TED: Can kids teach themselves?
Another great talk from TED that looks at how the human brain in built to learn.
Avoid the pitfalls of increasing the web presence of your classroom
An editorial in The Star today by Lee Rimer is a great reminder that as we infuse our schools with computers and innovation we have to be mindful that what we are doing is adding value to the equation. The article critiques the online push of the University environment, with class notes, assignments and tests [...]
Technology in the science classroom
A post today by Brian at ‘Learning is Messy’ has engaged some of my over-arching thoughts on technology in education. I am a strong proponent of technology in the classroom, but I carry a mighty asterisk when I say that, because what I actually support is meaningful technology in the classroom. Brian correctly uses a [...]
Australian schools to collect ‘facebook’ like data from all students
An interesting development out of Australia as students in Queensland may be forced to have their photos, interests, and aspirations profiled in a massive database meant to help educators keep track of their progress. The idea from Queensland’s Education Minister, Rod Welford, is to collect this data so that schools and teachers can track student [...]
Using Google Earth to visualize the size of the solar system
I am a huge fan of Google Earth, and use it extensively for geotagging photos, as well as general exploring of the miraculous planet we call home. I have also had great success with using Google Earth in the classroom, and one of the short activities I like to do is plotting the relative distances [...]
Andes had growth spurt of 2.5km over 4 million years
A group of scientists claim to have new evidence that shows the Andes grew 2.5km over a 4 million year span.
Carmala Garzione of the University of Rochester in New York State, US, and colleagues say the sudden rise was caused by a huge layer of dense rock dropping off the underside of the crust that [...]
Earth Knowledge plots environmental news on map of world
Earth Knowledge is an environmental news portal that aggregates news from around the Internet and plots it on a map of the world. It sports a slick well designed layout, and provides a simple filtering system for different types of environmental news divided into the categories: Biological Diversity, Land, Water and Climate. Each of those [...]
Homemade multi-touch surface interface
Not to be outdone by the current rage surrounding the homemade Wii remote interactive white board comes a homemade multi-touch surface. A simple webcam, a box, a piece of glass and tracing paper allows you to interact with your Windows machine through a multi-touch interface. These interfaces are being developed by a number of companies, [...]
