Bill Gates Hearts Academic Earth

Posted using ShareThis

Do you want a web conferencing tool that just works. Dimdim provides easy, open, affordable collaboration. Use for online meetings, eLearning, desktop sharing, training, distance education, unified collaboration, webinar, free web meetings and more.

I have not tried this yet, but it seems promising. What I like about it is the fact that it is free for up to 20 people. If your class is bigger that 20 students, then you can always go “pro”.

Give it a try and post a comment below. I will update this post as soon as I try it.

Click here to visit their site.

This is a good alternative for Google Reader.

Google Reader is a very useful service for consuming your news feeds (assuming you still use RSS), but it lives in the browser, which means it doesn’t the responsiveness and polish of a desktop app. For all those Mac users out there looking for the best of both worlds, I present to you Gruml, a new desktop Google Reader application.

Click here to read full article >

I came across this site, which is a social network for people interested in food, diet and exercise. Below is the except taken from their website:

FatSecret is a place for people interested in food and diet. Sign up and achieve your food, diet and exercise goals. We think our features such as easily recording your food and exercise, keeping a lifetime record of your weight, finding buddies to support you and discovering recipes that are right for you are pretty special, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You can use your FatSecret profile with many other services like Facebook, iGoogle and even on your mobile phone. FatSecret is your one-stop-shop for all things food and diet – the secret is out!

via All Things Food and Diet – FatSecret.

A number of friends contact me asking for a “no-so-secret” list containing several travel agencies that are specialized in airfare to Brazil. So, I decided to list them on my blog.

If you have used any of the agencies below, please post a comment about the quality of their service or price.

Globotour

Brol

BACC

Dumonde Travel

Decolar

Costa Brazil

ATT Absolute Tour & Travel Inc.
1-800-864-6288

New Port Travel
1-800-551-1059 or 305-947-7587

Tours to Brazil
(310) 406 0247

Brazil Air
1-800 441-8515

Benedini Tours
1-877-662-7567

International (Orlando)
1-888-833-8511

Universal (Orlando)
1-800-766-2735

Moon (Orlando)
1-877-354-0005

SunCoast (Orlando)
1-800-304-3688

Costa Mar
1-888-779-6060

Mariana Tour
1-800-237-0091

Other agencies

There are other sites online that list Brazilian travel agencies, for example here, here, and here.

Today I came across a new tool that allows one to insert YouTube videos and images from the web into a Power Point presentation. I have not fully tested it, so I will update this post as soon as I use it in class. You can find more information about it by clicking here.

A demo is provided below.

Do you remember push-ups, trying to keep up with your school’s track star while running laps, straining to pull your chin up over a bar that was three feet over your head? If you do, you remember the regimen that was, and for many students still is, Physical Education.

However, there’s a movement afoot toward a kinder, although not necessarily gentler, physical education. The “new” physical education is not a specific curriculum or program; it is, instead, a new paradigm, a new philosophy. Different teachers might emphasize different aspects of the new physical education, but they share the same fundamental vision of what physical education should be all about: Helping young people enjoy physical activity now and for the rest of their lives.

The new physical education:

* emphasizes knowledge and skills for a lifetime of physical activity;
* is based on national standards that define what students should know and be able to do;
* keeps students active for most of class time;
* provides many different physical activity choices;
* meets needs of all students, especially those who are not athletically gifted;
* features cooperative, as well as competitive, games;
* develops student self-confidence and eliminates practices that humiliate students (e.g., having team captains choose sides, dodgeball, and other games of elimination);
* assesses students on their progress in reaching goals, not on whether they achieve an absolute standard;
* promotes physical activity outside of school;
* teaches self-management skills, such as goal-setting and self-monitoring;
* focuses, at the high school level, on helping adolescents make the transition to a physically active adult lifestyle;
* actively teaches cooperation, fair play, and responsible participation in physical activity, and
* is an enjoyable experience for students.

The need to get young people moving is undeniable. Less than half (49%) of high school students (grades 9–12) in the U.S. are enrolled in physical education classes, and only 27% take physical education daily. While physical activity among children is waning, overweight is increasing at alarming rates: From 1963 to 1994, overweight in children aged six–17 years more than doubled from approximately 4% to approximately 11%.

One of the most important aspects of the new physical education is—it’s FUN! A recent report on a national survey of children and their parents found that children who enjoy physical education class are more likely to have physically active lives (Sallis, J.F., et al. Correlates of physical activity in a national sample of girls and boys in grades 4 through 12. Health Psychology 1999;18(4):410–415). The report indicates that enjoying physical education class was one of only three factors that were associated with increasing students’ overall levels of physical activity; the other two factors were 1) spending afternoon free time outdoors or playing sports and 2) family encouragement of physical activity.

The new physical education has a way to go before becoming the norm rather than the exception. In many school districts, budget cuts and full schedules have drastically reduced or eliminated physical education altogether. But, in other districts, new activities—from inline skating to power walking, country line dancing to ultimate frisbee— and a new approach to instruction and class management are changing the shape of physical education.

As the popularity of the new physical education increases among students, parents, educators, and administrators, it has caught the eye of the national media, making recent headlines in the Washington Post, Kansas City Star, Chicago Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal. The Star asked its readers, “Does P.E. stand for ‘Pretty Exciting’?” and answered, “It does…in many schools that are emphasizing more fun, flexibility.”

At Cabell-Midland High School in Ona, WV, students are donning wet suits, skis, and bicycle helmets and taking their activities to the great outdoors. One of the school’s physical education courses introduces students to outdoor activities such as mountain biking, whitewater rafting, and cross country and downhill skiing. Students are taught to develop the skills and endurance needed for safe participation in each of the activities. Students develop portfolios that include reading, writing, Internet, and mathematical assignments related to the physical activity they are studying. For example, their portfolio might include maps of rivers where whitewater rafting or trails for mountain biking are available in West Virginia.

Bane McCracken, Cabell-Midland’s director of physical education, says his approach to physical education emphasizes fitness and lifetime activity, and provides an outlet for students who might not be into traditional, competitive sports. “If we’re only teaching sports skills, we’re not doing our job,” McCracken said. By rewarding students for effort, McCracken de-emphasizes the pressures of competition that are a major turnoff to physical activity for many students. “When we play sports, we keep pulse, not score,” he said. That’s just one of the new ideas that are making the new physical education one of the most rewarding periods in the school day.

Source: The Academy of Educational Development’s online newsletter