3DLearning

The concept of 3DLearners just popped up on a blog and it caught my eye. And I quote: There's been usage of the term 3D Learners as a category which includes kids with dyslexia and some other groups whose minds process less sequentially than is most common. It's a very clever term in thatthe imagery evokes the idea of being a visual learner.

I've often wondered if 3D was going to move from being a novelty to being mainstream on the web. Right now, it's big in some games and some niche uses.

I've spent a little time in 3D space in a chat system called IMVU and in the famous SecondLife world. My impression is that there are a lot of multiplayer 3D persistent web-based games. These range from the very juvenile and big Club Penguin to a huge number of MMORGs (massively multiplayer online role playplaying games) such as (and I'm just pulling this list from a blog post on 3D MMORGs):

1, Sherwood Dungeon
2, Club Marian
3, Earth Eternal
4Free Realms

But, I have a passing awareness of the game world and it looks like I'm pulling a somewhat obscure list since there's no big-name EA game on it.

Writing Prompts

A writing prompt is the term that teachers use as as the writing assignment that they give to students. Literally, as what "prompts writing". Many adults will remember the traditional writing assignments of:
- Write a book report
- Write about that you did this weekend or over this summer vacation

Today, teachers and homeschool parents recognize that quality writing prompts inspire quality writing. I've just been reviewing articles about writing prompts and have yet to find one that comprehensive discusses the issue across a range of ages and reading issues. Here's a quick review of articles that I've found:

Internet4Classrooms - A list of writing prompts from popular textbooks.
Tips for Creative Writing Prompts - This article astutely notes that it's a myth that the youth hate to write, there is a discernable current of interest which educators should learn to tap into.
Middle school writing prompts -
CanTeach List of Writing Prompts -

Saving the World - Kenya

I have a strong public service mentality. I was a Peace Corps volunteer long ago and actively contribute to: two homeless programs, some safe kids programs, several third world programs including one child, one laptop, and so on. My brothers are the same way. So I get emails like this:

More impractical grandiose ideas from your dreamy brother...

Today the news reported the completion of a undersea internet cable to
Kenya that is supposed to spur a huge jump in connectedness and
outsourced services in Kenya. I would call it the Bangalorization of
Kenya. It is also supposed to provide lots of online educational
services to galvanize Kenyan schools.

Is there some way one of your websites can capitalize on this? Free or
discounted subscriptions to computers located there? Some
way to help Kenyan education at the same time boost your reputation or
visibility or number of links? Could Kenyan schools also use SpellingCity?

Obviously, you would want to find a way to make money from this and not
just be pure charity.

There is an editorial column on page 7 of the attached by Nicholas
Kristof about the need to boost education in Pakistan, another
English-speaking chunk of the developing world. (Not to mention
Sangmalima (note - the town where I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the 1980s) and the rest of Anglophone Cameroon!) But Kenya is obviously
a lot more promsing right now.

Just musings...

Education - tweeting & personal learning networks

I'm surfing around. But not on the web. I'm trying to spend some time inside twitter to see what's going on. I read a Time Magazine (remember them?) article this week about Twitter which started with an insight that I totally agree with:

"One thing you can say for sure about Twitter, it sure makes a lousy first impression. Do you want a technology to communicate constantly with people in 160 characters or less? Of course not"

Yet, the article went on to describe that twitter has pretty much become one of the IT technologies because of it's high adoption rate. So I'm surfing around in Twitter.

To be honest, I'm confused. I've found some people that I would like to twitter with (no pun intended) meaning that I'd like them to be aware of the incredible SpellingCity.com website but I'm not sure how to go about it without being spamish and bad. So far, I'm only using twitter to find blogs or emails who I approach in my usual tongue-tied comment or email approach (..if its not too much trouble...and you're curious about such things....and if you have some time....but I don't want to bother you...I've worked really hard....in any case, it's called SpellingCity.com and I'd appreciate a look or review if you can.....if you can't, I won't take it personally and I won't mind.... MUCH!)

