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This blog is a series of technology tips for educators. These tips provide ideas for learning, teaching, and using digital skills. The content varies so that the tips can be designed for you ... new teacher or experienced, technophobe or “cutting edge”… or somewhere in the middle. I hope you enjoy reading these tips and, especially, that you find some new, useful ideas. I would love to hear your ideas!
If your passion is elections (USA), polls, or statistics, then this site will most likely interest you!
Here’s an example of what the folks behind the site do…
"The basic process for computing our Presidential projections consists of six steps: 1. Polling Average: Aggregate polling data, and weight it according to our reliability scores. 2. Trend Adjustment: Adjust the polling data for current trends. 3. Regression: Analyze demographic data in each state by means of regression analysis. 4. Snapshot: Combine the polling data with the regression analysis to produce an electoral snapshot. This is our estimate of what would happen if the election were held today. 5. Projection: Translate the snapshot into a projection of what will happen in November, by allocating out undecided voters and applying a discount to current polling leads based on historical trends. 6. Simulation: Simulate our results 10,000 times based on the results of the projection to account for the uncertainty in our estimates. The end result is a robust probabilistic assessment of what will happen in each state as well as in the nation as a whole."
Have you examined the resources available at iTunes U? To navigate there, launch iTunes. (It’s a free download.) Then click on iTunes U in the iTunes Store.
Several options are provided for us to search for content.
On the left side is a list of categories (business, engineering, fine arts, health and medicine, history, humanities, language, literature, mathematics, science, social science, society, teaching and education). We can explore through the offerings in each category.
Educational providers are listed in three types: universities and colleges, beyond campus, and K-12. (Beyond Campus consists of educational providers such as the Brooklyn Museum, Edutopia, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, WETA, and the New York Public Library.) We can wander through the offerings in each of these three types to find some great resources.
Some examples of what I found follow.
In the K-12 type, I found these interesting podcasts:
Paradise Valley USD: Information Literacy > The SMHS Media Center > How to use our library for 9th-graders
(book) … A Day No Pigs Would Die > circle map > main character
Tempe Elementary Mathematics > Quantitative Quandries > description of a unit for students strong in mathematics
(student work) Conexiones > Catch the Dream opening video > community outreach program for children in under-served communities, K12 outreach of Arizona State University
Maine > Inquiry in Science > PD enhanced podcast
… Teaching and Learning with Digital Text > PD enhanced podcast
As I wandered through the categories, I found these:
Meet the Author: Interviews with Children’s Books Authors and Illustrators… video interviews / audio interviews / transcripts…
Nanotechnology… University of Oxford… explore the nanoworld… look at the research…
Indianapolis Museum of Art… American Art… the earliest art of the Americas with approximately 200 more recent works…
The Great Depression and WWII… short video clips with audio lectures… discussion of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the New Deal, and World War II… links to Great Depression resources including primary source documents, learning tools, visual aids, and resources
Some of the podcasts I found were simple without sophisticated techniques… and still they managed to serve their purposes. Others were quite impressive and instructive and used very skilled techniques.Having access to these podcasts and videos for free allows us to supplement our courses with some outstanding resources. This is also a great way for us to keep learning!
David Moursund’s IAE-pedia (http://iae-pedia.org/Main_Page) provides a variety of resources for educators. I’ll list a few of them here, but you’ll want to visit the site to see more.
A List of Five-Minute Workshops (short videos) topics include Second Life, Google Docs, PowerPoint, the last day of class, embedding resources in wikis, eClips, virtual office hours, a vision of students today, learning styles, podcasting
Creating short hybrid videos (slides with voice-overs) short hybrid videos might be described as a subset of a project page or of a curriculum page unit
PBL (Project-Based Learning) good instruction and resources are available
MathNEXUS good resources for mathematics education dedicated to increasing achievement, especially with a diverse population new resources are added weekly for…
Problem of the Week
Quote of the Week
Statistic of the Week
Website of the Week
Math Person of the Week
Resource of the Week
Golden Oldie of the Week
Calendar: Events and Birthdays
Note: don’t skip this section as just another “problem of the week”… these are really good!
Are you a proponent of learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) as a concept we can use to improve both teaching and learning for many individuals? Whether your answer is yes or no, you will find some good ideas in Heather Johnson's article.
The Art of Learning Better: 101 Tips to Find and Fit Your Learning Styleprovides suggestions for preservice and inservice teachers as we’re learning new ideas. Ideas presented encourage us to use our personal learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) as we learn. That’s a great idea. However, we can also use these recommendations to help us reach students with different learning styles as we teach.
For each learning style, Heather Johnson provides ideas for organization, in class activities, studying, and using other learning methods.
Visual learners understand better when ideas are represented visually: pictures, drawings, graphs, charts, even text. Johnson recommends the use of color coding, making lists, sketching, creating a timeline or an outline, watching videos, creating mind maps, using the computer, keeping things quiet, and many other ideas.
Auditory learners prefer hearing new ideas; so, sounds work well for them. That includes music and talking as well as other sounds. Tips for auditory learners include creating auditory cues and leaving yourself audio messages, participating in discussions, asking for things to be repeated, studying with others, using audio books, creating oral stories that include the ideas you want to remember, creating songs, watching videos, listening to podcasts and music, using headphones, creating rhymes, and other tips.
Kinesthetic learners need to learn with hands-on opportunities. Interactive computer programs or web sites as well as labs or demonstrations work well for them. These learners benefit from using notebooks with distinct surfaces, being active, using the computer, interacting with teachers and other learners, chewing gum, typing notes, going on field trips, taking lab classes, studying in short blocks of time and with others, participating in role play, drawing, creating models, tracing letters, moving while studying, making learning aids such as quizzes or flash cards, and many other ideas suggested.
I can’t help but think about ideas previously discussed in this blog as I look at some of Johnson’s suggestions…
Audio Books: LearnOutLoud
Audio Messages: Odiogo.com
Charts: Gliffy
Creating Songs: GarageBand (Mac only)
Drawings: Comic Life, Kerpoof!, Glogster
Field Trips: National History Education Clearinghouse, search for field trip at the top left of the blog web page and click Search Blog
Graphs: LearningScience.org, TimeForKids.com
Music: GarageBand (Mac only)
Pictures: Creative Commons, check the clip art label to the right, Kerpoof!, Dumpr, LunaPic, Picnik
Podcasts: Gabcast, check the podcast label to the right for many resources
BTW, there are two ways to search for ideas in this blog. First, you can simply click on any of the labels listed in the right sidebar below the listed blogs. The second way to search for an idea is to use the search box at the top left of the page. Type what you want to search for in the search box and then click on Search Blog.
These tips for working with learning styles are found at Teaching Tips, a web site for both preservice and inservice teachers.
