Posts tagged ‘Web 2.0’

Jan 29

History for the 21st century

Just spent the last few days at the Midwest Educational Technology Conference in St. Charles, Missouri and, like most tech conferences, there were blogs, wikis, internet cafes, wires and pliers, Web 2.0, etc.

You know what I’m talking about. A lot of general ideas but few specifics about how to actually use some of this stuff in the classroom with kids who would rather be somewhere else.

But while I was there, I ran across something that I think I could use with kids pretty much anytime and actually have it make an impact. It’s called World History. It’s a site that is new enough that it is still in Invite Beta mode . . . so to use the site, you’ll need to get an invite email from them to create an account. As they slowly add users, they’ll sneak you in.

Trust me. It’s worth the wait. Simply go to World History and give them your email address. I got my invite within two days and have had just a day or so to play around but am already impressed.

Basically, World History is an aggregator of historical data. The engine that drives the data collection is a Google Map and a timeline. Manipulating where you are on the map and sliding the timeline around, forces World History to develop a list of relevant people, events, places, even artifacts that are relevant to that specific place and time. You can also search using just a timeline for people and events.

All searches lead you to a specific page that has even more related information. Sorta like Amazon’s “If you like this book, you might also enjoy this one” feature. All of these tools help create a very cool way of tying events, places and people together with cause and effect.

You can also create your own timelines, add stuff to your own database, search for timelines created by others and even do genealogy stuff.

One of the coolest things that I would use as a history teacher is the Project feature.

A worldhistory.com project is the community created grouping of events, people, and timelines that represent a single idea or sets of ideas in history. We call it a research project because you can use the tools for each project to work together as a community to discuss the topic, assign tasks, and fill in the gaps in order to create a complete idea.

I can see teachers and kids using this part of World History as a very cool portfolio activity, for research or for groups of kids working together.

I like it!

History . . . welcome to the 21st century.

Jan 18

Peace, Love and Podcasting

In 2009, possibility is in the air just like it was forty years ago in 1969.

Seeking educational freedom of expression for yourself and your learners? Make a pilgrimage to Old Town in Wichita, Kansas on May 1st and 2nd for two full days of the joy of free and easy technology tools, the peace of mind that comes from doing all we can to empower learners and the love of communing with other enlightened educators from around the world.

Here in this location we will change the educational world with a little help from our friends. Participants will become teachers and teachers will become participants as we open the door to this ‘un’ Conference experience.

Podstock is a brand new conference designed to bring podcast creators and those who see the real value of podcasting together. There will be breakout sessions on podcasting for beginners, as well as sessions for and by seasoned pros. You’ll explore podcasting as well as many other web 2.0 tools that can enhance learning and communication in your world. The conference will be held in the Old Town section of Wichita and play host to participants from all over the country. It will be two days of education, learning & fun. Don’t miss it!

Feel free to travel to the Podstock Ning site and join in planning and learning more about this unique experience.

Dec 10

21st century resume?

If you’re a semi-regular reader, you know I just returned from balmy (12 feet of snow and absolute zero degrees wind chill) Minneapolis, MN and its annual TIES conference.

The common theme was

with Daniel Pink of A Whole New Mind as the keynote. A nice idea . . . as in, let’s focus on technology but let’s not do technology simply for technology’s sake. We need to encourage creativity and high level questioning skills. As in, “we need to prepare kids for their future, not our past.”

All nice and neat but . . . the problem is that it’s sometimes difficult actually visualizing what that really looks like.

I may have found out this afternoon.

I was was over at Paul’s Blogush which led me to Melanie’s Once Upon a Teacher which led me to a great video clip by Judson Collier. Judson was looking for work and, instead of the traditional paper and pencil resume, tried something just a little bit different.

It seems to me that this sort of stuff is what it looks like. This is what we should be working towards as teachers.

Head on over and let Paul and Melanie know what you think.

Dec 9

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Fun and Useful Web 2.0 Tools

Still here in balmy (4-6 inches of new snow predicted and -2 windchill) Minneapolis for the TIES conference. Yesterday afternoon spent some time leading a video game conversation and attending a Web 2.0 liability session. The video game stuff was fun and the legal liability stuff was . . . mmm . . . important. I’ll try to post some of that goodness later this week.

Of course, I’m now sitting in a session about cool Web 2.0 tools and am trying to forget everything I learned about legal issues. Jesse Thorstad, Technology Specialist, of Fergus Falls Public Schools is in charge. His stuff is on the TIES wiki and he has a nice Delicious page.

Jesse says that there will be door prizes after the session: