Reuse, update and recycle old technology

To contact us Click HERE


Technology changes rapidly and it seems like something you just bought last week is already outdated and replaced by something new. Some people and companies are always buying the latest and greatest technology, but schools, and most people, can't afford to do that. So, what can we do?

One thing is to reuse old technology for new purposes. I use an old Palm PDA as my backup alarm clock. I can set repeating alarms for each day and when it goes off, the screen turns on, adding a visual alarm along with the sound. I use my old Palm Centro phone as a backup remote control for the TV, DVD, and VCR. It has an IR transmitter and an app that has all of the programs in it. I also have an old netbook that I still use. It is my remote back up system. It has Dropbox and Sugarsync on it and backs up those accounts, along with my Google Drive and Google Accounts and Evernote. This means that all of my data is on my main computer, this netbook, those systems, and my mobile devices. Great way to reuse an old device.

You can update old technology and give it new life. With thousands of computers in our district, many are very old. Yet for a small amount of money, we can get them running better and longer. We have been updating hard drives and RAM for a fraction of the cost of a new device and they run great. We also move the older computers for the lower grades student use since the software they use does not need high end devices. We even have very old LCD projectors out there that work fine. We are taking old laptops and updating the RAM and re imaging them. Most of the services and apps that the schools are using are all going web based so these older laptops, using a browser like Google Chrome, will be perfectly adequate and will be used like Chromebooks for web based apps only.

As schools got computer projectors and streaming video, TV's with VCRs and DVDs have been sitting idle. We just found some converters that allow you to connect your computer to a TV. Since we have some great, large TVs, we can use these converters to allow teachers who do not have a computer projector to share their computer image with their class.

You can also recycle your old technology, and even get some money for it. We have lots of old computers that need to be disposed of, along with printers, fax machines and old monitors. There are a variety of companies out there that will not only take away your old technology, they will pay you for it. They even certify that the data is securely erased. The only thing they don't pay for is the old monitors, but they also don't charge to hall them away and properly dispose of them.

Don't just throw away your old technology, find new uses, new lives, or at least get some cash for it.


How do you reuse and recycle your old technology?

Edutopia: on 'How Did School Do?'

To contact us Click HERE
by Shelly Blake-Plock

Edutopia published a guest post of mine today about the 'How Did School Do' project. Here's a snippet...

It wasn’t long ago that language arts teacher Wheeler and his Lakewood City School District biology-teaching colleague Ken Kozar –- along with a class of eager 10th graders –- realized that certain questions weren’t being asked online. And one question above all resonated with teacher and student alike: How did school do?

Read the whole article at Edutopia.

We Can't Define Social Media

To contact us Click HERE
by John T. Spencer

Educators clamor for open access to social media in schools. We (including me) write about the need to teach digital citizenship to the digital natives. And yet . . . how do we even define social media? I witnessed many metaphors yesterday and each one of them seemed to suggest that we are attempting to find things in our physical world in order to make sense out of the digital.

I'm not sure it does make sense. At least not to me.


LocationShould we view social media as a public location? If so, does it matter where one tweets from if he or she is "on Twitter?" Is it about the network? the equipment? If it is a space, is it truly public? Does it make a difference that someone must willfully follow a person on Twitter or "friend" a person on Facebook? My speech is, in this sense, less public than it would be at a supermarket or a baseball game.

Defining social media through the lens of location becomes tricky, though. Twitter is, on some level, a spaceless space. It is real-time, but not bound by time. My words do not evaporate the way they do in conversation. Instead, I leave a ticker-tape of thoughts behind me for anyone to pick up asynchronously. In addition, social media allow users to be in many places at the same time in a way that is simply not possible without a horcrux (Harry Potter reference). 
If I can speak openly about my faith at Starbucks with a group of friends then what changes if it in a tweet instead? The size of the group, perhaps? What size is large enough to be "broadcast?" If this is the case, it would seem that the larger issue is less about the Establishment Clause than the right to assemble publicly.

Content
Should we view social media as the tools we use for the content that we produce? Is it similar to writing a book, publishing a magazine, posting a blog? What makes a tweet different from a bumper sticker in a staff parking lot, where a student might see political, personal or religious speech? How are my Instagram pictures any different from putting photography in a museum? 
The difficulty here is that the content is more accesible than in other forms of media. It is public, open to the entire world anywhere at any time. And unlike other media outlets, it is one in which the creators of the content do not have any voice in who owns the method. 
If so, then are the issues of free exercise and the establishment clause really relevant to social media? At this point, it seems that it would be more an issue of the freedom of the press. It is hard to deny the power of the pocket journalists in the Arab Spring who used social media to report on the issues in the world. 
CommunicationShould we view social media as a method of communicating? Is it simply another form of conversation, not unlike body language, voice, text, etc.? When I'm tweeting am I simply having a conversation with whoever cares to listen? 
The problem here is that social media doesn't work like traditional forms of communication. The permanence, the broadcast nature of each medium, the difficulty in determining who is "listening" make it challenging. Moreover, it becomes even more challenging when it social media, by nature, are multimedia. Twitter involves videos, pictures, symbols, text, all moving digitally. 
IdentityShould we view social media as an expression of one's identity? We use terms like digital citizenship, online identity and branding, which all suggest that social media moves beyond simply communicating and into "being." 
The problem here is that it is easier online to choose anonymity and to craft identity in ways that are much more difficult in person. In addition, social media force the individual to create separate accounts  if he or she wants to compartmentalize. I am always a teacher at school. It is my identity. My speech changes when I am off the clock, outside of school. 
I see a real danger in the notion that employers (especially if it is the government) essentially "owns" a person at all times when he or she uses social media. When the speech is permanent (as it is) and the profile is static (as it is), I don't have the chance to switch roles and responsibilities. 
What does it mean, then, to protect the personal side of a teacher (or any worker) online? At what point does a teacher still represent a school even when he or she is "away" from that context? 

Cell Phones Don't Annoy People; People Annoy People.

To contact us Click HERE
By Noah Geisel (@SenorG)

Last week, I joined fans of public radio’s This American Life, in shelling out twenty bucks to go to the movie theater for a live taping of the program. Host Ira Glass drew laughs when he talked about the many theater managers nervous that we was encouraging viewers to take out their cell phones during the show. While he was going for laughs, he was dead serious about letting folks fill the theater rooms with screen glow. Dozens of audience members in hundreds of theaters across two continents simultaneously pulled out their smart phones and fired up the app that had been created specifically for this show. Glass introduced the band OK Go, known more for their groundbreaking music videos than pop melodies. The gimmick-geared musicians did not disappoint. The easiest way I can describe the experience: the band played music and with the app the audience played Guitar Hero to accompany them. I think the consensus was that it was pretty cool stuff.

At the end of the song, folks put their phones away and the show, as they say, went on.

Cell phones have become Enemy #1 in subways, movie theaters and pretty much every public space. OK Go and This American Life provide an excellent example of how mobile technology can be mobilized for positive disruption. They succeed in showing that the negative disruptions are a product of the users, not the phones.

This is a good lesson for schools and educators to note. In edu-speak, controlling the impact of cell phones is a classroom management issue, not a cell phone issue. This does not necessarily mean educators need to be incorporating mobile into their lessons (though many readers of this blog probably do); rather, that we are at least embedding into our lessons the idea of responsible cell phone citizenship. Modeling the positive disruptions a la Ira Glass is one of many ways of fostering this important learning.

