Dedicated to relinquishing responsibility for learning to the students
Effective infographics enable us to see information in new ways. The Economist recently posted these two interactive maps that offer insights into the distribution of GDP and population in both the US and China. Click on maps or follow links to original maps with full functionality.
Which countries match the GDP and population of America's states?
Original Map
Which countries match the GDP, population and exports of Chinese provinces?
Original Map
On March 2, President Obama signed a bill eliminating direct federal funding for the National Writing Project (NWP), the nation’s leading effort to improve writing and learning in the digital age.
Contact members of Congress and President Obama and tell them why the National Writing Project needs more than praise – it needs funding!
Image credit: The Seven Valleys Writing Project at SUNY Cortland
Jobs – stop messing with my head. I’ve lived this long without an iPad. Why do I suddenly feel a growing obsession to get one?
Storify is a new platform that allows users to quickly tell a story using material from the social web. Yesterday I received an invitation to try out their beta.
Just as I began exploring it, my Twitter feed alerted me to the tragic events in Japan. Without much planning, I began using Storify to collect material about the earthquake / tsunami from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and other news feeds.
While I kept my narrative to just a few sentences, users can add additional comments to each element. My finished story appeared on the Storify site and I used the embed code to also post it on my blog.
As an advocate of document based instruction, I realized that Storify has great potential in the classroom. It's a easy tool for teachers and students to gather a variety of social media and web content. It would be especially useful way for students to critically evaluate web and social media content. As a historian I also think if it as a first, rough draft of history – a social document for future generations.
~ I regret that my first use of Storify was to document such a tragic event. My prayers go out to all those impacted by the earthquake and tsunami. I hope to be able to tell happier stories in the future.
Storify Overview from Storify on Vimeo.
This Storify essay is a first, rough draft of history – a social document for future historians. Text, image, video and tweets from the initial reaction to the event. (March 10, 2011 GMT-8) ~ I regret that my first use of Storify was to document such a tragic event. My prayers go out to all those impacted by the earthquake and tsunami. I hope to be able to tell happier stories in the future.
