Not So Irrelevant | Dangerously Irrelevant

Not so irrelevant 024

Five online resources worth checking out…

Shelley Wright shares what life in an inquiry-driven, technology-embedded, connected English classroom looks like (see also her post on a science classroom)
Ewan McIntosh talks about Guy Claxton’s big question: What’s the point of school?
Donald Clark says that 21st century skills are so last century
Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana note that it’s critical to teach students to ask their own questions
Here’s a resource that will help you identify apps for children with special needs

Five online resources worth checking out…

Five online resources worth checking out…

Pam Moran’s awesome post on our tendency to admire problems rather than working on solutions.
Ryan Bretag asks “How would we react to students if they told us they didn’t have time to learn?” and goes on to say that teachers need to stop waiting for their organizations and become collaborative professional learners.
ReadWriteWeb inquires of 3 experts: Could Kinect control your Internet of things?
Christopher Dawson at ZDNet says that teachers should stop banning Wikipedia.
And, for all you WordPress users, appstorm has a boatload of great apps, plugins, and themes for you.

Five online resources worth checking out…

Tom Hoffman deconstructs the English / Language Arts standards from the Common Curriculum.
Sylvia Martinez reminds us that an important online safety report discourages scare tactics.
10 things teachers should unlearn, from What Ed Said
19 things teacher librarians should unlearn, from Joyce Valenza
Mashable gives us an infographic on the geosocial universe.

Five online resources worth checking out…

In an excellent post about the leadership we need today, Will Richardson notes that “if you’re waiting for the conversation in the coffee shop and the porch swing to act, you’re going to be waiting a long time”
Every educator should read Ira Socol’s post on ‘commons knowledge’
I loved this post about the differences between being creative in the analog world versus the digital world
Inside Higher Ed highlights a disturbing ruling on education researcher’s ability to protect the confidentiality of schools participating in a study
The keynote speakers have been announced for the free K12 Online Conference 2010

Five online resources worth checking out…

TIME has an excellent overview article on Twitter and how it just may change the way we live.
The Des Moines Register profiled an interesting charter school in Sigourney, Iowa. I’m very lucky to have the innovative superintendent as one of my doctoral students!
Do you know the 10 Golden Rules of Social Media?
Philip Greenspun has some thoughts about how the Web and the weblog have changed writing.
Tom Vander Ark says that “public education is [General Motors] in the 1980s — it's dying and doesn't know it.”

Larry Ferlazzo has a fantastic post about the videos at TED Talks and a variety of supporting resources for teachers, presenters, etc. This is a must read!
In South Africa (and elsewhere!), “if the principal sets the lead, technology can succeed in a school.”
Universities mull the use of blogs instead of course management systems. I’ve been using blogs instead of Blackboard for my courses for a couple of years now. The CMS paradigm is about institutionalized hand-holding and centralized, walled-garden control. No thanks. (hat tip to @jtwetten)
The University of Michigan Health Sciences Library has a fascinating slideshow on the different ways that the Obama campaign used social media to get its messages out and mobilize people to action.
Siri, virtual assistant software for the iPhone and other smartphones, looks like an extremely useful product (particularly with the voice recognition feature).

Five online resources worth checking out…

Alec Couros has asked his readers to recommend readings that will expand his Associate Dean’s “understanding of current changes regarding social networks, knowledge, and technology in education.” Head on over and add your two cents.
Today is #tweetbump day on Twitter.
Jing Pro is only $15 a year. Perhaps the best bargain on the Web for easily making short videos!
So what IS going on [in Montgomery County, Maryland]? Parents are finding their voices. Awesome!
Want to be a guest blogger for NECC 2009? You could win a free press pass to the conference.

Five online resources worth checking out…

Five online resources worth checking out…

“We need to be inspired. We need to be encouraged. We need to spend time doing things we love. We want to change the world. Is that too much to ask?”
Iowa schools are focusing on penmanship. Really. Penmanship.
Britt Watwood notes that “there was a note of fear that the ‘good old days’ were gone and that because of online learning, higher education was going to hell in a handbasket.” Be sure to also check out his white paper on online teaching.
Step 1: Play with this sortable table of beginning and average teacher salaries by state.
Step 2: Then get really depressed about teacher salaries by reading the PDF version of this book from the Economic Policy Institute.