2010 in Review: 99 Most Popular Pages on Jeromy Anglim's Blog

To contact us Click HERE
In the spirit of taking stock of the year that's been, and in the spirit of festive television repeats, this post reviews 2010 for this blog.

2010 in Review

It has been a satisfying year of blogging.Subscribers have grown from 70 to around 390.Annual site visits have grown from 10,000 in 2009 to around 94,000in 2010.

I've also enjoyed getting involved with CrossValidated, Melbourne R Users, R-Bloggers, github, and Twitter.

I'm looking forward to posting more in 2011 on Sweave, reproducible research, R packages, unit testing, and more.

To all the readers of this blog, all the best for New Yearsand the year ahead.

Most Popular Pages for 2010

The following were the 99 most popular blog pages for 2010 (with 2010 page views in brackets)courtesy of Google Analytics.

1. videos-on-data-analysis-with-r (6353)
2. recovering-corrupted-excel-2007-file (5358)
3. how-to-write-literature-review-in (4180)
4. apa-style-references-in-latex (3348)
5. getting-started-with-sweave-r-latex (3241)
6. abbreviations-of-r-commands-explained (2772)
7. calculating-composite-scores-of-ability (2605)
8. learning-r-for-researchers-in (2487)
9. pronunciation-guides-for-mathematical (2216)
10. export-from-endnote-to-bibtex-jabref (1984)
11. /search/label/R (1896)
12. winedt-60-for-latex-features (1891)
13. getting-started-with-beamer-tips-and (1875)
14. multinomial-logistic-regression-spss (1673)
15. formatting-correlation-matrices-in (1654)
16. texniccenter-customisations (1594)
17. generalized-estimating-equations (1537)
18. data-mining-and-r (1508)
19. structural-equation-modelling-in-r (1456)
20. user-interface-for-r-statet-and-eclipse (1445)
21. online-mathematics-video-courses-for (1445)
22. repeated-measures-experiments-with-many (1385)
23. factor-analysis-in-r (1332)
24. difference-scores-are-they-okay-to-use (1237)
25. statistics-for-psychology-thesis (1156)
26. case-study-in-optimising-code-in-r (1127)
27. writing-method-section-in-psychology (1115)
28. how-to-write-predictions-and-hypotheses (1087)
29. sweave-tutorial-using-sweave-r-and-make (1064)
30. variable-importance-and-multiple (1063)
31. data-mining-and-statistics-video-course (1048)
32. running-command-line-programs-in (1010)
33. canonical-correlation-getting-started (1006)
34. fitting-nonlinear-regression-models-to (948)
35. analysing-ordinal-variables (933)
36. practice-questions-for-statistics-in (930)
37. converting-microsoft-word-document-into (922)
38. scoring-multiple-choice-test-in-spss (901)
39. job-satisfaction-measurement-scales (864)
40. logistic-regression-resources-in-spss (859)
41. teaching-resources (855)
42. tetrachoric-correlations-overview-and (806)
43. analysis-of-winter-olympic-medal-data (801)
44. structural-equation-modelling-and-path (800)
45. how-to-write-introduction-section-in (789)
46. implications-of-office-layout-and (788)
47. formatting-table-in-word-r-to-tab (719)
48. calculating-scale-scores-for (675)
49. /p/jeromy-anglims-academic-publications (673)
50. /p/site-map-jeromy-anglims-blog-psychology (667)
51. exploratory-factor-analysis-and-scale (646)
52. statistical-power-analysis-in-gpower-3 (645)
53. simple-beamer-template-for-getting (645)
54. introduction-to-journal-article (614)
55. introduction-to-spss-syntax-advice-for (609)
56. how-to-get-quick-access-to-full-text (563)
57. how-to-process-inquisit-raw-data-in (558)
58. item-parcelling-in-confirmatory-factor (524)
59. bootstrapping (522)
60. carryover-effects-in-repeated-measures (513)
61. r-workflow-slides-from-talk-at (508)
62. exporting-pdfs-from-jabref-using-batch (494)
63. sweave-tutorial-3-console-input-and (486)
64. sweave-tutorial-2-individual (484)
65. tips-on-reading-mathematics-for-non (476)
66. syntax-tips-for-efficient-variable (472)
67. social-network-analysis-resources-for-r (471)
68. inverting-logistic-function (455)
69. scale-construction-item-reversal-scale (452)
70. significance-tests-on-correlations (441)
71. discriminant-function-analysis (439)
72. analysis-of-multiple-choice-test (418)
73. efficient-variable-selection-in-r (414)
74. free-video-courses-on-r-structural (410)
75. meta-analysis-tips-resources-and (399)
76. practical-tips-on-how-to-conduct_05 (397)
77. choosing-auto-generation-pattern-for (389)
78. makefiles-for-sweave-r-and-latex-using (382)
79. tips-for-using-statet-and-eclipse-for (372)
80. free-online-mathematics-books (369)
81. follow-up-tests-in-anova-in-spss (367)
82. causality-and-mediation-analysis (357)
83. single-group-correlational-study-basic (355)
84. using-regular-expressions-in-r-case (350)
85. getting-started-with-writing (347)
86. clustered-samples-and-assuming (339)
87. jeromy-anglims-academic-publications (338)
88. blogs-on-r-statistics (334)
89. getting-started-with-git-egit-eclipse (331)
90. 34-minute-video-on-using-r-to-analyse (328)
91. mediation-and-moderation-reference (315)
92. article-deconstruction-how-to-writing (311)
93. introduction-to-social-network-analysis (304)
94. problems-with-high-resolution-laptops (280)
95. inquisit-simple-reaction-time-four (269)
96. matrix-algebra-in-r-resources-videos (268)
97. great-measurement-but-small-sample-size (256)
98. adjusting-correlations-for-reliability (239)
99. producing-table-of-item-descriptive (236)

Evernote Clearly gets Text-to-Speech - premium only

To contact us Click HERE


Evernote is one of my most used apps, ever. I'll be sharing the apps I use, and how I use them, in my new job as CIO shortly.

Evernote has a very cool product called Clearly. Evernote Clearly is a browser extension for Google Chrome (other browsers will be added soon) that allows you to read online with less distractions. You simply click the extension and it hides all the distractions from blogs and articles, allowing you to read with less distractions and more easily.It use it a lot, especially on sites that I want to clip to Evernote (it keeps all the junk from getting clipped too).

This is great for students who have issues with distractions and makes things easier to read.

It has a great new feature also. Clearly now has Text-to-Speech for premium account users. Premium accounts are only $5 per month, or $45 per year and are well worth it, adding some great features.

Words are highlighted as they are read and users can pause and skip. This is a great feature for ELL, early readers, and struggling readers. It supports 12 languages.



Source: Evernote Blog

Edutopia: on 'How Did School Do?'

To contact us Click HERE
by Shelly Blake-Plock

Edutopia published a guest post of mine today about the 'How Did School Do' project. Here's a snippet...

It wasn’t long ago that language arts teacher Wheeler and his Lakewood City School District biology-teaching colleague Ken Kozar –- along with a class of eager 10th graders –- realized that certain questions weren’t being asked online. And one question above all resonated with teacher and student alike: How did school do?

