March 7

March 7

In the News
Blogging Clicks With Colleges - Interactive Web Pages Changing Class Participation:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25305-2005Mar10.html?sub=AR
Wikis create freewheeling, collaborative communities for students to edit one another's work and bounce ideas around.

Fisher College expels student over website entries: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/10/06/fisher_college_expels_student_over_website_entries/
A Fisher College sophomore has been expelled for comments he posted on the student networking website Facebook. The action marks the first time a college has expelled a student for a posting on the popular website, which hosts discussion groups and personal profiles, according to a spokesman for Facebook.

Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds: http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia030905pkg.cfm
A typical American child 8-18 is likely to live in a home with 3 TVs, 3 VCRs, 3 CD/tape players, 2 video game consoles, and a computer, found the study, conducted at Stanford University, and "the computer probably has an Internet connection and an instant messaging program." But here's the rub: the media access in a typical child's bedroom. More than two-thirds of 8-to-18-year-olds have a TV in their own rooms, more than half a VCR, and 49% a game console that connects to a TV (83% have a game console in their homes); 31% have a desktop computer, 12% a laptop; 20% are connected to the Net in their rooms, 18% have instant-messaging; 40% have a landline phone in their rooms, 39% a cell phone, and 55% have either or both. As for rules about this media use: "Fewer 8-to-18-year-olds live in a home where an attempt is made to regulate media behavior than live in homes where no such
attempt is made."
As for computer time (p. 30), on average, US kids spend more than twice as much time on the computer now than they did in 1999, and the proportion of children using the computer more than an hour a day has gone from 15% to 28% during that time. Chat and email use have remained about the same - instant-messaging, which barely existed in '99, has gone from zero to kids' second most time-consuming computer activity, at 17 minutes a day (after games, at 19 min.). Gender differences aren't great. Girls' top 3 activities are IM (20 min.), Web sites (this includes blogs/online journals - 16 min.), and games (15 min.). Boys' are games (22
min.), IM (14 min.), and Web sites (12 min.). The study covered so much more, including kids' multitasking and household "media norms" (e.g., no TV till homework's done and Web-surfing supervision).

IPods Fast Becoming New Teacher's Pet:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/18/AR2005101801670.html
Rather than fighting the fad, some educators are capitalizing on the popularity of iPods by re-imagining them as learning tools.

Learning in the 21st Century: http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/downloads/P21_Report.pdf
"The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a unique public-private organization formed in 2002 to create a successful model of learning for this millennium that incorporates 21st century skills into our system of education."

New Kids on the Blog: http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0510/blogging.html
Teachers are hitting the Web in a new way, as they guide students in exciting, online writing and collaboration. Called blogs, these Web journals are the latest way to inspire.

OneCalendar: http://www.trumba.com/t.aspx?e=CgCC8Iw7bY**aDcX734cYrSDR5Bit*RWfwOIK*C9qvWPfQ!!X
Trumba's new free calendar tool, OneCalendar, is designed to connect teachers and parents.

Prospective students get a glimpse into student lifestyle: http://www.scu.edu/news/releases/release.cfm?month=1005&story=blog
Santa Clara University (CA) has launched a student recruitment initiative using text and photo blogs written by five students posting weekly updates of their life at Santa Clara. The goal is to provide prospective students with authentic, firsthand accounts of student life.

School of the Future gets high-tech makeover: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/education/story/82B7EE36585EA02E8625712E001C99CF?OpenDocument

Teachers use high-tech devices to capture students' interest:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/education/20051016-9999-1m16edtech.html
With today's students born into a world saturated with cell phones, iPods and instant messaging, a growing chorus of technology experts say teachers must engage young people on their terms or risk boring them.

