MAKE: Blog: Wrestling mask from an old shoe

I’m beginning to collect projects that appeal to Middle School age children. While discussing concepts of manufacturing…nothing better than the tennis shoe. And afterwords why not take it apart and create a wrestling mask.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Technology Education/Industrial Technology Education

The student designs a product or manufacturing system using appropriate design processes and techniques. The student is expected to:

(A) develop or improve a product or manufacturing system that meets a specified need;

(B) identify areas where quality, reliability, and safety can be designed into a product or system.

I have been having quite a time installing Flash 9 with IE 7 and my earlier version of IE.

This took me some time to figure out so I thought I’d share my solution. I tried editing the registry, I found this complete standalone installer that finally fixed the problem ! This is what you should do…

1. Download the un-installer and un-install Flash Player.

2. Then restart your computer.

3. Go to the Adobe website and install Flash Player again. The address is below.

http://www.adobe.com

1. Next, download the standalone installer. http://fpdownload.macromedia.com After downloading it, install it.

5.Done ! Verify Flash player is working by going to this link. http://www.adobe.com/go/15507

Note: I have Microsoft Windows Home Edition SP2. I also have IE7.

Linux’s Education Push When it comes to desktop PCs, schools could be the first, real place where Linux grabs hold.

“So Dad,” he asked. “What is the difference between Linux and Windows?” I tried to explain but it was a waste of breath. “What difference do you see?” I asked back.

“Nothing, really.”

Is College Worth It?

This article takes a look at the decision of investing in an education. It doesn’t consider the social aspect of the college experience, but simply the return on the investment.

                              The analysis begins by assessing a college education purely as a
                              monetary investment. Undoubtedly, there are other benefits beyond money
                              to attend college, but it's such an enormous economic decision that it
                              seems foolish to not fully understand the financial ramifications and
                              use that as a primary factor in the decision process.<br /><br /><br /><p class="poweredbyperformancing">powered by <a href="http://performancing.com/firefox">performancing firefox</a></p>

…this chart from technocrati is tracking the blogosphere’s conversation of drupal: Posts that contain Drupal per day for the last 30 days.

Get your own chart!

I’m definitely into the hybrid thing lately. Hybrid instruction not only in the sense of implementation: online and face to face learning through moodle (http://moodle.org) and short class lectures/discussions, but also philosophically in a sense of allowing students to have some type of control over the curriculum, and direction of their own study. Every moodle assignment I offer, is open to interpretation and creativity. This is why I believe that rubrics can potentially take the fun out of learning. They limit learners to the parameters made by the teacher. Especially when we are teaching technoloies that are more native to the learner than the educator.

This article takes a neutral approach to – what I will call the Sudbury model, but really applies to many other free, democratic school models. I agree with both sides of the argument, and I have settled on balance and moderation of both freedom and standardization. This combined with a balance between face to face and elearning and I think we might make some real progress in my classroom.
Free Radicals

In the country’s most alternative classrooms, there’s no such thing as a report card.

Sudbury schools are only one variety of so-called free, or democratic, schools, which eschew most conventions of traditional education in favor of a much more radical program. At most free schools, literally every decision, from those about staff hiring and firing to determinations concerning rules, facilities, and budget issues, is made by the entire school community in a one-person, one-vote process. There are no tests, no report cards, no requirements, and no classes – and no curriculum, other than what students set for themselves.

It is a philosophy that may strike the uninitiated as far-fetched, if not irresponsible, but it seems to be working…….

Congratulations to my students for their great work on iBoerne.com. Our submission for Student Showcase has been accepted for the 2007 TCEA Convention !

iBoerne.com: an Interactive Online Game for Programming Students | jessecravens.com

YouTube course is a class act – web – Technology – smh.com.au

“After all, one of the jobs of a teacher is to help kids make sense of the world they live in,” he says.

Serious Games Initiative

The Serious Games Initiative is focused on uses for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public sector. Part of its overall charter is to help forge productive links between the electronic game industry and projects involving the use of games in education, training, health, and public policy.

EdTech Connect Webinar Series| DiscoverySchool.com

EdTechConnect is a free webinar series to help teachers integrate media and technology into the classroom. Discovery Education connects you with the experts who will answer your questions and bring you new insights. All you need is a telephone and a computer connected to the Internet and a cadre of experts will virtually join you at your desk. EdTechConnect webinars have featured Alan November, Kathy Schrock, Hall Davidson, Steve Dembo and most recently, Joe Brennan.

Mark your calendars now! Coming soon to EdTechConnect, David Warlick on November 15th and Will Richardson on December 13th.

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