Read the whole article at Edutopia.

We Can't Define Social Media

To contact us Click HERE
by John T. Spencer

Educators clamor for open access to social media in schools. We (including me) write about the need to teach digital citizenship to the digital natives. And yet . . . how do we even define social media? I witnessed many metaphors yesterday and each one of them seemed to suggest that we are attempting to find things in our physical world in order to make sense out of the digital.

I'm not sure it does make sense. At least not to me.


LocationShould we view social media as a public location? If so, does it matter where one tweets from if he or she is "on Twitter?" Is it about the network? the equipment? If it is a space, is it truly public? Does it make a difference that someone must willfully follow a person on Twitter or "friend" a person on Facebook? My speech is, in this sense, less public than it would be at a supermarket or a baseball game.

Defining social media through the lens of location becomes tricky, though. Twitter is, on some level, a spaceless space. It is real-time, but not bound by time. My words do not evaporate the way they do in conversation. Instead, I leave a ticker-tape of thoughts behind me for anyone to pick up asynchronously. In addition, social media allow users to be in many places at the same time in a way that is simply not possible without a horcrux (Harry Potter reference). 
If I can speak openly about my faith at Starbucks with a group of friends then what changes if it in a tweet instead? The size of the group, perhaps? What size is large enough to be "broadcast?" If this is the case, it would seem that the larger issue is less about the Establishment Clause than the right to assemble publicly.

Content
Should we view social media as the tools we use for the content that we produce? Is it similar to writing a book, publishing a magazine, posting a blog? What makes a tweet different from a bumper sticker in a staff parking lot, where a student might see political, personal or religious speech? How are my Instagram pictures any different from putting photography in a museum? 
The difficulty here is that the content is more accesible than in other forms of media. It is public, open to the entire world anywhere at any time. And unlike other media outlets, it is one in which the creators of the content do not have any voice in who owns the method. 
If so, then are the issues of free exercise and the establishment clause really relevant to social media? At this point, it seems that it would be more an issue of the freedom of the press. It is hard to deny the power of the pocket journalists in the Arab Spring who used social media to report on the issues in the world. 
CommunicationShould we view social media as a method of communicating? Is it simply another form of conversation, not unlike body language, voice, text, etc.? When I'm tweeting am I simply having a conversation with whoever cares to listen? 
The problem here is that social media doesn't work like traditional forms of communication. The permanence, the broadcast nature of each medium, the difficulty in determining who is "listening" make it challenging. Moreover, it becomes even more challenging when it social media, by nature, are multimedia. Twitter involves videos, pictures, symbols, text, all moving digitally. 
IdentityShould we view social media as an expression of one's identity? We use terms like digital citizenship, online identity and branding, which all suggest that social media moves beyond simply communicating and into "being." 
The problem here is that it is easier online to choose anonymity and to craft identity in ways that are much more difficult in person. In addition, social media force the individual to create separate accounts  if he or she wants to compartmentalize. I am always a teacher at school. It is my identity. My speech changes when I am off the clock, outside of school. 
I see a real danger in the notion that employers (especially if it is the government) essentially "owns" a person at all times when he or she uses social media. When the speech is permanent (as it is) and the profile is static (as it is), I don't have the chance to switch roles and responsibilities. 
What does it mean, then, to protect the personal side of a teacher (or any worker) online? At what point does a teacher still represent a school even when he or she is "away" from that context? 

Cell Phones Don't Annoy People; People Annoy People.

To contact us Click HERE
By Noah Geisel (@SenorG)

Last week, I joined fans of public radio’s This American Life, in shelling out twenty bucks to go to the movie theater for a live taping of the program. Host Ira Glass drew laughs when he talked about the many theater managers nervous that we was encouraging viewers to take out their cell phones during the show. While he was going for laughs, he was dead serious about letting folks fill the theater rooms with screen glow. Dozens of audience members in hundreds of theaters across two continents simultaneously pulled out their smart phones and fired up the app that had been created specifically for this show. Glass introduced the band OK Go, known more for their groundbreaking music videos than pop melodies. The gimmick-geared musicians did not disappoint. The easiest way I can describe the experience: the band played music and with the app the audience played Guitar Hero to accompany them. I think the consensus was that it was pretty cool stuff.

At the end of the song, folks put their phones away and the show, as they say, went on.

Cell phones have become Enemy #1 in subways, movie theaters and pretty much every public space. OK Go and This American Life provide an excellent example of how mobile technology can be mobilized for positive disruption. They succeed in showing that the negative disruptions are a product of the users, not the phones.

This is a good lesson for schools and educators to note. In edu-speak, controlling the impact of cell phones is a classroom management issue, not a cell phone issue. This does not necessarily mean educators need to be incorporating mobile into their lessons (though many readers of this blog probably do); rather, that we are at least embedding into our lessons the idea of responsible cell phone citizenship. Modeling the positive disruptions a la Ira Glass is one of many ways of fostering this important learning.

2010 in Review: 99 Most Popular Pages on Jeromy Anglim's Blog

To contact us Click HERE
In the spirit of taking stock of the year that's been, and in the spirit of festive television repeats, this post reviews 2010 for this blog.

2010 in Review

It has been a satisfying year of blogging.Subscribers have grown from 70 to around 390.Annual site visits have grown from 10,000 in 2009 to around 94,000in 2010.

I've also enjoyed getting involved with CrossValidated, Melbourne R Users, R-Bloggers, github, and Twitter.

I'm looking forward to posting more in 2011 on Sweave, reproducible research, R packages, unit testing, and more.

To all the readers of this blog, all the best for New Yearsand the year ahead.

Most Popular Pages for 2010

The following were the 99 most popular blog pages for 2010 (with 2010 page views in brackets)courtesy of Google Analytics.

