A technical examination of SOPA and PROTECT IP As you have probably heard, there are two pieces of legislation currently pending that we, and others like us, believe seriously threaten the internet. I wanted to take some time to delve into the text of both of these bills, and outline their potential consequences as I am able to understand them. As you can imagine, this is a complex issue, and as a result this is going to be a complex post. I highly encourage you to set some time aside to read this thoroughly. Grab some caffeine, we are going to be here for a while. As a disclaimer, I am not a lawyer, I'm a sysadmin. Note: In recent news, several legislators have suggested that they will be removing the DNS provisions from both SOPA and PROTECT IP. The Sacred Texts Much of this post will be focusing on Title 1, Sections 101, 102, and 103 of SOPA; and Sections 2, 3, and 4 of PROTECT IP. The Battlefields One of the most important distinctions in these bills is the difference between a 'foreign site' and a 'domestic site'. The Players 1.
7 Tips for Citing an App in MLA Format Clay Shirky famously pointed out that the problem in the information landscape today isn’t necessarily that there is too much information but that our filters aren’t any good. Students feel this problem acutely due to their perpetual crunch for time and lack of nuanced Google skills. So where does a responsible student go for reliable information she can use in an academic context? That was the question I asked my students this fall and the answer I got surprised me. Students increasingly aren’t going to the premium information services we’ve set up for them through our school library.They might not even be inclined to go elsewhere on the Web.Instead they often turn to Apps for their information. From The Elements to NASA, from National Geographic to the National Science Foundation there is a wealth of credible content in the App Store, but if students are using this information in an academic setting how do we help them correctly document and cite these sources? What do you think?
Students Reflect on Their Own Learning We are always talking about the ideal education should be a learner-centered setting. Learners can be in charge of their learning with options to different paths and paces. Learners will participate in the designing of their learning processes. So the first thing of all is that they have their voices heard. More and more teachers have their students reflect on their own learning experience. Jenny Luca (her blog Lucacept – Intercepting the Web ) is a Teacher-Librarian from Melbourne, she is passionate about exploring the potential of new technologies in educational settings. Positive digital footprints Communicating with digital tools (set up categories, add widgets, use the HTML editor to embed code) Transparency for parents and family New ways of thinking about Web tools (two-way conversation is eye opening) Effective digital citizenship (how to conduct yourself in digital spaces in the context of the curriculum) Their world view is changing as a result of posting in public spaces
Confessions of a Jesuit School CIO WebQuest.Org: Home Rethinking Curriculum Recently I was visiting some friends who are also teachers who got me thinking about the words "21st century skills". It's interesting to question whether, at this point just 11 years into the 21st century, we really know what skills student will need to be successful in the future. My friends asked me if 100 years ago, in 1911, teachers could have predicted the skills that their students would need to be successful at the end of the 20th century. I thought that probably they could not have done this. The first half of the 20th century was marked by a very fast pace of technological inventions. In the final chapter of Curriculum 21, Arthur Costa and Bena Kallick write: Our students are in the 21st century and they are waiting for the teachers and the curriculum to catch up. They refer to the changes that need to be made such as: open-mindedness, flexibility, patience and courage. Costa and Kallick have defined 16 habits of mind necessary for success.
