Teens and Texting

Mr. Maier, Math Teach Extraordinaire, sent this article to me. It is a fascinating look at teens and texting!

We Didn't Start the Fire

Time Magazine's Top Ten Lists

Time Magazine has dished up its top ten lists for 2008.

The lists are interesting!

ISTE NETS-S Wiki - Awesome!!!

http://nets-implementation.iste.wikispaces.net/

One Hip Cool School

New Technology High School

Online Safety

All About Diigo

I had the excellent fortune to speak at the 2008 TABS (The Association of Boarding Schools) conference in Baltimore this past Friday. My talk, "Geek Speak Unveiled: A Technology Primer for All," is located here (the mp3 and video will be available later tomorrow).

After the session ended, many folks asked which tools are the most useful. Hands down, the Google Suite is the most complete. But, aside from Google, Diigo is the best educational tool I have come across in a long time.

Diigo is a social bookmarking tool. It allows me to bookmark my own things, share bookmarks, annotate/clip them, twitter them and post them on Facebook. I also subscribe to a boat load of groups and, thus, get all their posts, too.

Diigo is easy to use; at least it seems easier than Del.icio.us or Digg. I have the toolbar installed on Firefox, and when a goodie is worth sharing, one little click gets the process started.

For students, collaborative research is easier than ever before. I can't WAIT to use it in a classroom!!!!

Educational Fair Use

How to Search Google

Here are tips straight from Google:

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The Connected Learner

This is an excellent video on learning in 2008:

Are these the 21st Century Skills Our Students Need?

Wes Fryer posted this great video on the skills he believes will be essential in the future. He says the top three skills needed are for students to have the ability to create, communicate, and collaborate. Watch his video here:

ISTE Sets New Standards for Teachers and Technology

The International Society for Teaching and Education sets the rubric for national computing standards. At the recent National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) held is San Antonio, TX, ISTE released its newest technology standards.

Cool Tool Alert! Diigo

Diigo is a new tool I learned about at NECC. I also learned about using Chatzy as a virtual room.

Here is a video about Diigo:

Cool Tool Alert! Link Checker by SEO Tools

SEO Tools offers a free link checker! This is a great tool for sites like College English.........there are over 5000 links in the many, many pages of that site!

SEO is fast and easy to use.

Wordle

Way too much free time? Try Wordle! it is kind of fun, actually. I did a Wordle of my Del.icio.us links! Thanks, Loony!

Time's Best Websites

Here are Time's Best Websites of 2008! This is an interesting list.

NMC 2008 @ Princeton

Here is a link to my NMC presentation at Princeton: Rez High the Virtual Rooftops

If you want to access the wiki, it is located here.

Leadership Day!

Leadership Day is up and coming! Thanks to Dr. Scott McLeod, we can all participate by blogging about education.

Please read Scott's post about the state of technology in education. It is a GREAT read!

Join in on Leadership Day! Blog your thoughts on July 4, 2008! Tag your work, so that Scott can track it.

Technorati Tags:

leadershipday2008, schooltechleadership

Luke Glendening off to Michigan!

Hotchkiss post-grad, Luke Glendening, is off to play hockey for the University of Michigan. Good luck, Luke!

Cool Tool Alert! VideoFetcher

VideoFetcher finds videos in 100 different spots! This is great if you are looking for videos to add to your course.

I searched for Thoreau, and this is what it looks like:














Thanks to Paul Glazowski for the tip!

Turning the Pages

The British Library publishes actual e-texts of British literature, and you can literally flip through pages and see them as they are in real life! Thanks, Larry Ferlazzo, for the tip!

9 Reasons for Technology in Education

Tech Learning has an excellent article about the 9 Excellent Reasons for Technology in Education. Read the full article, but here are the 9 reasons:

1. Expansion of Time and Space
2. Depth of Understanding
3. Learning vs Teaching
4. New Media for Self Expression
5. Collaboration
6. Going Global
7. Individual Pacing and Sequence
8. Weight
9. Personal Productivity

Thanks to Ray for the post!

True Team Spirit

Loony Hiker posted this video about doing the RIGHT thing even when a championship is at stake. I was incredibly moved by the story, and I hope you will be, too.

Countless games go by without the praise of all the world, but two players from Central Washington, Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace, deserve sincere praise for their sportswomanship. They carried Sarah Tucholsky, a player from the opposing team (Central Oregon), to second, third, and home base after she was injured smacking her first (and only) college home run. These two women deserve all the very best for demonstrating true team spirit!

I also praise the Washington's coach, Gary Frederick, for coaching a team with so much compassion. When I look back on sports I played, I am not sure my coaches would have been happy with a move that would cost us the game and the championship, but, clearly, his players knew that doing what is right is more important than winning.

Hot Tot Vacation Spot

Need a groovy place to visit this summer that is fun, wholesome, and family friendly? Try out Lancaster and Strasburg, PA!

Next week, Strasburg Railroad is hosting "A Day out with Thomas." We just returned home from a quick jaunt, and we stayed at the Red Caboose Motel...it was AWESOME! All of the rooms are rebuilt (and decorated) cabooses! They have all sorts of packages for families, couples, and groups. In the heart of Amish country, there is a cool train car restaurant (with great food), an awesome gift store with something for everyone (train nut, quilter, etc.) with a running train display, a petting zoo with the looniest goat I ever met, a watch tower, and a very cool playground (our kids wouldn't leave until sun down!). Sleeping in a caboose was simply fantastic. The boys slept in caboose bunks, and we stayed in a double. Most importantly, the staff at the Red Caboose is the friendliest staff I have EVER met at a hotel. I have stayed at 5 star hotels all across the nation, and none of them can even hold a candle to the folks at the Red Caboose!

So, if you are looking to do some shopping at the Liz Claiborne outlet, see the Toy Train Museum or the PA Train Museum, wanting to ride a gorgeous restored train from the Victorian era, or take a buggy ride through the heart of Amish country, check out Lancaster/Strasburg!

The Amazing Spirit Within

Vicki Davis shared this video of Paul Potts. It is TRULY inspirational. From the outside, Paul looks like any guy on the street...it is only when he starts to sing that we realize that he is not just an ordinary man.