1. videos-on-data-analysis-with-r (6353)
2. recovering-corrupted-excel-2007-file (5358)
3. how-to-write-literature-review-in (4180)
4. apa-style-references-in-latex (3348)
5. getting-started-with-sweave-r-latex (3241)
6. abbreviations-of-r-commands-explained (2772)
7. calculating-composite-scores-of-ability (2605)
8. learning-r-for-researchers-in (2487)
9. pronunciation-guides-for-mathematical (2216)
10. export-from-endnote-to-bibtex-jabref (1984)
11. /search/label/R (1896)
12. winedt-60-for-latex-features (1891)
13. getting-started-with-beamer-tips-and (1875)
14. multinomial-logistic-regression-spss (1673)
15. formatting-correlation-matrices-in (1654)
16. texniccenter-customisations (1594)
17. generalized-estimating-equations (1537)
18. data-mining-and-r (1508)
19. structural-equation-modelling-in-r (1456)
20. user-interface-for-r-statet-and-eclipse (1445)
21. online-mathematics-video-courses-for (1445)
22. repeated-measures-experiments-with-many (1385)
23. factor-analysis-in-r (1332)
24. difference-scores-are-they-okay-to-use (1237)
25. statistics-for-psychology-thesis (1156)
26. case-study-in-optimising-code-in-r (1127)
27. writing-method-section-in-psychology (1115)
28. how-to-write-predictions-and-hypotheses (1087)
29. sweave-tutorial-using-sweave-r-and-make (1064)
30. variable-importance-and-multiple (1063)
31. data-mining-and-statistics-video-course (1048)
32. running-command-line-programs-in (1010)
33. canonical-correlation-getting-started (1006)
34. fitting-nonlinear-regression-models-to (948)
35. analysing-ordinal-variables (933)
36. practice-questions-for-statistics-in (930)
37. converting-microsoft-word-document-into (922)
38. scoring-multiple-choice-test-in-spss (901)
39. job-satisfaction-measurement-scales (864)
40. logistic-regression-resources-in-spss (859)
41. teaching-resources (855)
42. tetrachoric-correlations-overview-and (806)
43. analysis-of-winter-olympic-medal-data (801)
44. structural-equation-modelling-and-path (800)
45. how-to-write-introduction-section-in (789)
46. implications-of-office-layout-and (788)
47. formatting-table-in-word-r-to-tab (719)
48. calculating-scale-scores-for (675)
49. /p/jeromy-anglims-academic-publications (673)
50. /p/site-map-jeromy-anglims-blog-psychology (667)
51. exploratory-factor-analysis-and-scale (646)
52. statistical-power-analysis-in-gpower-3 (645)
53. simple-beamer-template-for-getting (645)
54. introduction-to-journal-article (614)
55. introduction-to-spss-syntax-advice-for (609)
56. how-to-get-quick-access-to-full-text (563)
57. how-to-process-inquisit-raw-data-in (558)
58. item-parcelling-in-confirmatory-factor (524)
59. bootstrapping (522)
60. carryover-effects-in-repeated-measures (513)
61. r-workflow-slides-from-talk-at (508)
62. exporting-pdfs-from-jabref-using-batch (494)
63. sweave-tutorial-3-console-input-and (486)
64. sweave-tutorial-2-individual (484)
65. tips-on-reading-mathematics-for-non (476)
66. syntax-tips-for-efficient-variable (472)
67. social-network-analysis-resources-for-r (471)
68. inverting-logistic-function (455)
69. scale-construction-item-reversal-scale (452)
70. significance-tests-on-correlations (441)
71. discriminant-function-analysis (439)
72. analysis-of-multiple-choice-test (418)
73. efficient-variable-selection-in-r (414)
74. free-video-courses-on-r-structural (410)
75. meta-analysis-tips-resources-and (399)
76. practical-tips-on-how-to-conduct_05 (397)
77. choosing-auto-generation-pattern-for (389)
78. makefiles-for-sweave-r-and-latex-using (382)
79. tips-for-using-statet-and-eclipse-for (372)
80. free-online-mathematics-books (369)
81. follow-up-tests-in-anova-in-spss (367)
82. causality-and-mediation-analysis (357)
83. single-group-correlational-study-basic (355)
84. using-regular-expressions-in-r-case (350)
85. getting-started-with-writing (347)
86. clustered-samples-and-assuming (339)
87. jeromy-anglims-academic-publications (338)
88. blogs-on-r-statistics (334)
89. getting-started-with-git-egit-eclipse (331)
90. 34-minute-video-on-using-r-to-analyse (328)
91. mediation-and-moderation-reference (315)
92. article-deconstruction-how-to-writing (311)
93. introduction-to-social-network-analysis (304)
94. problems-with-high-resolution-laptops (280)
95. inquisit-simple-reaction-time-four (269)
96. matrix-algebra-in-r-resources-videos (268)
97. great-measurement-but-small-sample-size (256)
98. adjusting-correlations-for-reliability (239)
99. producing-table-of-item-descriptive (236)

30 Resources to Help Our Children Cope with Tragedies

To contact us Click HERE
 There are no words I can say about what happened in Newtown, Connecticut without getting on my soapbox about gun control. This madness has to end. (Here is a timeline of worldwide school shootings and mass shootings since 1996.) As teachers, we go through lock-down drills on a regular basis, praying that we will never have a real life and death situation. If not for those practice drills, teachers in Newtown would not have known what to do on Friday. Angela Maiers posted "There is No Lesson Plan for Tragedy-Teachers YOU Know What to Do" on her blog. It is a must-read. My heart is so heavy and I have been asking "why" just like everyone else. I am anxious about going to work tomorrow, not because I don't feel safe, but because I'm worried about our kids and how they have reacted to Friday's massacre. Here are resources to aid you and to aid parents in helping kids deal with the violence.





10 Tips to Help Your Kids Deal with Violence- from Parenting Press 

10 Ways to Put Brakes on Mass Shootings in Schools- from CNN

10 Ways to Talk to Students About Sensitive Issues in the News- New York Times guest post

Checklist to Help Prevent Violence in Schools- 10 things you can do 

Columbine Legacy: Schools Safer?- from CBS News

Dealing with Tragedy: Tips and Resources for Teachers and Parents

Discussing Hate and Violence with Your Children- from the National PTA 

Hello Grief- "a place to share about grief and loss"
 
Helping Children Cope with Tragic Events- many sources from Share My Lesson 

Helping Kids Cope with Violence in the News- child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Bob Hilt gives advice in a video

Helping Your Children Manage Distress in the Aftermath of School Shootings- from the American Psychological Association



How to Talk to Kids About a School Shooting

How to Talk to Kids About Violence- 2011 article from the Washington Post

No Lesson Plan for Tragedy- from Teaching Tolerance, this was written 5 years after Columbine

Preparing for the Worst Case Scenario- written by Kristopher Sill

School Violence and the News- from Kids' Health 

Six Lessons from the Horrors of a School Shooting- from Dr. Michele Borba, Education Consultant

Taking Aim at Violence in Schools- New York Times Learning Network lesson plan

Talking and Teaching About the Tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut- resources from the New York Times Learning Network



Talking to Children About Violence from the NASP (National Association of School Psychologists)

Talking to Kids About School Violence- downloadable PDF files cover guidelines for schools, recognizing when children need help, caring for kids after trauma, disaster and death

Talking with Kids About News- from PBS parents

TeacherVision Resources on School Violence

TeachersFirst Resources for School Violence-  10 resource links

Tragic Events in the News- The late Mister Rogers on video with advice on this page to aid parents

Tips for Talking to Children About the Shooting- from the New York Times health section

Unspeakable Tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary- from Edutopia; many links from Edutopia and other sites listed

You Don't Need to be exquisite But Your Writing Does

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Having written since I was a kid, I've met many authors, writers and journalists along the way. While we don't all fit the stereotype of the robed, sleepless, alcoholic writer hunched over a typewriter in the attic, we do have much in common. In expanding to being the winners of spelling bees and hoarders of dictionaries and other books, we love words. We love to read them, hear them, speak them and write them. We love them to a fault.

We must have the right words in the right place at the right time. And, possibly more importantly, they must be written flawlessly. We won't accept typos, spelling errors or grammatical snafus, because mistakes interrupt the flow and the meaning of our words. As a result, we expect perfection and we don't tolerate errors from ourselves or others. This religious doctrine makes it difficult to be a writer at times, but we can't help ourselves. We are obsessed with perfection.

Apa Format Example Paper

Living this way can make it difficult to meet deadlines, however, as we await the ideal word, headline or first paragraph. Sometimes we must settle for less. Sometimes we even have to settle for pretty good. It's a harsh reality, but at some point, we have to unblemished our latest assignment or task and turn it in so we can get paid. We have to let go of the perfection we covet, because it isn't going to bless us with its presence today.

