Wikiality-- the reality of Wikipedia

Love it or hate it, block it or allow it, Wikipedia isn't going away. Many schools have blocked it because its reliability and validity are in question. Many students rely on it as their first (and perhaps only?) source of information.

I have used Wikipedia many times to find information and links that I have used in several presentations. But as an adult, I know the importance of questioning my sources of information. Many of our students are gullible and would accept any information as fact without bothering to check its accuracy.

Today I came across an excellent lesson plan about Wikipedia on the FactCheckEd website. There are student handouts, suggested activities, background information, and correlations to national standards-- AND this video from the Colbert Report entitled Wikiality:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Wikiality
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests

I think this is an important lesson and an important topic we need to address with our students.

A new way to create a digital story!

Storybird is currently a free site for creating digital stories. Here's a short video from their website that shows you what's possible:

Storybird Quick Tour from Storybird on Vimeo.

Love this preso!

I saw this on the Rainy Day Blog and had to have a copy of it for my own blog. Good stuff!

The e-learning skills gap

View more presentations from Clive Shepherd.

Did You Know? v4.0

Also see the Shift Happens wiki: http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/versions for downloadable versions of the YouTube video.