If you are teaching chemistry or anything about the earth and its elements you have to use this little gem.

You can find it here

I love this site it because it gives the viewer all of the “traditional information” about the periodic table but does so in a visual/interactive way. If the cool and interesting facts about each elements were not enough the site also provides you with links to “find out more”.

Thanks to Techlearning.com for this one.

If you have not subscribed to the Techlearning RSS, do it today, you won’t regret it.

Love this article:

“Computers’ role in classrooms questioned”
- The Daily Princetonian
- Tuesday, February 13, 2007

It seems that even the mighty institution of Princeton is being forced to wake up and smell the change. As laptops invade the classroom of our universities and professors refine their powerpoint skills to digitize their entire courses problems are emerging.

Professors are boring their students with mind numbing stacks of slides and students are paying more attention to their screens than to their professors.

Nevertheless, the University recognizes the benefits of laptop access in lecture accompanying its various distractions. Leydon noted that laptops cannot be outlawed from the classroom but must be regulated in some way. “Students learn in many different ways, and we must learn to accommodate that,” she said. “We are certainly not, at this point, looking at a ban on laptop use.”

Wait a second!

Does this mean that pedagody and intructional stretegy is not the sole concern of K – 12 education?

Yikes! What has the world come to.

Of couse university students are responsible for their own learning but why should we not hear university professors uttering the following phrases.

“For those of you with laptops, lower your lids for a moment, this is an important point!”

“Turn to your neighbour for a moment and comment on the following……….”

“Stop typing for a moment , lower your lids and imagine…………..”

“Think for a moment about…………., now share your thought with……….”

When did classroom management stop being the concern of professors. I have had my share of awful professors throughout my university and post graduate career. The only instructional strategy ever employed was didactic and that was on the best of days.

So profressors:

There are new tools in the classroom and they can be distracting. Make an effort understand the tool and how it can enhance the learning experience as well as take away from it and you are one more step closer to connecting with your students. Take the class by the horns and direct student attention. That is your job!
Energize, excite and engage your students. They are asking for it!

“PowerPoint slideshows were another concern addressed during the meeting. Though they are the standard format for many Princeton lectures, doubts surfaced yesterday regarding their merit as a method of instruction.

Slideshows posted on Blackboard, suspected to be a widespread excuse for truancy, are PowerPoint’s second pitfall, the panelists said.

Why would you attend class if everything that was said in class was on a powerpoint? If there is no added value with attendance then way attend? Powerpoints have killed the lecture and students are starting to call for more.

Again it all about understanding the TOOL!

Powerpoint can enhance a lecture/class but should NEVER replace it.

It all comes down to good teaching, and when I am paying for it, should I not expect it?

Spread the word and expect more!

March 1, 2007
“After Years of Telling All, 20-Somethings Start to Clam Up ” – - ABC News

“Faced with professional and emotional consequences many younge people are now rethinking what they post onto the internet.”

My first thoughts on this
1) Why does this make news?

2) Why are we so surprised? This news means young people are LEARNING. This medium brings with it incredible opportunities but also massive responsibilities. This shift to web awareness comes off the back of the countless number of people who have been burned by inappropriatly posted picture or comment that got into the wrong hands.

Students as well as professionals are now just as responsible for their reputation online as they are for it off it.

Who is teaching them these skills and responsibilities ?

Is it built into the curriculum?

If it is a big enough story to capture the attention of ABC News, should it not be?

 It’s not “blogging” , it’s “writing and reflection”

It’s not a “wiki”, it’s a tool for “collaboration and sharing.”

It’s not “web 2.0″ it’s “the here and now”

If you are reading this then you are converted or at least awake to a new conversation.  You are reading these words  through (I hope)  a critical lens  and will  take the ideas here along with the countless others you have sifted though to form your own thoughts, conclusions to the betterment of your classrooms and schools.
But  what about those people who stop at the word “blog”?

These are the same people who cannot understand why someone would want to write and share their thoughts and ideas to an invisible audience for no other reason than to share.  The word “blog” is a barrier.

For many the word “blog” still means online diary. Memories of the media frenzy in the not so distant past where these “new” websites received good press and bad still ring loudly. They cannot move past the personal nature of the websites, the bias and the questionable authority. Since it is online is somehow escapes the basic filters that we would apply to any editorial or op-ed piece that we might find in a book, magazine or newspaper.

Why ?

Because the medium is the message and this medium is new and different and the message is scary!

So what to do?

How do we support our colleagues  and bring them into the conversation.

Stop using the “buzz words”  – Soon blog and wiki elements will appear in most sites it is our job to show how these elements can enhance the information experience but also hinder it.  Leave “blog” out of it and focus on the “participation”.

I know that “blogs” and “wikis” have names for a reason and are fundamentally different from their Web 1.0 counterparts but I am past that. I want the unconverted and I am looking for interesting ways to support them and get them thinking.

That is why I have dropped the “terms” and focused on the “uses”.   It seems to be working……………..

…………….but I am always looking for more ideas.

Got any to share?