You Don't Need to be exquisite But Your Writing Does

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Our editors, however, see it differently. They will expect perfection, not because they are masochists but because it makes their jobs easier. If our work is flawless, they have less to do. They can focus on other writer's work or planning their next issue or project. To endear ourselves to them (and to get more work), we must dutifully comply. The issue is trying to equilibrium our desire to be perfect with the reality that we will never be. We can come close though by thought about proofreading, editing and fact-checking our work prior to submission. Here's how.

Proofreading-checking for spelling, punctuation, grammatical and formatting errors-can be a tedious, cumbersome task, particularly when attempting to proof your own work, but it can be done. I normally proofread on my computer screen first, development edits as I go. When done, I print off a hard copy and go straight through line by line, reading out loud as I go. I find that I observation errors in print that I don't see on screen, and reading out loud helps me to find words that I've missed or used incorrectly (e.g., there instead of their). For well important assignments, I'll ask person else to proof it as well. In fact, I have an editing buddy with whom I trade proofreading help. I have also tried reviewing the copy backwards and reviewing for a separate item while each pass straight through the text. For example, the first time I read straight through it, I might focus on spelling, the next time on grammar, etc. Make sure you have your dictionary and grammar guide handy too while this stage.

Editing. In expanding to proofreading, I also copyedit my work, meaning I check for misplaced modifiers, tell style, check for flow, etc. This process is more intense than proofreading and can take awhile. It is also difficult to do immediately after finishing an assignment, so I will set it aside until morning when I can look at it with "fresh eyes." Often major errors will jump off the page, begging to be corrected. while this phase, you'll need to have your handy stylebook out (Ap, Apa, Chicago by hand of Style, etc.) to be sure that you've followed the accepted guidelines for things like capitalization, numbers (figures versus text) and references.

Fact-checking. Many publications, particularly magazines, will fact-check your work. In other words, they'll verify the spelling of allowable names, check dates, key facts, website addresses, phone numbers and more. While publications often hire person to do this task, by doing it yourself first, you can save the publication time and money, again development it easier to work with you. When I fact-check my writing, I first double-check the spelling of all names and places. I look at reference materials (brochures, bios, enterprise cards, etc.) that I've been given, and I search online. If I am unsure, I'll phone the traditional source to confirm a spelling. I do the same thing with dates. For key facts, I do an Internet search, marking my source to either contribute to the fact-checker up front or for my own reference should I be questioned later. This was particularly helpful when I wrote an description about a coal mine explosion in the early 1900s. My editor wanted to confirm that a single mining town was second in size only to Seattle. Before she was willing to allow me to make that statement, she wanted verification.

In spite of these techniques, we are human and it is still possible that an error will occasionally slip straight through the cracks. However, if you are diligent in your effort to submit well-written, well-documented work without definite errors, your editors and publishers will be more likely to turn to you rather than the other guy - you know who I mean - the writer who thinks he's great but who can't spell his way out of a paper bag. Make sure you are the one they turn to for stellar, (nearly) flawless work.

Happy Writing!

Copyright (c) 2007 Dana Blozis

You Don't Need to be exquisite But Your Writing Does

Edutopia: on 'How Did School Do?'

To contact us Click HERE
by Shelly Blake-Plock

Edutopia published a guest post of mine today about the 'How Did School Do' project. Here's a snippet...

It wasn’t long ago that language arts teacher Wheeler and his Lakewood City School District biology-teaching colleague Ken Kozar –- along with a class of eager 10th graders –- realized that certain questions weren’t being asked online. And one question above all resonated with teacher and student alike: How did school do?

Read the whole article at Edutopia.

We Can't Define Social Media

To contact us Click HERE
by John T. Spencer

Educators clamor for open access to social media in schools. We (including me) write about the need to teach digital citizenship to the digital natives. And yet . . . how do we even define social media? I witnessed many metaphors yesterday and each one of them seemed to suggest that we are attempting to find things in our physical world in order to make sense out of the digital.

I'm not sure it does make sense. At least not to me.


LocationShould we view social media as a public location? If so, does it matter where one tweets from if he or she is "on Twitter?" Is it about the network? the equipment? If it is a space, is it truly public? Does it make a difference that someone must willfully follow a person on Twitter or "friend" a person on Facebook? My speech is, in this sense, less public than it would be at a supermarket or a baseball game.

Defining social media through the lens of location becomes tricky, though. Twitter is, on some level, a spaceless space. It is real-time, but not bound by time. My words do not evaporate the way they do in conversation. Instead, I leave a ticker-tape of thoughts behind me for anyone to pick up asynchronously. In addition, social media allow users to be in many places at the same time in a way that is simply not possible without a horcrux (Harry Potter reference). 
If I can speak openly about my faith at Starbucks with a group of friends then what changes if it in a tweet instead? The size of the group, perhaps? What size is large enough to be "broadcast?" If this is the case, it would seem that the larger issue is less about the Establishment Clause than the right to assemble publicly.

Content
Should we view social media as the tools we use for the content that we produce? Is it similar to writing a book, publishing a magazine, posting a blog? What makes a tweet different from a bumper sticker in a staff parking lot, where a student might see political, personal or religious speech? How are my Instagram pictures any different from putting photography in a museum? 
The difficulty here is that the content is more accesible than in other forms of media. It is public, open to the entire world anywhere at any time. And unlike other media outlets, it is one in which the creators of the content do not have any voice in who owns the method. 
If so, then are the issues of free exercise and the establishment clause really relevant to social media? At this point, it seems that it would be more an issue of the freedom of the press. It is hard to deny the power of the pocket journalists in the Arab Spring who used social media to report on the issues in the world. 
CommunicationShould we view social media as a method of communicating? Is it simply another form of conversation, not unlike body language, voice, text, etc.? When I'm tweeting am I simply having a conversation with whoever cares to listen? 
The problem here is that social media doesn't work like traditional forms of communication. The permanence, the broadcast nature of each medium, the difficulty in determining who is "listening" make it challenging. Moreover, it becomes even more challenging when it social media, by nature, are multimedia. Twitter involves videos, pictures, symbols, text, all moving digitally. 
IdentityShould we view social media as an expression of one's identity? We use terms like digital citizenship, online identity and branding, which all suggest that social media moves beyond simply communicating and into "being." 
The problem here is that it is easier online to choose anonymity and to craft identity in ways that are much more difficult in person. In addition, social media force the individual to create separate accounts  if he or she wants to compartmentalize. I am always a teacher at school. It is my identity. My speech changes when I am off the clock, outside of school. 
I see a real danger in the notion that employers (especially if it is the government) essentially "owns" a person at all times when he or she uses social media. When the speech is permanent (as it is) and the profile is static (as it is), I don't have the chance to switch roles and responsibilities. 
What does it mean, then, to protect the personal side of a teacher (or any worker) online? At what point does a teacher still represent a school even when he or she is "away" from that context? 

Cell Phones Don't Annoy People; People Annoy People.