Why do Americans know so Little About the World?

Mr. Byrne strikes again! He spotlighted the following TED clip on why Americans know little about the world.

Web Technology Trends for 2008

If you are interested in some excellent summer reading, try out some blogs! One of my favorites in the ReadWrite Blog by Richard MacManus. His slide presentation, "Web Technology Trends for 2008 and Beyond" was recently updated. He made it available on Slideshare, and I am posting it below, as well.

| View | Upload your own

Book Discussions

The New York Times highlighted two new books that discuss life at boarding schools. THE UPPER CLASS: A NOVEL was written by Hotchkiss graduates Hobson Brown, Taylor Materne and Caroline Says. A PRIVILEGED LIFE: Celebrating WASP Style was written by a non-Hotchkiss grad, Susanna Salk. Summer reading?

Coming this Summer: Hotchkiss Goes Digital

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Cool Tool Alert! Viddix

Viddix combines video and web materials to create a presentation. Below is an example I crated for a lecture series I am doing in June.

Cool Tool! Mapdango

Many thanks to Larry Ferlazzo (again) for a pointer to Mapdango. This tool allows you to enter a location, and it retrieves information about weather, history, etc.

Education Today

This video has made the educational circuit. What do you think?

Understanding Media Literacy

Many thank to Wes Fryer for passing along a link to Understand Media. They have some really nice podcasts on media literacy!

Need Amusement? Free Online Karaoke

The best Karaoke out there is Sims On Stage. Larry Ferlazzo hinted me over to Karaoke Play, and, honestly, I can't stop laughing. I am not much of a singer, so you will never find my recorded voice out there, and there are SOME good singers out there..but, for the most part, it is a treasure trove of people who think they can sing but can't. It is a lot of fun, though. My kids are loving it.

A Sample: Big Huge Labs

This is how I test a program. Overall, I think this tool is hard to use, and there are other (better) tools out there that do the same thing. But, this is a sample I made for a class I am teaching this summer (American Romantics). The image search was hard to use, and I couldn't find pics of all the authors I am teaching (even though I KNOW they are on Flickr). Also, I couldn't change the title or description after I looked for images, so the presentation does not accurately fit the title and thesis. Overall, I don't recommend this tool (yet).

Fun Tool from National Geographic

This is a great tool for younger kids. At National Geographic, kids can make animal videos (complete with music, captions, and noises). They simply drag and drop clips into the timeline, add the music/sound, and publish!

My 5 year old son, Julian, made one!

Thanks, Amit Agarwal, for the link!

Cool Tool Alert! MagToo

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for his post of MagToo. It is similar to Animoto and OneTrueMedia, but has some nice music and design choices, as well. Here is a sample of what you can do with it:

Cool Resource! iCue

Both David Warlick and Larry Ferlazzo posted about iCue. iCue is a joint project between NBC News and MIT, and it TOTALLY rocks! I had to rip myself away to write this post.

This interactive site allows you to learn about current issues (the election) and provides games, discussion, etc. on hot topics!

Cool Tool

I am trying out a new tool named Apture. I am not really sure how it works, but it looks cool.

So, my plan is to show you how I pick tools to list on this blog.

First, I start with these foundational ideas:

1. Not everyone will use these tools;
2. Not everyone in our community visits the blog;
3. Not everyone will like every tool.

Second, I follow these methods to identify new tools:

1. I follow the blogs of other teachers that I respect (Vicki Davis, Larry Ferlazzo, Mr. Byrne, Jane Hart) using Google Reader (RSS).
2. I follow the blogs of organizations that I respect (Google, Mashable, Digital Humanities, NASA).
3. I complete a daily web crawl for terms like educational technology and web 2.0.
4. I evaluate each tool using predetermined criteria.

Third, I use these elements to determine whether I will include the tool on this blog:

1. Is the tool educational?
2. Is the tool easy to use?
3. Does the tool promote digital/virtual ethics?
4. Is the tool safe for students to use?
5. Does the tool help meet course objectives?
6. Does the tool distract the student from learning core competencies?
7. How much time does it take to learn this tool?
8. Is this tool better, worse, or the same as a non-technological tool?
9. Does the tool meet the objectives of the Technology Planning Team?
10. Is the tool fun and useful for students and faculty?

In evaluating Apture, I came up with the following assessment:

1. The tool is educational; it provides the ability to find more resources on similar topics.
2 The tool is not easy to use; I am struggling to figure out how to get it to work as I type this.
3. The tool does promote digital ethics, as writers are linking to first line sources.
4. The tool is safe.
5. This tool can help promote the course objectives in courses where research is a mitigating factor.
6. While the tool, itself, is not distracting, getting it to work right is very frustrating. Frustration is inherently distracting.
7. I am still trying to figure out the tool, so it takes too long.
8. Truthfully, it takes less time to just do a Google search for terms. This tool adds nothing new, and since I can't get it to work anyway, I may as well go back to a tool I can actually use (Google search).
9. Yes, this tool meets the objectives of the planning team (innovative technology).
10. It seems like a wicked cool application, and one that has awesome potential...but...it doesn't work in Blogger.


Overall Assessment? I don't recommend it (yet). Normally, it wouldn't even appear on this blog. I review about 20 tools a day, and only 1% actually appear on the blog at the end of the day.

Congratulations Madison West and the Varsiity 8!

Kudos are in order for Hotchkiss grad, Madison West, and Varsity 8 teamies! CSTV.com reports that the crew team struck GOLD at the mid-Atlantic Championships. WAY TO GO!

IMAGE SOURCE

NASA's Name Launch!

NASA will send your name to the moon (and you can print out a cool certificate, too).

Here is a little blurb from NASA:

NASA invites people of all ages to join the lunar exploration journey with an opportunity to send their names to the moon aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, spacecraft.

Thanks for the link, Mr. Byrne!

The Bord Piano Trio

Many thanks to Betsey for this video of the Bord Piano Trio! They will be live at the Salisbury Congregational Church on Friday, May 23 at 7:30 p.m

Cool Tool Alert! A.nnotate

Richard MacManus, another tool alerting superstar, ran a competition over at the Read/Write/Web for cool tools. While I have heard of most of them, there were a few new ones. A.nnotate is a tools that allows you to make comments on documents. This might be a great shared reading tool, or possibly a great grading tool.

