This is the 201st anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and you’re probably celebrating it by anticipating Valentine’s Day with your students. Monday will be the official Presidents’ Day celebration with the usual day off or institute or something along those lines. “When I was a kid” in the middle of the last century, when there [...]
We probably all associate a favorite quote to people we listen to and read. For better or worse. “Well intentioned paperwork” is my favorite from Jason Ohler. He uses it to describe most of our “traditional” assignments and assessments. I bring this up because I am beginning to teach my 9th section of Digital Storytelling [...]
Nothing very sinister here. That’s just the deadline in the latest round of BrainyFlix vocabulary videos contest. Winners split the $600 Grand Prize with their school and anybody (up to the first 900) who submits 3 videos gets an iTunes gift card. This is a great way to visualize vocabulary in any language as [...]
What’s Your Issue Foundation‘s mission “is to provide a unique national platform for young adults to propose creative solutions to some of our nation’s most important challenges and for that voice to be heard, honored, and acted upon by leaders in government, the media, the private sector, and the nonprofit world.” They’ve just opened the [...]
The Great Minds Foundation is starting the year with its newest challenge to create a 2-5 minute video on something that “you’d like your peers to be more aware of (such as anti-smoking, anti-drugs, anti-violence, or random acts of kindness, etc.)” This is open to high school and college students. You have until June 1st, [...]
I have always felt that one of the recurring gifts of teaching was hearing from or about former students who were successful (I even taught and coached with a few). I got a bit of that feeling Sunday morning when I was thumbing through the USA Weekend insert in our Sunday paper and Spotted the [...]
In spite of suspicions of “coercion,” the latest winner in the BrainyFlix series of vocabulary competitions has been announced. Kind of reminds me of a B movie I saw once about a high school sub who is really ex-Green Beret or something and comes in to clean up discipline in the school. Keep checking in [...]
The Department of Education’s “I am What I Learn” voting closes today (http://www.ed.gov/iamwhatilearn/index.html). Pick your three favorites from the ten finalists. Then, if you can find a little extra time, share your opinion of those student thoughts on the role of education in their lives in a comment below.
Just got this reminder from the good folks at BrainyPics: ***This Is Your Final Week to Submit Brainypics*** We’ll be picking the LAST 5 FINALISTS who will compete for our $200 Grand Prize and win themselves iTunes songs. Ooooohhhhh~ We won’t be setting a special theme this week. Just make your Brainypics funny and memorable. [...]
I just want to remind you all of the Department of Education’s invitation to have students (13 years and older) share the importance and relevance that their education has and will have in their lives. The deadline is Monday, November 2nd. Reposted from September 26th: I am what I Learn Apparently, that’s what the Department [...]
Saturday, October 24, 2009 9 AM to 4 PM ET Click here to register for the virtual sessions. 10. College football is overrated. 9. The digital treats you’ll take away won’t cause cavities. 8. You can attend in your pajamas (virtually or in-person, we’re flexible). 7. Two full hours of the soothing sounds of [...]
One of the contests that tickles this old linguistics guy’s fancy is the one a couple of MIT alumni run celebrating vocabulary words: Brainyflix and Brainypics. This time they are starting out with a Brainypics flashcard contest, in which students create interesting sentences and pair them up with memorable pictures as a visual cue. Between [...]
Upload a 1-2 minute video, podcast, or other multimedia file that explains how you use Discovery Education resources to engage your students. Whether you take students on virtual field trips, or guide students as they produce their own multimedia projects, we’d like to share your ideas with the entire Discovery Education community. Each submitter will [...]
I’ve been getting a few questions from Mac users (including myself) who recently updated to Mac OSX 10.6 wondering what happened to their Flip camcorder accessibility. Turns out it’s just a matter of re-installing the latest Flip software and/or adding Perian to your bag of tricks in order to get the 3ivx codec. Now go [...]
Apparently, that’s what the Department of Education thinks and would like to hear students’ thinking on that in a 2 minute video. And by student they mean “an active middle, secondary or college student 13 years or older.” I’m sure they set 13 as the starting point because of YouTube’s terms of service. If sharing [...]
Apparently, that’s what the Department of Education thinks and would like to hear students’ thinking on that in a 2 minute video. And by student they mean “an active middle, secondary or college student 13 years or older.” I’m sure they set 13 as the starting point because of YouTube’s terms of service. If sharing [...]
When I retired from teaching 3 years ago I thought I’d have plenty of time to spend with my grandchildren, keep up with educational technology, and get serious about playing the banjo and guitar. So, one out of three ain’t bad, right? .333 would just about make me an all-star in baseball. And the grandbabies [...]
Michael Hakkarinen took on the iMovie webinar duties on August 6th and diplomatically stuck with iMovie HD6, avoiding the iMovie ’08 and ’09 quagmire. I won’t stick my foot in that (or my mouth) right now except to say that if you have iMovie ’08 in your school/district, update to ’09 ASAP. It’s very [...]
Suddenly no one is wearing white, so it must be after Labor Day! To much controversy and hoopla, the president has welcomed our students back and encouraged them to work hard. And we are all wondering where the summer went. So just in case you missed our back to school summer webinars that would have [...]
At the beginning of the summer I promised a good comparison between what I think the two front running video flash memory cameras for education are. Almost exactly two months ago, I shared some general thoughts about the Flip line and Kodak’s Zi6. Nothing’s changed in that time; I still like them both. While you [...]
John Hughes and I were very close. He never knew that and I didn’t find that out until half way through our lives. We were born in the same year, he went to high school in the district next to the one I taught in (he even used our then recently closed campus as a [...]
Some of you Mac users may find yourself FireWireless this fall when your new computers arrive. And some may find themselves with the “wrong” connectors. While I can’t do anything to help if your new computer has no FireWire at all, I can offer a couple of solutions if all you have to do is [...]
But before I spill those beans, I should you remind you about Digital Storytelling Week kicking off our back to school webinars. 8/3/09 Thinking Outside the Slide: Creating non-linear PowerPoint presentations and learning centers with Discovery Education Media 8/4/09 Digital Storytelling Made Easy: Using Discovery Education Content with Animoto and PhotoStory 8/5/09 Director’s Cut: Discovery [...]
Or maybe this should have been entitled “Full Sail ’09.2/DENNI ’09.1.” I thought I had posted a few thoughts while trying to switch gears a week ago after taking three planes from the Apple Institute in Orlando to the DEN National Institute near San Francisco (literally in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge). Except [...]
Into my second day of learning and sharing here with other Apple Distinguished Educators at Full Sail University in Orlando. So far I have been inspired by two amazing keynote speakers, FSU alum Jayson Whitmore (3 masters degrees and valedictorian each time) and Ray Zahab of Impossible to Possible (for starters he ran across the [...]
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