The Internet In 2010 is a very interesting infographic from The Make Use Of blog.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About The Internet.
October 18, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Monthly Archives: October 2010
October 18, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
“America in Color from 1939-1943″
America in Color from 1939-1943 is a nice collection of photos from The Denver Post. Here is how they describe them:
These images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations. The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color.
October 17, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Middlespot Search Engine Unveils A New Version That Looks Great
Earlier today, I shared a new application that the Middlespot Search Engine folks have developed to easily create online books and reports (see “Simple Booklet” Is A New Tool Many Teachers Will Want To Use).
Just now, they shared with me a new beta version of their search engine, which is even better than their present one (which is ranked number one on The Best Search Engines For ESL/EFL Learners).
Their new version is like an even easier and embeddable Wallwisher. In other words, it’s a virtual bulletin board with virtual “stickies.”
If you’re searching for an image, website, or video, though, you don’t necessarily have to copy and paste their url addresses (though you can) — if they are in the search results you just click on it to go into your “mashup” and it goes to it automatically. No registration is necessary, and you can collaborate with others.
The new version makes it even more useful for higher level thinking skills like categorization. I describe how to use applications like Middlespot for this purpose in The Best Social Bookmarking Applications For English Language Learners & Other Students.
Remember, though, it’s still in “beta,” so it may have a few bugs….
October 17, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
“What A Terrible Video About Parents & Schools With A Terrible Message”
What A Terrible Video About Parents & Schools With A Terrible Message is the title of the newest post at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School.
It might be worth a visit.
October 17, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
“Richard Rothstein: Why teacher quality can’t be only centerpiece of reform”
“Rothstein: Why teacher quality can’t be only centerpiece of reform” is a must-read piece by Richard Rothstein in the Washington Post.
I’m adding it to The Best Posts About The Appalling Teacher-Bashing Column Superintendents Wrote In The Washington Post.
October 17, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
A Few More Links On The Chilean Miners
Here are a few more good additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Trapped Miners In Chile:
Audio slideshow: 69 days underground is a very good piece from the BBC.
What happens to survivors of underground ordeals? is a slideshow from Newsweek.
October 17, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
“Randi Weingarten: Don’t scapegoat America’s teachers”
Randi Weingarten: Don’t scapegoat America’s teachers is the headline of a guest op-ed piece in The Washington Post by the head of the American Federation of Teachers.
I’m adding it to The Best Posts About The Appalling Teacher-Bashing Column Superintendents Wrote In The Washington Post.
October 17, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
“Simple Booklet” Is A New Tool Many Teachers Will Want To Use
Simple Booklet is a great new tool that lets you create online books and reports that can be embedded or linked to by its url address. It’s free, you can grab images and videos off the web, and extremely simple to use. No registration is required.
What’s not to like?
Scott Brownlee and the folks at Middlespot, a search engine that I have rated number one The Best Search Engines For ESL/EFL Learners, created it.
I’m adding Simple Booklet to The Best Places Where Students Can Write Online.
October 17, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Two Infographics On Technology In The Classroom
There have been two recent infographics on technology in the classroom.
They’re interesting “takes” on the topic, especially in light of the results from the recent survey I took (see Results Of My Survey On Tech Use In Schools).
Here are the two infographics:
Technology Enhances Learning from GOOD
October 17, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
“The Jungle Hmong”
The Jungle Hmong: A Forgotten Ally On The Run is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.
I’m adding it to The Best Websites To Learn About The Hmong.
October 17, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
“The Archivist”
The Archivist will create an infographic-like visualization of your tweets.
I’m adding it to The Best Third-Party Twitter Apps That Don’t Require Your Password.
Thanks to Doug Peterson for the tip.
October 17, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Instagram is a new iPhone app that the blog Read Write Web raved about today — see Instagram Has Made Me an iPhone Photo Addict.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Beginning iPhone Users Like Me.
October 16, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
“thinking about revenge stimulates the brain but following through doesn’t improve mood”
Revenge may be all in the anticipation is the headline of a Los Angeles Times article covering several recent studies on revenge. It’s subtitle is:
Behavioral studies suggest that thinking about revenge stimulates the brain but that following through doesn’t improve mood.
Revenge is a good topic for one of the “life skills” lessons I teach to my students, so I’ll used this material and others to prepare a lesson. I’ll share it with readers.
Do you have any suggestions of other resources — literature, articles, movie scenes — that would also go with that topic?
October 16, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
“7 Fantastic Free Social Media Tools for Teachers”
“7 Fantastic Free Social Media Tools for Teachers” is the title of a Mashable post earlier today.
Most of the sites highlighted won’t be new to readers of this blog, but it does give a good overview of each one.
October 16, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
10 Comments
Results Of My Survey On Tech Use In Schools
In August, I wrote a post titled How Much Is Technology REALLY Used In Your School?