Between the Lions

For those of you with small children, the Between the Lions series (PBS) has revamped their website. Many thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for the hint!

Cool Tool Alert! Mikogo

Many thanks to Jane Hart for introducing me to Mikogo! This easy-to-use screen sharing program allows you to share your desktop. This is a great tool if you want to do live video grading grading!

Google Tells the Tale

Many thank to Karen over at the Official Google Blog for highlighting Yom HaShoah and the work of Yad Vashem. Here is the post:

This week Israel observed Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day, a holiday inaugurated in 1959 to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. This is an especially important day to Yad Vashem, the Jerusalem-based center for remembering the Holocaust's victims and survivors. I was fortunate to tour Yad Vashem's New Museum with my family last summer, and was moved and inspired by the experience. Our guide told us an anecdote about a visitor, a survivor of the camps, who recognized an item in one exhibit and was able to explain its context to museum curators and fellow visitors. This is why Yad Vashem is so important: it's a place that preserves the horrible history of the Holocaust and puts it in context for all of us.

But a lot of people, including many survivors, aren't able to visit Yad Vashem. How can they discover and share stories? How can they see an artifact or a photo and say, I recognize that item or person because I was there? The answer, of course, is the Internet.

We're proud to report that Yad Vashem has just launched two new YouTube channels, one in English, the other in Arabic. They feature testimonies from Holocaust survivors, historians' lectures on key issues related to the Holocaust, and footage of events big and small (Pope John Paul II's visit in 2000, a touching family reunion). More importantly, they are a way for Yad Vashem to surpass its physical boundaries and reach out to an audience worldwide. This is the promise the Internet holds: to inform and connect the globe, to remember stories, to teach us. As Elie Wiesel said in his speech at the opening of the museum: "If we decided to tell the tale, it is because we wanted the world to be a better world, just a better world, and learn and remember."

Where Does All the Money Go?

Inside Higher Ed published an interesting article about where money goes at the college level. Truly, this is a thought provoking issue!

Google Ocean

Rumor has it that Google is adding OCEANS!

Harvard Goes Open

Harvard Magazine reported the following excellent news:

In an historic vote, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) moved to make the articles that its members publish in scholarly journals freely available to anyone, “disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible.” The action acknowledged that the intellectual wealth of the world increasingly lies at our fingertips.

Google Earth Education Community

Once again, the dashing Mr. Byrne has pointed me to a wonderful resource. While I have heard about Google Lit Trips, I had not heard of the the Google Earth Education Community. They have excellent resources for using Google Earth in a variety of academic disciplines. There are resources for Art, History, Literature, and Science.

Cool Tool Alert! Keskidi

Mr. Byrne shared a great tool for creating subtitles for online videos. Using Keskidi, students can work alone or in groups. This is a great tool for teachers of international languages. Students can work together to transcribe English videos to other languages.

Cool Resource! Biz Ed

Interested in economics? Want to take a virtual field trip to a developing nation? Mr. Byrne recommends Biz Ed!

Based in the UK, Biz Ed hosts some really sweet activities to learn about economics. While geared toward younger students, this is a great educational site!

Cool Resource! Shedd Aquarium

Mr. Byrne is at it again! He posted a ditty about the virtual Shedd Aquarium, and, while most of the materials are for younger students, this is a great place to learn about marine life.

The seahorse materials are really well done, and the game "Squish the Fish" is a bit of fun, too.

Cool Tool Alert! CreateDebate

Many thanks to Paul Glazowski at Mashable for directing me to this awesome resource for creating debates. I wish I would have had this tool just two weeks ago when my students were debating the institutionalization of national health care.

Paul's review of CreateDebate is spot on:

In short, CreateDebate seems an interesting invention. It’s not too shallow, nor too deep. It sits in the middle of an area whose polarities either amount to sound bytes or long-form opinion. It has an atmosphere casual enough to offer mostly free reign on points of debate, while maintaining both variety and relevance. We think it a worthwhile place in which to spend one’s argumentative energies, one you may very well enjoy.

Using it for a college or high school classroom, however, seems like a really great use of the application (moving toward the deep end instead of the shallow end).

Thanks, Paul!

The Rise of Social Media: Is it all Hype?

Many thanks to Richard MacManus over at the Read/Write/Web for posting a ditty about the recent Universal McCann report on social media usage (compared to traditional media formats).

In this study, social media is defined as blogs, social networks (MySpace, Facebook), and online video platforms (YouTube, TeacherTube).

Here is a highlight of what they found after surveying 17,000 internet users:

• In June 2007, 62% of those surveyed watched online video clips; in 2008, this number increased to 83%
• In June 2007, 66% read blogs; in 2008, 78% reported blog reading
• More than half of the internet users (57%) belong to at least one social network.
• Of the social network users, more than half share pictures (55%).
• The largest social network is MySpace (32%); the second largest network is Facebook (23%)
• China hosts the largest number of bloggers (42 million). The US hosts about 26 million bloggers.
  

If you want to read more, see Richard's post or read the report directly (there are LOTS of great nuggets!)

Top 100 Educational Tools

The wonderful Jane Hart has published her PDF on the Top 100 Tools for Learning. This is a MUST DOWNLOAD! Thanks, Jane!

Cool Tool Alert! Dipity

Need to create a timeline? Check out Dipity! Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for the link!

Cool Resource!

Many thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for passing along the Virtual Body. You can take a tour of the brain or the intestines. Try to put the skeleton together to see a clapping skellie!

Cool Resource! Amazing Space!

Many thanks to Mr Byrne (again) for this great link! Amazing Space is full of fantastic space exploration materials.

Cool Tool Alert! YouFig

A new wiki brand has hit the cyber pavement! YouFig is an excellent new wiki (still in Beta) that truly looks like a promising tool for teachers! In addition to all other wiki activities, the administrator can assign work groups!

Thanks, Mr. Byrne, for another excellent tool alert!

Cool Alert! Propaganda Film Creator

The American Image is an excellent tool used to help students to think about propaganda.