To contact us Click HERE
By Noah Geisel (@SenorG)

Last week, I joined fans of public radio’s This American Life, in shelling out twenty bucks to go to the movie theater for a live taping of the program. Host Ira Glass drew laughs when he talked about the many theater managers nervous that we was encouraging viewers to take out their cell phones during the show. While he was going for laughs, he was dead serious about letting folks fill the theater rooms with screen glow. Dozens of audience members in hundreds of theaters across two continents simultaneously pulled out their smart phones and fired up the app that had been created specifically for this show. Glass introduced the band OK Go, known more for their groundbreaking music videos than pop melodies. The gimmick-geared musicians did not disappoint. The easiest way I can describe the experience: the band played music and with the app the audience played Guitar Hero to accompany them. I think the consensus was that it was pretty cool stuff.

At the end of the song, folks put their phones away and the show, as they say, went on.

Cell phones have become Enemy #1 in subways, movie theaters and pretty much every public space. OK Go and This American Life provide an excellent example of how mobile technology can be mobilized for positive disruption. They succeed in showing that the negative disruptions are a product of the users, not the phones.

This is a good lesson for schools and educators to note. In edu-speak, controlling the impact of cell phones is a classroom management issue, not a cell phone issue. This does not necessarily mean educators need to be incorporating mobile into their lessons (though many readers of this blog probably do); rather, that we are at least embedding into our lessons the idea of responsible cell phone citizenship. Modeling the positive disruptions a la Ira Glass is one of many ways of fostering this important learning.

Mimio Teach Interactive System - great IWB system with great features

To contact us Click HERE




Many teachers use interactive white boards in their classrooms. They can be used for interesting lessons, engaging students at the board, recording what is done on the board, and controlling the computer from the board.

There are a variety of brands and devices out there, and one that I like is the MimioTeach system. This turns any white board into an interactive white board. It can capture handwritten notes, annotations, operate the computer and presentation from the board and more. The receiver is mounted on the white board using suction cups or adhesive mounting brackets or magnets.



There is software for it that is similar to the Smart Board software and there are tons of lessons and resources available on their site. You can capture what you write on the board, your annotations, create your own lessons with the MimioStudio software, or use some of the lessons that are in their library.

The Mimio system includes the MimioTeach (make any white board interactive), MimioVote (classroom response system) and MimioPad (wireless tablet) and MimioView document camera. The entire MimioTeach family of products are excellent to use.

Another nice feature is portability. You can use them anywhere and the system is wireless. The capture can even capture to the device and then connect to a computer later to transfer captured data. A teacher moves rooms, the Mimio goes with them. Need to use one in another room, bring one along. Storage is a snap too since they are small. Lock them up to protect them from theft or damage. Bring them along to a conference and use them with your presentation.

If you are thinking about getting an interactive whiteboard, check out the Mimio System. They are more cost effective and easy to install and operate. The products all integrate with each other, are easy to use, and have great support. There are discounts for educators, great training materials, and a vibrant community of educators and lesson resources.



Here are some pictures of the system:








(I am not compensated by Mimio at all for this article)

2010 in Review: 99 Most Popular Pages on Jeromy Anglim's Blog

To contact us Click HERE
In the spirit of taking stock of the year that's been, and in the spirit of festive television repeats, this post reviews 2010 for this blog.

2010 in Review

It has been a satisfying year of blogging.Subscribers have grown from 70 to around 390.Annual site visits have grown from 10,000 in 2009 to around 94,000in 2010.

I've also enjoyed getting involved with CrossValidated, Melbourne R Users, R-Bloggers, github, and Twitter.

I'm looking forward to posting more in 2011 on Sweave, reproducible research, R packages, unit testing, and more.

To all the readers of this blog, all the best for New Yearsand the year ahead.

Most Popular Pages for 2010

The following were the 99 most popular blog pages for 2010 (with 2010 page views in brackets)courtesy of Google Analytics.

1. videos-on-data-analysis-with-r (6353)
2. recovering-corrupted-excel-2007-file (5358)
3. how-to-write-literature-review-in (4180)
4. apa-style-references-in-latex (3348)
5. getting-started-with-sweave-r-latex (3241)
6. abbreviations-of-r-commands-explained (2772)
7. calculating-composite-scores-of-ability (2605)
8. learning-r-for-researchers-in (2487)
9. pronunciation-guides-for-mathematical (2216)
10. export-from-endnote-to-bibtex-jabref (1984)
11. /search/label/R (1896)
12. winedt-60-for-latex-features (1891)
13. getting-started-with-beamer-tips-and (1875)
14. multinomial-logistic-regression-spss (1673)
15. formatting-correlation-matrices-in (1654)
16. texniccenter-customisations (1594)
17. generalized-estimating-equations (1537)
18. data-mining-and-r (1508)
19. structural-equation-modelling-in-r (1456)
20. user-interface-for-r-statet-and-eclipse (1445)
21. online-mathematics-video-courses-for (1445)
22. repeated-measures-experiments-with-many (1385)
23. factor-analysis-in-r (1332)
24. difference-scores-are-they-okay-to-use (1237)
25. statistics-for-psychology-thesis (1156)
26. case-study-in-optimising-code-in-r (1127)
27. writing-method-section-in-psychology (1115)
28. how-to-write-predictions-and-hypotheses (1087)
29. sweave-tutorial-using-sweave-r-and-make (1064)
30. variable-importance-and-multiple (1063)
31. data-mining-and-statistics-video-course (1048)
32. running-command-line-programs-in (1010)
33. canonical-correlation-getting-started (1006)
34. fitting-nonlinear-regression-models-to (948)
35. analysing-ordinal-variables (933)
36. practice-questions-for-statistics-in (930)
37. converting-microsoft-word-document-into (922)
38. scoring-multiple-choice-test-in-spss (901)
39. job-satisfaction-measurement-scales (864)
40. logistic-regression-resources-in-spss (859)
41. teaching-resources (855)
42. tetrachoric-correlations-overview-and (806)
43. analysis-of-winter-olympic-medal-data (801)
44. structural-equation-modelling-and-path (800)
45. how-to-write-introduction-section-in (789)
46. implications-of-office-layout-and (788)
47. formatting-table-in-word-r-to-tab (719)
48. calculating-scale-scores-for (675)
49. /p/jeromy-anglims-academic-publications (673)
50. /p/site-map-jeromy-anglims-blog-psychology (667)
51. exploratory-factor-analysis-and-scale (646)
52. statistical-power-analysis-in-gpower-3 (645)
53. simple-beamer-template-for-getting (645)
54. introduction-to-journal-article (614)
55. introduction-to-spss-syntax-advice-for (609)
56. how-to-get-quick-access-to-full-text (563)
57. how-to-process-inquisit-raw-data-in (558)
58. item-parcelling-in-confirmatory-factor (524)
59. bootstrapping (522)
60. carryover-effects-in-repeated-measures (513)
61. r-workflow-slides-from-talk-at (508)
62. exporting-pdfs-from-jabref-using-batch (494)
63. sweave-tutorial-3-console-input-and (486)
64. sweave-tutorial-2-individual (484)
65. tips-on-reading-mathematics-for-non (476)
66. syntax-tips-for-efficient-variable (472)
67. social-network-analysis-resources-for-r (471)
68. inverting-logistic-function (455)
69. scale-construction-item-reversal-scale (452)
70. significance-tests-on-correlations (441)
71. discriminant-function-analysis (439)
72. analysis-of-multiple-choice-test (418)
73. efficient-variable-selection-in-r (414)
74. free-video-courses-on-r-structural (410)
75. meta-analysis-tips-resources-and (399)
76. practical-tips-on-how-to-conduct_05 (397)
77. choosing-auto-generation-pattern-for (389)
78. makefiles-for-sweave-r-and-latex-using (382)
79. tips-for-using-statet-and-eclipse-for (372)
80. free-online-mathematics-books (369)
81. follow-up-tests-in-anova-in-spss (367)
82. causality-and-mediation-analysis (357)
83. single-group-correlational-study-basic (355)
84. using-regular-expressions-in-r-case (350)
85. getting-started-with-writing (347)
86. clustered-samples-and-assuming (339)
87. jeromy-anglims-academic-publications (338)
88. blogs-on-r-statistics (334)
89. getting-started-with-git-egit-eclipse (331)
90. 34-minute-video-on-using-r-to-analyse (328)
91. mediation-and-moderation-reference (315)
92. article-deconstruction-how-to-writing (311)
93. introduction-to-social-network-analysis (304)
94. problems-with-high-resolution-laptops (280)
95. inquisit-simple-reaction-time-four (269)
96. matrix-algebra-in-r-resources-videos (268)
97. great-measurement-but-small-sample-size (256)
98. adjusting-correlations-for-reliability (239)
99. producing-table-of-item-descriptive (236)