Computer in the Classroom
I created a web page that contains links for how to incorporate the computer if you only have one (or two or three!) in your classroom: http://studyplans.com/onecomputer.htm

Center for Children and Technology: http://www2.edc.org/CCT/
"At EDC's Center for Children and Technology, we investigate the roles that technology can play in improving teaching and learning inside and outside the classroom. We also design and develop technology applications that support engaged, active learning in formal and informal settings."

http://thefreedictionary.com/ is a free Website that combines a dictionary, encyclopedia and thesaurus into one simple search. Students can find definitions and information about subjects they research for school or are interested in learning about. The Website offers standard definitions in addition to pictures, synonyms, antonyms, explanations, and related words.

New Culture of Teaching for the 21st Century: http://www.edletter.org/dc/wiske.htm
"To maximize the benefits of technological innovation, we need to change the way we think about teaching in K-12 schools"

Pew Internet and American Life Project: http://www.pewinternet.org/
This sites content changes frequently but always has to do with the Internet and how it is used in America.

Technology and Educational Revolution: Ending the Cycle of Failure: http://www.tltgroup.org/resources/V_Cycle_of_Failure.html

Excel
Num Sum: http://numsum.com/
Num Sum is a Web-based "social" spreadsheet. You create your spreadsheet online and share the Web address with others. They can make changes and additions to it. Once you start using Num Sum, you'll find many uses for it in the classroom. Just remember that anyone can access the information, so be careful about what you post.

Multimedia Presentations
Buy It With Little Farmer: http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/java/buyit/BuyIt.html

Center for Media Literacy-MediaLit Kit: http://www.medialit.org/bp_mlk.html

Educational Java Programs: http://www.arcytech.org/java/

MouthPower Online: http://www.mouthpower.org/
from the National Museum of Dentistry and the American Dental Association
Primary audience: 8-11 year old children (individually or in youth group)
The secret of a healthy smile is simple: taking good care of your teeth. And what's the best way to find out how to do that? Let Mouthie take you into the MouthPower laboratory. Experiment to find the healthiest choices about food, tobacco, and cleaning habits. Explore the history of dentistry and the story of your own teeth! Then create your own poster about healthy mouth habits.

Multimedia Educational Materials Using Flash: http://www.tygh.co.uk/index.html

The Newest Media and a Principled Approach for Integrating Technology Into Instruction: http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=9535
When and how should new media be incorporated into instruction? Two leaders in instructional technology and cognitive science from Carnegie Mellon University offer concrete suggestions from their experience, illustrated by applications of new media by the Open Learning Initiative at CMU.

The Reconstructors Solve Medical Mysteries: http://medmyst.rice.edu/
Built and designed with funding from the National Institutes of Health, "MedMyst" is a new online game from researchers at Rice University that invites students to solve mysteries about infectious diseases. While playing the roles of scientist, historian, and detective, students learn how infectious diseases are spread as they join a team of elite medical minds to determine the cause of a futuristic plague that has left millions dead and is threatening the collapse of civilization. In all, there are three missions for students to explore. For teachers, the site contains a resource page that includes printable worksheets for use in the classroom, as well as a number of useful links for building lesson plans around infectious diseases and other health-related topics.

The World at Your Fingertips: http://glef.org/php/article.php?id=Art_307&key=137

Creating a template allows you to create a base document once, then modify it each time you want to use it.
To do this, first, create your document in Word, for instance. If creating a letter, for example, you would need the beginning and ending information, but leave out the body. If you have a logo, you can scan it into your computer and have Word import it.
When you're finished, click File>>Save As. At the bottom of the Save As window, find Save as Type. Click the down arrow and select Document Template. Enter a name for the file--for instance, Business Letter--in the File Name box.
Click the down arrow in the box next to Save In. Select the Desktop.
Now, when you want to write a business letter, go to the desktop.
Double-click the Business Letter icon.
Microsoft has free templates in Word and on its site. To access the templates in Word, click File>>New. Under Templates, click "On my computer." There's a better selection of templates on the Microsoft Web site at:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT011408831033.aspx

This site began in March 1998 and was created by Janet Luch. This page was last updated on January 19, 2007 .
Email to studyplans@yahoo.com.