http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xprak_fantasticmachine

This one won't raise test scores, either, but it WILL amaze you. I kept watching to see if I could tell if it was computer animation but I couldn't be sure. My GUT says it is, but then... people are very ingenious, so it COULD be for real.

Send this to your friends who like music - or machines.

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Thanks to Barry Sullivan for sharing this one with me.

 

 

We've seen world population clocks before that tick away (presumably) as the population of the planet increases. This one goes a step - several steps - further. It also counts things such as the earth's temperature, the number of species that have gone extinct, the number of deaths (broken down by causes), and many more items - even how many bicycles have been produced. You can view the clock by the yearly stats, monthly, weekly, daily, or even one that will reset the counter to NOW.

 

Have this running up on the screen when the students enter the classroom and let them decide for themselves which statistic is the most.. interesting?.. alarming?.. to them. A writing prompt? A topic for further research? A class wiki?

MANY thanks to Leann Cox for sharing this one with me in email today.

 

 

This free unconference will be held at Drexel University on September 7, 8 and 9. Why should YOU attend? Check out their top ten reasons: http://podcampphilly.pbwiki.com/Top-Ten-Reasons-to-Attend-PodCamp-Philly Here are the sessions so far: http://podcampphilly.pbwiki.com/Sessions

 

Who is planning to attend? Check out this list: http://podcampphilly.pbwiki.com/Registration Wow! Now add YOUR name and GET THERE!

 

 

http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia

http://schoolcomputing.wikia.com/wiki/School_Computing_Home_Page - sample

 

Once again I don’t recall who sent this to me or where I found it so I apologize to whoever it was who first pointed this out to me to share.

 

Wikia.com is a wiki site where you can create a free wiki. That’s not the real news here. I just wanted to point out that second link – the school computing wiki. There are three tons of links on here to some excellent sites and information. And you may contribute to it, if you wish. That’s what a wiki is all about.

 

But there are a couple of things I want to point out here. First, this is written, it appears to me, on mediawiki, the one that Wikipedia was built on. But, it’s skinable, as that second link shows. Up in the top right corner is a link to the Monobook skin. Try it – mediawiki, no? Second, when I’m in places like this and I see a link called, “Cool Web Sites” I click it. It’s fun to see what others call cool. Here’s one they posted: http://216.70.117.172/me_english.htm You may have seen this before in an email, but this is an excellent ‘movie’ version of the world as expressed in terms of a population of 100. Another is the ashesandsnow site that I had pointed to some time back. Or, this page of links (http://schoolcomputing.wikia.com/wiki/Games_for_Middle_School_Social_Studies) for social studies games.

 

You could end up spending HOURS on this wiki.