Instructional Technology Ponderings

I was reading a post by Gardner Cambell this morning and I am glad that I did. Gardner introduced me to a Web 2.0 tool called Wordle - I must say, Wow. Wordle is a thought provoking tool that provides anyone who views it a visual representation of words. Hmm. It wraps around what we call tags (keywords) and creates an image around them.

Below is a visual representation (word cloud) of my delicious tags. Hmm…

Notice how it takes my tags (key words) and creates a cloud of it. It manipulates the text and wraps them together to create its own meaning.

Gardner in his post, provides a link to a visual cloud of Martin Luther King’s speech, I Have a Dream. I was amazed, what a great way to ‘hear’ this speech - visually.

This has tremendous potential for use in our classrooms. My suggestion, explore Wordle.

Below are some resources that came through my email today. I thought I would pass them on to you. They provide teachers with resources, activities, and most importantly ideas.

• Science Whatzit! an online science learning project created by the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry (OMSI), in collaboration with the Science Learning Network. Students can send the Science Whatzit Gremlin their science questions, queries, thoughts and ideas. They can also look on this site to find ideas for science projects.
• Kennedy Center’s ARTSEDGE site is giving the who, what, when were, and how of storytelling. There are also lesson plans.
• eMentoring is a collaborative tool where adult penpal mentors, chosen by teachers, will mentor your students through reading and discussing books, via email, about curriculum-aligned topics.
• COOL SCHOOL: Where Peace Rules! is an interactive computer game designed to teach children (ages 5 to 7) about conflict resolution.
• Climate Change: Connections and Solutions consists of two 2-week curriculum units—one for middle school and one for high school. The units have critical thinking activities built in. Focus is the global problem of climate change. Students are expected to collaborate on finding possible solutions.
• Mixing in Math offers 40 activities that can be used to “slip a little math” into students’ everyday routines.
• WorldWide Telescope  a project at Microsoft that incorporates astronomy, education and computing together to create a great tool and resource site.

Enjoy!

I was reading the Examiner.com today and found out that George Mason has received a $7 million grant to create an interactive history Web site. The goal of this site is ‘to improve history instruction throughout the United States’. The site will provide lesson plans, forums for discussions, and each lesson will be aligned with state history standards.

The Web site itself states that it is…

Designed for high school and college teachers and students, History Matters serves as a gateway to web resources and offers other useful materials for teaching U.S. history.

To visit the site directly, go to http://historymatters.gmu.edu/

As more and more of these quality sites are placed on the Web, information becomes more accessible and necessary.

Today, I am back on the topic of simulations. I ran across this simulation, Darfur is Dying, today. The ‘game’ is a narrative simulation where the player takes on the role of a displaced darfuian, and negotiates with forces that are threatening the survival of his/her refugee camp. This game was created as a part of a contest.

On the Simulation Web site itself, it states,

Darfur is Dying is a viral video game for change that provides a window into the experience of the 2.5 million refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan. Players must keep their refugee camp functioning in the face of possible attack by Janjaweed militias. Players can also learn more about the genocide in Darfur that has taken the lives of 400,000 people, and find ways to get involved to help stop this human rights and humanitarian crisis.

Interesting. I wonder what people think of this simulation and how this could be used in a classroom instead of a lecture. Would it be beneficial?

Interesting Web sites that I have found today.

A librarian has set up a Wiki page identifying Web 2.0 tools. This is a nifty and necessary resource.

http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/

Mnemograph is in beta format and is looking for testers. Sign up and try out this really cool Web-based Timeline tool.

http://mnemograph.com/

Twitter on my brain. How about Students using Twitter, any ideas? Youth Twitter has students use twitter to think and create. Worth a look.

http://youthtwitter.com/

Learn more about Youth Twitter by checking out the Web site - Teachers Teaching Teachers.  They have done a little piece on YouthTwitter and it is pretty interesting.

http://teachersteachingteachers.org/?p=167

By the way, I have just set up a page on LibraryThing. Nothing listed yet, but something I will be filling in soon.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/teresacoffman