Soldiers in Iraq and Afganistan are using robots to do some of the military’s most dangerous work. The best way to remove a land mine is to step on it, but it’s hard to get people to volunteer for that duty.  That’s where robots come in. Specially designed machines go out into minefields and trigger the explosives. They lose a leg every time one goes … Continue reading Love the Machine

Fairbanks Technology Coordinator BJ Thaman posted this message to the Tech Coordinators’ listserv this week: We are in the beginning stages of creating a Moodle site for our district.  We hope to use this site for both classroom enrichment and professional development.  I noticed that the official Moodle homepage has a Moodle Xxchange where people contribute lessons for all to use and modify.  It sounds … Continue reading Moodle Sandbox

I’m putting my text in first. Then, I’ll switch to code view and paste: Click To Play This week a short history of Pertinax, perhaps one of the shortest reigns in imperial history. Also a virtual tour of the Naples Museum. Now, I’m back to visual mode. Continue reading From Blip.tv…

Here’s code for the general ibed: and this one is a link using the image tool: I’m not sure it can handle it as an image, though. This is the embed from a YouTube video. It’s going to get blocked by the Internet filter, but I can check from home to see if it works: Let’s try a hybrid approach. This is the YouTube object … Continue reading From TeacherTube

This is from Slideshare: See content above Continue reading Another Test

This is a test for email notification. Continue reading EN Test

We received a request to unblock a web site yesterday. The justification went something like this: I received an email message containing some inappropriate content. The message said that I had signed up to receive this content, but this must be a mistake. I tried to unsubscribe, but when I clicked the link, the site was blocked. Please unblock the site so I can unsubscribe … Continue reading Don't Click That Link

“When I finally write my textbook, this is how I’m going to explain systems of linear equations.” Mr. DeLorenzo was always deviating from the textbook in our Algebra II class. “Forget what the book says, and listen to this.” He had a plan for just about every topic. Having taught Algebra for more than twenty years, he knew how to a explain it in a … Continue reading New Textbooks

When I first saw Scuttle, I wasn’t impressed. It’s essentially a replacement for del.icio.us. It allows you to store and manage bookmarks. You can tag the links, and then sort and filter by those tags. You can grab RSS an feed for any tag or any user. You can share links with other users. You can annotate links, inserting your own notes about the site. … Continue reading Pop Goes the Scuttle

RSS takes three tries before you start to understand it. The first time, it goes completely over your head. The second time, you start to get some kind of idea what they’re talking about. The third time, you start to really understand what’s going on. It’s a lot like photosynthesis, or trigonometry, or irregular verbs in romance languages, or all of those other things I … Continue reading Feed Me

Remember Marco Polo? I still have a couple training binders for it on my bookshelf. Back in 2000, the WorldCom Foundation partnered with renowned educational organizations to create a collection of Internet resources for teaching K-12 content in every academic discipline. They did everything right. For the math resources, they partnered with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), the professional organization that changed … Continue reading Marco Polo = Thinkfinity

I thought I was finally getting it. After spending the last eighteen months working with Web 2.0 tools, I finally have a good understanding of how technology can change education. I’ve become part of several communities online. I regularly communicate with people all over the world. There are even a few people reading my blog. Last week, I was catching up on some old podcasts, … Continue reading Keeping Up