Web Browser Faceoff

For those of you interested in comparing the various browsers out there. Here's a nice evaluation/comparison.

Not playing around: Scientists say video games can reshape education - CNN.com

Here's a CNN article on a recommendation by the Federation of American Scientists for the government to fund more research into the use of video games in education.

I'm torn here. The problem, in my eyes, is that everyone wants to compete with the entertainment industry games for students' attention and I don't think that is going to be possible (ever?). However, on the other hand, if we can hook students on games in school, it may carry over into their home life.

I think that this is a great idea, but I worry that it will throw more money to researchers and result in nothing else besides vague, theoretical recommendations for teachers to "change the way they teach."

Workshop Materials from the U.S. Department of Education's Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative

Speaking of professional development resources...here are some great materials from the DoE Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative workshops. A few are specifically for foreign/second language learning.

Take a look.

Head of for-profit university discusses industry - CNN.com

Here's an interview with the new president of the University of Phoenix. Whether you like it or not, this company, and others like it, could be the future of education.

What do you think?

MobaTalk Comment System

These types of systems are going to make blogs a lot more interesting in the near future. Just imagine enabling audio and video commenting on your blog. Yes, it will take you a lot longer to get through them, but how interesting would that be?

As more and more people have video on their computers (most new laptops come with video cameras pre-installed), we are going to have to think more about video applications in our instruction.

This system isn't out yet, but they do have a legacy audio version that I'm going to try out called MyChingo (http://www.mychingo.com)

ESL and Archie Comics

Ok, I don't know about you all, but I've always loved Archie comics. I was floored to find this resource today.

This is an ESL podcast complete with comic, audio, transcript, and "learning guide". I think it's pretty neat.

There is also an option to see the Spanish version of the comic, which might be interesting to the Spanish teachers out there (though no other resources are available in Spanish). I suppose that you could create a Spanish version of this resource. Who knows, you might even be able to get permission to use these from the company.

Wikimapia - Let's describe the whole Earth!

This one was just too cool for me not to pass on to you all. This is an extension of Google Earth. Wikimapia allows you to make notes on areas (and even individual buildings). All of this in a Wiki-type format that allows editing from the masses.

Just imagine what you could do with this in your classroom. Those boring "My Hometown" reports really could be juiced up. I suppose you'd want to guard against them adding their homes in there (I was tempted to do so for a minute), but otherwise, how neat would that be!

Check out my brief entry on Festa Plaza in Ilsan. Unfortunately, Google doesn't zoom in that far in this area. I'm assuming that its proximity to North Korea (about 25km north) might be a reason. However, you can see what's possible. It would be nice to get someone to modify it with a Korean entry. I'll have to wait and see.

Warriors of the Net clips

Here's a neat animated movie that I came across recently. It is meant to inform viewers on how the Internet works. It really does a good job at this. It might help if someone developed an external document for it that defines all of the terminology that they use. It is explained clearly, but it comes at you pretty quickly.