December 2008
3 posts
FYI: My Last Post Here
My employer has risen to the occasion and installed a blogging engine I am happy about, so I have moved my reblogging-thinking outloud-webpage-type-thingy over there. I’d be as pleased as a pig in slop if you would follow me over there!
http://wp.lps.org/cpultz
Watch‘A handy guide for the new media novice’, via 10,000 words.
Would make a great hand-out at Web 2.0 intro trainings.
November 2008
10 posts
“By exploring new interests, tinkering, and “messing around” with new forms of...”
– Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project (pdf)
Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of... →
Findings of three years of research on kids’ informal learning with digital media
SketchUp 7 →
Haven’t grabbed it yet, but it looks like Google dropped a new version of SketchUp today with many new features. More and more I am hearing of school districts and colleges using SketchUp in coursework, so this will be a big deal.
snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages →
It appears that Snopes has started a site redesign for the first time that I can recall. I believe their layout and design has been pretty static since the 1990’s. It isn’t applied to all of the pages yet, but most. A nice updated look for a site that should be used far more than it actually is!
Obama's Social Media Advantage, Act II -... →
Obama has begun crowdsourcing the political agenda. And when it comes right down to it, isn’t that what democracy is supposed to be about anyway? A government of the people, by the people, for the…
Social media in Government class?
Is it time to begin teaching how to use social media tools in our HS Government courses?
Two days after election day, president-Elect Obama has announced Change.gov, a website focused on the transition he is overseeing. While promises like the following (found on the Obama campaign website’s Ethics page) are easy to make during a election year, less than 48 hours after the election he is...
it's special somehow
kanamit:
it’s special somehow when someone’s post is quickly deleted
but you catch a quick glimpse like a shooting star, so to speak.
Web 2.0 Storytelling: Emergence of a New Genre →
A story has a beginning, a middle, and a cleanly wrapped-up ending. Whether told around a campfire, read from a book, or played on a DVD, a story goes from point A to B and then C. It follows a…
“…Today is not a day to talk about education. It’s a day to reap its...”
– Robert Pondisco ‘Today is Not the Day’
October 2008
10 posts
You've got your chocolate in my peanut butter! →
Two of my favorite technologies just converged. You can now get RSS feeds of your Google Alerts.
I may be the lamest person you know, because this just makes my week!
WatchA story of mixed emoticons
TED.com
“despite appearances, our classrooms have been fundamentally changed. There is...”
– Dr. Michael Wesch
Revisiting “A Vision of Students Today”
Reading This Will Change Your Brain →
A leading neuroscientist says processing digital information can rewire your circuits. But is it evolution?
By Jeneen Interlandi of NEWSWEEK Published Oct 14, 2008
WatchCreative Commons starts their annual awareness campaign with a nice new video about their purpose. If you aren’t aware of Creative Commons as an Educator, do yourself and your students a favor by stopping whatever you might be doing and go learn about it. I would say that it is one of the most fundamentally important things you should be aware of and utilizing in today’s internet...
“Paul Lazarsfeld, a political scientist from the 1940s argued that [political]...”
– Undecided voters? - Los Angeles Times
Alltop: kidslit →
Alltop has added an aggregation page for the top children’s literature news from the internet.
As an aside - I have started using Alltop as a resource, but not for it’s intended purpose. don’t actually visit the site for the news, or grab the RSS for any of their aggregation pages. Instead, if there is a topic I am investigating, I check to see if Alltop has it covered. If they...
Old Scanner? New Mac? No Problem!
Like bajillions of other people, I bought a scanner many years ago. In my case it was a CanoScan, and I have nothing bad to say about it. It has been and still is a workhorse for me. Unfortunately, as Mac OS has evolved, the scanner drivers and software the devices are locked into has not. In fact, if you are using an Intel based Mac you may find it extremely difficult to even get your computer to...
September 2008
10 posts
What $700 billion could buy →
Jeff Jarvis blogs about the things we COULD do in America for far less than $700 billion dollars.
“I had children in my class that were very capable at using technology and were...”
– Tom Barrett ‘It’s about communication, not the tool’ Official Google Docs Blog
50 Ways to Tell a Story - Alan Levine →
It was not long ago that producing multimedia digital content required expensive equipment and technical expertise; we are at the point now where we can do some very compelling content creation with…
“…schools aren’t stores and teachers aren’t cashiers.”