The Rise of Lacrosse and Ultimate Frisbee

Hotchkiss is mentioned in a New York Times article about the rise of Lacrosse. The Chaote news has an article about Ultimate Frisbee and mentions Hotchkiss.

Scholar 2 Scholar Conference

I had the good fortune to participate in the Scholar 2 Scholar conference at Drexel University. The conference focused on web 2.0 and virtual worlds, and their impact on the research and dissemination process. Many thanks to Jean-Claude Bradley for the invitation.

If you want to watch the video, it is available here.

Cool Tool Alert! Create Your Own Museum

Again, hats off to Mr. Byrne for pointing to Thinkport's tool Create Your Own Museum. You can go on virtual field trips, too. Truly, this is one hot tool. You can use it for ANY discipline!

Thinkport is an awesome site on its own. Operated by the Maryland Public Television and Johns Hopkins Center for Technology in Education, this resource is PACKED with great stuff for teachers!

Cool Tool Alert! That Quiz

Many thanks to Mr. Byrne for highlighting That Quiz. This is a great (free) quiz creation tool that provides real-time assessment for students, and allows you to share quizzes with others in your discipline!

Cool Tool Alert! Sketch Planet

Larry Ferlazzo strikes again with this very cool drawing tool - Sketch Planet! This is useful for creativity, but also has great academic potential. Help each otehr with math problems, chemistry, or diagrams!

PC World's 101 Top Freebies

PC World publishes a great list every year of the best web freebies. Check it out!

Two Cool Tools! Undone and FixMyVideo

Many thanks to Jane Hart at Jane's E-Learning Picks for turning me to these two tools:

Undone (it creates a checklist for you and ranks them...time management!)

FixMyVideo (fixes images, videos, etc.)

Google Earth 4.3

Many thanks to Amit Agarwal for his post on the new Google Earth!

Here is his video; and he says, "Also check out gearthblog.com for a more detailed review of Google Earth 4.3. The download is available here."

Thanks, Amit!

Maru-a-Pula

Thanks to Tim for a link to this video:

Pangea Day 2008

On May 10, 2008 from 2:00 - 6:00 PM, people from around the world are joining together through the power of film to visualize world peace. In 4 hours, 24 films will portray life around the globe in celebration of Pangea Day.

For Hotchkiss adults with Second Life accounts, I will be hosting an inworld event at Lehigh Carbon Island. We will view and discuss the films in real time using text based chat. To participate, simply email (britterguth) or IM me in Second Life (avatar name: Desideria Stockton). You can also watch the films on the Pangea Day website or on your cell phone.

To prepare for the event, choirs from around the world recorded national anthems from another country. Here are three examples (and more are available on YouTube).

France sings for the US



Japan sings for Turkey



Kenya sings for India

Cool Tool Alert! Wakoopa

Wakoopa is a great tool for the advanced user! Wakoopa tracks all of the software used on your machine, and then recommends other programs that might be useful. Thanks, Jane Hart, for the lead!

Cool Tool Alert! Color Palette Generator

Many thanks to Jane Hart for pointing me to the Color Palette Generator!

The CPG takes a photo or image that you have loaded and creates a color palette for it. This is really helpful if you are building a presentation in PPT or creating a newsletter. Thanks, Jane!

Here is an example:




Image Source: Lakeville, CT

Cool Tool Alert! My Newsletter Maker

Tired of the old Windows newsletter templates? Larry Ferlazzo pointed me to My Newsletter Maker. This is a great tool for student and faculty clubs!

Cool Tool Alert! Zamzar

Zamzar is a tool that I use almost every day. It is a conversion tool that allows me to take a video or document and resave it in a format that my computer can handle. Mostly, I use it to make videos into MOV formats for use in Second Life. Here is an example from a student in my Communications class (they are doing "Get Out and Vote" videos).

Cool Tool Alert! Toufee

Yet again, My Byrne scoops another great tool! Toufee creates flash presentations, but is a little different than similar tools It can combine all sorts of media and is truly easy to use!

Fun Resource! Novel Games

Need a walk on the lighter side of life? My Byrne recommended a tip toe over to Novel Games. They great for faculty kids (or for mindless stress release). They are free and can be hosted on your blog!

Most importantly, most of them (including the billiards one) are educational!

Cool Tool Alert! MyStudiyo

Mr. Byrne must be on a roll over there at the Free Technology for Teachers blog. If you are a RSS person, I totally recommend his blog.

MyStudiyo is a great online quiz tool that allows the creator to use different media formats to create quizzes!

National Archives on YouTube!

Many thanks to Mr. Byrne over at Free Technology for Teachers, I learned that videos from the National Archives are now publicly available on YouTube. There are eve videos from NASA!

Here was one that I liked on women serving during WWII.

The videos can be downloaded, but they can't be imbedded. However, they CAN be used in virtual worlds like Second Life and There!

Cool Tool Alert! GeoG

Thanks to Mr. Byrne over at Free Technology for Teachers, I stumbled upon this awesome tool for math teachers! GeoGebra is free; here is what he says:

GeoGebra and GeoGebra Wiki are great resources for high school math teachers. GeoGebra is free software that math teachers can use to create visualizations of mathematics concepts. GeoGebra software can be used to generate worksheets and problems to accompany visualizations of mathematics concepts. GeoGebra Wiki has a good collection of resources and ideas from other teachers using GeoGebra software.

Cool Tool Alert! Twiddla

Twiddla is a FABULOUS (and FREE) new online whiteboard that requires NO download! Imagine being to host a virtual study group or work out math problems with your teacher! One nice feature is that you can have an "invitation only" list.

Demo Girl has a great tutorial on how to use it, as well!

Eloise Pasteur recommended this post about Web 2.0: How Much Time Does Web 2.0 Take?

It is a great read! Thanks, Eloise!

The Future

Many thanks to Vicki Davis for posting this on her blog!

Google for Educators

Kevin Jarrett, a wonderful friend and resource, has posted a "three hour tour" of Google for educators. Check it out!!!!


Google for Educators

C-SPAN hits YouTube

Many thanks to Karen over at the Official Google Blog! C-Span and YouTube have partnered up to engage folks in discussion about the presidential elections.

