I’m a HUGE fan of Google Earth. Ever since the terribly buggy and laggy days of its first incarnations, I’ve used the resources provided by it, oogled monumental structures from space, and found ways to encourage teachers to use it more in their classroom. Sometimes I get pushback from teachers wanting a resource that’s more accessible to students, doesn’t require the internet, and will always be there even if the...

As I prepare myself for another trip down the rabbit hole with ds106, I had to remind myself that there are still a plethora of amazingly great resources out there to share with teachers, parents, and others that want simple, practical ways to update their curriculum, or replace static learning experiences with much more fluid or real world experiences. Thanks to the Google Earth blog (one of my personal favorites), comes news of a way to...

Ladies and gentlemen, quite rarely do you see such an excellent triumvirate of educational potential than NORAD Tracks Santa. The ability to engage young learners with the prospect of watching Kris Krinkle, introducing the concepts of latitude and longitude using Google Earth, and being able to tie in writing and storytelling is a huge win in my book. It was with great satisfaction then that on my very first day of “getting back...

I was reading through the Google Earth Blog today, and saw that Brussels, Belgium is looking pretty slick in Google Earth thanks to thousands of new 3D models that Google pushed out recently. Yes you read that correctly, thousands of new 3D models. And the amazing thing is, they’re all user-created, so somewhere we have thousands of “digital Frank Gehry’s” to thank for such an amazing collection of work! I’ve...

Earlier this month I was sent a demo unit of a Lenovo ThinkCentre m90z touch screen computer with Windows 7, in hopes that I would put it through it’s paces in an educational setting. It’s a pretty interesting machine, given it’s large size (23 inches, ye-haa!), and the fact that you can touch it to interact with the software and programs on the computer. Thus far my feelings have been mixed. The touch has been very...

I’m always looking for new ways to grab student’s attention as I lead into a new unit or lesson, and when I come across something that’s both cool and has practical value, it’s sure to make it into heavy classroom rotation. I found such a site in Globe Genie thanks to one of the principals in my district that likes to share his discoveries. Joe McMichael, a graduate student at MIT (an institution known for making...