Summer session starts tomorrow –

And it’ll be great. I’ll plan on posting live tweats during the sessions @TAHMatt (that’s what people do, right?) If anyone else will be, post here and I’ll direct folks that way. Look here for audio files of presentations soon.

Trying Tweeting

As a way of reducing the number of blog entries I do merely directing folks to other postings, I’m going to give Tweeting a shot.  If you want to explore it with me, you can follow me at https://twitter.com/TAHMatt.

Fort Vancouver Podcast: Collection

From Fort Vancouver:

Today, the National Park Service at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site released the latest episode of the Fort Vancouver Podcast.  This episode, featuring Tessa Langford, park curator, and Heidi Pierson, museum technician, takes listeners behind the scenes with the park’s extensive museum collection: the vast array of more than two million items ranging from artifacts recovered during archaeological excavations to old photographs and textiles.

This free audio program, available online via subscription or direct download, is designed to provide a personal, behind the scenes look at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site–the Pacific Northwest’s premiere archaeological and historic site. This is also the first National Park Service podcast in the Pacific Northwest to be featured on iTunes, the dominant podcatching client.

The podcast is designed to enhance the listener’s visit to the site by providing compelling background information, history, stories, and anecdotes that shed additional light on park resources, activities and programs. Conversations with staff members, visitors, park partners and many of the site’s 400 volunteers will take listeners on an intimate journey and help show why this urban national park – with its historic buildings and landscapes, expansive recreational opportunities, reconstructed 1840’s fur trade stockade, dozens of interpretive programs and special events, and a collection of over 2 million artifacts – is relevant today, drawing nearly 900,000 visitors a year.

The podcast can be accessed online through the park website or iTunes. At the podcast’s park website (www.nps.gov/fova/photosmultimedia/fort-vancouver-podcast.htm), visitors can choose to subscribe to the RSS feed and have the episodes sent directly to their computer, or they can download the MP3 file directly from the website. The podcast is also available as a free download through Apple’s online iTunes Store. Simply enter “Fort Vancouver Podcast” into the iTunes search engine or click on the link to iTunes from the park webpage.

“From archaeologists analyzing latest finds to volunteer blacksmiths creating essential tools, from rangers crafting new programs and events to museum staff describing fascinating artifacts, this podcast will help listeners learn much about their national park,” explained podcast producer Greg Shine, the park’s chief ranger and historian,  “and hopefully help them forge their own, personal connection to this very special and significant site.”

What: Fort Vancouver Podcast, a free audio podcast produced by Fort Vancouver National Historic Site

Who: The staff of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, a unit of the national park system. Greg Shine is the podcast producer.

Where: The podcast can be accessed online through the podcast’s park website (www.nps.gov/fova/photosmultimedia/fort-vancouver-podcast.htm) or iTunes under “Fort Vancouver Podcast”.

When: The first three episodes of the Fort Vancouver Podcast are currently available; future episodes will be posted each month.

Cost: None. The podcast is available as a free download.

Bill of Rights Defense Committee for Educators

From the Bill of Rights Defense Committee:

Last year, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) launched the People’s Campaign for the Constitution (PCC) in order to help galvanize the movement to restore the rule of law and civil liberties. We appreciate your support and participation. This spring, after submitting letters to the Attorney General on behalf of 4,000 supporters demanding prosecution for torture-related crimes by former officials, BORDC launched the PCC’s first national affinity groups.

They bring together legal professionals in one group, and educators in another, concerned about issues including executive secrecy, warrantless electronic and physical surveillance, preventive detention, and torture accountability. The first activity of the educators’ group was a recent conference call on which several participants collaboratively defined the group’s near-term agenda. They set priorities and identified several exciting intermediate-term projects, each of which has teams in place to coordinate an effort among volunteers. We write to invite your participation in those projects.

The projects offer chances to bring civil liberties issues to the forefront of education, empowering students, supporting educators, and impacting policy. Specifically, the PCC educators’ network seeks volunteers to plug in on the following projects:

1)  Report on security measures in schools undermining the Constitution:  Developing a detailed report about how security measures in schools (e.g., comprehensive metal detector scanning without suspicion; biometric tracking and identification devices; restrictions on student speech; requirements for clear book bags) undermine the privacy expectations of students and dull their sensitivity to constitutional values.

2)  Curriculum development: Compiling educational materials to demonstrate how public policies (e.g., surveillance, detention, torture, secrecy) affect and ultimately undermine constitutional rights. The project will (a) review currently available materials; and (b) identify potential gaps and compile syllabi to fill them, with audiences including K-12 students, as well as their teachers.

3)  Forming a teacher peer network: Teachers will be gathering resources to assist one another in navigating complicated situations (e.g., how to thoughtfully discuss current events in the classroom without bias, addressing pressure from administrators, etc) and developing an online platform (e.g., a blog, forum, social networking site or wiki) to compile and make them available.

These project teams will be coordinating their respective further efforts in the next week, and would enthusiastically welcome your participation. For more information, or to get involved with one or more of these efforts, email Emma Roderick, Grassroots Campaign Coordinator for the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

PowerPoint: Powerful? Notsomuch…

From The Chronicle of Higher Education:

A study published in the April issue of British Educational Research Journal found that 59 percent of students in a new survey reported that at least half of their lectures were boring, and that PowerPoint was one of the dullest methods they saw. The survey consisted of 211 students at a university in England and was conducted by researchers at the University of Central Lancashire.

Students in the survey gave low marks not just to PowerPoint, but also to all kinds of computer-assisted classroom activities, even interactive exercises in computer labs. “The least boring teaching methods were found to be seminars, practical sessions, and group discussions,” said the report. In other words, tech-free classrooms were the most engaging.

Now, I’m not sure the survey supports the journalist’s conclusion – there are tech-loaded ways to engage students and catalyze classroom conversation and deeper thinking – but the message holds:  Just because  you used your computer to put a slide on the board doesn’t result in engaged learning.