July 22, 2007 by jmmblake.

North Carolina (The Green Swamp, Appalachians)

Great images to use as writing prompts in the classroom. These could be used in a podcast in the science classroom. Also, as part of a Voicethread learning activity. Maybe have the students post the images (if we can ask and receive permission to use these images online first). Closeup images this nice are really fun to look at for students. In Voicethread, have the students each record a comment or fact about the Venus Flytrap plant and draw using the annotation feature in Voicethread to label what they are talking about.

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June 14, 2007 by jmmblake.

NORTH CAROLINA SIX POINT LESSON PLAN

Subject: __________________________________

Teacher: _____________ Date: _______________

Performance Objective (Including learning and behavior):

Activity Description of Activities and Setting Materials and Time

I. Focus and Review (Establish prior knowledge)

II. Statement (Inform) of Objectives

III. Teacher Input (Present tasks, information, and guidance)

Tasks-

IV. Guided Practice (Elicit performance)

Assessment and Feedback

V. Independent Practice —

VI. Closure (Plan for maintenance)

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April 8, 2007 by jmmblake.

Ok, so check it out, dawg…here’s an example of what you can do with the new “My Maps” feature from Google. Go on…go look.

Now, if your head ain’t swimmin’ with ideas like mine is… My children don’t know it yet, but they just became the map makers for all travel related to the Richardson family. (And we just figured out that the whole clan is going to Australia this summer.) I can’t wait to show them this.

I know this isn’t news, but this is the kind of stuff that still gives me butterflies. Stupid, I know. It’s also the kind of stuff that I want to go running into schools with, shouting “Look what our kids can create! Look what they can contribute!”

It’s a great time to be a learner, isn’t it? Very cool…  Check out Step #19 in the directions

By Will Richardson.

If any of my students go out of town during vacation, I hope to challenge them make their own map. 

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October 16, 2005 by jmmblake.

EarthSLOT is a collection of 3D GIS and terrain visualization applications designed to allow scientists, resource managers, educators, and the public better understand our planet and the earth science that goes on here.

To begin exploring the Earth immediately, click here. The links at left will lead you to a wide variety of other options for viewing the Earth and data related to it.

Click here to see the new Blue Marble Next Generation datasets, a series of 12 monthly cloud-free mosaics of the planet.

Use of EarthSLOT is FREE and easy, with support for Windows and limited support for Macintosh/Unix platforms. We host or link to applications created using Skyline Software, Google Earth, NASA’s WorldWind and any other freely-available 3D engine, and are committed to open-source sharing of applications and ideas related to Earth science, logistics, outreach and education. Visit our Forum to learn more.

EarthSLOT is not an end-goal, but a tool that you can use to facilite your research or education goals. To learn how you can add data to the system or integrate the EarthSLOT tools into your own projects, follow the “Get Involved ” link here or at left.

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September 23, 2005 by jmmblake.

This week, my students focused on the concept of the four phases of matter. This is a fairly abstract concept. Students can not actually see the atoms and there were several misconceptions addressed as we prepared to write the script for the podcast. I tried this week to improve the quality of the sound, but I am still not satisfied with it. I have to buy a mic and a USB preamp. We will need to get a mic boom too. In listening to the podcast, I heard the sound from the students leaning on the fold-up table. We use headphone to monitor external sound, but we missed that sound. We are still waiting for Apple to list our podcasts in the podcasting site on iTunes.

Use this hyperlinked icon to subscribe to the XML feed of our podcast, if you already have a podcast client like iPodder

Our class “Wish List”

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September 22, 2005 by jmmblake.

I will edit these so they are hyperlinked later…got to run…time for the season premire of ER.

Apple’s guide is the best instruction to follow for the command line approach, but a number of industrious developers have created graphical utilities to make this even easier for a nominal cost (some free).

• ChapterMeTool
• http://www.rbsoftware.net/?page=ctm
• Podcast AV
• http://www.oldjewelsoftware.com/products/podcastav/

• Podcast Enhancer

• http://scriptbuilders.net/files/podcastenhancer0.3.html

Here are some other useful links.

• Tim Lauer’s Education Technology Blog
• http://tim.lauer.name/archives/003177.html
• http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/07/how_to_make_enh.html

New book from O’reilly

• http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/podcastinghks/

One more great link on Enhanced Podcasts

• http://www.voxmedia.org/wiki/PodcastChapterTool

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