Right Brain vs. Left Brain Creativity Test

The following link is to a fun Right Brain vs. Left Brain Creativity Test. Enjoy!

Thomas Friedman Op-Ed: “9/11 Is Over”

An interesting perspective from the author of “The World is Flat.”

Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover!!!

Something fun…

Not feeling up to par this evening, but I saw a link to this on Digg that brought a smile: Idea Generator. Enjoy!

Science!!!

I first saw this YouTube video at think:lab.  What a great science experiment:  invisible water!

Visual/Graphical Searching

Various post around the web have featured the following visual/graphical search tools (I guess that is what you call them). Try them out and let us know if they are useful. My first thought was they could be distracting to someone who has a difficult time focusing.  I like the opportunity they provide in making the various connections, but I need to figure out how I would integrate these features into a classroom setting. What would you do?

KartOO
Quintura for Kids
Visuwords
TouchGraph

Leo Laporte’s Big Bang

Now that it’s over, we can all laugh about it!!! When I first heard this (TWiT 98) I was quite concerned, and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry! Once Leo announced he was okay, I laughed until I cried! Listen to the “moment” here:

Being raised as a cowboy there is one thing I learned at an early age: be careful where you wear your spurs!!! Just a word to the wise Leo!

Video of the One Laptop Per Child XO in Brazil

The One Laptop Per Child XO in use:

“ESA presents the sharpest ever satellite map of Earth”

The European Space Agency has issued its GlobCover website.  The ESA news release in part states:

“The most detailed portraits ever of the Earth’s land surface have been created with ESA’s Envisat environmental satellite. The portraits are the first products produced as part of the ESA-initiated GlobCover project and are available online.

Bimonthly global composites for May to June 2005 and March to April 2006 can be accessed through a newly developed map server tool on ESA’s GlobCover website. On 19 June, additional bimonthly global composites will be made available as well as the first part of a global land cover map over Eurasia.”

Gone Fishin’

I took my four youngest children fishing today.  We watched a water snake catch a small bullhead minnow and begin the dinner process.  Enjoy the video:

“Give Kids Good Schools”

This ad from Give Kids Good Schools really hits home:

“Stylization” of Karl Fisch’s “Shift Happens” Presentation

“This is a stylization of a slideshow originally created by Karl Fisch, examining globalization and America’s future in the 21st century. It is designed to stand alone, without having to be presented in person. Enjoy!”

SVHS Concert and Jazz Bands!!!

Tonight (5/9/2007) I had the pleasure of attending the Star Valley Middle and High School end of the year concert! My daughter Hannah is the wonderful brunette trombone player in the high school concert band! Check out a couple of selections below:

Concert Band

Jazz Band

The Encyclopedia of Life

This is an interesting concept and one that is in development with many possibilities. The Encyclopedia of Life is a:

“Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Our goal is to create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the Internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike. To transform the science of biology, and inspire a new generation of scientists, by aggregating all known data about every living species. And ultimately, to increase our collective understanding of life on Earth, and safeguard the richest possible spectrum of biodiversity.”

Are we preparing our students to use tools like this!?!

The Microsoft Center for Information Work presented the following desk at the Convergence 2007 (March) conference. This is an example of what we are preparing our students to use in the near future. How do we prepare students for innovations that are not yet developed or created!?! That is exactly what we as educators have to do in today’s world. A challenge indeed!