Being Human

I received this in an email today, and I liked it so much I though I'd share it here. I Googled it and these rules are attributed to Dr. Cherie Carter-Scott:

THE RULES FOR BEING HUMAN

1. YOU WILL RECEIVE A BODY
You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.

2. YOU WILL LEARN LESSONS
You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.

3. THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, ONLY LESSONS
Growth is a process of trial and error; experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately “works!”

4. LESSONS ARE REPEATED UNTIL LEARNED
A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.

5. LEARNING LESSONS DOES NOT END
There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. “THERE” IS NO BETTER THAN “HERE”
When your “there” has become a “here,” you will simply obtain another “there” that will, again, look better than “here.”

7. OTHERS ARE MERELY MIRRORS OF YOU
You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

8. WHAT YOU MAKE OF YOUR LIFE IS UP TO YOU
You have all the tools and resources you need… what you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. YOUR ANSWERS LIE INSIDE YOU
The answers to life’s questions lie inside you. All you need do is look, listen and trust.

10. YOU WILL FORGET ALL THIS!

Some important lessons for teachers AND students.

60 year old photos discovered

While reading the Shorpy.com blog I learned of this article and photos from Ynetnews.com

"This is the incredible story of a collection of 178 family pictures, which were hidden in the walls of a house in Poland just before the Holocaust, only to be found some 60 years later and be returned to their rightful owners."
Nira Rousso

Read the amazing story of how these pictures were reunited with surviving family members and view 100 of the pictures in an online collection called "Images of a lost community."

Mogopop-- create content for iPods!

iPod in Education

plug in and iPod it
requires FREEmanager

From the mogopop website: "Mogopop is a free web-based service where members and visitors can create, publish and download multimedia content for iPod. This content that can incorporate audio, video, pictures, podcasts, text – whatever our members’ minds can imagine, they can create. Mogopop downloads are like mini-Websites for iPod that anyone can enjoy."

Wish I'd said this...

On Web 2.0 and other new technologies: "Change will happen when we have a reculturation of the institution of school. When we focus on what is important rather than the tools. We are like a bunch of 4th graders who have just been given math manipulatives for the first time-- we have to play and explore with them first before we can actual get down to business of using them for learning."

From the 21st Century Collaborative blog, by Sheryl Nussbaum Beach

Creating eBooks With PowerPoint

While conducting research for an upcoming workshop on iPods in the classroom, I came across this website by the Drs. Cavanaugh with a very thorough tutorial on creating your own eBook (think digital storytelling) with PowerPoint. They even have a FREE PowerPoint template that you can download.

Good stuff! Check it out!

What makes a good keynote speaker good?

David Jakes is going to be a keynote speaker at TechForum Chicago, and on his blog he asks this question: "When you attend a conference, and attend the keynote, what kind of presentation are you looking for? Do you look for more philosophical, or practical or a mix of both? What attributes does a good keynote have?" He invites your comments and suggestions on his blog. Here are mine, in no particular order.

I appreciate a keynote speaker who sounds prepared--polished, but not perfect--and doesn't sound like he or she is reading from a teleprompter. I've been to a few keynotes where the speaker sounded like he (yes they were all male) was winging it. Just kind of wandered from one point to the next with no clear direction or point to what he was saying.

I also like hearing "the big thinkers" who challenge me to think different (isn't that an Apple promo?)

And speaking of promos, I don't like listening to keynotes that turn into commercials for a book, or software, or hardware, or whatever it is they happen to be selling.

I like speakers who tell moving stories will excellent visuals, not speakers who read their PowerPoint slides to me.

And I definitely appreciate a good sense of humor.

I want to leave the session with a feeling of hope, not a sense of gloom and doom.

Have I missed anything? Add your suggestions to David's blog: http://jakespeak.blogspot.com/2007/04/keynote-address-techforum-chicago.html

Educational research online

Found this link on Lucy Gray's blog.

http://edres.org/ "This is a database of full-text resources from on-line journals, the ERIC database, and web-pages containing research reports. As of October 6, 2006, there are 1,300 journal articles and 108,000 research reports and other documents in the database."

Just type in a key word, click the search button and away you go!

My twin?

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow

I love this!

This teachertube video is similar to the "Did you know" presentation from Karl Fisch.

C/NET.com's Keeping Your Kids Safe Online

Some great Internet safety resources from C/NET:

• Developing safe and smart Internet citizens
• Parents, tech outdo lawmakers on Internet safety
• Parental controls that keep tabs on young Web surfers
• User-generated videos challenge parental controls
• Growing concerns over cyberbullying
• Readers address online safety for kids
• Top five Internet dangers for kids
• Think before you click: A kids' checklist for surfing the Net
• Additional resources: Online safety organization

They also have 3 streaming videos on "The real net threats", "Virtual family fun with Famster", and "Using Vista's online family safety features"

The URL is: http://www.cnet.com/2001-13384_1-0.html?tag=hed