Archive for the ‘Resources for Educators’ Category
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco Unveil Landmark Climate.Gov Portal to Climate Information
In a press conference earlier today, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco unveiled a new Web site that will serve as a single point-of-entry for NOAA’s climate information, data, products and services. This climate portal will provide information about the impacts of climate on nearly every aspect of our lives from agriculture and energy to transportation.
…
Known as the NOAA Climate Service Portal, the site is designed to address the needs of five broadly-defined user groups: decision makers and policy leaders, scientists and applications-oriented data users, educators, business users, and the public.
Highlights of the site include:
- An interactive “climate dashboard” that lets users see a range of constantly updating climate datasets (e.g., temperature, carbon dioxide concentration, and sea level) over adjustable time scales;
- A new Web-based climate science magazine called ClimateWatch, featuring videos and articles of scientists discussing their recent climate research and topics that cannot be relayed in charts and graphs;
- Explanations and exploration of data products available from NOAA and partner agencies, with direct links to the sources of the comprehensive datasets;
- Educational resources for students and teachers, including lesson plans for the classroom and laboratory, educational games and interactive media; and
- Easy-to-understand fact sheets and presentations for professionals and the public about climate science, research and climate impacts.
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Posted in Access to Information, Government Documents and Political Information, New Websites and Resources, Portals, Reference Tools, Resources for Educators, Science, Search News, Source File, Technology and Internet | No Comments »
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
From the FREE (Federal Resources for Educational Excellence) collection via the U.S. Department of Education.
Compilations from FREE aggregate resources educational materials from various government agencies.
FREE African Americans Collection
This particular resource (African Americans) includes materials (several of them multimedia) from:
+ National Park Service
+ Library of Congress
+ WNET, supported by National Endowment for the Humanities
+ National Archives
+ ArtsEdge
+ American RadioWorks, supported by National Endowment for the Humanities
and several others.
There is no cost to use FREE or the materials listed in its directory.
Source: FREE
See Also: This Subject Map Lists Other FREE Compilations
Posted in Archives and Special Collections, Arts and Humanities, Resources, Resources for Educators | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Compiled by Sabrina C. Thomas, Digital Reference Specialist, Library of Congress
From the Webliography:
Contributions by African Americans to the arts, education, industry, literature, politics and much more are well represented in the vast collections of the Library of Congress. The digital collections are no exception. American Memory, the flagship of the Library’s digital collections, online exhibits and other areas of the Library’s Web site provide a broad range of digitized materials pertaining to the African American experience. Many are represented here to provide the user with an electronic research tool.
This webliography, documenting electronic resources within this subject area, is organized by historical eras based on the American Memory timeline found on the American Memory Learning Page. Its primary focus is to connect the user to full text online resources regarding significant people, major institutions and events from an African American perspective, historically related to an era. Complete essays from the Today in History Web site provide topical information and comprehensive search strategies to further research. This extensive resource enhances the use of the digital collections, allowing the user to explore more online materials. In addition, many subject entries were identified in America’s Library, the Library’s site for children and families.
Access the Complete Documents (Many More Links and Resources)
Source: African American Sites
Virtual Services, Digital Reference Section
Posted in Bibliographies, Webliographies, Chronologies and Timelines, History, Resources, Resources for Educators | No Comments »
Monday, February 1st, 2010
From the Website:
In Motion presents a new interpretation of African-American history, one that focuses on the self-motivated activities of peoples of African descent to remake themselves and their worlds…this exhibition documents 400 years of migration to, within and out of the United States.
In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience presents more than 16,500 pages of texts, 8,300 illustrations, and more than 60 maps.
The Web site is organized around thirteen defining migrations that have formed and transformed African America and the nation. Each migration is presented through five units:
1. A narrative
2. About 100 illustrations, each with caption, and bibliographical, indexing, and ordering information
3. From twenty to forty research resources consisting of essays, books, book chapters, articles, and manuscripts
4. Maps
5. Lesson plans for teachers
In addition, each migration has a bibliography (references) and a gateway of related Web sites.
Migrations can be reached through “Browse by” Migrations, Geography or Timeline. Once a migration has been selected, users can either read the narrative and look at the images, or focus on images only by clicking on “View Image Gallery.” From the drop-down menu, they can elect to see all the images, or only those associated with a particular part of the narrative.
In the narrative, highlighted words take users to a glossary definition. The glossary can also be accessed through the Glossary box on the lower bar of each page.
