Posted on by Mark Wagner, Ph.D.

Links for 2009-03-31

  • Google Docs
    Seventeen slides from Tom Barrett on Fifteen Interesting Ways (and Tips) to use Google Docs in the Classroom.
    (tags: googledocs googleined)
  • Green Technology News: Schools
    This is a special supplement of Green Technology Magazine focused on Schools… with just over a dozen or so articles.
    (tags: green education greeneducation)
  • Earth Hour
    It's a bit late to spread the word at this point, but I participated in Earth Hour this year, and despite the fact that it's only a small and temporary change (rather than a more meaningful change in habits) I think it's a great way to raise awareness… and a great opportunity to "start small" rather than avoid starting altogether. Perhaps educators can take a more active roll in this – and provide meaningful discussions with students about the issues.
    (tags: green earthhour)
  • Green California Schools Summit
    It turns out there's a Green California Schools Summit & Exposition. It doesn't look like it's for an audience of teachers, but I hope to tap into some of the resources, vendors, and speakers to bring a green "strand" to the other conferences I work with.
    (tags: green education greeneducation)
  • Obama turns to Web to bypass news media | The Industry Standard
    I appreciate this tend – it's one of the reasons I voted for Obama and I look forward to seeing how far this administration will push online interactivity over the course of the next four years.
    (tags: politics obama)
  • Computer Games Explore Social Issues | Edutopia
    This is an article about a social studies class in which "students have to win PeaceMaker, a simulation of the Middle East peace process, twice — once while playing as the Israeli prime minister and once as the Palestinian president." Games for Change might also make an appearance at this year's CLMS/CUE technology conference.
    (tags: edugames games4change)
  • A Free, Green Education: Guide to No-Cost, Online Environmental Courses
    This is the first of several "Green Education" resources I dug up in preparation for the CLMS tech conference later this year, which will be focused on social media, social change, and education – with a particular focus on green issues.
    (tags: green education greeneducation)
  • YouTube – Broadcast Yourself.
    YouTube EDU is a collection of videos and channels from college and university partners. This is like iTunes U for YouTube. I've seen headlines that have suggested "forget paying for college – just go to YouTube."
    (tags: youtube videos googleined)
  • YouTube – Google Scholar – tips & tricks
    This is a five minute video of tips and tricks about Google Scholar. This might be particularly relevant for older (secondary) students.
    (tags: googlescholar googleined)
  • Official Google Docs Blog: Drawing on your creativity in Docs
    Google Docs has a powerful new feature… the ability to create "drawings" in a word processing document: "It's easy to create drawings using lines, free hand scribbles, text labels and a large choice of shapes that you can move, resize, rotate and adjust. Group, order, align and distribute and other features are available when you select objects you've drawn. You can also customize a range of shape properties, from line widths to fill color, and from arrowheads to font size, and much more."
    (tags: googleined googledocs)
  • Celebrity Twittering: Is That Really You, Shaq? – TIME
    It really was Shaq. This article is also an interesting portrait of how privacy (and celebrity) are changing in our increasingly connected world.
    (tags: twitter)