Voice Thread

Voice Thread continues to be one of my favorite tools for Web 2.0 in the classroom. Check out this excellent project by elementary students. I will definitely use this tool in my lesson planning for next year:

Redesigned National Archives Website

The National Archives has recently redesigned its website. The site is very easy to use with excellent multimedia effects. Students will have the opportunity to explore digital vaults, where they can build their own personalized collection. Pages are interactive. Students can create their own projects, such as a poster. This site is worth exploring this summer for lesson plan ideas.

Learning facts vs. creativity

Here is an interesting professional development tip from TechLearning.com: "In fact, the world is changing even faster than schools. Instead of requiring workers who've memorized facts, the workplace needs knowledge workers who can think on their own and who are innovative and creative. This shift will require that teachers adapt their teaching methods. The difference between knowledge and information is that information is what you know and knowledge is what you do with that information." Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader?

I agree and disagree with this statement. An educated person needs a strong informaton base in order to function in the professional world. Memorization is an important part of building this base: In fact, Dr. Yoshiro NakaMats (arguably the most creative individual on the planet) argues for the Japanese education method of memorization up to the age of 20 in order to develop the human brain. See What a Great Idea by Charles "Chic" Thompson. I still find memorization to be an excellent thinking exercise.

In elementary school, I see young students struggle with the creative process, when they lack sufficient factual knowledge of a subject. For example, how can you make a digital story about the Civil War, if you lack an information base. I recall one student came across General John Pope while studying the Second Battle of Bull Run. Naturally, when he did a search on him, he got the Pope. His research project had all kinds of information about the Roman Catholic Pope's role in the battle.

At the same time, I agree with the TechLearning statement that innovation and creativity are the necessary tools for today's workplace. The challenge as an educator is to provide students with sufficient factual knowledge with which to face a world of innovation and creativity.

Another photo site

Here is a great site mentioned in Walt Mossberg's blog from the Wall Street Journal: It's called shwup (www.shwup.com), and it's a free way to share photos in a common album. The problem with most photo sites, such as Flickr, is they aren't child safe. Just about anything shows up on them. This is a site worth checking out for safety.

Re-blogged: World Without Oil Game

This post on Education For Well-being is worth checking out: World Without Oil Game June 4, 2008 WWO Site - WWO Lesson plans for teachers
I've checked the site out, and it would provide a great lesson opportunity in the upper grades. The site is a little confusing at first. A good place to start is the archive page.

New child safety tool

"Kids' Net Access Gets Close Scrutiny From Symantec" by Jeremy Kirk, in the May 23 issuse of PC World describes the new service by Semantec that allows parental control of net access for their children. It will be released in March, 2009. I could not locate anything on their web site; however, it will be worth watching for their beta versions.

I am whelmed.

Here's a concept for digital storytelling that I really like: It's called whelming. Check out the page below from Jake Jacobs' Discovery Channel Page. It is the concept of finding excitement and curiosity in simple messages. Too often we begin our creative process with concepts and ideas that are too complicated; then when we build a web site or lesson plan, it crashes and we blame the "technology." Thanks to Joe Brennan's post in his blog Digital Storytelling for making me aware of this concept.

The Cognitive Age

David Brooks in a NY Times editorial speaks of "The Cognitive Age" as an alternative view of globalization. The fact that technological change is what drives the world, not globalization, is an interesting concept and one that again falls in line with James Burke's connections theory. Each new invention is a trigger that sets in motion a series of changes in the world. The ability to recognize that becomes the cognitive age. Thanks to Mike Eisenberg's post on the Big6 Blog for calling this editorial to my attention.