A “Search” function is accessible from all pages. It enables users to search through texts, illustrations, maps, lesson plans, and glossary for a particular keyword, or sentence. All books, book chapters, essays, articles, and manuscript are presented in their original form as well as in a searchable version.
All texts and images can be printed. Printer-friendly versions of the texts are available.
Access: In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience
Source: Schomburg Center for Research In Black Culture / New York Public Library
Posted in Arts and Humanities, Books, Geographic, History, Resources, Resources for Educators | No Comments »
Monday, February 1st, 2010
New One-Stop Source for Scientific Information about U.S. Oceans and Waters
A one-stop source for biogeographic information collected from U.S. waters and oceanic regions is now available from the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Program.
The OBIS-USA website offers a unique combination of tools, resources, and biodiversity information to aide scientists, resource managers and decision makers in the research and analyses critical to sustaining the nation’s valued marine ecosystems.
OBIS-USA was established in 2006 in cooperation with the U.S. National Committee for the Census of Marine Life a committee composed of renowned marine community leaders. OBIS-USA – a partnership of state, federal and scientific organizations — is the United States’ contribution to the International Ocean Biogeographic Information System, an effort led by the Census of Marine Life to provide “open access” to global biodiversity data on the myriad of marine life that inhabits the ocean.
Source: U.S. Geological Survey
Hat tip: Craig Pittman
Posted in Portals, Reference Tools, Resources for Educators, Science, Source File | No Comments »
Sunday, January 31st, 2010
From a Blog Post:
Earlier this week we announced a reorganization of Creative Commons open education projects. The objective of this reorganization is to maximize CC’s impact by focusing our activities in support of the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement where we have unique leverage and expertise — developing and explaining the legal and technical infrastructure required to make “open” work.
Today’s post lays out the details of our structure going forward and highlights some of our open education projects and goals for 2010. Apologies for the length of this post (and that of the previous announcement), but there’s much to cover. If you just want to hear about new developments as they happen please bookmark or subscribe to the Open Educational Resources tag on this blog or follow us on Facebook, Identi.ca, or Twitter.
[Snip]
Projects
Following is a sampling of open education projects CC is working on this year.
Legal
* Licensing and copyright for OER, including its relationship to minors. Especially as OER becomes more prevalent in K-12, consideration must be given to the licensing of works created by minors. Our goal is to provide materials which allow parents, teachers, and learners to use and contribute to OER with confidence by following common-sense best practices, keeping parents and teachers involved.
* Explanations of all elements of our core legal tools for an education audience.
* A Continuing Legal Education course module for lawyers on copyright and open licensing that addresses education-specific issues.
* Development of education use cases to inform the future development of our licenses and public domain tools.
* Further exploration of copyright exceptions & limitations (including fair use) and OER production.
Technology
* R&D on metadata, discoverability, provenance for OER — a mouthful, but some of the key opportunities for increased OER adoption and impact.
* Publications on known best practices for OER metadata.
* Continued development and support of DiscoverEd, pushing ahead the state of the art for OER search.
* Consulting on implementations of CC tools on key OER platforms.
* Convening further in-person and online summits and code sprints concerning OER, discoverability and CC tools.
More after a Click (more…)
Posted in Education, Resources for Educators | No Comments »
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
This resource was developed at the British Library. Impressive!
Access the Timeline
From the Announcement:
Developed by the Library’s Learning team with historians and writers, the timeline includes some of the Library’s key collection items from medieval times to the present day such as records of political events, glimpses of everyday life and writings and speeches from some our best known historical and literary figures. Scanning through centuries of images, audio-visual and printed material, users will be able to explore various themed timelines: ‘everyday life’, ‘music and literature’ and ‘politics, power and rebellion’ on one screen.
Highlights of collection items featured include:
* Records of major events – from the Black Death and the Great Fire to the French Revolution and the abolition of the slave trade.
* Printed matter – the first English printed book, the first cookery manuscript, the first English bible and the first postage stamp.
* Public Life – posters, advertisements and illustrations documenting everything from public executions and magic shows to plague cures and séances.
* Campaigns – pamphlets and writings from activists such as Abolitionists, Chartists, Communists and CND marchers.
* Manuscripts – written by great figures in history including Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Captain Cook, Beethoven, Wordsworth, Abolitionists, Florence Nightingale and Dickens.
* Maps – cities, military campaigns and imagined lands.
* Patents – including those for the Spinning Jenny, the bicycle and the machine gun.