Alumni Spotlight: Miles Kass

LoHud has a great article about Hotchkiss graduate Miles Kass.

Image Source

Free Rice!

Ulan suggested this GREAT site that allows you to play a vocab building game to earn rice for under developed nations!

Professional Development on the Go!

All of us lead full and busy lives, and it is hard to find time to squeeze in just a few minutes per day for professional development.

eLearn published a great article on Ten Web 2.0 Things you can do in Ten Minutes. Now, this list is really for educational technology folks, but there are a lot of great resources for others looking to add some development in on the side!

Who's on First?

This is a tribute to the power of using fonts:



Many thanks to Garr for the lead!

Podcasts from Open University

Many thanks to Ewan McIntosh at EduBlogs for a link over to Podcasts from the Open University.

Cool Tool Alert! Timelines.tv

Timelines.tv offers free video timelines. This is a British series, and it is an excellent supplement to classes dealing with literature, history, or social issues.

Many thanks to Ewan McIntosh at EduBlogs for the link!

The Future of Chemistry?

Jean-Claude Bradley, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Drexel University, talks about Open Notebook Science and Cheminformatics.

Is this the future of chemistry?

The Future of Chemistry?

Alan Kay and Teaching Ideas

Vicki Davis recommends this TED Talk from Alan Kay on teaching ideas. It is EXCELLENT! Thanks, Vicki!

The Learners of Today and Tomorrow

Over at the Dangerously Irrelevant Blog, Scott McCloud posted these awesome video clips about the 21st Century Learner!



and




Thanks, Scott (and video creator Nathan Lowell)!

Free Technology Toolkit and Teacher LED

EdTech Solutions offers a nice technology toolkit that offers a full menu of free programs for teachers and students. The post is well organized, and gives a nice description of each program. Also, there is a nice link over to TeacherLed, a place where teachers can get ideas for how to use interactive whiteboards. While a lot of the info is geared toward younger students, there are some ideas that can be adapted for older students.

Many thanks to LoonyHiker for the links!

Harvard presents Talk on Open Access

Peter Suber's presentation to Harvard Law students is excellent. You can watch the video "What Can Universities Do to Promote Open Access?" .

It is also worthwhile to read Steven Harnad's comments: "Peter Suber's Talk at Harvard's Berkman Center: 'What Can Universities Do to Promote Open Access?"'.

Many thanks to Charles Bailey at Digital Koans for the link!

College Presidents Weigh in on Technology

Educause presents a conversation with college presidents on the use of technology. The podcast,

"From Their Viewpoint", includes the following panelists:

• Cheryl Norton, President, Southern Connecticut State University
• S. Georgia Nugent, President, Kenyon College
• Susan Scrimshaw, President, Simmons College
• Session moderator: Joanne M. Kossuth, CIO and Associate Vice President for Development, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Podcast on Copyright Developments

EDUCAUSE Live! has an excellent slate of podcasts. In this podcast, James G. Neal, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian at Columbia University, presents "Update on Key U.S. Copyright Developments".

Students Return from India

Over break, Hotchkiss students scattered to the edges of earth. Some went on vacation and others traveled to do community service.

The India group returned safely from their service trip. Their blog, Know the Ledge, has excellent pictures and anecdotes. Stop by and take a look!

Welcome home!

Dante's Inferno in Second Life

If you are interested in visiting Dante's Inferno (and you are 18 or older), visit it by logging in to Second Life, and make sure you have your ambient sounds, movies, music, and particles turned on.

Dante's Inferno is one of the classrooms made available in virtual space by Literature Alive!

If you would like to set up an avatar but don't know how, please email me and I will get you started!

Hotchkiss Graduate Caitlin Cahow

The Boston Globe published a really nice article about Hotchkiss graduate, Caitlin Cahow. Caitlin played field hockey, lacrosse, and hockey at Hotchkiss before going to Harvard. She is "an Olympic bronze medalist, a member of the United States national team, and the linchpin of the top-ranked Crimson squad."

Congratulations, Caitlin!

IMAGE SOURCE

The Privacy Toolbox

Virtual Hosting has published a really great list on how to maintain privacy on the internet. Check out their advice!

IMAGE SOURCE

Karaoke on the Go!

Need a little stress release? Try Sims Karaoke! Have a great time recording your favorite tunes, invite others to record their fave tunes, start a karaoke contest, or listen to others!

The World Wide Telescope

Microsoft is launching an amazing new tool, the World Wide Telescope. It will be launched this spring, and will be free to download. It, literally, opens the universe to every human. Here is a TED clip about the possibilities:





Many thanks to Bud the Teacher for the post.

Web Crawl: Hotchkiss in the International Herald Tribune

Found on a web crawl:

Here is an article about why American boarding schools (Hotchkiss included) are appealing to the international community. Here is another article in the Boston Globe from a former Hotchkiss student (now a retired judge).

Thought Provoking Game: Sim Sweatshop

Sim Sweatshop is a free online game that provides an excellent warm up to discussing international sweatshops, economics, world poverty, and justice. Seemingly simple, the game is not as easy as it looks! Many thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for the link!

School Tube

On the Successful Teaching blog, loonyhiker posted some really great edutech tools. While I had heard of a lot of them, I had not heard of School Tube. This is a site created by students, but it is moderated by teachers and parents. The variety is great, and it is a great outlet for students.

The Human Brain

Jill Bolte Taylor's recent TED talk, "My Stroke of Insight," is an amazing tribute to neuro science. The video is easy to understand and clearly explains the functions of the brain.

Watch it!

Google Sky

Google is never boring. According to one of their recent blog posts,

We're very pleased to tell you that Google Sky is now available on the web at sky.google.com. You can search for planets, listen to Earth & Sky podcasts, watch some beautiful Hubble telescope images, or explore historical maps of the sky from the comfort of your browser.

Sky in Google Earth, which launched last August, was originally available to our 350 million Google Earth users. This release brings the universe to every browser and makes Sky accessible to just about anyone with an Internet connection — from school children to professional astronomers — in 26 different languages.

To learn more about Google Sky web edition, watch this short video, and read the full story on the Google Lat Long blog.

Cool Resource! School Forge!