Uncrunched Khan Academy This Year’s 10 Best TED Talks To Share With Students In honor of the recent TED Live announcement , I thought it’d be a good idea to remind you why TED rocks. Below is just a small fraction of the amazing presentations put on by the folks over at TED. Each one of the presentations embedded below is perfect for sharing with students and showing in class*. Do you use TED in the classroom? *There are of course many more presentations but I picked these because I thought they resonated with me and would do the same with students. Philip Zimbardo: The Demise of Guys? Philip Zimbardo was the leader of the notorious 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment — and an expert witness at Abu Ghraib. Pavan Sukhdev: Put A Value On Nature! A banker by training, Pavan Sukhdev runs the numbers on greening up — showing that green economies are an effective engine for creating jobs and creating wealth. Annie Murphy Paul: What We Learn Before We’re Born Pop quiz: When does learning begin? Joe Sabia: The Technology of Storytelling Allan Jones: A Map of the Brain
Android for Education (updated often) Android is a great operating system with a lot of great features and apps for education. Most of my students have Android phones, with a few having iPhones. Android phones make up more than 50% of the smartphone market, so it is very widespread. Comparison to iOSEvery app I want or need is available on Android. Google - search, Gmail, Calendar, Reader, Google Plus, Docs, Google Tasks, Blogger, Maps, Google Voice, Voice Search, Translate, Music, goo.gl, YouTube, and much more. yasp! QuickOffice - access, view, and edit Word, PowerPoint and Excel files.Free version comes with phone and can view documents. Cloud Storage apps - Dropbox, SugarSync, - access, upload, download all your files and data from your computer to the cloud and your device. Android news, resources, app reviews and
Getting started on Classical Latin The aim of this unit is to enable you to get started in Latin. It has been developed in response to requests from students who had had no contact with Latin before and who felt they would like to spend a little time preparing for the kind of learning that takes place on a classical language course. The unit will give you a taster of what is involved in the very early stages of learning Latin and will offer you the opportunity to put in some early practice. This material is from our archive and is an adapted extract from A297 Reading Classical Latin, which is no longer taught by The Open University. If you want to study formally with us, you may wish to explore other courses we offer in this subject area.27 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip28)] The Open University is conducting a survey investigating how people use the free educational content on our OpenLearn website. 29.
15 Sites Building and Promoting Educational PBL Communities… Across School and Around the Globe Welcome to the fourth in a series of PBL Mania Posts . For the next few weeks I am celebrating Project Based Learning. In this post I will introduce you to some outstanding collaboration tools found on the web that can be used in the PBL classroom. Before reading please take a moment to subscribe to this 21centuryedtech Blog by email or RSS and also give me a follow on Twitter at mjgormans. Quick Notes - You may be interested in learning more about PBL World in Napa, CA presented by BIE this June. 15 Sites Building and Promoting Educational PBL Communities… Across School and Around the Globe This PBL Mania post will explore some on-line digital resources that can help build community to enhance the PBL experience. Home base for a PBL group’s (or classroom) virtual community on-line. Edmodo – This website is a secure, social learning platform for teachers, students, schools and districts. Moodle – I would not want to forget free an open source Moodle. Like this: Like Loading...
Three People Who Should Avoid Online Classes April 6, 2012 Online school offers incredible flexibility, but not everyone is suited to the more independent environment of online courses. Online courses present incredible benefits for those students who need more flexibility and have a lot of self-motivation. However, even some online classes are not the best to take online. 1. Lots of students think that online courses are easier in comparison to traditional courses. 2. College can be extremely difficult if you're not used to the advanced topics and instruction. 3. Like the freshmen, it can be easier for a social person to get lost in an online class. In addition to these personalities, students should also avoid taking classes that will be much more difficult to comprehend than if they were able to study with a teacher in person.
Three Skills Every 21st-Century Manager Needs The world of work has changed dramatically over the past decade. Companies are more global and employee groups more diverse than ever before. Organizational structures are less hierarchical and more collaborative. And today’s networked offices are full of technological distractions that would have been unimaginable to the 20th-century manager. We asked experts in cross-cultural communication, information networks, and the science of attention what specific skills executives should cultivate to tackle these new challenges. Skill 1: Code Switching Between Cultures To work well with foreign colleagues, you may have to risk feeling inauthentic and incompetent. by Andrew L. Marco, the Italian COO of a technology company in Mumbai, can’t motivate his Indian employees. So what’s holding them back? Executives often feel inauthentic when their behavior conflicts with their ingrained values and beliefs, and doubly uncomfortable when others assume that it is a true reflection of who they are.