Learning Aloud

The University of Iowa’s Virtual Hospital offers great images and short videos of human anatomy as educational resources. I happen to be going through brain anatomy in Intro Psychology and found the brain anatomy resources of great value.

THE Journal provides an article offers a five-step plan for monitoring and responding to technology abuse in your school. The topics range from cell phone courtesy to digital bullying. The links in the reference section are also useful.

The PEW Internet and American Life Foundation has just concluded a summary of how adults use IM (instant messaging). See the Washington Post for an analysis.

OK, I was wrong. The new Apple product was a 2 inch wide desk top computer. Some are complaining the cost is too high – approximately $1200. As a Mac user, this position annoys me. This is a high end machine. If you want something less expensive, the Apple eMac is about $800. Also consider the capabilities of the built-in hardware and software supporting multimedia (iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, etc.). Purchasing an iMac would be overkill if you only want to word process and search the Internet. Maybe you have other types of projects in mind. I would agree that Macs do offer less flexibility in hardware configuration than systems based on other operating systems. We all make a personal decision as to how important this issue is. In my opionion, you either get what you pay for or you add stuff later ’cause what you paid for does not do what you had hoped.

I came across a link to a Copyright WebQuest through a listserv I follow and decided to check it out. It seems to be very well done and worth recommending to others.

I think online video represents a great educational resource of the future. I do not anticipate the value will be in complete presentations (e.g., expert lectures), but in catalogued collections of bits and pieces that can be used to see and hear things that are difficult to describe.

The Open Video Project may represent the beginning of such a collection. This site is worth exploring if even to raise expectations of what might eventually be available.

A survey of more than 1000 students by SBC Communications concludes students find home “high speed access” crucial to their academic work.

The study also reveals:
?? 80 percent of older students, 12- to 17-year-olds, are given Internet assignments to complete at school, and nearly 65 percent go online at home to complete Internet-related homework.
?? Nearly 60 percent of 6- to 11-year-olds are completing Internet projects at school, and more than 30 percent have Internet-related work to complete at home.

Students are using the Internet instead of their textbooks or traditional reference books to complete schoolwork.
?? Among 12- to 17-year-olds, more than four in five use the Internet to look for better information compared with what they can find in their school books.
?? Nearly 60 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds are bypassing the dictionaries, thesauruses and encyclopedias on the bookshelves and going online for these resources.