In any case, I thought I'd review some incredible websites by elementary school educators that I'm finding in case my tweets get lost.....

EraserTown USA, The New Primary Classroom by Maryann Molishus. My first thoughts, how did she get all those little Web 2.0 icons up there so small and organized and what are they? Her widgets and stuff are first rate as is her credentials...2008 Milken Family Foundation Award Recipient, Star Discovery Educator, Keystone Technology Integrator, Received 2007 Best Buy Teach Award, Member: ISTE, NAEYC, ASCD, Iditarod Trail Committee; Twitter/Plurk. My second thoughts are is EraserTown a play on kids with pencils and erasers or is it about the Eraserhead stuff. Does Molishus rhyme with delicious and is that her real name or just a fortunate coincidence? And lastly, why doesn't she do a little more with the blog like make review SpellingCity.com or Vocabulary Learning Fun?

Philly Teacher - Ms Hertz is a Computer Science teacher in West Philadelphia. Her blog is very active (as I think her tweeting is but again, I'm so confused when I go in there) and she's just too wired. For instance, in her most recent post, she's comparing different social bookmarking services (have I ever admitted that I never really understood Del.ic.ious?). She's comparing it with something that I've never before heard of...Portaportal. Other recent posts were about Shidonni (sounds very cool) and Jam 2.0.

I'll stop there... I want to go check out shidonni

PreK-3rd Education Advocacy Groups

I just listened to a very nicely done YouTube video by Christina Satkowski done earlier this week. She is part of the New America Foundation, a group that I had not previously heard of. I found them through the Foundation for Child Development, another group that I had not previously been aware of.

States agree to share standards: huge shift

Forty-Nine States and Territories Join Common Core State Standards Initiative

The Council of Chief State School Officers - CCSSO - led a Process to Develop Common English-language arts and Mathematics Standards. This was announced last week. It's amazing. Who would have thunk that the previously independent-minded states would sign up for a common set of standards? It's collaborative, it's efficient, it's sensible and it's about time. Bravo!

And I quote the release:

By signing on to the Common Core State Standards Initiative, governors and state commissioners of education across the country are committing to joining a state-led process to develop a common core of state standards in English-language arts and mathematics for grades K-12. These standards will be research and evidence-based, internationally benchmarked, aligned with college and work expectations and include rigorous content and skills.

“To maintain America’s competitive edge, we need all of our students to be prepared and ready to compete with students from around the world,” said NGA Vice Chair Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas. “Common standards that allow us to internationally benchmark our students’ performance with other top countries have the potential to bring about a real and meaningful transformation of our education system to the benefit of all Americans.”

This means no more armies of people redefining the educational standards at each state level. No more need for state specific textbooks. An ability to use common tests around the country and compare results. But wait, there's more:

- They are likely to include science. Maybe social studies too.
- They are likely to include preschool.
- They are likely to define benchmarks that are observable and measurable!
- They are likely to remain consistent with international norms such as the international bac.

an online alternative to cancelled summer school classes

This creates a lot of opportunity for innovative education a la homeschooling and the private sector. Tis indeed an ill wind....


June 5, 2009 - Time4Learning.com, a Homeschool.com top-rated online education software company, offers California parents an online alternative to cancelled summer school classes caused by the State budget deficit. Time4Learning.com provides award-winning, online Pre School to 12th grade education curriculum.

According to John Edelson, Founder and President of Time4Learning, “The summer is a critical time for many students to catch up or advance their skills. The cancellation of summer classes by the State of California has created a large gap in the ability to do this affordably for many families and the Internet is a great alternative.”

Ed Mouse Icon

I'm having some trouble uploading my little avatar onto a forum so I'm going to put here here and see if I can upload him across the web.

This particular Ed Mouse is only 8KB! He's a GIF.

