Visualization...

Org Chart/Concept Map Online Wiki

CogMap is a free AJAX-powered site allows you to make and edit org charts interactively online. It could be easily used as classroom tool to create concept maps similar to Inspiration and Kidspiration online. The version tracker option offers potential to be able to track various versions of kid’s work and compare and contrast 2 versions.
www.cogmap.com

Visualizing Complexity

IBM researcher Martin Wattenberg has been working on ways to create visualizations that help bring meaning to complex sets of data. He and his wife create an amazing visualization of the popularity of baby names over time which really shows the power of highly interactive visualizations of data.
http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html www.bewitched.com/research.html

Visual Complexity Collection

Following on along the same theme, designer and Parsons professor Manuel Lima has put together a website that use innovative and compelling ways to display and/or interact with large collections of information. Well worth the visit.
www.visualcomplexity.com

Math Manipulatives

An interesting new category of software has emerged that offers small web-based interactive applications that address just one aspect and allows teachers and students to interactively explore topics such as adding fractions, the Pythagorean Theorem, fractals, etc. Explore Learning probably has the best collection, but is commercial. The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives has a large set of free modules and UVA’s Center for Technology and Teacher Education has a number of excellent “gizmos”.
www.explorelearning.com/
http://enlvm.usu.edu/ma/nav/bb_dlib.jsp (National Library)
www.teacherlink.org/content/math/interactive (UVA)

AJAX Timeline widget

MIT has offered up a very nice timeline widget that can be added to websites to provide highly a highly interactive way to scroll through chronologically arranged information using standard HTML web technology (no flash, activeX or Java needed). The timeline is completely data driven, so it can easily connect to almost any source of information, even realtime data.
http://simile.mit.edu/timeline

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Audio of the Week

Web 2.0 according to O'Reilly - This presentation by publisher Tim O’Reilly gives a great overview of the new world order he’s coined “Web 2.0.”
55 minutes- recorded April, 2005.
www.itconversations.com/shows/detail572.html


Everything Bad Is Good for You - Steven Johnson, the author of “Interface Culture” and “Emergence” talks about his latest book "Everything Bad Is Good for You," where he argues that ambient culture is making us smarter.
38 minutes- recorded at the PopTech conference in 2005.
www.itconversations.com/shows/detail774.html

Book of the Week

Stumbling on Happiness by Dan Gilbert – Sounds like a self-help book, but in reality is an extremely well written and fascinating look at on "affective forecasting" investigates how and how well people can make predictions about the emotional impact of future events by Harvard psychology professor Dan Gilbert.
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400042666/stagetoolscom

Got News?

If you have any items you think fits this NewsWire, please feel free to email me at bferster - @ - virginia.edu (remove the dashes and spaces).

Thanks!

Bill

Welcome!

Welcome to Bill Ferster's Instructional Technology NewsWire

The goal of the NewsWire is to highlight trends and make connections between research, products, technologies, initiatives, and practices that will advance the effective use of technology in K-12 education.

Every two weeks I will share items that are of interest to me related to the intersection technology and education, and hopefully they will be of interest to you as well. There will initially be a focus on what is called "Web 2.0" Internet tools, as I believe they potentially offer a lot to connected classrooms, as well as the upswell in user-generated media.

Weekly Audio

I am a big fan of listening to spoken word audio, and each week will recommend one or more podcast or conference presentation that I have found interesting. They can be played directly from your browser or downloaded to your iPod.

Got news?

If you have any items you think fit this NewsWire, please feel free to email me at bferster - @ - virginia.edu (remove the dashes and spaces).

For more information

Bill Ferster
University of Virginia
34313 Welbourne Road
Middleburg, VA 20117
+1 (540) 592-7001
bferster - @ - virginia.edu