School Forge hopes to collect and distribute free resources to K-12 teachers. They offer lots of great tools and links to other places.

Here is their mission:

SchoolForge's mission is to unify independent organizations that advocate, use, and develop open resources for education. We advocate the use of open texts and lessons, open curricula, free software and open source in education.

Cool Tool Alert! The Awesome Highlighter

The Awesome Highlighter allows you to highlight a web page and then pack it off to others. Here is an example from the Hotchkiss website!

Want to try it? There is no cost, nothing to download (and you don't even need to create an account!).

Hotchkiss Students Arrive in India

Students participating in the India trip have arrived safely!

Read about their adventure on their travel blog!

25 Tools for Teachers

Jane Hart put together a list of Top 25 Tools for Teachers (that are free).

Stroll on over and check out her list!

Open Notebook Science

My friend and colleague at Drexel, Jean-Claude Bradley, is an Associate Professor of Chemistry. His revolutionary work in Open Notebook Science challenges the "old way" of communicating science.

Check out his latest video talk on what ONS is and how it will impact the world.

The Power of SlideShare

Slideshare in a tool used to share Power Point slides. The beauty of the tool is that you can decide whether or not folks can use the materials (so, you can choose to protect your intellectual property).

The following Slideshare was created for my students in Contemporary Fiction this summer. I had imported the slides into Second Life, but I also made them available on SlideShare for students to download. It saved me time from having to email them the slides, and it allowed only the ones who wanted them to get them.

Interestingly, 97 people found them interesting and 3 "favorited" them. The power of sharing is amazing!

| View | Upload your own

Nature Scene

Nature Scene Interactive provides interactive content on National Parks and Recreation services. The videos are GREAT!

Ready to Vote?

Ready to Vote is a website put together by students on civic issues and voting. It is a great resource and has video and audio resources. This is another great example of the work students can produce using technology.

Tech Team

Tech Team is a program to get female students interested in science and technology. It has some heavy duty funders like the Girl Scouts, and it offers great resources.

Road Trip Through Civil Rights History

Students prepared this Road Trip through Civil Rights History site. It is pretty cool (even though some of it is geared toward younger students).

This is a good example of what technology can offer students!

Keep it Real Series

This is an interesting project put together by teens for teens on issues like drinking, drugs, and promiscuity.

Here is the blurb from their site:

Keep It Real is a TV and Web project for teens produced to help educate them about the consequences of inappropriate risk-taking behavior. The TV show provides teens with Realistic Education About Dying Young, based on Palmetto Health Richland’s Project READY program in Columbia, South Carolina. In an effort to stay true to the hospital’s reality-based education, we have included graphic images and footage of real trauma in the productions.

Keep It Real is rated TV-14 and viewer discretion is advised.

Cool Tool Alert! Voice Thread

Voice Thread is an excellent tool for creating online presentations using a variety of media. Here is an excellent example of how it is being used to connect students across the globe.

The Welcome to Our World Project

The League for Innovation

I just returned from Denver where I co-presented at the League for Innovation conference. We presented a talk on using virtual worlds to teach literature (from both a faculty perspective and a Dean perspective), and we focused on a learning community between Introduction to Women's Studies and the History of World War II.

In preparing the talk, we put together this resource wiki and added supplemental materials for folks interested in the topic. We also published our slides on Slideshare. Here are the slides:

| View | Upload your own

Educational Technology and the Ivy League

The Ivy League schools are blazing trails with educational technology. Many of them are offering materials under a concept called "Open Courseware." Open Courseware allows everyone to read, listen, or watch materials delivered to students. Other educators can use the materials to enhance their classes, as well. Educators all over the world are using technology to share course materials.

In addition to Open Courseware, the Ivy League schools use technology to enhance the classroom experience, and students are expected to use technology to enhance their presentation of materials. In addition to the "traditional" Ivy League colleges, I am also including here some other top tier schools.

So, what's out there? Check out these resources!

Yale Netcasts

Harvard Medical School - Open Courseware

MediaBerkman - Berkman Center for Internet and Society (podcast series)

H20 Playlist - Shared lists of readings and resources from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Podcast Series at Princeton

MIT Open Courseware (pioneers in the OC movement)

Stanford Open Courseware




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Excellent History Resource - Scanned Lincoln Letters Online

A project from the University of Rochester has put actual letters to, from and about Abraham Lincoln on the Web.

A good article describing the site is available on eSchool News.

You can also go straight to the University of Rochester site and check it out. Once there, click on Browse or Search to find letters of interest to you.

The Ultimate Student Resource List

My friends over at Lifehack published this great list of technology tools that students should use to be successful.

My favorites include:

Zotero: A bibliography manager that integrates with Firefox, allowing you to automatically add webpages and, more usefully, resources from academic databases like J-Stor and AnthroSource to your bibliography. You can attach PDFs and images to your entries, as well as add your own notes. And all without leaving Firefox.

Notely/MyNoteIt/GradeMate
Online organizers designed with students in mind, these services offer the ability to create, organize, and share notes, create reminders for important assignments, track grades and schedules, and generally keep on top of your student life. Each offers a slightly different feature-set and approach to student organization; pick the one that fits you best.


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Creating a Resource Wiki

Next week, I will be co-presenting at the League for Innovation conference in Denver. To make the experience more meaningful for participants, and to give them something to "take away," we created a resource wiki.

It is VERY easy to create a resource wiki; just follow these easy steps!

1. Create a free account at Wikispaces (http://wikispaces.com)

2. Create a page for your presentation (click "new page")

3. If you are not in edit more, click "Edit this Page" at the top

4. Write your title, highlight it, and make the text size bigger by clicking on the "header" drop down menu.

5. Add your name or names of presenters (students under 18 should use first name and last initial)

6. Add your materials (I gather materials from YouTube and SlideShare)

7. Click "Save" when you are done!

Some folks use the Resource wiki to create an interactive works cited page or agenda. Others use the space to house all the materials for the presentation. For example, on the Innovations wiki, we created an agenda, housed a YouTube Movie "The War was in Color" to frame the discussion, posted a movie that I created ("Women and War") using Slideshare and OneTrueMedia to illustrate the concept, and then listed talking points for the virtual tour in Second Life.

