I am a videogame addict - brilliant short video

I saw this video on Ted.com and was blown away by its implications. A must see...

Click Here

Best of the Internet 2009 Site!

www.shmoop.com/teachers/ is a fantastic resource for Literature, Poetry, US History and Books. It was a 2009 Webby Award honoree. "Shmoop is lovingly created by Ph.D. and Masters students from top universities - primarily Stanford and U.C. Berkeley." You won't regret looking at this site. Easy to use and tons of awesome resources. Do it now!

Go to: www.shmoop.com/teachers/

Excellent Scientific Inquiry Site for Middle School

Stumbled on a cool interactive site launched by the National Academy of Sciences and wanted to share it with you. It's all about women's adventures in science. It's definitely worth a look. Take 5 minutes to check it out at: iwaswondering.com

BBC has great online "mind" tests you can do...

The BBC has put together a great series of tests you can do online in their Science and Nature section. Each test is 10-20 minutes in length and you can test your memory, your senses, your hearing, even your "yuck factor"
Check it out HERE

For all you "Eco-Tourists" out there...

Ecovolunteer is a wonderful resource for those of you looking to travel and do some good at the same time. You select a species that you'd like to help out and the website suggests different projects you can be involved with. For more information go to: ecovolunteer.org

South Campus Kids Video

"Keith's 3 resources, 7 shortcuts and 30+ websites that should rock your world..."

Going to offer a workshop April 8th. Open to all...

I will be presenting in the Anderson Conference Room at lunchtime on:
Wednesday, April 8th
11:31
12:11
12:53
Just stop in. Bring your lunch and watch a 30 minute whirlwind tour of some of the cool stuff out there. Straight up presentation with followup Q&A by email. If you haven't had time to sift through my blog this is your opportunity to catch all the highlights...

For those of you that were frightened by The Singularity

This one is for you...

Play Music on your iPhone by blowing!

So it's come to this, people playing "Stairway to Heaven" on their iPhones. You've got to see it to believe it... Merry showed me this...

Keith's Best of Tech Tips Coming Soon to a Classroom Near You

I'm putting together a 30 minute tour of my best tech links, tips, and tricks for the classroom and will be proposing it to the different campuses soon. You'll be able to sign up and get all the latest cool stuff for you to use in your classrooms. It'll be a whirlwind tour of everything I've found up until now. It's also a great way to encapsulate much of the stuff on my blog that you may not have had a time to read so watch for an upcoming announcement and signup!

Eyeborg! The artificial eye is coming...

I just ran across a blog about a guy who is getting fitted for a "bionic" eye. It's awesome of course (awesome being my favorite word as I'm sure you all know). Anyway, watch the 5 minute movie here: http://www.eyeborgblog.com/

"Everything is amazing, but nobody is happy"

Upper School Video "What Students Say"

Lower School Video Short

Facebook for Parents

A website dedicated to helping parents understand the world of Facebook. Check it out here: http://facebookforparents.org/

THE COOLEST WAY TO SHOW STUDENTS IMAGES!

Tag Galaxy! You have to try it. Once you do, you'll be hooked. Great way to get students attention when you want to show them images on your computer/activboard.
Click here: http://taggalaxy.de/

Merry and I went to TIES today, wow!

Merry and I are in St. Paul at TIES learning about all the new Mac things out there with Pete Markham from Apple. He's presenting the new iLife 09. Right now he is showing the "Faces" feature in iPhoto 09. It is built in face recognition software. How cool is that? Reid, how about using this with Yearbook? Now he is talking about the cool Flipcam MinoHD.

Once Upon A School - Great School Projects

"This site is an online initiative developed in response to author and philanthropist Dave Eggers' 2008 TED Prize wish to inspire and collect the stories of private citizens engaged in their local public schools." Even if it is for public schools, it is still an excellent school resource for everyone. Check out the promo video to learn more and go to their website if you are intrigued. www.onceuponaschool.org

I Spoke Arabic Today! And I don't even know how...

I decided to play a trick on a friend from Lebanon and use Google Language Tools to "talk" to him. It may be a bit hard to understand since my side is in Arabic but he states at the end that he understands 90% of what I am saying. Here some of the transcipt.

Couldn't retrieve chat history

When local is better than global (or how the internet is not always your friend)

After my stroke they put a stent in my neck. In order for the stent to settle into place and not clog up I have to take Plavix and aspirin. Well as of Jan. 1st my Plavix went through the roof price wise so I did some shopping around ON THE INTERNET.

And boy did I find deals! Instead of $165 (for 30 pills) at the local pharmacy I found Plavix for as little as $18 for 50 pills! Well you do the math and you'll figure out what I did next. I'm sure we've all heard about seniors that take bus trips across the border to fill their prescriptions because it's so much cheaper. I decided to skip the bus trip and through the internet order directly from a Canadian company. Sound slick so far? Just wait...

The medication arrived a couple weeks later and when I opened the package I noticed a couple things. First, it didn't look like the Plavix I was used to taking and secondly I could tell from the invoice that the drugs originated in INDIA. Hmmm... What's a guy to do?

Well I tried googling the medication and looked at other people's comments about drugs manufactured in India and it didn't look too bad (didn't look too good either) but I was nonetheless worried. But what the heck, I like to throw caution to the wind like the next guy (I can't imagine my wife doing this) and I started taking the medication. Within 2 days I started getting ill. I'll skip the details (I'm better now) but suffice it to say it was PAINFUL.

So I went to my regular pharmacist, told her my story (her eyes rolled up into her head a few times) and now I'm back on the expensive stuff. Heck, it's my life we're talking about, right?! You probably think I'm crazy to have tried in the first place and you're probably right. I guess I learned to shop locally when it comes to my health and that maybe internet "deals" really can be too good to be true...

