PDX

Originally uploaded by timlauer.

Waiting to board to travel to Chicago to present at IL-TCE. It looks to be a very good conference and am looking forward to the opportunity to talk with folks about technology and schools…

Dave Winer wonders how Joe Luft (aka: Brooklyn Joe) can be a Yankees fan… The least he could of done is point to Joe’s school. I’ve saved the screen grab for posterity and Joe’s curriculum vitae…

Technorati Tags: Joe Luft

Google and the National Archives and Records Administration are offering National Archives video on Google Video. 101 selections are currently available ranging from an 1884 clip of a Spanish dancer, to government newsreels from the 40’s.

From the Press Release…

“Students and researchers whether in San Francisco or Bangladesh can watch remarkable video such as World War II newsreels and the story of Apollo 11 - the historic first landing on the Moon.”

So far my favorite is The John Glenn Story. They don’t make movies like this anymore… Makes me nostalgic for when I was in 4th grade and when on most Friday afternoons the teacher would share just about any film she could find. The main criteria being basically how big was the film can. The bigger the can, the longer the film. Makes me think that a nice feature to add to Google Video would be the Friday Afternoon Button. The button would select a random, classroom safe video for just such occasions. (just joking… )

But seriously, it is quite amazing what we as teachers can now have access to to help prepare a lesson or a unit of study. With more and more audio and video content making its way on to the web, this kind of access requires that schools have adequate projection equipment. At Lewis we have worked hard to place dataprojectors and interactive whiteboards in most of our classrooms. We have even been able to find funds to mount them on the ceiling in 4 of our rooms. We hope to have them all mounted at some point, but finding the funding to do so is a problem.

By way of Lifehacker…

Technorati Tags: Google Video, John Glenn, National Archives

My friend Dr. Don Leu let me know that Learner.org has an online workshop for those teaching reading in grades 3 - 5. Teaching Reading 3-5 is designed to give teachers the strategies they need to help all students become better readers and writers in the intermediate grades. The series of eight workshops provides current research, questions for reflection, tips for new teachers, activities to enhance teaching, and classroom video segments.

Session five deals with the Internet and New Literacies. The video details the following strategies:

• What skills do students need to use the Internet?
• How can teachers use the Internet to teach content?
• How can teachers provide for child safety on the Internet?

This quote from Don really states the case for why this is important…

“To be newly literate means to take advantage of the information resources that are on the Internet, and that requires new reading and writing skills. These new literacies are central to our students’ futures. Their futures are going to be defined by their ability to read, write, and communicate within networked information environments.”

Technorati Tags: Don Leu, new literacies, new literacies, learner.org, reading

In another example of how the Google Maps interface is influencing web design, John Johnston, of Sandaig School in Glasgow, has created an interesting Flash based interface to view examples of student art. The art pieces are large wall sized murals and you can navigate and zoom in around the art work similar to moving around on a Google Map. A very nice way to view the piece. We have a very large mural at Lewis Elementary, and I’ll have to ask John to help me do something similar…

Technorati Tags: Flash, John Johnston, art, Sandaig

Will writes of the local reaction to cell phones at school and the possibility of “cheating” that can happen with them. I guess I look at this and wonder how valuable are the assessments we are giving our students if they can be foiled by giving away answers. If someone asks me a question and I know the answer to the question, but have no clue as to how to apply that answer to a problem, well what have I really learned.

On a side note, our family has an exchange high school student from China staying with us this spring. It is very interesting to talk to her about education in general, and her perspective on her education in China and what she is experiencing in her local high school. More on that later, but basically I think Friedman is on to something…

As for those kids sending answers via cell phone, she says that in China they are all over that. She said that at her school during exams, they employ jamming technology that makes the cell phone inoperable… Now in addition to breaking up fights, and catching kids ditching class, the discipline dean can be in charge of deploying the jamming devices…

Technorati Tags: china, cell phones, testing