Maryland Homeschooling

While the national debate about education is about coming up with a single national curriculum rather than fifty state versions, the debate that is not happening is about homeschool rules. Each state has its own rules and regulations about homeschooling. I think it's fascinating that these questions are too hot for any politician to handle. It's also interesting how dramatically different the Maryland homeschool rules are from say Alabama homeschooling rules.

If I've understood correctly, in Maryland, the families are required to meet with the board of education twice during the school year for a review of the program. As I've heard, while this seems scary, they actually send out very positive supportive well-informed people who seem to have a constructive relationship with the families.

In contrast, in Alabama, homeschooling is basically not allowed under that name unless the parent is a certified teacher. Families must join these bogus "cover schools" which are basically private schools organized to provide an umbrella or cover for homeschoolers.

For homeschooling in Florida, there are cover schools but many homeschoolers take the option of notifying their school board that they intend to homeschool and then fulfill the annual requirement of getting their child reviewed by a certified teacher or other formal annual review.

Geography Games

Geography forms the basis for understanding our political and physical realities. Want to understand the challenge of global warming, start with understanding the basics of our world...of geography.

How about playing some great geography games.

A great deal of geography education can be effectively taught through geography games and map games. These geography learning games help form the basis for understanding our country, our states, our world. Play on!

Learning Games for Kids

I'm going to run a series highlighting some of the most interesting learning games on the web. Today:

Dental Games - They provide great dental info through fun learning games. And I quote:

Come play and learn how many baby teeth we have and how the saliva gets into our mouth. Also, dental hygiene!

Would your kids like these games? Their best is called Molar Madness.

Summer School

Summer school, do I have to?

I was just reading about a great idea for summer study. This is so much better than a traditional summer school.

Have you noticed how much your child enjoys using the computer? If you haven’t, you should. Kids are constantly surfing the web. Whether they’re checking out a video game or chatting with their friends, they are (without a doubt) online. So, it makes sense to turn to the web for a fun alternative to summer school. Time4Learning’s website offers just that. A web based summer learning program that they won’t mind using. In fact, they might even like it!

Learning Vocabulary

I just learned that words taken from a person’s name are called eponyms. These include maverick, 'diesel, galvanize, zeppelin, watt, saxophone, bloomers, braille, pasteurize, nicotine.

Time4Learning has an incredible fifth grade vocabulary building program (in any case, that's where i learned this). Here is all the info that you might need on their programs for vocabulary:

first grade vocabulary
second grade vocabulary
third grade vocab
fourth grade vocabulary
fifth grade vocabulary
sixth grade vocabulary
seventh grade vocabulary
eighth grade vocabulary

thefreedictionary.com stuff

Ok. It's a whole new ball game. I'm going to put up thefreedicationary.com's simple scripts for giving a page a simple definition for any term. It's free, simple, and probably won't work on this type of page with the awful implementation.



thefreedictionary.com//lookup.htm#script

A test of a cool new box

Here are some neato new boxes from thefreedictionary.com people from farlex. Had agreat talk with Steve Boymel regarding this stuff.

	Online Reference Dictionary, Encyclopedia & more
Word:
Look in:	Dictionary & thesaurus Medical Dictionary Legal Dictionary Financial Dictionary Acronyms Idioms Encyclopedia Wikipedia Periodicals Literature Other languages: Spanish Dictionary German Dictionary French Dictionary Italian Dictionary Chinese Dictionary Portuguese Dictionary Dutch Dictionary Norwegian Dictionary Greek Dictionary Russian Dictionary
by:	WordStarts with Ends withMentions

-------------

Word of the Day

derisory
Definition:	Incongruous; inviting ridicule.
Synonyms:	absurd, cockeyed, idiotic, laughable, ludicrous, nonsensical, preposterous, ridiculous

Word of the Day
provided by The Free Dictionary

Spelling Bee

difficulty level:
easy
hard
expert

score: -

please wait...

spell the word:

Spelling Bee
provided by The Free Dictionary