Edutopia: on 'How Did School Do?'

To contact us Click HERE
by Shelly Blake-Plock

Edutopia published a guest post of mine today about the 'How Did School Do' project. Here's a snippet...

It wasn’t long ago that language arts teacher Wheeler and his Lakewood City School District biology-teaching colleague Ken Kozar –- along with a class of eager 10th graders –- realized that certain questions weren’t being asked online. And one question above all resonated with teacher and student alike: How did school do?

Read the whole article at Edutopia.

We Can't Define Social Media

To contact us Click HERE
by John T. Spencer

Educators clamor for open access to social media in schools. We (including me) write about the need to teach digital citizenship to the digital natives. And yet . . . how do we even define social media? I witnessed many metaphors yesterday and each one of them seemed to suggest that we are attempting to find things in our physical world in order to make sense out of the digital.

I'm not sure it does make sense. At least not to me.


LocationShould we view social media as a public location? If so, does it matter where one tweets from if he or she is "on Twitter?" Is it about the network? the equipment? If it is a space, is it truly public? Does it make a difference that someone must willfully follow a person on Twitter or "friend" a person on Facebook? My speech is, in this sense, less public than it would be at a supermarket or a baseball game.

Defining social media through the lens of location becomes tricky, though. Twitter is, on some level, a spaceless space. It is real-time, but not bound by time. My words do not evaporate the way they do in conversation. Instead, I leave a ticker-tape of thoughts behind me for anyone to pick up asynchronously. In addition, social media allow users to be in many places at the same time in a way that is simply not possible without a horcrux (Harry Potter reference). 
If I can speak openly about my faith at Starbucks with a group of friends then what changes if it in a tweet instead? The size of the group, perhaps? What size is large enough to be "broadcast?" If this is the case, it would seem that the larger issue is less about the Establishment Clause than the right to assemble publicly.

Content
Should we view social media as the tools we use for the content that we produce? Is it similar to writing a book, publishing a magazine, posting a blog? What makes a tweet different from a bumper sticker in a staff parking lot, where a student might see political, personal or religious speech? How are my Instagram pictures any different from putting photography in a museum? 
The difficulty here is that the content is more accesible than in other forms of media. It is public, open to the entire world anywhere at any time. And unlike other media outlets, it is one in which the creators of the content do not have any voice in who owns the method. 
If so, then are the issues of free exercise and the establishment clause really relevant to social media? At this point, it seems that it would be more an issue of the freedom of the press. It is hard to deny the power of the pocket journalists in the Arab Spring who used social media to report on the issues in the world. 
CommunicationShould we view social media as a method of communicating? Is it simply another form of conversation, not unlike body language, voice, text, etc.? When I'm tweeting am I simply having a conversation with whoever cares to listen? 
The problem here is that social media doesn't work like traditional forms of communication. The permanence, the broadcast nature of each medium, the difficulty in determining who is "listening" make it challenging. Moreover, it becomes even more challenging when it social media, by nature, are multimedia. Twitter involves videos, pictures, symbols, text, all moving digitally. 
IdentityShould we view social media as an expression of one's identity? We use terms like digital citizenship, online identity and branding, which all suggest that social media moves beyond simply communicating and into "being." 
The problem here is that it is easier online to choose anonymity and to craft identity in ways that are much more difficult in person. In addition, social media force the individual to create separate accounts  if he or she wants to compartmentalize. I am always a teacher at school. It is my identity. My speech changes when I am off the clock, outside of school. 
I see a real danger in the notion that employers (especially if it is the government) essentially "owns" a person at all times when he or she uses social media. When the speech is permanent (as it is) and the profile is static (as it is), I don't have the chance to switch roles and responsibilities. 
What does it mean, then, to protect the personal side of a teacher (or any worker) online? At what point does a teacher still represent a school even when he or she is "away" from that context? 

Cell Phones Don't Annoy People; People Annoy People.

To contact us Click HERE
By Noah Geisel (@SenorG)

Last week, I joined fans of public radio’s This American Life, in shelling out twenty bucks to go to the movie theater for a live taping of the program. Host Ira Glass drew laughs when he talked about the many theater managers nervous that we was encouraging viewers to take out their cell phones during the show. While he was going for laughs, he was dead serious about letting folks fill the theater rooms with screen glow. Dozens of audience members in hundreds of theaters across two continents simultaneously pulled out their smart phones and fired up the app that had been created specifically for this show. Glass introduced the band OK Go, known more for their groundbreaking music videos than pop melodies. The gimmick-geared musicians did not disappoint. The easiest way I can describe the experience: the band played music and with the app the audience played Guitar Hero to accompany them. I think the consensus was that it was pretty cool stuff.

At the end of the song, folks put their phones away and the show, as they say, went on.

Cell phones have become Enemy #1 in subways, movie theaters and pretty much every public space. OK Go and This American Life provide an excellent example of how mobile technology can be mobilized for positive disruption. They succeed in showing that the negative disruptions are a product of the users, not the phones.

This is a good lesson for schools and educators to note. In edu-speak, controlling the impact of cell phones is a classroom management issue, not a cell phone issue. This does not necessarily mean educators need to be incorporating mobile into their lessons (though many readers of this blog probably do); rather, that we are at least embedding into our lessons the idea of responsible cell phone citizenship. Modeling the positive disruptions a la Ira Glass is one of many ways of fostering this important learning.

Cell Phones Don't Annoy People; People Annoy People.

To contact us Click HERE
By Noah Geisel (@SenorG)

Last week, I joined fans of public radio’s This American Life, in shelling out twenty bucks to go to the movie theater for a live taping of the program. Host Ira Glass drew laughs when he talked about the many theater managers nervous that we was encouraging viewers to take out their cell phones during the show. While he was going for laughs, he was dead serious about letting folks fill the theater rooms with screen glow. Dozens of audience members in hundreds of theaters across two continents simultaneously pulled out their smart phones and fired up the app that had been created specifically for this show. Glass introduced the band OK Go, known more for their groundbreaking music videos than pop melodies. The gimmick-geared musicians did not disappoint. The easiest way I can describe the experience: the band played music and with the app the audience played Guitar Hero to accompany them. I think the consensus was that it was pretty cool stuff.

