Saturday, December 6, 2008

Sticky Notes


Mainers, Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, of Diet Coke/Mentos YouTube fame, experiment with the many uses of stickies:



WikiHow: How to Use Sticky Notes
Wikipedia: Post-It Notes . . . history and background
Awesome Alternative Uses for the Humble Post-It Note


What uses do you have for stickies?
(Click here to share in "LIM Discussion")



Related Links:

The Odd Company
Celebration Theater
Eepy Bird
Oddfellow Theater

Photo Credit: Bah Hoonchback @ OddFellow Theater in Buckfield, Maine


Federal Secretary of Education?




U.S. Department of Education








Here are some different viewpoints on who should be the next Secretary of Education gathered from Google News.

Amanda Ripley @ Time
David Brooks @ NY Times
Dan Brown @ Huffington Post
Seyward Darby @ The New Republic
Washington Post Editorial

Google Alert on New Secretary

Who do you prefer for the position?

"A distinguishing characteristic of our nation — and a great strength — is the development of our institutions within the concept of individual worth and dignity. Our schools are among the guardians of that principle. Consequently . . . and deliberately their control and support throughout our history have been — and are — a state and local responsibility. . . . Thus was established a fundamental element of the American public school system — local direction by boards of education responsible immediately to the parents of children. Diffusion of authority among tens of thousands of school districts is a safeguard against centralized control and abuse of the educational system that must be maintained. We believe that to take away the responsibility of communities and states in educating our children is to undermine not only a basic element of our freedoms but a basic right of our citizens." ~President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Pros & Cons of Twitter

Twitter - What are you doing?


CommonCraft "In Plain English"











Twitter4Teachers Wiki
Twitter as a News Source
Tweeting the Terror: How Social Media Reacted to Mumai




Essential Question: What is the upside and downside of Twitter?



Cartoon Credit












Essential Question: What do we gain and lose from using Twitter?


Cartoon Credit





Why Teens Don't Tweet


Something New: Tweach!
50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom

Hurray for Western Maine!

by Richard Byrne

The official 2008 Edublog Awards nominees were announced last night. Four people from Western Maine were nominated. Jim Burke was nominated in the category of Best Educational Wiki 2008 for the Learning in Maine wiki. Jeff and Dan at Wicked Decent Learning were nominated for Best Educational Use of Audio. My blog Free Technology for Teachers was nominated for Best Resource Sharing Blog.

The voting is open now. You can see the full list of nominees and place your votes here.

Monday, December 1, 2008

TelstarToo: Creating and Using Movies

Crescent Park School 3:30 - 7:30, Monday, December 1. All are welcome!

LINK

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Maine Tech Integrators List




A list is being compiled of Maine educators involved in using technology in schools. Please help by adding/updating your information as well as that of others your know. Also think about adding areas that you have expertise in and would be willing to share with others. Roles/titles are not important . . . only that individuals are promoting the use of technology in education in some way and are willing to share.

Edit List Here
Photo Credit

Gratitude



A "thank you" to Michael Richards of Notes from Millie D for introducing me to iSpeech.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Laptops in the Classroom?

Why do some teachers/professors ban laptops, etc. from their classrooms? This wiki collects comments, responses, and reasoning on this issue.

"Search Millions of Historic Photos"


LIFE has teamed up with Google to provide a wonderful archive of historic photos. What a great resource for all!


Other Historical Photo Resources:

Picturing Modern America 1880 - 1920
Picture Collections
Historial Photographs
Digital History: Images
Historial Picture Collections
Maine Memory Network

Monday, November 24, 2008

21st Century English Framework


The Partnership for 21st Skills and National Council of Teachers of English have created a new framework for teaching 21st Century skills in English classes.

PDF for English Class Download

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

Lemonade




















Maine school budgets are being curtailed. Superintendents are scrambling to find ways to balance their spreadsheets. In many cases, this is going to have to involve reducing or eliminating professional development days and travel, among many other cuts.

Question: We know the downside, but what are the opportunities?

Poster Generators

Lemonade Stand (Cool Math)
Lemonade Stand (ClassBrain)
Lemonade Stand (PrimaryGames)
Lemonade Stand (4WebGames)

Photo Credit

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Chris Lehmann & Others on Change

Thanks to Nathaniel Porter of View from the Corner Room I've been pointed to the direction of a couple of Chris Lehmann presentations.

K12 Online Conference (Lehmann bio and slower presentation)
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach: 21st Century Collaborative
Dimensions Of Change
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: maineducation08)


Essential Question: How do we go about making change?