– David Walsh, Ph. D. - ‘Kids Need Parents and Teachers on the Same Page’
“Our capacity to select the facts that justify our beliefs isn’t new, but...”
– excerpt of BoingBoing review of the book True Enough: the science, history and economics of self-deception
Results of the World's Best Presentation Contest... →
I am a big geek when it comes to designing presentations. These are some great ones here. Lots to learn about the content by viewing them, but also about proper slide design. Emulate them in your own designs.
Fighting job misery in K-12 with citizen...
Embracing Citizen-Journalism in K-12 Leadership
Miguel Guhlin writes about how modern “Citizen Journalism” tools like blogs, wikis, Google Docs, VoiceThread, course management software and the like are combatting job misery in K-12. He has done a good job of putting words and scholarship to the emotions that I know I feel when I use them. I think this is right on, and frames the tools...
August 2008
7 posts
"Follow this blog"
Google is simplifying the words used to describe RSS, likely increasing its adoption by the masses.
‘Google Moves to Mainstream RSS With A Simple Name Change’ - ReadWriteWeb
Thank You Kevin
I’d like to publically thank a digital “good samaritan” named Kevin. Earlier today he noticed something online that he felt we at LPS should know about. It was no big deal and I corrected it in 10 seconds or less, no harm - no foul. However, it had the potential to be embarrasing, and I am thankful that he pointed it out.
Anyone could have noticed our simple mistake and carried...
Rules of Etiquette For Children (c.1950's) →
A set of of suggested etiquette for children, published in the 1950’s.
I don’t know a single child alive today who adheres to more than one or two of these.
Can you imagine expecting this behavior - or teaching these rules in a classroom today? While I (as a parent) would appreciate it, I’m guessing you could count the minutes on one hand until a student’s parent was...
“An anthropological introduction to YouTube” →
Michael Wesch is quickly becoming one of the most respected minds in America on the topic of modern digital culture and it’s impact on human interaction. This link is to a video of his presentation to the Library of Congress on the cultural significance of YouTube and the web cam. It is at once a history lesson and a primer on the role emerging technologies are playing in modern cuture.
I...
Creative Commons licensing upheld in Federal Court →
According to Lawrence Lessig, Federal Circuit Court has upheld the validity of Creative Commons as a legally binding copyright license.
100 Awesome Classroom Videos to Learn New Teaching... →
With so many good teachers out there, itâs fortunate they can share their knowledge via video on the Internet. From the funny to the poignant, these glimpses into the lives of teachers and their…
'Things They Don't Tell You, But Should: A Guide... →
Note to self: Print a copy of this for my daughters’ book shelves. Some one will need to let them in on this stuff. Why should they have to learn it the hard way?
July 2008
25 posts
“…here’s the piece of advice I wish I’d received in my first year: At some...”
– Unusual Suspects at The Core Knowledge Blog
Does Google's 'Street View' turn our children in... →
Short answer - NO.
I’m so glad that logical discussion prevailed in this article, and that the leader of that logical discussion was our own Chief of Police.
1,000,000,000,000+
Apparently the web passed the one trillion indexed pages milestone recently. Interesting.
Official Google Blog: We knew the web was big…
Watch11 advantages of using a blog for teaching
FLICKSCHOOL: Learn everything multimedia →
Flickschool is a collection of ideas that have helped the San Fernando Education Technology Team throughout the years. We hope this site helps you produce the coolest projects.
The Periodic Table of Videos →
The University of Nottingham has arranged informative videos about each of the elements in the periodic table. Good idea, can’t believe no one has done it before. (Perhaps they have and i never saw it.)
Note that the videos are hosted on YouTube, so this may be yet another in the daily growing list of educational videos that can’t be viewed in most K-12 school districts in America...
“Reputation, Posterity and Cool are traps. They’ll drain the life from your...”
– Patton Oswalt in a graduation address to Broad Run High School, Virginia 6/18/08
“I think we all know that a little bit of knowledge… can be a very...”
– Ira Glass on This American Life
“Our student bloggers and digital writers of all backgrounds are part of a...”
– Justin Reich: ‘Turn teen texting toward better writing’