleearth, google

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.