Recently found … 03/29/2011

  • The GLOBE at Night program is an international citizen-science campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by encouraging everyone everywhere to measure local levels of night sky brightness and contribute observations online to a world map. All it takes is a few minutes to participate between 8-10 pm, March 22 through April 6

    tags: astronomy science

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Recently found … 03/26/2011

  • WeatherSpark is a new type of weather website, with interactive weather graphs that allow you to pan and zoom through the entire history of any weather station on earth.
    Get multiple forecasts for the current location, overlaid on records and averages to put it all in context.

    tags: weather science instruction

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

For Type Geeks …

My husband and I were once graphic designers (back in the 80s in NYC) … and although we rarely flex those muscles any more now that we’re both in the education biz (except the occasional t-shirt and poster here and there), we still have a habit of playing “name the typeface” when watching movies. Those raised on computers would roll their eyes (read: daughter) when we start debating whether the curve of a serif is more Palatino than Century, or whether Kabel has more style than Helvetica … possibly only those of us who used to painfully set headlines on a typositor would understand …

For all of us, here’s a brilliant video celebrating “A Brief History of Title Design” by Ian Albinson:

A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.

How to earn R-E-S-P-E-C-T

To improve its public schools, the United States should raise the status of the teaching profession by recruiting more qualified candidates, training them better and paying them more, according to a new report on comparative educational systems …

“Teaching in the U.S. is unfortunately no longer a high-status occupation,” Mr. Schleicher says in the report, prepared in advance of an educational conference that opens in New York on Wednesday. “Despite the characterization of some that teaching is an easy job, with short hours and summers off, the fact is that successful, dedicated teachers in the U.S. work long hours for little pay and, in many cases, insufficient support from their leadership …

“You can spend a lot of money on education, but if you don’t spend it wisely, on improving the quality of instruction, you won’t get higher student outcomes …”

Full article in the NY Times here.

Recently found … 03/18/2011

  • “There are two ways to spread light. Be the candle or be the mirror.”

    Check out Imaginary Foundation’s reaction to an “appropriation” of one of its designs …

    tags: creativity creativecommons copyright

  • SCOLA’s Mission is to help the people of the world learn about one another; their cultures, their languages and their ideologies. SCOLA emphasizes the importance and effectiveness of modern information technology as a tool in overcoming barriers to global understanding and will remain at the forefront of its application.

    tags: culture global global citizenship

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Travel = Learning

From MSN’s The Invested Life:

An international vacation may seem like it’s too expensive and too much trouble, but heading outside the country can be an incredible experience for American families, especially those with teenage kids looking for an edge in the college application game.

Read the entire article here.

(Full disclosure: I am affiliated with Small World Travel quoted in the MSN article)

Rethinking our whole approach to education …

Fascinating opinion piece in the NY Times by Paul Krugman – we really have to stop asserting that more of our kids need college in order to be successful:

Yes, we need to fix American education. In particular, the inequalities Americans face at the starting line — bright children from poor families are less likely to finish college than much less able children of the affluent — aren’t just an outrage; they represent a huge waste of the nation’s human potential.

But there are things education can’t do. In particular, the notion that putting more kids through college can restore the middle-class society we used to have is wishful thinking. It’s no longer true that having a college degree guarantees that you’ll get a good job, and it’s becoming less true with each passing decade.

Read the entire article here.