🕹ī¸ Do Something Great! 😄

Tag: Commentary

  • The iPod Touch

    I picked up an iPod Touch on Saturday, and am I impressed. I have been
    testing out the Nokia N800, but when it comes to Internet usability, the
    Touch wins hands down. Surfing is very, very usable.

    I’m still getting used to the onscreen keyboard, but it is already a lot
    better than the N800. The question I have remaining, “Is the touch more
    useful I’m the classroom than the Asus eeePC?

  • eTech Ohio Technology Conference

    After reading John’s blog post yesterday, I realized that not only
    haven’t I posted anything, I haven’t even begun to look at what sessions
    I want to go to at the eTech conference. Since I present at 8:00am
    Monday morning, I’ve been more focused on that.

    Through the Online Conference Planner I’ve begun to setup the sessions I
    want to go to, and I will be publishing my calendar through Google
    Calendar
    .

  • Can Wikipedia can be saved for our schools?

    Andy Carvin on his blog presents a case for Turning Wikipedia into an
    Asset for Schools
    . Instead of blindly following what’s in Wikipedia,
    use it to present “teachers with an excellent authentic learning
    activity in which students can demonstrate their skills as scholars”:

    […]Take a group of fifth grade students and break them into groups,
    with each group picking a topic that interests them. Any topic.
    Dolphins, horses, hockey, you name it.

    Next, send the groups of kids to Wikipedia to look up the topic they
    selected. […] The horse, for example, has an extensive entry on the
    website. It certainly looks accurate and informative, but is it?
    Unfortunately, there are no citations for any of the facts claimed
    about horses on the page.

    […]The group of students breaks down the content on the page into
    manageable chunks, each with a certain amount of facts that need to be
    verified. The students then spend the necessary time to fact-check the
    content.
    Once the Wikipedia entry has been fact-checked, the teacher creates a
    Wikipedia login for the class. They go to the entry’s talk page and
    present their findings, laying out every idea that needs to be
    corrected. Then, they edit the actual entry to make the corrections,
    with all sources cited. Similarly, for all the parts of the entry
    they’ve verified as accurate, they list sources confirming it.