Net Gen Education Project

For the first term of this year my Year 12 students have been involved in the NetGen Education project as well as the usual curriculum activities.
The NetGen Project is the brain child of the flatclassroom project leaders Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis. These two teachers working together with Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics and grown [...]

The miniature earth

What if the earth’s population was reduced to just 100 people. http://www.miniature-earth.com
Here are some of th
This is a fascinating insight into the demographics of the world we live in by reducing it to 100 individuals. The Miniature earth site hosts a very captivating video that is worth watching (and downloading for a $5 donation). Alternatively [...]

Starter Sheet – Google earth

Tool or technology:GIS or Geographical Information System. Google Earth – Downloaded and installed client, internet connection required
Curriculum area:
Humanities
Synopsis:
This starter sheet looks at the power of Google Earth. While it only looks at one aspect of the tool, the Global Awareness Layers, particularly the Crisis in Darfur, this tool has a range of other uses in [...]

Wikipedia – Off line version

Wikipedia is amazing. It is with out a doubt the first stop of most students as they research any topic. Its huge, its peer created and peer moderated. Its also online, and this can pose a problem. This vast body of knowledge can only be accessed via the internet, and for those with our reliable [...]

Update from Nepal – Volume 4

Today is a comunity service day in Pokara, The whole group went to Shree Lila Lower Secondary School under Shanti Stopa.
We bused across the base of the hill, and then proceeded to walk up the hill. When our guuide and sherpa described the hill he said it was Nepali Up. We work on  a sliding [...]

The World is Witness

 http://blogs.ushmm.org/WorldIsWitness/
This is a powerful blog – one worth visiting subscribing to and supporting.
If we look beyond the safety of our comfortable lives there is a frightening world out there. A world where violence, persecution, brutality, hunger, war and ignorance are commonplace. Sites like this and mediastorm give us insights into this world,  they show a [...]

Donating Books

Many Schools in the first world find themselves replacing textbooks as newer, more up to date versions are written. This often presents them with a problem of what to do with the old ones.
Unfortunately these are often thrown out, or at best recycled.
However, all over the globe there are schools crying out for these texts, [...]

Open Source Textbooks

http://www.opensourcetext.org/index.htm 
This is an interesting project to watch. Califormia spends $400 million on Textbooks and would like to reduce that cost by having a collaborative appraoch to writing/authoring textbooks. They are starting with a World History Text.
What a great idea, they think they can make a 40-60% saving on this.
Perhaps to the wording of the project [...]

My Global Life

http://www.myglife.org/
This is a site I will be visiting time and time again. Stuffed full of resources, this is a global project which allows students to create and share in the development of online games. While doing this they are breaking down barriers of race and creed.
The site is clean, well laid out and fun. It [...]

WildLifeDirect

http://www.wildlifedirect.org/index.php 
This is a good resource for up to date information on conservation in Africa
Its a not for profit organisation with regular (blog posts are RSS’ed to this site) on conservation activites, updates, poaching etc.
A very interesting resource to use and a good way for students to make contact with people on the front-line of African [...]