Look out Wikispaces and Wetpaint Google just entered the wiki market and their product is SLICK!

There is HUGE potential with this one!

Check it out here.

News Master Robin Good does a great review here.

Check it out.

So how does google work?

This question comes up more and more as people marvel at how quickly the answers to their questions are given right back to them. Explaining how google gets those answers back to you so quickly is something few people are aware of.

Before you read on, check out this great visual answer to this complicated question.

I read the Google Story this summer and highly recommend it. It reveals really interesting insights into the minds and ideas that helped shape what is arguably the most innovative companies of our time. Google is always in the news and continues to shape the definition of “SEARCH” in new and exciting ways.

If you do nothing else, turn to the back of the book and just read through the google “entrance exam”. This test is given to all prospective job candidates and is unlike any test you will find in our schools today. Why?

It asks questions you cannot prepare for in advance.

It asks for original thought on the spot.

It asks for creativity on the spot.

It asks questions will many possible answers and possibly no answers.

You can find a sample here

When you hire creative, outside of the box thinkers and support them, great things can happen.

Well worth your weekend.

I am always amazed at the incredible pace at which new online applications and services get released. Each one seems to out do the other and provide a fantastic free service in exchange for your attention, and user information.

That was until I found Animoto.

Animoto takes the cake!

Click here to see what I created in less that 4 minutes!

Animoto.com is a web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos, each a customized orchestration of your images and music.

Amazing!

What a great way to show off our new library in a new and easy way.

Back to school parent night is coming up this week at ISB and no doubt many teachers will rely on Powerpoint or iPhoto to tell their class story. Who will dare go with Animoto?

I’ll find someone

Big thanks to our new 21st century literacy specialist Kim Cofino for the photos.

Hat tip to Robin Good and his “Be Smart, Be Independent, Be Good” blog for this resource. A fantastic resource on the world of online publishing. If you are looking for a web 2.0 maven, he is mine.

ANIMOTO is…………………….

Just finished watching “A Crude Awakening. A powerful documentary that provides an excellent overview of the current state of fossil fuel and energy consumption across the globe and the issues that it generates. The movie reminded me of just how powerful audio and visual media can be to teach others. In just under two hours I not only had a new and interesting perspective on the global energy crisis but more importantly I had new questions, thoughts and ideas that I had never had before. I was interested in more discussion and I wanted to share my perspective. The power of visuals , music and media to enhance teaching and learning is incredible. Of course balance and timing are key to the success of any teaching aid. Show them too often or too long, students tune out. We can all remember teachers who put movies on far too often and the effect it had on the class. That is not what I’m talking about. I am talking about the well time clip that ties in perfectly to your lesson and unit. The one that explains and shows things in way no image or written passage ever could.

Now with great screen capturing technology like the one that comes with SMART board notebook , Camtasia tor even just OS X (Apple + shift + 4) these moments can be captured and revisited. So many new and cool ways to make thinking and questioning go DEEPER!

I just had to share this one moment from the film by capturing this very important diagram.

Questions I would ask students to promote deeper thinking:

What does this diagram say about what we value?

Is the price per gallon proportional or disproportinal to the return on investment?

What questions would you ask? 

Geography, Social Studies , T.O.K and History teachers take note. This film is gold!

You can order a copy here.

As educators around the world slowly wake up to the possibilities and opportunities that many of the new web tools afford, the world gallops ahead. It is always the business community that seems to be the early adopters  of tools that can increase and enhance collaboration, communication and creative thought. The global work-space has shrunk but the hours in the day have not and as a result any tool that can allow for collaboration independent of time and space has many appealing merits. One recent site caught my eye as a emerging resource for business, economics and math teachers: Wiki Invest.  What better way to get skeptical teachers on board to the virtues of collaborative technologies than to expose them to resources that will not only enhance their classrooms but their portfolio’s as well :).  In all the in-services that I lead last year, the most well attended were for resources that helped teachers outside the classroom (itunes, iphoto, image editing, movie making etc.). Perhaps I should re-think our schedule of offerings this year?

This resource is new but gathering steam.  I especially like the concepts section of the site which at a quick glance provides an extensive resource of all of the current issues facing global business today.  Notice “sub prime lending” as one of the most popular?

Relevant, engaging and meaningful.  The way learning resources should be.

I can think of so many subjects areas that a movie like this would fit into.

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our live.

As “visual literacy” creeps into the curriculum and wakes up to Marshall McLuhan idea of the “medium being the message” its nice to know that movie like this are being produced. Think of the conversations.