Fireside Learning

Conversations About Education

"Wooing the Literate Gamer"

CoverItLive Session on Cooked on Education by Mark Spahr:
Ruben Puentedura: Wooing the Literate Gamer

Interview as Inquiry Wiki

Sarah Sutter's Interview as Inquiry Wiki

Scratch Workshop Wiki

Sarah Sutter's Scratch Workshop Wiki

Twittering for Education

Update from Setting the Sail, the 2009 Summer Institute for teachers organized by MLTI.
It's 10:10 am, Friday July 31st (can you believe it???), and I just dropped in a session led by Shawn Kimball, which you may find on his wiki - http://twitterforeducation.wikispaces.com/.
Hope you will find it helpful.

OER, MLR & Wikis

MLR OER Workshop

MLR OER Home Page

Games for Change at Summer Tech Institute Castine

by Ed Latham and Olga LaPlante

Please select one of the questions below and respond to it as a comment. If you would like people to know who you are, but you do not wish to log into Blogger, you may include your name in your comment.


1. What do students need to know about a community's energy needs?

2. If students were given control of energy policy, what might the outcome look like?

3. Briefly share one example of an activity you provide students in which the student can quickly and easily try different scenarios to see results.

Videogames in Education

Ruben R. Puentedura, Ph.D.

Founder and President
Hippasus
228 Main Street, #412
Williamstown, MA 01267
(413) 441-6467
rubenrp@hippasus.com

http://hippasus.com

Videogames are becoming a progressively more important component of teaching today. They can provide learners with rich worlds and complex narratives that both enhance and transform their educational experience in previously unexplored ways. Because of this, we are pleased to announce that, as part of a joint research project between MLTI and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Dr. Ruben Puentedura has created a 14-part podcast series on videogames in education. This mini-course, available now in its entirety from iTunes U, provides educators with the knowledge needed to successfully use educational gaming in their classroom. The podcast series will be supplemented by ongoing posts and discussions on Dr. Puentedura's blog, with more materials to be announced in the coming months.

iTunes U URL:
http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/education-maine.gov.
2246057621

Blog: http://hippasus.com/rrpweblog/

Welcome to the 2009 MLTI Summer Institute at Castine

"Setting Sail"

Wicked Decent Learning Call In Show

From Jeff & Dan:

"Join us for a Wicked Decent Listener Call In Show... Tell us what excites you about the upcoming school year."

"We are scheduling another Wicked Decent Listener show via Skype on Tuesday, July 28th at 8:00PM Eastern Standard Time. If you'd like to join us, all you have to do is..."

MORE . . .

Yong Zhao: A 21st Century Education

A 21st Century Education: No Child Left Behind and Global Competitiveness

Related: "A Tender Promise"

Aligning Open Educational Resources to the Maine Learning Results

Workshop LINK

Home Page of MLR Open Resources

Setting Sail at Castine

Setting Sail 2009, the MLTI Summer Institute, will be happening this week. For additional information, check here. Feel free to join the Learning in Maine Community to share information and happenings at the Institute.

Sign Up

Reading and the Web

Essential Question: Is there a difference between reading a book and reading on the Internet?

Audio Interview with Don Leu on New Literacies

NYT: Online, R U Really Reading?

DistrictAdministration: New Literacies

Don Leu et al.: "Toward a Theory of New Literacies Emerging from the Internet and Other Information and Communication Technologies"

David Warlick: "The New Literacy"

MICDL: Maine Professional Development Collaborative - New Literacies Research Lab

Avoiding Pretentious Words

"Never use a long word where a short one will do." ~ George Orwell

utilize . . .use
exceedingly . . .very
sufficient . . .enough
commence . . . begin (or start)
demonstrate . . . show
accordingly . . . .so
cognizant . . . aware
facilitate . . . assist
transform . . . alter (or convert)
assessment . . . test
implementation . . . taking action
initiative . . .project

Educational Jargon Generator

Weasel Words
Weasel Words: The Dictionary of American Doublespeak

Online Visual Thesaurus
Thesaurus.com

"I'm Here"

Thanks to the PLN, Ernie Easter, Deb Barrow, Paul Reynolds, and others for pointing this video out:

Playing with Words: Alliteration

"Avoid Alliteration Always - I do!"

