This is my favorite educational video about the way the election system works. It is short and didactic, clearly showing why votes do not all have the same weight. The “in Plain English” series include videos like this about Web Search Strategies, Podcasting, Blogging, Using Wikis, Social Networking, Social Media,…
Archive for October, 2008
Teaching how the US President election system works
Posted in general on October 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
YouTube Videos
Posted in general on October 30, 2008 | 1 Comment »
First off, it looks like DARPA is going to expand the BigDog project. If you’ve never seen the videos of the robotic mule, it really is a must. It has an uncanny look and is the best representation of an autonomous walking machine. To move to something that might be more useful in education, I [...]
Best U.S. elections sites
Posted in general on October 30, 2008 | 3 Comments »
What are your favorite sites for analysis and discussion of the upcoming U.S. elections? One of my favorites is FiveThirthyEight.com. The site was launched by Nate Silver, previously best known for his work on development statistical approaches to project the performance of baseball players. He has now applied similar statisical approaches toward analyzing U.S. elections. [...]
One Laptop Per Child News
Posted in general on October 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
For those of you interested in pursuing the developments and ramifications of the “One Laptop Per Child” program, one of the best sources of news, information, commentary, and discussion is the independent One Laptop Per Child News. For broader technical updates on the development of small, inexpensive “netbook” computers, I recommend Lilputing.
Participation of Society in the Development of the Web
Posted in general on October 27, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Today and tomorrow -October 27 and 28- is taking place the fourth edition of the International Conference “Fundamentos Web” (“Web Foundations”), in Gijón, Spain. Speakers from different leading Internet companies and researchers are discussing issues related to the active participation of society in the use and development of the web. Workshops and debates include an exchange of opinions [...]
Computer-Mediated Communication in Language Education
Posted in general on October 27, 2008 | 2 Comments »
A three-day workshop on Researching Computer-Mediated Communication in Foreign Language Education will be held at the University of Léon, Spain, April 23-25, 2009. The workshop will cover a broad range of topics related to telecollaboration among language learners, the development of blogs, wikis, and podcasts, and participation in virtual environments and social networks.
The Atlas of Cyberspace
Posted in general on October 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Atlas of Cyberspace is a new book that explores the spatial and visual nature of cyberspace and its infrastructures through more than 300 color images and historical maps. The full contents of the book are downloadable for free.
Information Illiteracy Causes Apple Stock Plunge
Posted in general on October 24, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Several news agencies are reporting that a stock plunge for Apple was caused by a teenage prank. The teenager posted that Steve Jobs had suffered a massive heart attack on iReport.com. The report caused Apple stock to drop $4.8 billion dollars until Apple released a statement denying the report. iReport is a website setup by [...]
Open-source Hardware: The Next Thing?
Posted in general on October 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
We are already familiar with open-source software (e.g., OpenOffice, iTunes) but what about open-source hardware? Kate Greene writes about its emergence in the November/December issue of MIT’s Technology Review: …open-source hardware actually predates open-source software by centuries: people have always shared blueprints and sketches for such things as furniture and machinery. But the visibility of the [...]
Educational Benefits of Social Network Sites
Posted in general on October 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Christine Greenhow, a postdoc at the Social Networks Research & Creative Collaborative at the University of Minnesota, has done some very interesting research on the educational benefits of social networking sites. Check out the Media Release and the Video Release.
