Author: abendelow
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Here is where social networking is really dangerous
In World War II, there was a propaganda motto spread to the US population: “Loose lips sink ships.” Don’t go blabbing what you know about our military if you don’t want enemy spies finding out and using the information against our people. The artwork of propagandists is an example of effective visual communication. In 2009,…
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"But I don't want to keep up with my students after school hours!"
I can hear the self-righteous teachers union-members whining already, in response to this addition to my list of the ways we can improve instruction by use of social media— Twitter this time. According to this article by Susan Kinzie, progressive US educators are already taking advantage of social media to facilitate the very social act…
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Ten reasons Teachers should Tweet
British teacher Laura Walker makes a nice argument, adducing NINE reasons teachers should get onto Twitter. I want to add a tenth: 10. Twitter‘s the most efficient social medium available in terms of overall quality and sheer numerical quantity If teachers are to be able to use the literacy tool du jour–the pencil and pen,…
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Music Education = healthful intellectual steroid
A new study in the midwest sets out to measure what Nancy Flanagan and other champions of music and arts education have always claimed: students will learn better–derive measurable cognitive benefit–from music education. An observant high school instructor can tell within two weeks of the start of school which of his students have been or…
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"Appropriate Uses of Modern Technology" is a topic
that every teacher in a public school–whether beginner or veteran–needs to understand as the school year begins in his/her district. “Appropriate Uses of Modern Technology” is also the name of the latest American Federation of Teacher‘s “Classroom Tips” brochures that will be distributed freely to the union’s hundreds of thousands of teachers and school support…
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SOUR '日々の音色 (Hibi no neiro)' = teachers, observe!
Kathy V., a colleague and instructional hero of mine, shared this example of the power of collaborative construction via web 2.0 tools and I’m very grateful.. The creators are all under 21. Ask yourself as you watch it, educator: What corrollaries does it have for your instruction? A corrolary I take? That teachers need to…
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Lincoln v. Douglas 2.0 –why not?
Freedom-loving persons would not have wanted to do this one year ago, with George W. debating, but now, with eloquent president Obama, a golden opportunity for brand USA has been handed us by the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. From July 4th’s presstv: Addressing Iranian heads of medical universities on Saturday, President Ahmadinejad offered to…
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From the "Sloppy Floyd Building" comes confirmation
that the public’s sense of reality is located on-line. We know this because Georgia politicians, who trade on the public’s sense of reality, are vigorously defending their “brand” on-line. (James H. “Sloppy” Floyd was a state representative in Georgia from 1953-74. Apparently the state has named office buildings in his name). The Georgia Governor’s campaign…
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Who needs a press corps anymore?
The current US administration is riding the wave washing out the old fourth estate, leaving an ominous vacuum. In place of the dying newspapers, Obama’s websites and social media fill in the gap with status updates on proposed reforms, domestic and foreign affairs, and news of the family dog. Perhaps a benign-seeming president like BO…
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#Iranelection and Chicago, 1968: the revolution is being televised (this time)
What an amazing spectacle, because of the web the largest political show ever: actual revolutionary battles that the people(the crowd, the mob, the mass of us, this time mediated by the web) are, so far, winning. Clay Shirkey (the author of Here Comes Everybody) meets the barricades. “Here we come!” the mob of Iranians seem…
The Wikiness 