2. For the history educators – this site is looking at “the man behind Hitler” Joesph Gobbels – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goebbels/ and some of the propaganda he produced – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goebbels/gallery/index.html

3. From History on the Net http://www.historyonthenet.com/Nazi_Germany/nazigermanymain.htm This site looks at Nazi Germany

4. Open Chemistry - http://openchemistry.co.uk/ this is an open chemistry site producing free resources availzable to all. Another good one for chemistry is http://periodictable.com/ and also http://www.periodicvideos.com/

5. Crime mapper - http://maps.police.uk/ this is a UK police tool that mashes data from various sources with maps to produce interesting results – searchable by area. This is a great tool for Humanities and information technology.

6. Commoncraft show – Cloud computing in plain english http://commoncraft.com/cloud-computing-video This is another BRILLIANT resource from Lee LeFever and the guys at Commoncraft. This is a very useful professional development resource and resource for teaching computing and computers.

7. Firefox turns 5 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ULDH90H530&feature=player_embedded This is a video celebrating 5 years of Mozilla’s firefox browser. The video is fun and raises some interesting questions from its unique perspective. This is another great resource for teaching computing and professional development.

8. Darwin, a naturalists voyage -http://www.cnrs.fr/cw/dossiers/dosdarwinE/darwin.html This science, biology and history themed site provides an interesting insight into the Journey of Charles Darwin. Click on the link and watch the animation and listen to the sound track.

9 And finally from a blog I subscribe to – Information is beautiful – http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/interesting-easy-beautiful-true/

1. The Maths Apprentice - http://www.mathapprentice.com/Activity/explore.html – this is a fun primary and middle years site for mathematics. Directed at the younger audience. Worth considering using with an IWB.

2. Kids online – me and mymaths - http://www.kidsolr.com/math/math.html – again for the yiounger middle years audience, but a useful amth site with potential for IWB use too.

3. Dan’s Maths - http://www.dansmath.com/ – this sit is directed at the more senior school audience but is still applicable to midle school students

4. Maths helpAtube - http://www.mathatube.com/ – Video tutorialsa dn resources for mathematics – this is a great site well worth a forage. While not directly associated but worth investigating is teachertube – http://www.teachertube.com

5. US Government Data - http://www.data.gov/ this is a great source of accurate information and statistics. Applicable to mathematics, humanities and many other subject areas. This is a great resource.

6. Infographic Maps – http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/10/30-superb-examples-of-infographic-maps/ Web designer depot is a blog I subscribe to and it provide a wide range of interesting sites and resources. This one has some excellent examples of inforgraphics that are well worth looking at.

7. Ofcom report on Children and Media – http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consumer/2009/10/more-children-have-broadband-in-the-bedroom/ OfCom is the Office of Communication in the UK. This offering is a report on Media and children. Here is one statistic worth considering “35 per cent of 12-15s and 16 per cent of 8-11s now have web access in their bedrooms“. Worth also visiting is the mashable post on net usage http://mashable.com/2009/10/14/net-usage-nielsen/

8. Online comic creation tool – Howtoons – http://www.howtoons.com/ – A nice online cartoon/comic tool which allows you to export as a PDF file. Free

9. How to give a lousy presentation – http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/aug2009/sb20090825_379576.htm This is one of those time to refelct articles. As you read through this post do you cringle a little?

As always these sites are also posted on my Delicious account - http://del.icio.us/achurches

1. National Atmospheric and oceanic admistration – http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/ This is a government site with some good visualisations and animations on weather etc. Good use of satellite images  – worth a visit

2. Science net links – http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/interactives/systems.html This interactive starts with a voice saying “please help me I have lost all my organs” – from there the students have to help him rebuild his digestive tract, nervous system and others. The base site http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/ is also worth visiting too..

3. Climate Challenge – http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climate_challenge/ This is a BBC science/climate game. Well worth looking at. Here is the lead line for it “A game where you are president of the European Nations. You must tackle climate change and stay popular enough with the voters to remain in office”

4. Connect2change – http://www.connect2climate.org/Mobile_Games.htm this is a site with a difference as it is games for mobile phones. The theme is climate change. Interesting.

5. Copenhagen Challenge – http://www.copenhagenchallenge.org/ Another climate change challenge game. This one is web based rather than mobile based. Here is the lead line from this Educational game “The United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 – COP15, is being hosted by Denmark in Copenhagen in December this year. The Danish government’s goal for COP15 is to establish an ambitious global climate agreement which will apply to the period after 2012..”

