Digital Textbooks

Edudemic has a recent blog by David Matheson giving some pros and cons of digital textbooks. Benefits include the ability to carry all of your books on you all of the time, so you can never 'leave your book at home'. They also note that computers are becoming more prevalent in everyday life so the future will reply more upon being computer literate. Reasons against digital texts include the evaluation processes that remain a paper and pencil medium. I believe the pros outweigh the cons and digital textbooks and notes will help keep students organized and on task.

http://www.edudemic.com/digital-textbooks-2/

Standardized Testing

Sir Ken Robinson recently posted on his twitter account about 120 children's book authors and illustrators who wrote a letter to the White House stating that schools spend too much time and effort on standardized testing. They emphasized that standardized testing is limiting student's imaginations. The letter also notes how the new system of evaluating teachers based on standardized testing will "crown out exploration".


http://fairtest.org/FT-Press-Release-on-Chidrens-Authors-Letter

Googling

I am still amazed at how people try to search for things on the internet. A recent blog on Edudemic talks about basic strategies on how to generate better search results when using internet search engines. Simple things like adding quotations around a topic will search only for that exact phrase. When searching for cannibals in North America, putting quotes around the phrase will help filter out websites that have information on cannibalism in other continents. Other simple tools are using a plus (+) or minus (-) symbols before specific words if the website must contain the word (plus) or if you want only website without a specific word (minus).

This is stuff I knew when people still used altavista.com and yahoo search. Hopefully people learn this basic stuff before the internet itself is outdated...


http://www.edudemic.com/student-search-skills/

Government Shutdown

The ASIDE blog never fails to bring easy to read visual data about current topics. Through video and infrographics, this blog describes why there was a government "shutdown" from political disagreements. There are also types of government employees and who will be sent home without pay, and the more necessary government employees who will still be working, some still without pay. There are statistics surveys represented to display views among Americans, as well as a nifty diagram of past government shutdowns.

http://theasideblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/visual-resources-to-teach-about-us.html

Guides to Technology

Edudemic has a new blog that is a basic guide for introducing children to technology such as computers and programs. There are new products out that have expanded this world. such as digital cameras and tablets. They list basic functions such as using a mouse and keyboard, as well as navigating an internet browser. Safeguards are also mentioned such as setting aside time for not using technology in order to not become dependent on it. Infographics fill a majority of the post, giving visual references to tips and statistics.

This guide may be helpful for teachers who are introducing computers and technology to younger students. The infographics would make great posters for around the room.

http://www.edudemic.com/technology-for-children/

Students Using Technology

Students aren't just using their phones to text and the internet for Facebook says a recent blog from Edudemic. From using their smartphones as alarm clocks in the morning, to using web chats at night to discuss work with classmates, or even using a video-conference for an online class, technology is making education more streamlined and accessible. As a college student, you may not have time to meet with a professor during their office hours. It used to be that this student would have to call the professor, now there are several outlets that have emerged to create more engaging off-site conversations. Google drive is available to let multiple people work on a document together in real-time. Give it a few years and who knows what will be available... virtual reality conference calls? I hope not, that sounds kind of creepy. But if more people learn how to use video conferencing effectively, students can get quicker feedback from their teachers, thus creating a more effective educational system.

George's Dumb Rant

Maybe Mr. George Lucas is a little bent out of shape that his movies are terrible nowadays. In this article he is basically complaining that we aren't teaching art classes as general education classes. I'm going to keep this one short because of how unimportant his words of complaint are. What he really wants to see, I believe, is a greater impact and availability of psychology courses. Understanding what the color 'red' means to anybody is psychology. Understanding how graphics make people feel is psychology.

Boo hoo, "People aren't good with graphics" he says... Cry me a river, teachers aren't here to make pretty power point presentations.