At the end of the song, folks put their phones away and the show, as they say, went on.

Cell phones have become Enemy #1 in subways, movie theaters and pretty much every public space. OK Go and This American Life provide an excellent example of how mobile technology can be mobilized for positive disruption. They succeed in showing that the negative disruptions are a product of the users, not the phones.

This is a good lesson for schools and educators to note. In edu-speak, controlling the impact of cell phones is a classroom management issue, not a cell phone issue. This does not necessarily mean educators need to be incorporating mobile into their lessons (though many readers of this blog probably do); rather, that we are at least embedding into our lessons the idea of responsible cell phone citizenship. Modeling the positive disruptions a la Ira Glass is one of many ways of fostering this important learning.

What's Your Blood Type?

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The Blood Typing Game is an interactive activity where students try to detect the blood type of various patients. After choosing a patient, you are asked to use a syringe and take blood which you then put into three vials. Guessing the patient's blood type is the final step. The Blood Typing Game was the 2012 Winner of the Best Game Category by Swedish Learning Awards. Students will really enjoy this game, which was recommended to me by my colleague Pat, who teaches biology.

It's Time for the Edublog Award Nominations!

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Nominations for the 2012 Edublog Awards are open and will be accepted until November 26, 2012.  The purpose of these awards is to "promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media."  Here's how to nominate: write a post on your blog with your nominations and send a link to the post on the nominations page. Here are the categories for this year's awards:

• Best individual blog
• Best group blog
• Best new blog
• Best class blog
• Best student blog
• Best ed tech / resource sharing blog
• Best teacher blog
• Best library / librarian blog
• Best administrator blog
• Most influential blog post
• Best individual tweeter
• Best twitter hashtag
• Best free web tool
• Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast
• Best educational wiki
• Best open PD / unconference / webinar series
• Best educational use of a social network
• Best mobile app
• Lifetime achievement

Edmodo's Update Looks More Like Facebook!

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A while back, I did a posting about 35 Social Networking Programs Other Than Facebook and Twitter. The program that still stands out as the best is Edmodo, which recently upgraded its appearance. It now looks even more like Facebook, and your students will enjoy using it for that reason alone. Edmodo offers you and your class a private social network, where you can have class discussions or message students privately. 
 I love Edmodo's version of the "like" button in Facebook:  If you haven't looked at Edmodo, you're missing a really wonderful free program.

You Don't Need to be exquisite But Your Writing Does

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Having written since I was a kid, I've met many authors, writers and journalists along the way. While we don't all fit the stereotype of the robed, sleepless, alcoholic writer hunched over a typewriter in the attic, we do have much in common. In expanding to being the winners of spelling bees and hoarders of dictionaries and other books, we love words. We love to read them, hear them, speak them and write them. We love them to a fault.

We must have the right words in the right place at the right time. And, possibly more importantly, they must be written flawlessly. We won't accept typos, spelling errors or grammatical snafus, because mistakes interrupt the flow and the meaning of our words. As a result, we expect perfection and we don't tolerate errors from ourselves or others. This religious doctrine makes it difficult to be a writer at times, but we can't help ourselves. We are obsessed with perfection.

Apa Format Example Paper

Living this way can make it difficult to meet deadlines, however, as we await the ideal word, headline or first paragraph. Sometimes we must settle for less. Sometimes we even have to settle for pretty good. It's a harsh reality, but at some point, we have to unblemished our latest assignment or task and turn it in so we can get paid. We have to let go of the perfection we covet, because it isn't going to bless us with its presence today.

You Don't Need to be exquisite But Your Writing Does

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers Best

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MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers Overview

The MLA Handbook is published by the Modern Language Association, the authority on MLA documentation style. Widely adopted in high schools, colleges, and publishing houses, the MLA Handbook treats every aspect of research writing, from selecting a topic to submitting the completed paper. The expanded, revised, and redesigned sixth edition of the Handbook is a complete, up-to-date guide to documentation style and online research.

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Our editors, however, see it differently. They will expect perfection, not because they are masochists but because it makes their jobs easier. If our work is flawless, they have less to do. They can focus on other writer's work or planning their next issue or project. To endear ourselves to them (and to get more work), we must dutifully comply. The issue is trying to equilibrium our desire to be perfect with the reality that we will never be. We can come close though by thought about proofreading, editing and fact-checking our work prior to submission. Here's how.

Proofreading-checking for spelling, punctuation, grammatical and formatting errors-can be a tedious, cumbersome task, particularly when attempting to proof your own work, but it can be done. I normally proofread on my computer screen first, development edits as I go. When done, I print off a hard copy and go straight through line by line, reading out loud as I go. I find that I observation errors in print that I don't see on screen, and reading out loud helps me to find words that I've missed or used incorrectly (e.g., there instead of their). For well important assignments, I'll ask person else to proof it as well. In fact, I have an editing buddy with whom I trade proofreading help. I have also tried reviewing the copy backwards and reviewing for a separate item while each pass straight through the text. For example, the first time I read straight through it, I might focus on spelling, the next time on grammar, etc. Make sure you have your dictionary and grammar guide handy too while this stage.

Editing. In expanding to proofreading, I also copyedit my work, meaning I check for misplaced modifiers, tell style, check for flow, etc. This process is more intense than proofreading and can take awhile. It is also difficult to do immediately after finishing an assignment, so I will set it aside until morning when I can look at it with "fresh eyes." Often major errors will jump off the page, begging to be corrected. while this phase, you'll need to have your handy stylebook out (Ap, Apa, Chicago by hand of Style, etc.) to be sure that you've followed the accepted guidelines for things like capitalization, numbers (figures versus text) and references.

Fact-checking. Many publications, particularly magazines, will fact-check your work. In other words, they'll verify the spelling of allowable names, check dates, key facts, website addresses, phone numbers and more. While publications often hire person to do this task, by doing it yourself first, you can save the publication time and money, again development it easier to work with you. When I fact-check my writing, I first double-check the spelling of all names and places. I look at reference materials (brochures, bios, enterprise cards, etc.) that I've been given, and I search online. If I am unsure, I'll phone the traditional source to confirm a spelling. I do the same thing with dates. For key facts, I do an Internet search, marking my source to either contribute to the fact-checker up front or for my own reference should I be questioned later. This was particularly helpful when I wrote an description about a coal mine explosion in the early 1900s. My editor wanted to confirm that a single mining town was second in size only to Seattle. Before she was willing to allow me to make that statement, she wanted verification.

In spite of these techniques, we are human and it is still possible that an error will occasionally slip straight through the cracks. However, if you are diligent in your effort to submit well-written, well-documented work without definite errors, your editors and publishers will be more likely to turn to you rather than the other guy - you know who I mean - the writer who thinks he's great but who can't spell his way out of a paper bag. Make sure you are the one they turn to for stellar, (nearly) flawless work.

Happy Writing!

Copyright (c) 2007 Dana Blozis

You Don't Need to be exquisite But Your Writing Does