The Tech Savvy Educator

I found another great blog you show take a look at. Its called THE TECH SAVVY EDUCATOR. It is written by a guy named Ben Rimes. Ben has a neat perspective on intergrating teaching and technology. I think what I like the best is his Friday posts. On most Fridays he posts a question for us to ponder and discuss. He also finds some pretty good sites to share which brings us around to today topic.

He found a great site that talks about copyright, teachers, and the classroom. It's an easy read. I learned a lot from it and I think you will too. It's called COPYRIGHT AND YOU.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

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DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?

I thought this was pretty clever and funny. Enjoy.

China not fighting off e-waste nightmare

When I saw this headline in the Yahoo Story Box it kinda caught my eye. When I clicked on it and read the whole article it definately had my attention. This is an amazing story about what happens to all those computers, moniters, cellphones, washers, and dryers we throw away every year. They don't all disappear into some deep hole or tall mountain or garage... they end up in China.

Here are a couple of intertesting quotes from the article itself.

GUIYU, China - The air smells acrid from the squat gas burners that sit outside homes, melting wires to recover copper and cooking computer motherboards to release gold. Migrant workers in filthy clothes smash picture tubes by hand to recover glass and electronic parts, releasing as much as 6.5 pounds of lead dust.

and then there's this...

"China now produces more than 1 million tons of e-waste each year", said Jamie Choi, a toxics campaigner with Greenpeace China in Beijing. "That adds up to roughly 5 million television sets, 4 million fridges, 5 million washing machines, 10 million mobile phones and 5 million personal computers..."

The article goes on to explain the problem and what little is being done to stop it or to help the workers involved. It is a fascinating look at an hidden problem.

If you read the article please hit the comment button and tell me what you think.

jim

Providing a Lifeline

I was just reading an article in POPULAR MECHANICS that I think you should know about before you toss out your old cellphone.

There is a group called THE WIRELESS FOUNDATION'S CALL TO PROTECT and they have a program where they take your old cellphoes, batteries, chargers and other phone stuff and refurbish them and give them to others to use as "emergency lifeslines for survivors of domestic violence."

So don't toss those old phones, donate it. They will even send you the postage to send it to them.

Give it a try and let me know how it works.

Google Maps

I know its been around for a while but I am just discovering how cool Google Maps.com is. Google Maps not only allows you and your students to map all kinds of places but lets you add pictures and all kinds of content to a map. It combines maps and satellite imagery to show your students connections they might not see from reading about something in a book. You can even link your places to articles in Wikipedia.

One of the best things about the program is its simplicity. I had it up and running after a few minutes.

I've spent the last couple of hours putting together some project ideas for my kids to try next week. We just finished up a neat project called Coming to America. I had my students do some research to figure out who was the first person in their family to come to America. You can listen to some of their podcasts here. Victoria's is one of the best. My friend, Jim Wenzloff suggested I have my students use Google Maps to create a world wide map of where they all came from. What a great idea. As soon as I have it put together I will edit this post and add a link to it here.


I started two more maps. One I called Places I've Been. It's title is self explanatory. After I show it to the kids I am going to have them make their own. Remember when you take a look at it that its just in its draft stage.

The last one I have created is called Native American Culture Regions. It is a unit in our social studies text. Google Maps allows me to have the kids think about all these different regions in a new way. I also think that it will give them a better idea of the big picture of how these people spread across the Americas. This too is in the draft stage so keep checking back as it grows in detail and content.

My goal is to have the kids quickly become the authors of these journeys around the world.

It is pretty exciting stuff. In the next few days I will share with you all the neat add on programs people have written that enhance an already neat tool.

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Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law

I just finished listening to this TED talk and I thought I would share it with you. It's entitled "How creativity is being strangled by the law." It's a short 18 minute piece and I think you will like it.

Here's the official blurb:

Larry Lessig gets TEDsters to their feet, whooping and whistling, following this elegant presentation of "three stories and an argument." The Net's most adored lawyer brings together John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights, and the "ASCAP cartel" to build a case for creative freedom. He pins down the key shortcomings of our dusty, pre-digital intellectual property laws, and reveals how bad laws beget bad code. Then, in an homage to cutting-edge artistry, he throws in some of the most hilarious remixes you've ever seen.

He proposes some interesting ideas to fix the problem. Hit the comment button and let me know if you agree.

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POODWADDLE.COM

Ok, I have a prize for the first person who can tell me what Poodwaddle is or where I can buy one. I have no idea where the name comes from but its kind of a neat name and site. It has a lot of gizmos, gadgets, and widgets to add you your blog. Check out Poodwaddle.com. It has a lot of cool things to make your blog more visually exciting.

Here's a Santa Countdown Clock to add to you your blog. They have quite a few free ones for you to check out. Free always comes with a price. It isn't really free. So be careful

Poodwaddle.com

TUN3R

Ok, this is really cool. You have to give this one a try. Let's say you are sitting at your computer and you say to yourself "I'd like to listen to some music while I sit here at my computer." There are hundreds of sites to go to. My old favorite (until I discovered TUN3R) was SKY.FM. It's easy and free to use. Then I happened upon TUN3r. It's free internet radio with a touch of past.

Here's their mission statement.

Our goal is connect listeners to new Internet radio 'stations' in a fun, interactive way. We'd like to recapture some of the idle pleasure provided by tuning an analog radio dial.

Give it a try. It is simple to use and a lot of fun. Hit the comment button and let me know what you think.

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