The Caffeinated Carbivore

There has been a great deal of speculation of the years about how the Internet is effecting the next generation of students: does it shorten their attention spans? Do they expect different lesson plans ? While technlogy in the classroom offers new formats for education, not all students are more tech-savvy than their older counterparts , nor do they always prefer to use technology (this is a stereotype of their generation that teachers should avoid). The implications of technology may extend past new technique or preference, however. Recent studies presented by the BBC found a correlation between a persons' Facebook friends count and the size of the "social", "memory", and "emotional" areas of their brain. The social impacts of social media may not be suprising. Dr. Ryota Kanai of University College, London, states, "We have found some interesting brain regions that seem to link to the number of friends we have - both 'real' and 'vir...

The French have quite a few odd rules, as Matthew Fraser points out, but this one strikes us Social Media bandits to the core: Not being able to say Facebook or Twitter on air?! The social media hold a great deal of power in today's society: 1. Political power, as evidenced by the Obama campaign and the rallies in Egypt 2. Social power (how many couples meet or maintain relationships online?!) 3. Educational power (interactive lessons, teacher immediacy...studies show that students may even learn better with social media. How many times has Google gotten you over that brainfart, "Who was the director of that movie...gosh I can't remember...this is going to keep me up tonight...better just Google it."). The evidence is in our culture. Language serves those who use it, and social media have certaintly taken the driver's seat in creating new turns of phrase like "I'd "Like" that","Tweet this" or "Facebook me". An even stron...

I find it interesting that, of all the campaigns, support for the New York City libraries is by far the smallest. I believe this is for a few reasons. 1. Many Americans are taught "rich guilt", or that we should feel guilty for having while others have not. This mentality is supported, and fostered, by charities looking to support children in other countries. They create the image that the suffering in other countries is greater than the suffering in our own country. Children in America need to read just as much as children in Africa. 2. The American Dream. Our American culture teaches us that if we work hard enough we can achieve anything. Thus, we assume that those who have not achieved have not worked hard. The truth is the American Dream is still not equal. Our nation's poverty, homelessness, and hunger are often similar to those countries we seek to help, and yet the support Americans give to other countries far outnumbers the support given to our own citizen...

Penguin Books has begun its "Read a book, Give a book" campaign this month. How can you give books to needy children? By reading a book to your children. Log on and read a book online with your child. Then, you can donate that book to children in New York City, Haiti, or Africa. There are many separate campaigns this year: 1. Jumpstart Reading Libraries . This campaign helps create libraries in preschools across the USA. 2. The Million Word Challenge. 3. Tinga Tinga Tales: East Africa: 4. Conspiracy for Good: A teacher in Zambia reaches out to seek books for her students. 5. Books for Asia. 6. Family Story Power: Books for New York City libraries: All of these campaigns offer you the chance to share literacy with children across the world, while also sharing a story with your child!

In the past year, a great deal of media attention has been devoted to the increasing cost of education. College education costs more now than ever, and so do text books. Recently, however, media focus has moved to basic education: failing schools, low test scores, and firing teachers. While the NCLB debate falls to the wayside, we begin to focus on fixing the schools themselves: teachers, bullies , and school security. Is Obama's Educate to Innovate a big deal? This blog talks a lot about how to make lesson plans more interesting or teaching tools. This entry is going to be devoted to the students. John Stewart and Steve Colbert focus on National News. It's no surprise that they too have turned their attention to schools. This week, The Colebert Report interviewed the director of "Waiting for Superman", a documentary about our education system, and the few who have access to its good side. The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Davis Guggenheim www.col...

President Obama has released a statement about his next plans for education. Included in these goals is an increased emphasis on STEM education . If US students are going to keep up with a global economy and the US is to keep up with global competitors, then science and math education should be among top priorities. Along with teaching important critical thinking skills, STEM games teach important science and math information in an accessible and fun way. The Nation is taking notice. Teachers are beginning to use technology in the classroom to gain student attention as well as harness the necessary science and 21st century skills. Events have been scheduled as well: Sep 26 - 30, 2010 Open to public, FREE Rockefeller Plaza has been transformed into a "Learning Plaza," an interactive experience open to the public that will explore some of the most innovative aspects of American education. Learning Plaza is an energetic and engaging spectacle that captures the joy of learni...

Voki for Education Newsletter View more documents from Matthew Farber . With special thanks to Matt Farber for original posting of newsletter!

"I’m not sure it’s always good to grow up surrounded by stability, immersed in affluence, and having had it drummed into you that you are entitled to be a member of the next leadership class. To have this background in the modern era is to come from a ghetto, the luckiest ghetto in the world, a golden ghetto beyond whose walls it can be hard to see." --Wall Street Journal The New York Times asks why it is taking the 20somethings so long to grow up . I ask why parents are having such difficulty letting go. We call this phenomena "Helicopter Parenting". We have a lot of teachers out there. We have few educators. This is a tough economy, and college students are looking it right in the face. What does that mean for college teachers? Relevant lesson plans taught by educators: those who teach us how to learn, not teach us a few facts. Things to know about my generation in the classroom: 1. Yes, we've all been shaped by our parents. Even the intonation of o...

Our culture is based mainly on stories. Humans tell stories through vehicles, which can be characterized by: Face-to-face: personalized vocal inflection gesture/facial expression Written: can be personalized or mass produced written description pictures linear (open book, beginning, middle, end, close book), or can be interrupted (open book, beginning, sit on shelf for three weeks...). Visual: non-personal; mass produced vocal inflection gesture/facial expression pictures interrupted thought stream (commercials, banners, etc) We pass these stories down, re-telling them and re-structuring them to our cultures' needs, similar to our re-appropriation of words . The characters change, but usually their traits do not. The hero is brave, honest...the villain is manipulative. The "villain" even has certain physical traits that often carry across narratives. How do stories change when told as narratives or as textbook stories? Here's a great lesson plan . At large, our ...

Most of us have never seen sickness, only its symptoms. After ten years of work, scientists have released a 3-D map of the common cold . H1N1 has been making a splash in the news, and in schools . This interactive map offers a month by month representation of H1N1's spread across the world. The future of disease? That depends on an accurate flu death toll, which scientists still debate . You can monitor flu-based doctors' visits throughout history on Google Flu Trends: Now that we know how flu viruses and vaccines work, we start to look at the institutions which literally call the shots: health care. How will health care reform effect Americans? This chart shows many age and income levels and depicts how their lives could change.

...then a picture online is worth a thousand blog posts. Right? As bloggers and authors, we often see our world in words (and complex ones at that): that main has a long gait (not stride), the sky is the color of steel wool (not blue). After taking some time to focus my eyes within the dimensions of a lens instead of the four walls of a page, I've learned that a world of shapes, not words, lends itself to creative expression not achievable in words alone. As a public speaking teacher, I teach a unit on nonverbal communication (this includes anything from a friendly wave to a stomach rumble). As I've already noted, my Public Speaking class will interact online via our class blog. In addition to speaking in front of the class, I want to emphasize that the "public sphere" now extends to the internet, too (Facebook has 500 million users!). To show them that nonverbal communication occurs both in face-to-face communication (a frown) and online (pictures), I will also b...