50 Kick-Ass Websites You Need to Know About It's time to update the entries in your browser's links toolbar. But with recent estimates putting the size of the internet at well more than 100 million distinct websites, it's getting harder and harder to get a handle on all the great stuff that's out there. That's why we've compiled this list. And unlike some lists you may have seen, which try to name the very "best" websites, but end up just telling you a lot of stuff you already know, we've chosen instead to highlight 50 of our favorite sites that fly under most people's radar. Think of it as the Maximum PC blog roll (remember those?). These sites represent great alternatives to popular web destinations like YouTube and Hulu, and include useful references, powerful web apps, and the unknown blogs you must absolutely bookmark. You might have heard of some of these sites, but we'll bet you haven't heard of all them. Demoscene.tv See What Can Be Done with 4 Kilobytes lite.Facebook.com Clutter-Free Social Networking You can admit it.
Rumsey Historical Map Collection The David Rumsey Map Collection was started over 25 years ago and contains more than 150,000 maps. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century maps of North and South America, although it also has maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. The collection includes atlases, wall maps, globes, school geographies, pocket maps, books of exploration, maritime charts, and a variety of cartographic materials including pocket, wall, children's, and manuscript maps. Items range in date from about 1700 to 1950s. Digitization of the collection began in 1996 and there are now over 55,000 items online, with new additions added regularly. Maps are uniquely suited to high-resolution scanning because of the large amount of detailed information they contain. With Luna Imaging's Insight® software, the maps are experienced in a revolutionary way. Materials created in America and that illustrate the evolution of the country's history, culture, and population distinguish the collection.
26 Life Changing Lessons to Learn from Mahatma Gandhi Mahatma Gandhi, one of the many beautiful souls that has inspired and continues to inspire so many of us taught me so many valuable and life changing lessons. And in today’s post, I have gathered some of his most inspiring quotes and compiled them into the 26 Life Changing Lessons to Learn from Mahatma Gandhi. Enjoy! 1. An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching. “An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.” “It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.” 2. “There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.” 3. “If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.” 4. “It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. 5. “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.” 6. “God has no religion.” “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. “I believe in the fundamental Truth of all the great religions of the world. 7. “Prayer is not asking. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.
7 Secrets of the Super Organized A few years ago, my life was a mess. So was my house, my desk, my mind. Then I learned, one by one, a few habits that got me completely organized. Am I perfect? So what’s the secret? Are these obvious principles? If your life is a mess, like mine was, I don’t recommend trying to get organized all in one shot. So here are the 7 habits: Reduce before organizing. If you take your closet full of 100 things and throw out all but the 10 things you love and use, now you don’t need a fancy closet organizer. How to reduce: take everything out of a closet or drawer or other container (including your schedule), clean it out, and only put back those items you truly love and really use on a regular basis. Write it down now, always.
Educational Videos and Games for Kids about Science, Math, Social Studies and English Education Technology - theory and practice: Pearltrees for teachers Year 2012 last post is a guest post from Finnish teacher Tommi Viljakainen. He is a teacher in Elimäki lower and upper secondary school. He teaches English, French and P.E. He is also interested in social media, iPad and the future of education. You can find Tommi also in Twitter under name @tommiviljaA (Finnish) teacher's dive into social media - "I discovered pearls in Pearltrees!" 10 tips for teachers: 1. The new social media tools make it possible for us to take the learning to the next level. Links:The program:Pear app (iPad, iPhone) Me and Pearltrees:My blog writings (in Finnish)
Blog Archive » The Web’s third frontier Everyone realizes that the web is entering a new phase in its development. One indication of this transition is the proliferation of attempts to explain the changes that are occurring. Functional explanations emphasize the real time web, collaborative systems and location-based services. Technical explanations argue that the interconnectivity of data is the most significant current development. They consider the web’s new frontiers to be closely related to the semantic web or the “web of things”. Although these explanations are both pertinent and intriguing, none of them offers an analytical matrix for assessing the developments that are now underway. In contrast, other explanations are far too broad to serve any useful purpose. How can the web’s development be understood? The web represents a compendium of technical resources, functionalities and usage practices, and it cannot be reduced to just one of these dimensions. The founding principles The two initial phases of growth
What Makes a Parent Love a Teacher Guest post by Jennifer Gonzalez The note from Mrs. F. came home two weeks into the school year:I’d like to talk with you about how we can make reading time more challenging for Ruby. When can we meet? Although I knew my daughter was an advanced reader, I had accepted that it would always be up to me to ask for this kind of differentiation. Thus began my year of absolutely loving Mrs. I know a lot of teachers, and I know that a lot of their energy goes into things like setting up classrooms, finding new materials and activities, learning new technology, and downloading beautifully designed templates and worksheets. But all of that pales in comparison to this one thing. Know my child. That’s it. It Makes a Difference My kids are currently in grades 2, 3, and 5. Do other parents feel the same way? From a mother of two: Some of my favorite teachers have been those who were interested in my children and made them feel important. From a mother of three: I love it when a teacher "gets" my kid.
Movie Reviews and Ratings by Film Critic Roger Ebert | Roger Ebert learning games: Geography of Europe Three Easy Ways to Visually Compare the Sizes of States and Countries One of the ways that I like to help students understand the size of a country or state is by showing them comparisons to states and countries with which they are familiar. For example, if I want my students to get a better sense of how big Utah is, I compare it Maine. The following three websites all make it easy for students to quickly compare the size of countries, states, and provinces. Comparea.org offers a simple way to compare the size of countries, states, provinces, and cities. To make a comparison just choose two places from the drop-down menus on the right hand side of the screen. Along with the visuals your students can find links to World Factbook and Wikipedia entries about their chosen places. MapFight. OverlapMaps is probably the most robust of the three sites on this list.
Four Corners 50 Years - Home Welcome to a celebration of 50 years of ABC Television’s premier News and Current Affairs program, Four Corners. This website is a celebration of our history, which is not only TV programs, it is the successful collaboration of people: executive producers, reporters, researchers, editors, producers, crews and administrators, all of whom have played a significant role in the program’s history, identity and success, from 1961 to the present day. Four Corners’ reports have explored cultural and social change, political upheaval, conflicts, disasters and terrorism, with an eye on national and international events. This website will showcase the key stories, people and events we have covered over the past 50 years, and will stand as a living archive to five decades of vigorous reporting on ABC TV. You can explore our vast archive of programs by decade or by theme. The website also presents extended interviews with reporters, executive reporters, researchers and cameramen.