Daily Spotlight on Education 09/11/2008
Docstoc Sync: Put Your Documents Online
For those of you moving from computer to computer - you shoudl try out My Doc Stock Sync - great for college and high school students who are mobile. This is a great idea for teams or people sharing files as well because you can make some public.
Wiggio - Makes it easy to work in groups.
This is a website that facilitates working in groups. This looks fascinating and we may test it some time in our class. This is something that students should take a look at before going to college so that they can lead their groups. Being used in colleges a bit it seems.
Wikispaces Blog » Blog Archive » 100,000 Free K-12 Wikis - and 250,000 More!
Congratulations to my friends at wikispaces for hitting 100,000 wikis-- I love what they are doing - instead of spending money on "stuff" and promotions - they are giving teachers what we need -- tools. Thank you wikispaces, and all of the other wiki providers who are giving ad free wikis to teachers.
This from my email:
"This is Natasha Dantzig for the TED (Technology, Entertainment and
Design) Conference.
I'm writing to let you know that organizers of the TED Prize have announced an open challenge in support of author and philanthropist Dave Eggers and his 2008 TED Prize wish to collect 1,000 stories of private citizens engaged in their local public schools. Each year, three individuals are granted the TED Prize, which provides winners with a wish to change the world, $100,000 in seed money, and the support of the TED community in making the wish come true.
As an extension of Eggers initial wish, the open challenge asks individuals to design and implement new projects for local public school students. The three winning entries will receive a pass to the sold out TED2009 Conference to be held in Long Beach, California on February 4-7, 2009. "
Good luck with sharing. I find it interesting that the projects that are emerging between public and private schools and crossing the lines and boundaries between us (which is what we should be doing) could only be submitted by a public school person and then, may not be considered because it can only be for public school students. In some ways, the writing of the proposal itself is limiting because it doesn't see the vision of what is truly happening in education.The Chapter 18 Project | Thomas L. Friedman
Chapter 18 for Hot, Flat and Crowded -- you can contribute your best ideas for clean energy, energy efficience, and what can be done for chapter 18 -- please share.
Authors are increasingly willing to communicate and share information in print received online. This would be something great for kids.YouTube - Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit
This video of Billie Holiday singing her most popular song, Strange Fruit about a lynching in the south is a powerful video to share with all students during Black History Month. This was 5 months before she died. On youtube.
The 50 greatest arts videos on YouTube | Technology | The Observer
Yes, there are arts videos on Youtube. Today, I pulled at least 3 resources from this amazing FREE library on the web. Here is another list that I want to peruse.
Swype's new keyboard technology Video - Free Video Downloads - CNET TV
Very cool new keyboarding technology for mobile devices which will make mobile input much faster. Cool.
Technique Developed To Capture Human Movement In 3D
Methods to capture human movements and display them in 3D on the computer have been developed in Belgium using 2 video cameras.
Alice 3.0 is being tested at Carnegie Mellon this semester with an expected release in a little less than a year. Full programming with 3D capabilities. This is a much awaited release and will integrate the characters from the Sims into Alice.
Official Google Blog: Making terms of service clearer
Google has clarified their terms of service for Google Chrome. It is still sparking a lot of controversy.
Amazon Confirms Student Version Of Kindle
Student version of Kindle is confirmed for students. Oh so cool. My students really like the idea of a Kindle and I'm wanting to get a hold of one. They will HAVE to make it easier to add all blogs to the information on a Kindle -- I'll want their Google calendar and my class blog to download automatically. It is too hard to add info to the Kindle now unless you publish a book, and then it is easier. Need an ebook of some kind.
Digital Media and Learning Competition
Young innovators award from HASTAC and the McArthur foundation -- this is targeted to innovators aged 18-25 with original, participator learning projects. (I'm not young but am working on another grant with this organization as well.) Apps are due October 15th so get going!
The Generation Project: Empower Your Vision for the Future
"Jessica Rauch is the August winner of ideablob.com’s monthly contest for The Generation Project. The Generation Project allows potential donors and philanthropists to give back to students based on their own interests. For example, a writer might sponsor a poetry contest or a cancer survivor could sponsor hospital internships. Jessica will be awarded $10,000 to help launch the first phase of the program, which will start next year in New York City and Chicago."
From Ideablob - a place where people who want to receive funding can submit their idea.