[Snip]
Through the use of innovative Flash programming, users will be able to dig deep into collection items, download information and images, view transcripts, add items to favourites and switch timelines and key events at a click of a button. This will allow for interesting and unique comparisons to be made between various aspects of social, political and cultural life. Users will be able to focus on specific subjects such as political campaigns or technological change or alternatively compare themes within one specific time period – for instance, popular cultural ephemera with items recording political events. Timelines is an ongoing initiative for the British Library and new sources and themes will be added regularly.
Source: British Library
Posted in Chronologies and Timelines, History, Resources, Resources for Educators | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
2010-2011 Open Doors to Federal Courts: First Amendment and Social Media
From e-mail:
The 12 th annual Open Doors to Federal Courts national initiative is ready for use in courtrooms and classrooms. The annual program gives high school seniors a positive first exposure to jury service and motivates them to serve willingly when called. The theme is The First Amendment and Social Media: Student Rights, Wrongs, and Responsibilities. The strength of the program is that everyone has the opportunity to participate fully. Students apply a landmark Supreme Court case to a fictional scenario in which school administrators claim that members of an unauthorized vampire club broke school rules when they posted club news on the schools’ fan page.
Courtroom Program
The scenario stimulates lively courtroom arguments among the students, a host judge, and two volunteer attorney coaches. Students, selected by their teacher(s) in advance, use scripted talking points with prepared judge’s questions. The judge also asks spontaneous, follow-up questions to elicit the students’ opinions. All other students serve as jurors who actively deliberate in a virtual jury room in the gallery of the courtroom.
Ready-To-Use Materials
The program materials are posted on line for the courts and teachers at http://www.uscourts.gov/outreach/programs/opendoors.htm. Preparation for everyone involved requires no more than 30 minutes of reading in advance, plus the time allotted during the courtroom program itself. No additional research or reading is necessary. Courthouse coordinators bring together a judge, two volunteer attorneys, and a group of high school seniors, and the court has an educational outreach program.
Source: U.S. Courts
Posted in Legal, Resources for Educators, Source File | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
As we mentioned the other day when we posted a collection of Black History Month Web Resources from Library and Archives Canada, that this special month begins in a just a few days,
Gale Cengage offers (as they have done in the past) a number of resources (free) that might be both interesting and useful to some of you.
Here’s what you’ll find:
+ Activities
For grades K-12.
+ Biographies
Material taken from several Gale reference resources. Nicely done.
+ Links
Several links to locate more info about Black History Month and Related Topics
+ Synopsis of Selected Literary Works
From Dr. Maya Angelou to Alice Walker to Desmond Tutu and several others.
+ Quiz
A 20 question multiple choice quiz.
+ Timeline
It’s titled, Events in African American Histiry and begins in 1619 and concluding in 2008.
We will post additional resources soon.
Source: Gale Cengage
Posted in Bibliographies, Webliographies, Chronologies and Timelines, History, Resources, Resources for Educators | No Comments »
Monday, January 25th, 2010
From the Announcement:
UNCG, in conjunction with the 50-year anniversary of the Greensboro Sit-ins, has launched Civil Rights Greensboro, an online portal to information about the people and events that have helped define Greensboro’s history.
The site, found at http://library.uncg.edu/dp/crg/, represents a combined effort between UNCG, Guilford College, Greensboro College and Duke University. It is hosted and maintained by the UNCG University Libraries’ Electronic Resources and Information Technology department.
[Snip]
Civil Rights Greensboro, a searchable digital archive, covers such subjects as desegregation of local schools, the historic February 1960 sit-ins at Woolworth’s, race relations at UNCG and Guilford College, the Black Power movement in Greensboro, and the Greensboro Massacre of 1979. Audio clips of first-person accounts, transcribed oral histories and archival photos are available on the site.
Digitized resources came from the following collections:
+ University Archives and Manuscripts, UNCG
+ Friends Historical Collection, Guilford College
+ Brock Historical Museum, Greensboro College
+ Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library, Duke University
+ Greensboro Historical Museum
Source: University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Posted in Digitization Projects, History, Resources for Educators | No Comments »
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
Black History Month begins in little over a week and we’re planning on listing a number of resources on ResourceShelf.
We’ll begin today with a compilation of content from Library and Archives Canada.
February is Black History Month, a time to recognize and honour the legacy of Black Canadians. To commemorate this occasion, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is offering a Web portal of the online resources available on its website relating to Black History in Canada.
+ Library and Archives Canada Black History Month Resources
Most of these resources are available online.
