The Digital Essay « timhodson.com If you haven’t seen it already, you should have a look at this Digital Essay by Will Self. Not because you are a fan of Will Self or necessarily interested in Kafka’s Wound, but because you are interested in the way the essay can be brought to life through embedded references. I spent a good portion of a very interesting hackday at the National Archives in March, Talking to Helen Jeffrey from the London Review of Books. We talked about Linked Data and how these concepts when applied to something like an essay might make it a different experience. In the outcome of the hackday, I used a graph to illustrate the connections between letter writers in the ancient correspondence of Henry III (and others) between 1175-1538. In the digital essay a graph is used to illustrate connections between references to external sources. My one criticism is that I cannot seem to work out why things in the table of contents are connected.
Resources | Teaching With and About Technology Jim Wilson/The New York TimesStudents have always faced distractions and time-wasters. But computers and cellphones, and the constant stream of stimuli they offer, pose a profound new challenge to focusing and learning.Go to related article » Updated | Feb. 2013 What are the potential benefits and drawbacks of using technology for learning? Are tech tools essentials, distractions or somewhere in between? We present a collection of Learning Network resources, Times multimedia and articles and useful outside links to help both digital immigrants and digital natives think through these questions. Please tell us what you think, or share your own ideas or experiences! Student Opinion Questions All of the questions below are still open to comment by students. What Tech Tools Play the Biggest Role in Your Life? How Careful Are You Online? Are You Distracted by Technology? Does Facebook Ever Make You Feel Bad? Are Digital Photographs Too Plentiful to Be Meaningful? Do You Know How to Code? Lesson Plans
Springing Into Digital Research Projects Over the last 18 months in Media 21, students have created a variety of learning products: traditional research papers, collaboratively written research papers, digital learning portfolios (which included multigenre elements), and information dashboards (Netvibes). In thinking about this spring’s research project on veterans’ issues and how to meet our students are their point of need while pushing their thinking, Susan Lester (my co-teacher) and I decided to go focus on students creating a digital research project (see details above in the embedded project document). After engaging in presearch for three days this week, students will choose a topic and then be grouped by common research interests. Like last semester, these teams of students will collaboratively investigate a common list of of research questions developed by Susan and to create a digital research project that reflects the findings of their research. Like this: Like Loading...
Common Misconceptions of Educators Who Fear Technology Education is currently at a crossroads as traditional methods and tools are changing as a result of advances in technology and learning theory. We are beginning to see some schools across the country take the lead in merging sound pedagogy with the effective integration of technology. These schools and educators, whether they realize it or not, are not only enhancing the teaching and learning process, but they are also providing their learners with essential skill sets pivotal for success in today’s society. These skill sets include critical thinking/problem solving, media literacy, collaboration, creativity, technological proficiency, and global awareness. Image credit: Even as we are seeing more schools and educators transform the way they teach and learn with technology, many more are not. Time: The time excuse seems to rear its ugly head more than any other excuse not to move forward with technology integration.
Writing History in the Digital Age Teaching Students to Effectively Use the Internet A search engine is essentially a database that points to Web sites and Internet resources. The search engine database is compiled by means of often called spiders, crawlers, or bots. These spiders, crawlers and bots are programmed to find web pages, follow all the links they contain and add any new information they find to the master database. It is important to remember that when you are using a search engine, you are not really searching the entire Internet, but a database of pages and resources from the Internet compiled by the bots. Once the information has been collected by the robot programs it is turned over to the search engine's indexing program. When you submit a query or question to the search engine, a searches the database compiled by the robot programs and indexing programs, identifies items that match your query and organizes and displays them in a particular order based on the relevancy or how closely they match your query. Search engine results can be misleading
Teaching Writing in a Digital Age | exploring pedagogies of new media and literacies in composition How to Infuse Digital Literacy Throughout the Curriculum So how are we doing on the push to teach “digital literacy” across the K12 school spectrum? From my perspective as a school-based technology coach and history teacher, I’d say not as well as we might wish – in part because our traditional approach to curriculum and instruction wants to sort everything into its place. Digital literacy is defined as “the ability to effectively and critically navigate, evaluate, and create information using a range of digital technologies.” Many educational and business professional cite is as a critical 21st century skill. Even so, many schools have struggled to adapt it into their curriculum. This is often because most institutions already have rigorous, established curricula with little wiggle room – and this is especially true in schools subject to state and federal testing. Evaluating online content is a research skill For example, when my students do research in US History, they are not only allowed but encouraged to use online content.
10 Fun Tools To Easily Make Your Own Infographics People love to learn by examining visual representations of data. That’s been proven time and time again by the popularity of both infographics and Pinterest. So what if you could make your own infographics ? What would you make it of? Below are my two favorite infographic-making web 2.0 tools that I highly recommend. Click the name of each tool to learn more! Visual.ly One of the more popular ways to discover infographics, Visual.ly actually just launched a design overhaul of their website. Dipity Want to get a beautifully simply visualization of data over time? Easel.ly I absolutely love Easel.ly. Venngage Venngage (likely named for Venn diagrams) is a double threat. Infogr.am One of the most simple tools, Infogr.am lets you actually import data right into the site and then translate it all into useful visualizations. Tableau Public Made for Windows, Tableau Public lets you (like Infogr.am) bring your actual data into the world of visualzation. Photo Stats What About Me? Gliffy Piktochart