Children are no more at risk online than off, a study says.

The study says "Don't Blame the Internet"

Food for thought. To read the article, click here.

Now this one will surely get you commenting...

If the Pope can do it, so can you!

"Urbi et Orbi" So the Pope has his own Youtube Channel. How cool is that? But it made me think that if even the Pope is jumping on the technological superhighway, then anybody can do it. Fear not! And if you get a little scarred or frazzled, just email old Tech Keith and he'll take away the pain...

Click here to go right to the Vatican's Youtube page

Possibly The Most Important 5 Minute Video You Could Watch

FETC - UPDATES

Final Sessions Video Diary (3 mins):



Saturday (final day) - Attending an excellent Google "forms" presentation. Google this guy now! Rushton Hurley. Later, now at final couple of presentations. Can't wait to bring this stuff back and present. Very exciting stuff. Apple's "curriculum evangelist" is talking now, but after Rushton it's kind of a letdown.

• The most useful URL I found at the conference is Rushton Hurley
• The second is Tammy Worcester
• The Third is nextvista.org
  

Friday video highlights (10 mins)



Friday - Aloha! Got here early to go visit exhibits but they weren't open yet so I went and got my free FETC mug and coffee and started work on today's video update which I will put online tonight. Sitting in now on Google Sky/Mars/Moon and all they do including embedded podcasting, whoa... After lunch now, am at an educational "gaming" multiuser, virtual presentation... Very futurist... Here is an example of educational gaming frenzy:


Find more videos like this on DimensionM


Thursday video highlights:



Thursday Afternoon - Problem I'm encountering quite a bit is too many people and not enough space at these sessions... problematic... Got seated way early for the next session, yippee! Wow, this presentation rocks! Check out her website here: Tammy Worcester

Wow! Tammy's resources are the best! Can't wait to stockpile and share with you!

Thursday Morning - Well darnit I got here early to visit exhibition booths but they don't open until tonight. Met up with Merry who will be giving me an interview on what she's up to later today. Working on a short video that sums up the day. I will post it later this evening for the millions out there waiting! Right now I'm attending a session on using Social Networking Sites with Social Studies and English. Looks good so far.



Wednesday Afternoon - Learned that more Americans (22%) can name the 5 members of the Simpsons better than naming the 5 freedoms in the Bill of Rights (1%). Learned about using humor to make ideas stick. Learned that the eye goes towards images and color before it goes to black and white and text. Learned also that "laughter is the shortest distance between 2 people." Imagery and making ideas stick. PowerPoint images are "stacked in time" and linear. Putting images side by side instead of one after the other is far more powerful an imaging tool.

Wednesday Morning - I arrived blank and bleary eyed early this morning to attend the pre-conference workshops I had signed up for to discover that coffee wasn't flowing freely. I was already in a state of shock from the 32 degree weather (in Florida) and this put me into a stupor from which I wasn't sure to survive. The first workshop was entitled "Less is More..." which seemed kind of apt given the lack of temperature or coffee and it lived up its title by being one of the least entertaining or informative workshops I have ever attended. I won't go into the details but suffice it to say that it didn't wake me up. Poor guy, he really was well intentioned, but not a presenter. Maybe he should have attended my 2nd workshop entitled "Making Education Stick" which was all about how to make ideas stick with your students. I'll keep updating this post as things come up. More soon, I need to find some coffee...

Heading to Florida but...

Expect lots of awesome tech education updates as I rock and roll the FETC conference. I'm hoping to see lots of cutting edge ideas for use in the classroom and beyond. Expect the unexpected! Check back soon...

Excellent article about the Facebook world...

Learn more about Facebook by clicking here

Adding Gadgets To Your Blog

Free Video Editing Tool Online!

Why stop with photo editing when you can video edit too... ONLINE.
Free and easy and you aren't tied to software like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. So check it out by going to jumpcut.com

Excellent Basic Photo Editing Tool Online!

picnik.com has a quick and free photo editor that you can use on the fly. Plus, you don't even need to register, you click Get Started and then Upload. Click here to see.

Technologically Teaching Vol. 4

Technologically Teaching Vol. 4

Jan. 7, 2009
Happy New Year All!
Well, with the passing of another year it would seem a good time to remember some past very serious quotes about technology that have bit the dust:
"Email has no place at work" (1994)
"Internet access has no place at work" (1996)
"eCommerce is too high a risk for our company" (1998)
"Instant Messaging has no place at work" (2002)
"Social Software has no place at work" (2005)

I got these quotes at the last T.I.E.S conference I attended in Minneapolis just before Christmas and they seem to make clear that technology marches forward with or without the naysayers. So what to do? Hmmm.... Persevere I suppose and continue to give technology the human face it needs, for that human face as we know it may disappear.

One of the featured speakers pointed out that the ultimate technological situation would be one where everyone has a handheld computer (see iPhone, Blackberry) and ubiquitous access to the internet. Seems like we're already there.

Want more exciting/scary stuff? Check out this quote from Ray Kurzweil

The Law of Accelerating Returns
by Ray Kurzweil

"An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense "intuitive linear" view. So we won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century -- it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate). The "returns," such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness, also increase exponentially. There's even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity -- technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light."

Did he say "merger of biological and non-biological intelligence"? Did he use the word "immortal"? Sounds good to me, but I suppose for many it sounds a bit frightening.

Want to read more about it?
Click here: http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0134.html?printable=1

Well, I just wanted to throw a few curve balls at you to think about in 2009. Enjoy!

And keep checking out my blog I'm adding new stuff all the time. See you in the real world (for now)...

"Tech Keith"