I was asked to speak at the VCU School of Education’s Teaching Literacy in a Digital World Conference this past Saturday. I’ve haven’t spent much time thinking about “digital literacy” in the past few years. It’s been somewhat mashed together with other terms that overlap like- digital fluency, computational thinking, etc. – and like those […]
USA Today’s Dumbest Article (Today, that is) It appears that desperation breeds sensationalism. USA Today attempts to stave off irrelevancy by publishing nonsense. Modified article below. As usual, footnotes and italics are mine. Some minor deletions of original article may also occur. _______________________________________________ Original Article By Erin Thompson, USA TODAY Teens and young adults are […]
Here’s a slightly modified/mockified version of a recent Chronicle article. Some deletions. My additions in italics. College students were given the chance to ditch a traditional classroom for an online virtual world. Fourteen out of fifteen declined. The fifteenth student was required to return to K12 education to have the rest of the curiosity and […]
Bronze Age Orientation The “lessons” in the video are funny because they’re true (I think I’m quoting Homer Simpson)- don’t be a pompous ass (period, but especially not when advocating for a major change) positive version – Be humble. You don’t know everything and your way is not the only way. don’t make change a […]
How would you help your teachers to recognize the significance of this beautiful picture as it relates to their vocation? Photo Credit: Jennifer Zwick via Neatorama […]
Minx Comics, published by DC Comics, focuses on girl-positive themes and images. As a life-long comic book collector (boxes, bags, and the whole nine yards), it has worried me the way women in comics have become hyper-sexualized. It’s difficult to find a female character who doesn’t seem to be popping out of her costume. Minx […]
I made this so we could talk to our staff about the TIP Chart (our technology integration progress rubric- which is pretty good). It’d work well for parents as well. It’s pretty interactive and fun in the beginning with a number of pretty funny questions mocking our ability to predict the future. The intro slide […]
I’ve been playing around with the idea of doing a blog for my middle school focusing on using rap lyrics to get at daily oral language and to build vocabulary. I think the potential is definitely there. I’m worried about two things. Can I come up with material consistently enough to make it worthwhile for […]
The kind and brilliant folks at MIT have come out with a new Exhibit API that allows for more flexibility and power. The bonus is that it looks good doing it. I’ve now revised my Google spreadsheet fed history example to use some of the new power. It’s here if you’re interested. In the end […]
The wizards at MIT have released Exhibit 2.0 and it’s amazing. It’s so cool that I’m not even bitter that I’ll have to fix a few web sites and completely re-make my tutorial. That’s pretty amazing. Swing by and check out the new examples. It’s very nice stuff. […]