Google Maps

This map shares select economic data on countries throughout the world.  This data includes Gross Domestic Product per capital, economic growth rate, population and growth rate, population per square mile, literacy rate, and life expectancy.  Students will be asked to review the countries and determine any correlations (direct or inverse), for example economic growth rate and population growth rate, GDP per capita and population growth rate, literacy and life expectancy, etc.  They will be asked to share their findings with the rest of the class.  We will draw a matrix tracking the correlations found by the students.


View Global GDP Per Capita, Population, and Literacy Rate in a larger map

Concept Mapping

This concept mapping helps students learn about the organization of the Federal Reserve system.  Specifically, it addresses the Board of Governors, the Federal Open Market Committee, Federal Reserve Bank, and member banks.  The intent is to insert blanks for some of the information, for example, __ members, __ directors, __ banks, __ branches.  I can also insert the lines, but ask them to label them accordingly, for example, elect, appoint, or approve.  I do not currently have an interactive exercise for this, rather a powerpoint slide that describes the organization.  This mapping concept or interactive tool will enhance the students’ learning and provide for meaningful learning as opposed to rote type learning. 

Delicious Directions

I am learning about a social bookmarking service called Delicious.  It allows me to share with others and discover new bookmarks.  Share with me by going here.

 Delicious is a social bookmarking website – used to store bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere, too.

Key wins:  Got rid of the hard to remember del.icio.us URL.  Tags allow you to organize and remember your bookmarks, which is a much more flexible system than folders.  Acquired by Yahoo in 2005 for an estimated $10-$15 million.

Key losses: Founder Joshua Schachter left to join Google on January 12, 2009

Business Use:  Easy for employees in the same department to keep track of relevant sites and articles.  Also for content and entertainment producers it’s an easy way to determine which articles/postings the general public finds most relevant.

Coach:   Managed and purchased 2005 by Yahoo – Sunnyvale, CA, then sold to AVOS Systems on April 27, 2011.

Source:   Socialnomics, March 9, 2009.

Podcasts

This podcast discusses the Colonization of Africa and is part of the social studies podcasts included at the Education Podcast Network (EPN).  The site lists hundreds of podcasts including math, science, music, computer skills, dance, art, and the First Amendment Minute series that discusses different issues concerning the First Amendment in one minute.  There is also a section of podcasts developed by elementary, middle, and secondary school students.

Photo Album

Come view my pictures.

Lake Map

View Larger Map

2011 Horizon Report

The report addresses the six (6) emerging technologies and the impact they could have on education in the next few years.

Why Wikis instead of emails

Christine's Question - "Why Wikis instead of emails?"

• Signal-to-noise difference. Not everyone is interested in every issue on every format.
• Efficiency in reading. You can read one wiki page to get the status/thread of an issue whereas with emails you often have to read thru numerous emails (and threads) and apply them in your head to understand where an issue etc. ended up.
• Search/discoverability.  Search for the web/wikis works much better in practice than searching mailing lists.
• Public domain. Wiki contributions are required public domain, while in email there is no enforcement, thus email should be used only "informatively" for notifications and never for capturing material of any substance.