Read•Write•Think: Lesson Plan: Alliteration in Headline Poems
Read•Write•Think: All About Alliteration
Alliteration Lesson Plans and Resources
Suite 101: Alliteration Lesson Plan
"I'm Going on a Trip" Game
Mrs. Dowling's Literature Terms: Alliteration
The Tongue Twister Database
1st International Collection of Tongue Twisters

Netbooks & Education

I just received my netbook in the mail this morning. It is an Asus Eee PC 1005HA-V 10.1-Inch Black. Wow . . . what a joy to work/play with this little gem today. I immediately switched out the 1 gig of memory for 2 gigs . . .then trashed the trial version of MS Office and some other unnecessary stuff. Before trashing Internet Explorer, I downloaded Google Chrome and Firefox. I then added OpenOffice, Audacity, Google Earth, SketchUp, Scratch, iTunes, Skype and Picasa. I noted that MS Moviemaker and Norton Antivirus were included with the original software . . . which was a plus.

I was pleasantly surprised how peppy the netbook is and how quickly it downloads photos, videos, and software files. Plugging it into a 20" flat screen monitor for work that might require more real estate worked without a hitch.

First Impression: It might be small, but this is no toy. It is a powerful device for getting serious work done. I was particularly impressed with how well Google Earth and SketchUp responded. Nifty!

Now, it could be argued that the netbooks are fine and dandy but that they don't have the necessary power for content creation such as higher end laptops or desktops . . . and that that is the direction schools should be headed, not in the direction of simply reading and writing text. For this viewpoint, read this:: The Netbook Fad in Education.

Here's a more balanced view: Netbooks or Notebooks?

Other reflections:

Learning in Hand - Netbooks
1 to 1 Netbook Trial
Clarence Fisher: OS and Education
Teaching with Netbooks
Richard Byrne: Netbook vs. Cheap Notebook Decision

It will be interesting to see what the verdict is on netbooks in education a few years down the road. Will they be durable enough to stand up to student use? Will they allow a new way of learning?



I invite you to add to the lists below. Who is going to start? Simply put your addition in comments and I'll add it here with your name.


What can netbooks do?


What can they not do?


Final question: Which list is going to be longer?

Education History

150 Years of Education in Maine

K-12 Education in Maine

American Educational History Timeline

History of American Education Web Project

John's History of Education

Wikipedia: History of Education

Gatto: The Underground History of American Education

American Educational History: Some Helpful Hints

SCHOOL: The History of American Public Education

The History of Education in America

Editable Archive on Education History at LIM Wiki

Photo Credit: Otisfield Schools @ Maine Memory

Corporations, Democracy & Schooling

In Life Inc., Douglas Rushkoff speaks of the dominance of corporations and how we all accept this as a given, not questioning motives or the effects on our humanity. This of course gets into the question, asked previously here, of whom schools are for? What should the purpose of schools be?

Life Inc. The Movie from Douglas Rushkoff on Vimeo.

Amazon: Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back

Alfie Kohn: The 500 Pound Gorilla: The Corporate Role in the High-stakes Obsession & Other Methods of Turning Education into a Business

Reclaim Democracy.org: Corporations and Our Schools

The Ninth Annual Report on Schoolhouse Commercialism Trends: 2005 - 2006

Consumers Union: Captive Kids: A Report on Commercial Pressures on Kids at Schools

PTAs and Commercialism in Schools

Deborah Meier: Democracy-friendly Education

Meier: What Does It Take to Build a School for Democracy?

Meier: Educating a Democracy