6. V Gas – Energy Lifestyles and climate – http://alba.jrc.it/vgas/ This is a download and play game produced by the European Commission Joint Research Center.Also worth a visit is the Joint Research Center – http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/index.cfm

7. Learning games for Kids - http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/ This is a site for the younger students hosting a variety of different games.

These sites are bookmarked on my delicious site – http://delicious.com/achurches

Here is my weekly catch from the net.

1. Alternative to – http://alternativeto.net/desktop this website is present you with alternative application to common or popular software and web based tools. This is an excellent tool for those of us with limited budgets.

2.Science visualisations – http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/visualizations/all/1# This is a wired science sumamtion of the best visualisation videos of 2009. This is an excellent resource for science teachers and can add variety into your teaching program. This opbviously appeals to the visual learner

3. How are maps made up from aerial and satellite images – http://qanda.encyclopedia.com/question/topographic-maps-created-aerial-and-satellite-photographs-78979.html – this is an article I found recently which explained how topo maps use images. very interesting and useful for the humanities students and particulalry the geographers.

4. What browser – http://www.whatbrowser.org/ this is a useful resource site for IT classes and also for explaining about a web browser. This site looks at trhe web btrowser youa re using and provides you with some insights into it. For those who are interested it also links to a time line for web browsers - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_web_browsers#Graphical_Timeline

5. e-Glossary http://www.glencoe.com/apps/eGlossary612/grade.php this site produced by McGraw-Hill provides a useful and age specific glossary of mathematical terms. A useful learning aid for teachers and students alike.

Hope these are useful – As always I ave posted these to my Del.icio.us account - http://delicious.com/achurches

1. Storybird – http://storybird.com/ This is a collaborative digital story creation tool. worth a visit.

2. Multitasking research. This is some interesting research out of Stanford university. Not suprising but interesting – two links here

• http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/august24/multitask-research-study-082409.html
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8219212.stm

3. Horizon report – Australia & New Zealand edition. http://horizon.nmc.org/australia/Main_Page

I had the privilage of being a contributor to this report. Its a great read, looking at the trends in education for the next 5 years. Myself and Derek Wenmoth were the NZ contingent of this report.

4. Seven things you should know about series. These are great info sheets produced by Educause. There are two links here

• 7 things you should know about telepresence http://www.educause.edu/Resources/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutTelep/179124
• 7 things you should know about Data visualisation http://www.educause.edu/Resources/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutDataV/176803

5. The Principles of Good web design - this is a three part series looking at good web design. A useful set of resources for teachers, students and web publishers alike.

• http://inspectelement.com/articles/the-principles-of-good-web-design-part-1-layout/
• http://inspectelement.com/articles/the-principles-of-good-web-design-part-2-navigation/
• http://inspectelement.com/articles/the-principles-of-good-web-design-part-3-colour/

6. Monster Fact Site – http://www.factmonster.com/ This is a great site for kids who love facts

Need more links? Try my delicious feed – http://del.icio.us/achurches

1. I posted about the great color mixing tool – http://colorschemedesigner.com/ in the last “On the wire” update.

I got a great comment from a blogger about another tool – this one is by adobe called kuler. – http://kuler.adobe.com/#

2. Image Composite Editor  - http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/ice/ – This is a free tool from Microsoft that allows the user to create panoramic images on a large scale. Definitely work a visit for Windows users.

3.Microsoft research labs – this is an interesting insight into some of the more public projects that MS is working on – again worth a visit - http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx

4. Edutopia – Ten tips for teaching with new media – http://www.edutopia.org/ten-top-tips this is a free PDF booklet containing 10 easy tips for teaching. Colorful, useful and free! An excellent combination of characteristics.

5. Weather and History – http://www.weather.com/history/ This site is hosted by The Weather Channel and looks at the impact that weather has had on history with obvious references to Katrina etc. A good site and useful for science, history, geography, social studies etc

6. 7  Resourses for teaching spanish – http://www.missiontolearn.com/2009/09/learn-a-little-spanish-free/ Mission to learn is a blog site I like and this is a great resource post for teachers of Spanish.

Finally…

Have you ever wondered what it would take to print the internet? The answer is now clear….

Here are some of the key sites I have found:

1. Colour scheme designer – http://colorschemedesigner.com/ this is a great site. This is a web site I will be using with my students. The site allows you to select colours and then do a dark or light layout from these. It has an excellent complimentry colour selection tool that gives you the complimentary colors in their web hexa-decimal values. BRILLIANT! (well done Lee)

2. Animated Science – http://www.animatedscience.co.uk/ this is a neat site full of resources for science and more. Here is an examples link to interactive Orchestra - http://www.animatedscience.co.uk/animations/orchestra/ orchestra.htm Well worth visiting.

