A Great Site for 3d Learning

Hey Everyone,

As many of you have probably read in previous posts, I am easily sidetracked when I am working on my Walden homework. Thankfully, my findings are often quite useful. I figured I'd share tonight's since it directly relates to 21st century learning.

This blog: http://www.karlkapp.blogspot.com/ is an excellent source of information for using 3d eLearning. Programs can range from Second Life (yes, I was even surprised to see the educational benefits of Second Life) as well as 3d Virtual Scavenger Hunts.

Let me know what you all think!

Brett

Power Teaching / Whole Brain Teaching

As I was writing my application for this week, I figured I would share with all of you one of the classroom management strategies that I use when I end up with an overly energetic class. This also works well for students that may have behavior issues. Or, you may want to do it because it is just plain fun!

The strategy was called "Power Teaching" and is now refereed to as "Whole Brain Teaching." It was developed by a professor named Chris Biffle. You can get pretty much everything you need to use this method off of his WEBSITE for free!

Below is a video of it being used in a college setting. However, this is effective PreK-Adult. I have tested it 4-8 personally, and my wife uses it regularly in her 3rd and 4th grade rooms.

Will the iPad be a game changer?

With Apple's release of the iPad today, I have a feeling this could really revolutionize not only the tech gadget world, but also our classrooms. For the cost of a decent iPod touch, you can now surf the web, read a book, download apps, all on a device the size of a laptop screen, and not much thicker either.

How could this benefit our schools? First of all, these things hardly take up any space at all. With our movement into Web 3.0, or "Sky Computing" everything can be done online without software as it is. Even files are stored safely online now with Google Docs.

With the option to purchase a dock and keyboard, I can certainly foresee these devices replacing the laptop carts or mobile labs.

What's your opinion?

Making Online Magazines

Do any of you have a use for making online magazines? I know I do with my Desktop Publishing class. Maybe you'd just like to take a PDF and turn it into magazine format just for the sake of being cool. Well, if that's the case, you'd like this site I just came across: http://www.youblisher.com/ You simply upload your PDF and they turn it into a magazine style web page, in which they host. Best of all, it's free.

Educational Viral Video of the Week

My wife showed me a very well done video by the HOPE Christian Schools in Milwaukee, WI. Living not too far from Milwaukee, I like to promote anything good going on in their schools due to the fact that MPS is getting such bad press right now; they are also going through a mayoral take-over. Even though this is a private school in Milwaukee, it's worth showing some of the good that is going on over there.

A full writeup of the story can be found by WISN news here.