One Web Day

Greetings from West Virginia! We'll be podcasting this morning's opening session with Chris O'Neal. And look for pictures later this week when we head out on a field trip to a gob pile!

Meanwhile, start planning now for One Web Day, a celebration modeled on Earth Day. It's being billed as a chance to celebrate all the good that the web has done. In this day and age of COPA and DOPA, I think we need to remind ourselves that that Internet does have some positive influences.

Here's the link: http://www.onewebday.org/

Teachers Get Tech-Savvy

From the Daily News Record, a story of middle school teachers at James Madison learning to use GPS and GIS:

http://www.dnronline.com/news_details.php?AID=5383&CHID=2

If you haven't played with Google Earth yet, this story should inspire you...

http://earth.google.com

Clickers

Great article about using wireless response systems in the classroom:

Astronomy Education Review

Old and New Media

I am doing an independent study on media literacy this summer and constantly coming up against the class between old and new media. If you're interested, I'm keeping a blog about my reading and using a wiki to develop the annotated biobliography.

This website--an e-journal for those who work with books--shows the perfect marriage of old and new media. Using new media to communicate about old media:

http://www.philobiblon.com/bonefolder/index.html

Microsoft's Answer to the iPod

Microsoft has confirmed that it will be introducing a personal music player that should be a rival to the iPod:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5205296.stm

Banning Cell Phones

An article from The New York Times about parent opposition to a decision to ban cell phones in schools. A good read for anyone thinking about this issue in their school divisions: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/13/nyregion/13cnd-cellphone.html?_r=1&oref=sloginhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Geeks rule in Japan!

From Wired, an article about the "otaku" in Japan, an elite group of men who are obsessed with anime, comics, and videogames.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/posts.html?pg=5

Second Life

An article from The Phoenix about Second Life, the 3-D virtual community that seems to have sprung up almost overnight. I spent some time there yesterday as part of an academic poster session. Read the article and then head to Second Life to create your avatar and learn to fly!

http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid17440.aspx

http://www.secondlife.com

Living in Web 2.0

From James Fallows in MIT's Technology Review, an article about trying to live in Web 2.0 and who Dodgeball was really meant for!

http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17061&ch=infotech