Seems like a lot of end of 2000s stuff in the old link basket this week. Loads of stuff though, hope you all like it.
1 – The Oatmeal has lots of great graphics and ideas, but some of them are not safe for schools. I like this 10 Words You Need To Stop Misspelling. NSFS, but could easily be adapted.
2 – Save the Media has some suggestions for the AP Stylebook – such as Twitterati, Twitterverse and Tweet. Best takeaway – it is Tweet, not Twitter – when used as a verb.
3 – David Warlick of 2 Cents Worth has some great Questions for the Next Decade. I agree that they are questions. I wonder when we will stop wasting money on textbooks, when PDFs would serve us so much better. When will we really devote more money to technology.
4 – The New York Times made a terrific icon chart with graphics representing various categories for every year of the past 10. My fav icon – Starbucks. The most interesting – Movies in the Mail, an industry that came, grew and will soon be gone in less than 10 years.
5 – Poynter Online has a super list of suggestions for Writing Teachers to include in their lessons and in their classrooms.
6 – Good Magazine has another interesting graphic that sums up 2009 in news stories, by showing each major story as a block in relative size to their importance.
7 – I already teach stance and how to hold the camera to my students, but I’ve never thought about teaching it like marksmanship. Great idea.
8 – A lot of studies recently have shown that in the last 10 years internet use is up. Really? Wow. Of course it is, there is so much more rich content available now then even just 2-3 years ago.
9 – This post is about brainstorming for bloggers, but I’d say these are great rules for brainstorming in nearly any area, especially yearbook and media classes.
10 – If you don’t have a staff application, you should get one for your yearbook, newspaper, broadcast or other class. And it’s time to move into the online realm – how about an application made with Google Docs?
11 – I love TED Talks and this one is a really great one: It’s not about the perfect Pepsi, it’s about the perfect Pepsi’s. This is what I’ve been saying about yearbooks for a while. We need to stop making the Pepsi yearbook. We need the flexibility to make a Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Slice and even more yearbooks. With print on demand technology, the yearbook companies need to roll out flexible yearbooks before even more kids stop buying books.
12 – Where did everybody go? They are no longer going to web pages, but to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube/Hulu.
13 – DSLRs are tough. This Canon Rebel fell 3000 feet and lived to keep working.
Canon Rebel Falls and Survives
14 – I’ve been looking for this for a long time – a film maker’s dictionary of terms. Useful if you’ve worked in TV, but only dreamed about movies.
15 – If you’ve ever thought about creating a blog, you should read these 7 Secrets of Edubloging from Free Tech for Teachers – a great award winning site.
16 – I really like reading the new Texas Tribune online news site started just this year. The Trib is a must read for Texas teachers, because education spending is the largest item in the state budget, so you can bet we take up our part of Texas politics and the Trib covers it. This article on the divisions between the teaching organizations in Texas was interesting to a 15 year vet who never knew why we had so many.
17 – Again from the 2 Cents Worth blog, what was computing like in 2000 vs. 2010. We’ve come a long way.
18 – Always funny – 50 Biggest flubs of the Year in Headline writing. My favorite:
Chance of Rain
19 – As we move into a new decade, the Newsosaur says we need to emulate the journalists of the 19th Century, not the 20th. Muckrakers of the world unite!
20 – Teach Paperless has a list of 21 Things that will become obsolete in the next decade in education. Lets hope teachers are not one of those things.
21 – Finally, Scott McLeod recently spoke to the NEA and had some interesting things to say. He recorded both his speech and the Q&A that followed, both are worth a listen. I only have two criticisms of what he said. 1) He never answered the question of HOW do we get legislatures, Congress and school boards to start spending money in the right places and move the curriculum forward. 2) He also never gave a good answer to what do people do who are not able to master higher level thinking skills after we move to an information/creativity economy.
Unfortunately with all the holiday eating, I’m up to +3. Ouch.
2 Comments
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TEACH J: For Teachers of Journalism And Media 
Robert, In reference to your link to my blog, 2¢ Worth, and your following comment, you may have been jesting. Dry humor is sometimes difficult to convey in a blog — I know. But you suggest that we switch from textbooks to PDFs. Why! No real game-changing advancement here. Just the same old thing on a backlit screen.
If we are not willing/encouraged to think beyond just a reader to something that is dynamic, interactive, personalized, and collaborative (“Class, let’s meet at the end of paragraph 14 and explore what the author is trying to convey here.”), then it’s just the same old “same old.”
Thanks for the link!
David, thanks for the comment. I guess I wasn’t clear. I was suggesting that as a minimum change. An electronic textbook would at least be something that could be written by the state itself and then we would no longer have to pay huge fees to textbook companies or waste money on paper, printing and storage of physical books. Even PDFs can be made with links to web resources and multimedia content online, some even allow for annotation, so that you can add more notes and links.
I think an interactive Wiki might work better and allow for teachers to contribute lessons, materials and content. But if you know anything about the educational institutional mindset, you know why we are still killing trees. It is the most resistant to change of any area I’ve ever worked.