3. Version 4 of Karl Fisch “Did you know” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8 – this is a great visual and a fabulous resource. (thanks Derek)

4. From make use of  - Seven alternatives to sparkle notes - http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-alternatives-to-sparknotes-cliffsnotes-for-book-summaries/

5. Also from make use of – 14 cheat sheets for software - http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/14-great-cheat-sheets-posters-to-make-you-a-software-wizard/

6. Climate change for Middle schools students - http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/CCWKit.html

7. The read write web – 5 top trends – http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_5_web_trends_of_2009_the_real-time_web.php interesting reading

and finally from the web design depot – the formal apology template – this could be useful

This one is the Stock market in plain english

The others are:

1. Clickable Mummy: http://www.akhet.co.uk/clikmumm.htm Interested in mummies an interactive site they can learn about the process of mummification. Source: http://www.freetech4teachers.com
2. 50 States: http://www.50states.com/ Learning geography can be a little more interactive with this site that lists tons of facts about each of the states. Source: http://www.freetech4teachers.com
3. Maps.com: http://www.maps.com/funfacts.aspx?nav Not only can you find regular old maps here to use in class, students can also engage with map games to make learning a little more fun. Source: http://www.freetech4teachers.com
4. CIA World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ From maps to flags, this site will help kids learn about every country in the world. Source: http://www.freetech4teachers.com
5. EyeWitness to History: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/ Get a more personal perspective on history through this site that engages kids with first-hand accounts of historical events, photos, audio and more. Source: http://www.freetech4teachers.com
6. Countries of the World: http://www.theodora.com/wfb/abc_world_fact_book.html Use this site to find out information about countries around the world from studies done by the U.S. government. Source: http://www.freetech4teachers.com
7. Visible Earth: http://www.visibleearth.nasa.gov/ Take advantage of these NASA images to show kids what the world looks like from an elevated perspective. They’ll be able to see a wide range of geographic features. Source: http://www.freetech4teachers.com
8. Today in History: http://www.scopesys.com/anyday/ Put in any day in the year and find out what major events happened on it through this helpful tool. Source: http://www.freetech4teachers.com
9. The History Beat: http://history.searchbeat.com/ Need a timeline? This site is chock full of them. Source: http://www.freetech4teachers.com
10. LOC American Memory: http://memory.loc.gov/ This site is loaded with photos, primary documents, audio clips and in-depth information that can be a valuable tool to helping students understand American history. Source: http://www.freetech4teachers.com
11. History Games and Animations: http://www.besthistorysites.net/Multimedia.shtml Check out this list of resources to find tools that will help you teach your students about everything historical from ancient times to the present day. Source: http://www.freetech4teachers.com
12. ABCya http://abcya.com/ this is a site filled with interesting sites and resources for primary students and teachers.
13. the ebook store – http://ebookstore.sony.com/download/ Download sony ebook software available in mac and pc formats.
14. Pew Internet article on the threat of autonomous machines - http://www.pewinternet.org/Media-Mentions/2009/Machines-in-control.aspx
15. Great quotes about learning and change – http://www.flickr.com/groups/858082@N25/pool/ this is a Flickr pool from some great contributors Like Scott McLeod, Will Richardson, Dean Shareski and more

Click on the section on the graph to have a detailed breakdown of the demographic. It is interesting to look at the demographics for the 15-24 year old group and the amount of time on computer. Since this is obviously a very broad snap shot and encompasses the “digital natives” and potentially those on the other side of the digital divide. The percentage is lower than I would have expected.

The graphic breaks down by the following categories:

• Everyone, Men or women
• Employed or unemployed
• White, black or hispanic
• Ages 15-24, 24-64, 65+
• Education – high school, bachelors degree or advanced qualifications
• Children – No children, 1 or >1 child

Activities are broken down into categories including:

• eating
• shopping
• working
• household activities
• relaxing & thinking
• TV & Movies
• Socializing
• Personal care
• Sleeping
• Sports
• religious activities
• travelling
• other activities

This is the Interactive graphic from the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/31/business/20080801-metrics-graphic.html?

Another interesting graphic that I have come across recently and that ties in well to this is a breakdown of internet use by country and looking at the penetration rate within each of the countries. Again given the high level of penetration in the US, I would have expected a greater proportion of time spent on computer use.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,6769781,00.jpg