+ Related Sites
+ Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
+ Canadian Encyclopedia
+ Encyclopedia of Music in Canada
+ National Black Coalition of Canada (NBCC)
Source: Library and Archives Canada
Posted in Archives and Special Collections, Arts and Humanities, History, Portals, Resources, Resources for Educators | No Comments »
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
FREE (Federal Resources for Educational Excellence) includes a selection of web resources about Dr. King. The compilation brings together sites from various U.S. government agencies.
Here’s What’s Available:
+ Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement shows 41 churches, houses, and other properties related largely to the post-World War II civil rights movement. The links to these properties consist of photographs and texts, and the… (National Park Service)
+ History and Politics Out Loud lets us hear key speeches by Martin Luther King Jr., Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and others. Listen to King’s “I have a dream” speech… (Michigan State University, supported by National Endowment for the Humanities)
+ Our Shared History: African American Heritage tells about the Underground Railroad, African Americans in the Civil War, historic places of the civil rights movement, the Delta blues of the Lower Mississippi Valley, and landmarks… (National Park Service)
+ Martin Luther King Jr. and the “I Have a Dream” Speech shows an image from the deposition of Martin Luther King regarding copyright infringement. On August 28, 1963, King delivered a speech to civil rights marchers gathered at the Lincoln… (National Archives and Records Administration)
+ Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site features Atlanta’s Auburn Avenue, the neighborhood where the civil rights leader was born and raised. “Sweet Auburn,” as it came to be called, became the center of African American… (National Park Service)
+ Court Documents Related to Martin Luther King, Jr., and Memphis Sanitation Workers provides fliers and other documents related to the demonstration in Memphis on March 28, 1968. On that day, students near the end of the march broke windows of businesses. Looting… (National Archives and Records Administration)
Source: FREE (U.S. Department of Education)
Posted in Calendars and Special Events, Databases, Directories, and Guides, History, Resources, Resources for Educators | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
Resources for Covering Haiti Earthquake Devastation
CNN reported Wednesday morning that the Haiti earthquake has killed hundreds of thousands of people, destroying most of Port-au-Prince, the capital city.
I know that you’re likely struggling to find voices from Haiti who can supply you with firsthand accounts of what is going on. Here are some of the sites I have found to be helpful and up-to-date.
Source: Al’s Morning Meeting (Poynter Online)
See also: Find Highly Rated Relief Agencies Seeking Help for Haiti Earthquake Recovery
Posted in Bibliographies, Webliographies, Fast Facts, Media, News Search, Reference Tools, Resources for Educators, Search News, Social Media, Source File, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
Access the Online Exhibition
From eBook Newser:
Ever wanted to read Candide, Voltaire’s immortal satire, but didn’t want to do it without the help of a carefully planned, multimedia online platform? Well, now you can, thanks to the New York Public Library, which has just launched On the Road with Candide, an online exhibition celebrating the 250th birthday of Voltaire’s classic book.
On the Road with Candide is an online companion to the Library’s in-house exhibition, Candide at 250, though the NYPL also seems to view it as very much its own thing, intended to reach a wider audience than could actually make it to the library on 42nd street.
Here’s how the Library introduces the exhibition: “On the Road with Candide showcases groundbreaking new kinds of digital content. NYPL’s latest digital exhibition uses the on-site exhibition Candide at 250: Scandal and Success as a jumping-off point for a unique online journey inviting the involvement of various communities, including students, scholars, artists, and more. Check out a new kind of pick-and-choose visual storytelling, plus a ‘Candide Journey’ project created in Google Maps by Brooklyn 10th graders. One of the first journeys you can choose takes you through the great American illustrator Rockwell Kent’s edition of Candide from 1928 (the first book published under the Random House imprint). Galleries of work by other notable artists will follow shortly.”
Access the Online Exhibition
Sources: eBookNewser, NYPL
Posted in Arts and Humanities, E-books, Museums & Online Exhibits, New Websites and Resources, Resources, Resources for Educators | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
No Facebook at Work? No Thank You! Teens Expect Access to Social Networks On-The-Job: Junior Achievement/Deloitte Poll
Online social networks have become so central to teens’ lifestyles that they would consider their ability to access them during working hours when weighing a job offer. This is according to the seventh annual Junior Achievement/Deloitte Teen Ethics Survey, which focused on the ethical implications of the popularity of social networking.
Nearly nine-in-10 (88 percent) teens surveyed use social networks every day, with 70 percent saying they participate in social networking an hour or more daily. More than half (58 percent) said they would consider their ability to access social networks at work when considering a job offer from a potential employer. This comes as many organizations have begun implementing policies that limit access to social networks during the workday due to concerns about unethical usages, such as time theft, spreading rumors about co-workers or managers and leaking proprietary information, among other reasons.
