Monday, December 31, 2007

Teaching, Blogs, and Kwout

I took time to read a book during this Christmas vacation. I haven't, however, read the education blogs from which I learn so much as consistently as usual. So, tonight was catch-up time! Here's three entries that I think you'll find interesting.


Miguel Guhlin
recently posted a link to Clay Burell’s blog entry about three movies by Barry Bachenheimer. Three numbers—180, 1620, and 42—say a lot about teaching and learning today. Miguel Guhlin is correct… these are “videos to watch.”
Video #1: 180
Video #2: 1620
Video #3: 42


Blogs have been around for ten years. Vicki Davis mentioned in a recent blog entry that National Public Radio has published a series of stories about blogging. The stories discuss blogging tools, the history of blogging, their impact on business, and microblogging.


Scott McLeod and Tim Lauer both posted information about Kwout. This tool allows you to take a screenshot of a web page and then select a specific area of the page. The section you cut out becomes an image with active hyperlinks which you can post to a web site or to Flickr or Tumblr.

2 comments:

Barry Bachenheimer said...

Thanks for your kind words. I'd be curious also as to your thoughts about my mash-ups. What spoke to you and why?

Best wishes for a happy new year!

Barry

Jo Schiffbauer said...

Barry, you ask what spoke to me and why.

Erosion... and global warming... are each a series of small, insignificant events which create major changes. We usually don't notice the small events unless someone points them out to us... or unless we're looking back at them with 20/20 hindsight.

Your mash-ups point to the accumulation of a series of small events without making a judgment call. You leave that judgment call to us.

Most teachers complain about the interruptions, the assemblies, all the reasons not to have class; your numbers just roll on silently and provide data for the discussion.

The paper-and-pencil tests? They're not "bad." It's just that there are so many other... and better... ways to assess our students' knowledge and skills!

I think the one that got to me the most was the number of persons who make up the audience for our students: 42. How sad! We... I... must change that.

A generic complaint is so silent compared to these numbers.

Jo