Over the next few days, I will continue to shape the document by adding research, additional materials, and screen shots from Second Life (in case we don't have connectivity at the conference). I will also add an interactive works cited page.

During the conference, I will add to the document by listing websites, research materials, texts, or pictures based on the participants questions or comments.

Lawrence Lessig's Last Call on Free Culture

Here is Lawrence Lessig's last speech on "Free Culture." The lecture was delivered at Stanford in January.

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Found on the Web!

The little tag search has found these hot hits about Hotchkiss!

1. We have a celebrated bound set of New Yorker Cartoons in our library!
2. Our very own Shengkai Wu was mentioned as a winner of the Siemens Award for Advanced Placement.

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Cool Tool Alert! Top Health 2.0 Applications!

The Read/Write/Web has posted Web 2.0 Applications that focus on a healthy you!

Check out programs like Patients Like Me and MyMedLab.

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Cool Tool Alert! Instructables

Larry Ferlazzo recommends the very cool tool, Instructables! It is a website that offers free tutorials on all sorts of things (not just technology).

My favorites?

Oliver the Octopus (craft)

How to Grow a Square Watermelon

Create a Personalized Rubrics Cube

Cool Tools! 50 Free Alternatives to Costly Software!

Jimmy Atkinson posted a great blog post on 50 programs that have free alternatives on the web. Among them are replacements for MS Word, Photoshop, and Internet Explorer. He offers both PC and Mac alternatives!

Check out his list!

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Cool Tool Alert! MacStack

Are you a Mac person? Fear not! There are lots of great free Mac Apps out there! Head over to MacStack and browse through the web 2.0 goodies!


My good friend and virtual colleague from the UK, Eloise Pasteur, is a Mac addict; she recommends the browser, Flock, for Mac users. She also recommends Adium; it is an integrated tool that allows you to have all your different IMs available (it is like the PC version of Meebo).

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Hotchkiss on the Web

Searching for tags is a lot of fun. I use Google Alerts for new searches, but I also use Keotag for more specialized searches.

In searching for the terms "Hotchkiss" and "Hotchkiss School," I found these AWESOME tributes to our community.

• On Minter Dial's blog, he mentions his favorite teacher at Hotchkiss, "Unkie," in a post about inspirational teachers.
• We can see that Jason Morris is getting lots of offers for his Basketball abilities.
• Hotchkiss is mentioned as one of the elite schools in New England.
• We can read about Qxhna and her 4 siblings (Hotchkiss Alums) and their passion for Five Ultimate.
• Author Tom Dolby chats up his new book, The Sixth Form.

I found these cool videos, as well.

Guest Speaker: Gabriella Megyesi



Discrimination Series (Parts 1, 2, 3)

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:



Want to share a pic, video, or podcast? Email me at britterguth (at) hotchkiss dot org (we don't type it out...we don't want SPAM!).

Cool Tool Alert! Voice Thread

Voice Thread is a dynamic site that allows you to use both voice and text to create interactive and participatory projects.

Here is a sample voice thread demonstrating a web crawl for the word "Hotchkiss" in Flickr.

Cool Tool Alert! PhotoSoup

PhotoSoup is an excellent program for creating study games using pictures. Simply type in a tag and play!

Many thanks to Paul Hamilton; he published a post about PhotoSoup and this screenshot.

Cool Tool Alert! WayBackMachine

Want to see what a web page looked like 4 years ago? Check out the WayBackMachine! You can check out any website.

Here are some shots of the Hotchkiss blog!

September 25, 2001

September 27. 2002

September 22, 2003

In Sept 2006, the Hotchkiss Website became what we know it as today!

Google Moon and Google Mars

The Official Google Blog reports that Google Moon and Google Mars are great places to go to learn more about the outer limits. Here is what they say:

Google Moon and Google Mars are great examples of products that required much more than pure software engineering to produce. There was quite a bit of science, and even a little bit of artistry, that went into their creation. They both expose large volumes of imagery and information in simple and accessible designs, and it turns out that I'm not the only one who thinks that they qualify as art in this regard.

Hotchkiss Hits the News (in 1913)

Web crawling is GREAT!

By searching the tag "Hotchkiss," I was able to find this 1913 article in the New York Times!

Ultimate 2008

Found on YouTube...Hotchkiss Ultimate Frisbee in action!



Many thanks to Hotchkiss TV for posting great videos!

Help Fill Our Green Cup!

Please support Hotchkiss students as they take the Green Cup Challenge! Their video is here, and other schools are here.

You can VOTE for the best one HERE!

The video is also available on YouTube here:




Thanks, Abbie B, for the link!

Cool Tool Alert! One True Media

Do you have a presentation to do and want to toss some slides out in a fun and interesting way? There are a few nice programs out there like Animoto, but here is a new one!

OneTrueMedia lets you plan out your video and select frames. It is really easy to use, and quite a lot of fun (and it is FREE!).

See for yourself!!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

All About RSS

Here is a tutorial on how to use RSS!

Cool Tool Alert! InstaPaper

Do you want to clip part of a web page and read it later? Do you want to gather up your research and have it handy on your desktop? If so, InstaPaper might be the tool for you!

Sign up for a free account and then drag the widget into your toolbar. Now you are ready to go!

As you read web pages or blog posts, simply click on the "Read Later" widget in your tool bar, and it will save the link or passage for you.

Very simple! Very useful!

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Cool Tool Alert! BubbleShare

Want to make a fun slideshare scrapbook and share it with your family and friends? BubbleShare is an online scrapping program that has lots of design options! Unlike book-based journals like Mixbook, BubbleShare uses animations to produce a slideshare effect using neat animations. Try it out!

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Cool Tool Alert! LuLu

Lulu is an easy to use self publishing platform that is challenging the publishing industry. Authors may choose to create their masterpieces for "fun or profit." Lulu claims to be publishing about 4000 new titles PER WEEK!

Obvious advantages to self publishing include the ability to publish whatever you want whenever you want. But, critics say there is no "quality control" and everyone can pretend to be an expert.

Any thoughts?

Google Health Beta

Google announced today its launch of Google Co-op Beta. Supported by information from sources like the National Library of Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control, Google Co-op seeks to collect and distribute medical and health information.

