Should you blog?

I found this interesting video featuring Seth Godin - a writer, speaker and agent of change -  and Tom Peters - a writer on business management practices - where they discuss the importance of blogging. The thing to keep in mind as you watch the video is how blogging could be important for you, just as a professional, and how it could be of great value to your students as they grow up and mature in a digital environment. Is this an important skill for them (and you) to have? As a side note, this video comes from a conference for Fortune 500 Companies in Washington DC in 2008. Please comment, I am interested in your perspective.

PhET Simulations

What is...PhEt? PhET is created by a group at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. It offers a whole bunch of free science simulations.

Uses in education.  The simulations offered at PhEt cover many science topics in subject areas including Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science and math. The simulations can be to highlight something you are covering in class. It could be to set up an experiment you may be trying. It can also be the actual experiment you are going to do in class. It is a great place for students to take what you are learning in class and apply that knowledge to a real-life situation and make some predictions on what is going to happen.

Below is a link to an example of a popular PhEt simulation dealing with probability using the game Plinko:
http://phet.colorado.edu/sims/plinko-probability/plinko-probability_en.html 

Why use PhET? PhET is just an amazing resource to be used in the classroom. There are so many practical, cool things that you can implement with PhET. It is also a free tool.

Link: http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/new

Animoto

What is...Animoto? Animoto is a free web-based video creation tool.

Uses in education. This is a great tool to accomplish a number of things in a classroom. For one, it can be used to review a chapter. For instance, if I was teaching social studies, I could use this tool to have a student create a 30-second review of the chapter using words, pictures and graphics. I could also create an introductory video to preview a chapter.

Why use Animoto?  First and foremost because it is very easy to use. This tool does not take long to learn, and it does not take long to create using Animoto. Animoto has a lot of options for users (pictures, music, etc.) but takes a lot of the hard work of editing the video out of the hands of the user. This part of the work can be very difficult and time consuming, but Animoto takes care of that for the user.

Secondly, it creates really cool looking products. You can get professional looking results, without necessarily being a video editing professional.

And, lastly, it is free. Free is always good, and that is no different in this case.

Link: www.animoto.com

The Center on Congress at Indiana University - YouTube Channel

What is ... The Center on Congress at Indiana University - YouTube Channel? This is a resource created by the University of Indiana in Bloomington that offers videos detailing the workings of Congress. They say their central mission is to "help improve the public's understanding and to improve civic engagement" among other things.

Uses in education. These videos created by the Center can be used for discussion starters, quick reviews, extension of knowledge, part of a focus lesson, a way to wrap up an idea you are discussing, and plenty more.

Why use The Center on Congress at Indiana University YouTube Channel? The resource has easy to follow videos that touch on concepts that students don't always understand. The Center on Congress has already created somewhere around 25 videos that you can use in class.

Link: www.youtube.com/user/TheCenteronCongress