Edutopia

I recently watched two podcast at iTunes University about classroom learning. The two podcasts were called the Edible Classroom and A Night In The Global Village. These podcast were on the Edutpoia site located on iTunes University. The quickest way to find them is by doing a search for them. The Edible Clsssroom was very unique in that it was centered around a garden outside of the school that the students worked in and learned basic social skills. The school garden also incorporated a class kitchen where students learned how to cook the food they grew. This was invaluable for the students learning opportunity. A Night In The Global Village was very interesting in that students in Colorado where given the opportunity to spend the night at a local ranch and experience the living conditions of other countries. This was unique in that it gave the children an insight into other cultures and how other people in different countries deal with lack of food and resources.

These podcast can be very useful in exposing students to other cultures and living conditions the world over. I thought that the Village one was not that profound. It was really more like camping and if they wanted to have a lasting affect on those children the length of stay should have been much longer than one night. The Edible Classroom one was one that has the most potential. Children should learn basic things like growing and cooking their own food. Although I was surprised and amused that having a garden seemed to be a great and wonderful idea that was thought up by a local restaurant owner as though it had never been done. When I was in school we had agriculture class and we had a green house and grew a garden. Maybe growing up in Alabama does have some advantages over growing up in California. Both podcast were very interesting, well done, and worth watching.

itunes University

After checking out the iTunes University site I have to admit that I was really impressed with the wealth of information that can be found within the site. According to Apple, "iTunes U, part of the iTunes Store, is possibly the world’s greatest collection of free educational media available to students, teachers, and lifelong learners." Having well over 100,000 files available for educational viewing or downloads is a good start towards being the greatest collection on the web, but considering the vast amount of information out there they probably have a ways to go.

The site gives you three options while setting up your access to iTunes University. Internal, external, and mixed access to your sites. The internal access ability will give your members access to everything uploaded or already on the your site itself. Access for those not registered and having passwords to your internal site will be denied. This will allow you to administer your site for your designated audience. The external access ability opens up your material for all people to view your site. This is a good option for those that are wanting wide spread access of their files and their organizations files. The last option is mixed access which can give you a level of protection and a level of open access for the general public.

Apple also offers access to people or students with special education needs. Most major universities are on the iTunes U site with tons of content available to most of the public. Overall I think that the iTunes U site offers an amazing opportunity to educators and students for learning and expanding their knowledge. Check out the link for more information: http://www.apple.com/education/mobile-learning/

alicechristie.org

An interesting site for educators is Dr. Alice Christie's web site. Dr. Christie has compiled quite a lot of information for the use of educators at all levels of learning. Dr. Christie had forty years of educational experience and it shows on her site. The navigation is very simple and just a few clicks gets you right into the content your are interested in. The layout of her site is subdued and yet appealing. In this age of flamboyant web sites, a site that has a simple layout is appreciated.

One of the tabs I liked on her site was the workshops tab. It's the 5th tab down on the right side of the home page. There is a lot of great information here. I like how she list everything needed to successfully complete one of her workshops. The step by step instructions are very simple. Another link in the Workshops tab is the virtual field trip link. Although it is $50.00 to become a member of the virtual field trips I wonder if this will be the wave of the future for our school age children. Check out her site for more information: http://www.alicechristie.org/index.html

Wikipedia This, Wikipedia That!

Wikipedia has been somewhat of an internet research sensation in recent years. The content and subject matter is astounding. Wikipedia markets itself as being the online encyclipedic databse for research facts and writing papers for school. Wikipedia is unique in that anyone can contribute to or take away from each individual entry. The idea is that the articles contain up to date facts and information for any given topic. But with anyone and everyone having the ability to access and change the information just how reliable are the entries? A 2007 article on Wired addresses this very issue. Here's the link: http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/08/wiki_tracker?currentPage=all.

According to the write up, Wikipedia has been altered many times over often by the very people who topics were written about. This may seem to be biased but I remember a scene from a great movie that went like this:

Luke: Obi-Wan.
Luke: Why didn't you tell me? You told me Vader betrayed and murdered my father.
Obi-Wan: Your father... was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and *became* Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed. So what I told you was true... from a certain point of view.
Luke: A certain point of view?
Luke: Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view. Anakin was a good friend. When I first knew him, your father was already a great pilot. But I was amazed how strongly the Force was with him. I took it upon myself to train him as a Jedi. I thought that I could instruct him just as well as Yoda. I was wrong.

That little bit of wisdom was from Star Wars. I think that with Wikipedia as with all things, we should be careful of taking what we read at face value. When researching something when did we as intellectuals stop verifying our facts from multiple sources? Wikipedia is just a tool. The tools we use are only useful if used in the right way and this holds true for Wikipedia. History is constantly being rewritten, usually by those in power, so caution is always a good idea when using any source for any research. Check The Facts!