How is the information powered? This is the message from Google:

Welcome to the Google Co-op page for the Health topic. You can help improve search around this topic by contributing your expertise. As a contributor, you label websites with the Google Marker while browsing the web, or by uploading a file with a list of labeled web sites. The sites you label will be given priority in your own search results. If you are deemed a quality contributor, your annotations will begin appearing in the search results of all Google users. Learn more.

The labels for this topic -- both those in use and those in development -- are listed below. We encourage you to annotate useful and reliable webpages in this topic using the labels below. (Click a label to get its definition.) You can also use the search box below to test out the current version of this topic.

Astronomy Club Snaps Lunar Eclipse

The Astronomy Club met on Wednesday, February 20th, to show the community the total lunar eclipse through telescopes and binoculars.






Meanwhile, they snapped several images of the moon at different stages of the eclipse (over about an hour) and combined the images into one composite image.

Many thanks to all those who came out to view the eclipse!

Hotchkiss Delegates Return Home!

Check out the recent pics and journals from Round Square. Hotchkiss students visited Peru to attend the Round Square conference. They snapped some great photos to go with their e-journals.

Welcome home!

One Lucky Bear!

S-W shared an email from her daughter, Megan, about this bear. Apparently, this brown bear jumped off a bridge when he was scared by some motorists. These folks rescued him the next day!

Cool Tool Alert! Deskload

Wish you could carry around your desktop? If so, Deskload might be the tool for you! You can create a custom desktop that is saved and can be used from any computer. Store cool links, presentations, videos, etc. on the desktop and save!

A nice addition? Deskload can align with Firefox!

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Cool Tool Alert! Tangler

Tangler is an easy and fast way to create an online discussion group. While the BlueBoard is the best place to have closed chats (chats with folks here at Hotchkiss), Tangler is an awesome tool to use with students, colleagues, friends, or family not registered in Bb.

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Cool Tool Alert! GabMail

GabMail is easy and fun to use! If you have a web cam, you can send video emails with ease and style!

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Lessig for Congress?

Lawrence Lessig, the genius behind the Creative Commons License, is thinking about running for a spot in Congress (CA). I am fairly sure he will advocate for sharing and internet rights.

The Creative Commons License is a brilliant concept; it bridges a gap between folks who want to retain full copyright and those who wish to share some or all of their content.

Some quick facts about publishing on the internet:

1.That laws concerning copyright have changed; it is no longer necessary to apply for the C symbol. The new laws state that your work is IMMEDIATELY copyrighted once it is set to print.

2. In order to allow others to share your work, you must either declare the work "public domain" (absolutely no retention of rights) or assign a Creative Commons License.

3. Creative Commons Licenses are flexible, and provide the author with many choices. On the side bar here, you can see that this blog is protected by Creative Commons. While we encourage sharing, we do not allow any of our materials used for commercial purposes.

Here is a nice guide to Creative Commons:

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Tag It!

Do you have a lovely collection of pics of Hotchkiss on the web somewhere? Start tagging!

What on earth is a tag???

Google (and other web crawling algorithms) search the web for TERMS...but what happens when you post a pic, video, or audio? Searches can't find the good stuff you posted because it can't find any terms.

TAGGING is the solution!

In all web 2.0 applications (Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, etc.), you can TAG your pictures by simply putting search words in the TAG box (sometimes, like on this blog, tags are called "labels"). If you have nice pics to share with the Hotchkiss community, please use the tag HOTCHKISS.

Important Little Note: Remember that what we post on the web represents our community, so please, please, please think about your own reputation and the reputation of the Hotchkiss community!

General Rule of Thumb: If you don't want Mom, Dad, or Granny to see it, you should probably not post it on the web!

I will be using a web crawler to find great Hotchkiss stuff for the blog, so start tagging!

Film Your Issue!

Passionate about a cause? Film it!

FYI is hosting a short film competition for high school and college students. Guidelines are available on the website.

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Contemporary Novels to Supplement Classic Texts

My blog friend, Dana Huff, posted a nice list of contemporary novels that work well with standard classics. In her post, some of her recommendations include:

Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund with Moby Dick by Herman Melville

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley with King Lear by William Shakespeare

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines with To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Ghost Writer by John Harwood with The Turn of the Screw by Henry James and/or Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver with Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

To her list, I recommend:

Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor with Dante Alighieri's The Inferno

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd to The Color Purple by Alice Walker

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Total Eclipse on Wednesday!

Wednesday night is a total lunar eclipse! Grab those snow boots, layer the clothing, and head outside for a view!

NASA reports that we will see the lunar eclipse at 10:26 PM.

Want to learn more about the eclipse? Visit NASA's informative guide.

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Student-Faculty Basketball Game Animoto

Doesn't this look like fun???

Excellent Articles

Daniel L recommends these articles:

1. Chicago Looks to Turnarounds (Yahoo News)
   
2. How to Make Great Teachers (Time)
3. Dumb and Dumber (New York Times)

Cool Tool Alert! XTimeline

Here is an excellent tool for students to use to understand or create timelines.

XTimeline hosts hundreds of timelines. Some favorites?

Literature
Mark Twain
Anne Frank
Stephen King
Shakespeare

Artists
Pablo Ruiz Picasso
Leonardo DaVinci
Andy Warhol
Matt Groening

History/Philosophy
World War I
Modern Philosophers
History of India
Timeline of UN Peacekeeping Missions

Science/Technology/Engineering
Modern Medical Discoveries
History of Astronomy
History of the AIDS Epidemic
History of the Internet

The Millenials are Coming! UPDATED

Here is an excellent CBS video about the Millenials (1980-1995) entering the workforce.

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Cool Tool Resource! JamStudio

Want to write your own music? JamStudio is a free and fun music writing program that allows you to share your work!

Many thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for the tip!

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Cool Resource: Life After the Holocaust

The US Holocaust Museum created an excellent online exhibition called "Life After the Holocaust."

Image Source: New England Holocaust Memorial

Cool Resource Alert! SciVee

SciVee is an AWESOME tool for science educators! It is a place to share scientific research.

SciVee | Pioneering New Modes of Scientific Dissemination via kwout