Blogosphere

TED-Ed’s New Video Tool Allows Anyone To Create Video Lessons Online

Posted on April 30, 2012 by edfivecs90

FINALLY, an easy way to take a video on YouTube and turn it into a lesson. TedEd has the tools to add questions, text you type, and links to go along with that video.  There are even built-in tracking tools a la Khan academy.  After creating an account, it took me less than 5 minutes to set up a lesson with one question and additional links.  The “make-a-lesson-in-real-time” possibilities are great!  This is post from Anya Kamenetz at co.exist.com [EF]

TED-Ed’s new free platform allows anyone to “flip” any video on YouTube by adding custom content to play alongside it, making it possible to turn any piece of video content into a teachable moment.

This morning, the TED conference expanded their TED-Ed initiative with a new set of interactive features, created with $1.25 million of corporate support, designed to make it easier for teachers to build video lessons. What’s cool is that anyone can use this simple platform to pair any video on YouTube–not just TED Talks–with custom content. TED calls this “flipping the video,” a clear reference to the idea of “flipping the classroom” popularized by Sal Khan’s Khan Academy and others. Basically it means making students responsible for lecture-like content outside of class via video, freeing up classroom time for discussion and individualized work.

FULL POST: TED-Ed’s New Video Tool Allows Anyone To Create Video Lessons Online

POST SOURCE: Co.Exist

ALTERNATE ARTICLE: New TED-Ed Site Turns YouTube Videos Into ‘Flipped’ Lessons from Wired.com

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Why I No Longer Use Groups in the Classroom

Posted on April 23, 2012 by edfivecs90

Yes, a provocative title, but in this piece, Greg Graham is really just talking about how he teaches students to write essays.  Still, for those of us who are frequently using team/cooperative/group settings, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on this technique. [EF]

A recent New Yorker article entitled “Groupthink” takes a fascinating look at the concept of brainstorming. According to author Jonah Lehrer, brainstorming was introduced in the late 1940s as a creativity-inducing practice by advertising guru Alex Osborn in his book Your Creative Power. The book was a surprise bestseller, and Osborn’s ideas about brainstorming, according to Lehrer, became “the most widely used creativity technique in the world.” Whether in business, politics, entertainment, or education, group-thinking was and still is regarded as the ultimate path to ingenuity and productivity.

One small problem: Numerous studies over the years have demonstrated that brainstorming doesn’t work, at least not as Osborn defined it

FULL ARTICLE: Why I No Longer Use Groups in the Classroom

POST SOURCE: EdWeek Teacher

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Free websites (seriously!)

Posted on March 26, 2012 by edfivecs90

Which of the following would interest you: A site that takes a field trip packet and converts it into an app? A site that allows you to organize online videos that you want students to see, without the extraneous “stuff” on sites like YouTube? Or a site with multimedia study materials?  That’s just three of the ten listed and yep, it’s all free!!! [EF]

Cash-strapped schools can’t stop giving students the resources they need to learn and develop 21st century skills simply because budgets are tight. Luckily, educators can turn to free online resources to help them find and organize lesson plans, give students extra help in various subjects, and more.

During a webinar on EdWeb.net, an educational social networking site for teachers and administrators, presenter Shannon Holden, a former teacher and assistant principal, and adjunct instructor at Lindenwood University and Missouri State University, shared a number of free online resources to help educators take advantage of what the internet has to offer.

FULL ARTICLE:  Free websites help boost student engagement, teacher productivity

POST SOURCE: Laura Devaney of eSchool News

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TED-Ed: TedTalks for Teachers

Posted on March 26, 2012 by edfivecs90

Amy Erin Borovoy, Edutopia’s video programming producer and curator, also provides some great resources to help teachers understand TedTalks. And now there’s a channel just for teachers! [EF]

This week’s announcement of a new initiative called TED-Ed caused a flurry of excitement about the new videos TED is creating to spread powerful lessons beyond the classroom walls. It’s not just a new home for education-related TED videos; it’s a call to action — anyone can nominate an outstanding teacher or suggest a fantastic lesson, and the TED team will work with the educators chosen to record and then animate those lessons. You can already see the first few of these gems on the TED-Ed YouTube Channel.

Though it can sometimes feel challenging to find twenty minutes to sit still in our multi-tasking lives, the videos below are worth it.

FULL ARTICLE: Five-Minute Film Festival: TED Talks for Teachers

POST SOURCE: Edutopia

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R rating for ‘Bully’

Posted on March 19, 2012 by edfivecs90

This is the link to the initial story.  Since then there have been petitions and lots of talk about this film.  Certainly the rating begs the question about our ability to discuss openly how difficult bullying can be.  The second link is to the review of the film on CommonSenseMedia.  [EF]

Last week, The Weinstein Company announced that its appeal of the R rating given to its documentary “Bully,” which takes a close look at bullying in America’s schools, was denied by the Motion Picture Association of America.

The MPAA released a statement explaining that although it agrees with Weinstein that “bullying is a serious issue and is a subject that parents should discuss with their children,” it’s also MPAA’s responsibility to “indicate to parents that this movie contains certain language.” MPAA emphasizes that a rating “is not a judgment on the value of any movie” but rather conveys that parents should make their own decision about whether or not their child should see the film.

FULL ARTICLE: Film ‘Bully’ Receives R Rating

POST SOURCE: TeachingNow Blog  (EdWeek.org)

MOVIE REVIEW FOR ‘BULLY‘ from CommonSenseMedia

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