Here’s how I introduced it:
As regular readers know, I’m working on my third book, which now has a new working title, Student Self-Motivation, Responsibility, and Engagement:Practical Answers to Classroom Challenges. It’s a long one, but it is an accurate description of what it’s about.
It will certainly contain ideas for for using educational technology, but that will not be its primary focus. Some of the reviewers of my manuscript suggested I include even a few more tech ideas than I originally had, which I can easily do.
But that got me thinking — how much is technology REALLY used in most classrooms?
So, I have created a very simple survey that should take people considerably less than one minute to complete. It’s admittedly not very scientific, and may very well not provide an extremely accurate answer to the question. But, at the every least, it’ll be interesting to see how people respond.
In the survey, I asked respondents to say what percentage of teachers in their school or, if they work as a district staffperson, in their district, used the following types of technology:
Computer Projector
Document Camera
PowerPoint
Internet For Research
Web 2.0 Tools
I also provide people the opportunity to leave comments, or add more information.
You can see all the results, including the comments, here.
It doesn’t appear that tech is used much in the classrooms.
The big surprise to me was that the two elements of tech that I think have the most educational value (and that students and I use constantly) — the Document Camera and Web 2.0 tools — appear to be the least used by teachers in schools.
I’d be very interested in hearing how others interpret this admittedly unscientific survey. Please leave your comments.
October 16, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
WAHchinga
WAHchinga appears to be some kind of personalized web feed, but I can’t quite figure out how that part works. What I can figure out, though, is that it appears to be a pretty easy search engine for social media.
Because of that, I’m adding it to Not “The Best…,” But “A List” Of Search Engines For Social Media.
.
October 16, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The Best Sites Showing The Most Popular Tourist Destinations In The World
Next month, I’ll be posting a “The Best…” list related to the “wonders of the world” — both ancient and modern. As sort of a companion list, I thought it would be interesting to bring together some accessible resources highlighting what are considered the most popular tourist destinations.
You might also be interested in these related lists:
The Best Sites Where Students Can Plan Virtual Trips
The Best Resources For Finding And Creating Virtual Field Trips
The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures
Here are my choices for The Best Sites Showing The Most Popular Tourist Destinations In The World:
The world’s greatest attractions is a slideshow from The Guardian.
1,000 Places To See Before You Die is the website for the famous book of the same name.
Top 10 most visited tourist attractions in the world shows their photos and provides information about each site.
The World’s Top Tourist Attractions is a similar feature.
America’s Top Tourist Attractions is a slideshow from Forbes.
Forbes has a similar slideshow that’s considerably longer.
Most Dangerous Tourist Attractions is a slideshow from AOL.
10 Most Scary and Weird Tourist Attractions in the World is from Listphobia.
The author of the travel book, 100 things to do before you die, recently died, and The Independent newspaper created a slideshow showing all the 100 things.
Here’s a video showing “Top 10 Most Popular Tourist Destinations.”:
The Smithsonian Life List: 43 Places to See Before You Die is pretty neat.
Feedback is welcome, including additional suggestions.
If you found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.
You might also want to explore the 500 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.
October 16, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Can The New “Economic Integration” Study Be Relevant To The Issue Of Tracking By Ability?
Yesterday, The Washington Post reported on a new study that concludes that lower-income students will do better on academic achievement (measured by tests) in schools where there is “economic integration” with higher income students.
Valerie Strauss does a good job highlighting some of the limitations of the study, too.
I’m wondering, though, if its results might also speak to the issue of tracking by ability within any school…
I know when I teach classes of students who face many challenges, and there are few (if any) others in the class who can be models of perseverance, inquisitiveness, and having high goals, it doesn’t appear to me that as much learning takes place as when there is a “mixed” class.
I’m sure there are readers of this blog who know far more than me about the research on tracking by ability. The little I know about it seems to say that tracking hurts the academically challenged but, at least in some ways, can help the more advanced students. Is that an accurate reading of the research? If it is, I wonder if and how the test results of the higher-income students in yesterday’s study might have been affected? Does anybody know?
Any feedback is appreciated.
October 16, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
More On Halloween
Here are the newest additions to The Best Websites For Learning About Halloween:
An interactive book on Halloween for English Language Learners (thanks to Michelle Henry for the tip)
Here’s a “scary” online video game with Garfield the cat, and here’s its walkthrough.
Here’s a chart showing how Americans will be spending money on Halloween this year.
Describe Dracula’s castle in this fun language-learning interactive. (thanks to In Tec Insights for the tip)
October 16, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Two Good Links On Chilean Miners
Here are two more additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Trapped Miners In Chile:
MSN has an interesting slideshow on “Amazing Rescues,” including the miners.
Chile y Toda el Mundo: Connecting the Chilean Miners Story With Universal Themes is an excellent lesson plan from The New York Times Learning Network.
