I have been working on developing an online geometry Moodle course as part of the grant that I am currently working under. Every time I develop another Moodle course I learn more and more about the power and versatility of Moodle. The Assignment block is a Moodle function that I was familiar with but had not used. It allows you to design the course so that students can not proceed to the next lesson unless they pass a quiz at the end of each lesson.
I am also using Geogebra, an interactive math website. This will give the students real experience in constructing geometric shapes. They will be able to discover geometric rules by manipulating the geometric shapes they build.
Have you ever been over whelmed by the number of Web 2.0 applications? I know I have, that is why The Best of Lists are helpful. By their nature Best of Lists are self limiting, but at least they narrow the list of Web 2.0 applications to a managable few.
Larry Ferlazzo, an English teacher is Sacramento, CA is a blogger and Best of List developer who can help you cut through the Web 2.0 clutter to find some gems. Look on his sidebar for links to the Best Of pages.
On Saturday, May 2, I was fortunate to be able to attend the New Media Literacies Project conference at MIT. When I first saw the email about the conference I was integrated, but little did I know how important this conference would be.
At NML’s May 2nd conference, we will share our new web-based learning environment, the Learning Library, and host a series of conversations and workshops about the integration and implementation of the new media literacies across disciplines. Workshops include “The Complexities of Copyright: Shepard Fairey v. the AP,” “Mapping in Participatory Culture: Boundaries,” “Using Wikipedia in the Classroom” and many others. Henry Jenkins’ closing remarks will address the future of NML and participatory democracy.
As happens in most conferences the workshops were great but too short. Most of the workshops were based on research that is current or ongoing so I feel like the participants were exposed to a scholarly discussion. At times the workshops fell into research jargon that you had to listen carefully to to gain understanding.
I was also struck by how young many of the researchers were. MIT does attract some of the brightest young minds in the world. The Learning Library and teaching resources they have created will help the classroom teachers and tech directors begin to infuse new media literacies into the curriculum.
I had heard of Henry Jenkins, but I had never heard him speak before. He is leaving MIT for USC so it was a gift to be able to hear him in. Here is a link to a talk he gave at USC in 2007. The MIT conference was recorded and will be available on MIT’s Techtv.
If you do not know who Bill McKibben is you need to lean about him. Bill is an environmentalist and writer who writes about global warming, alternative energy, and economics. Nena and I attended his talk on 4/2 at Mt. Holyoke College. It was standing room only as Bill started the talk by telling us he was there to depress us.
Bill is touring the world to let us know how important the number 350 is. 350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere is the upper safe limit for humanity. Right now the measurement is 387 ppm, so we are past the level of CO2 that is safe for us.
Bill, and others, are organizing A Global Day for Climate Action on October 24, 2009. So go to the web site and find out how you can join. Bill is also on FaceBook and Twitter so that you can stay connected.
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