Most of the teens surveyed feel prepared to make ethical decisions at work (82 percent) and a significant majority of teens say they do not behave unethically while using social networks (83 percent). Yet, despite this confidence in the integrity of their online behavior, significant numbers of teens do not consider the reactions of specific groups of influencers in their lives when posting content on social networks.
+ See also: 2009 Deloitte LLP Ethics & Workplace Survey – Social networking and reputational risk in the workplace (adults)
+ See also: Resources for Educators – Ethics (Junior Achivement)
Source: Deloitte LLP
Posted in Access to Information, Business and Economics, Information Policy, Resources for Educators, Search News, Social Media, Source File, Technology and Internet, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
From the Announcement:
WGBH Educational Foundation today announced the launch of the new Biotechnology collection on Teachers’ Domain (www.teachersdomain.org/special/biot), the public broadcasters’ free, online resource for teachers and students. Funded by a grant from the Amgen Foundation, these extraordinary digital media resources are designed to deepen the teaching and learning of biotechnology in middle and high schools throughout the United States.
Although biotechnology is one of the fastest growing fields, it is not always fully integrated into middle and high school science curricula. Biotechnology impacts our lives on a daily basis, from the drugs we take, to the food we eat, and to the jobs we do. This digital collection is the first of its kind on Teachers’ Domain, currently used by over 450,000 teachers and students, across more than 74 percent of K-12 public schools in the United States. Digital video and interactives explore laboratory techniques used in biotechnology for treating disease and improving diagnosis. Video profiles of biotechnology scientists and technicians offer students compelling examples of available career pathways into the field.
Posted in Resources for Educators, Science | No Comments »
Sunday, January 10th, 2010
Switzerland in Figures
The latest edition of our handy statistical folder gives more than 1,600 facts and figures on the Swiss economy and each of the cantons plus an international overview of key data. It provides figures regarding the population, employment, the financial situation, indebtedness, tax levels, and a broad range of figures on the economy and living standards.
+ Full Document (PDF; 641 KB)
Source: UBS
Posted in Fast Facts, Geographic, Reference Tools, Resources for Educators, Source File | No Comments »
Friday, January 8th, 2010
NASAImages.org, a joint project between NASA and The Internet Archive to bring together as much NASA media (images, audio, and video) as possible in a single location and make it searchable.
As of a few days ago, the site/service launched a new blog titled, “Words About NASA Images.”
The blog can be accessed at: http://words.nasaimages.org/.
From the Introductory Post:
This is the new NASA Images blog, home for all nasaimages.org related news, content highlights, and how-to’s. We will also be starting a new feature, the Guest Showcase, a monthly presentation of digital exhibitions curated by leading professionals in the fields of science, education, art, entertainment, business, and academia. Each Showcase will consist of a collection of images, videos, and/or audio from nasaimages.org. Accompanying these exhibitions will be a statement from each Guest explaining why the media they selected is important to them.
Source: NASA/The Internet Archive
Posted in New Websites and Resources, Resources, Resources for Educators, Science | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
Once again the folks at OnlineUniversities.com have compiled a wonderful, useful, and in this case, educational list of 100 web-based virtual tours.
From the Web Page:
The following virtual tours bring opportunities to explore cities, famous landmarks and buildings, museums, college campuses, and even outer space. You can learn how things are made, explore the human body or that of a life-sized whale, and visit ball parks and theme parks. There is even a section of incredible virtual tours that Google Earth has compiled that shares the world in a whole new way.
Here’s a taste of what you’ll find:
+ Pompeii, Italy
+ Colonial Williamsburg
+ Supreme Court (U.S.) Tour
+ Pisa, Italy
+ Tour San Francisco
+ Musee d’Orsay (Paris)
+ Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
+ Touring Mars with Google Earth
+ Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky
+ Wrigley Field
+ Disney World Virtual Tour
+ Trevi Fountain (A Google Earth Virtual Tour)
Source: OnlineUniversities.com
Posted in Museums & Online Exhibits, Resources for Educators, Software and Web-Based Applications, Source File | No Comments »
Sunday, January 3rd, 2010
ReadWriteWeb’s List of Kid-Friendly Online Resources
In an age when gross-out sites like goatse are just a click away, a number of services offer parents the information they need to find quality online entertainment. While past generations were raised on unfiltered television and video games, today’s parent take a more active role in the process of media consumption.
(Originally posted September 23, 2009)
Source: ReadWriteWeb
Posted in Resources for Educators, Source File, Technology and Internet | No Comments »
