Kahn Academy

Whenever I see sites that offer fun, interactive ways to enhance learning subjects that I found difficult in school I get very excited. I wish there had been things like this when I was going to school. I might have become something different had I actually understood math!

I learned about this site from one of my favorite bloggers, Richard Byrne, on his Free Technology for Teachers site. I am always thankful for people like him who find or remind us of these wonderful resources.

The Khan Academy offers videos and lessons online and apparently now they have a mobile app that gives you the same access to the material. I took a quick look at the list of topics and was amazed at the areas covered. If you want to play the videos directly from the site, the only issue I see is that the videos are from YouTube which is possibly blocked at your school. So what to do? First, ask the tech manager of your building to unblock only the teacher station. If that isn't possible, you can also download individual videos as flv files (flash video). You will need a flash video player although the latest version of WMP should play your flv files. Alternately, there is an offline capable version available. See this link for instructions. You can also access most of the videos through iTunes U. This link will take you to a sample in the Algebra videos on iTunes.

This site is definitely worth the time and effort to use.

2011 Beginning Again

I really did try to get a post in before 2010 came to a close but I swore off the computer during my Christmas break from school. It was hard and I admit to hopping on Facebook and posting here and there but remember those don't really count as notable postings.

I have been hard at work updating my resume and thinking about the future of my career. What direction I should head, how to know what is the best direction and so on. So here it is January 2, 2011 and I knew I had to sneak back into this digital world and get moving again. As I was looking over my Google Reader, one of my favorite blogs (Larry Ferlazzo - I don't know how he has the time but I thank him everyday for his work here) was a posting about the demise of the social bookmarking site Delicious. I am naturally upset about Delicious shutting down and thinking "how could they?" when I use it extensively and can't imagine my digital life without it. But like most things in this digital world, things change and they change rapidly. So moving on we go and I now will give a second look back at Diigo. It was not my first choice for bookmarking, it seemed more complicated than Delicious, but it really doesn't matter now, does it? Larry Ferlazzo has a post on The Best Sites For Figuring Out What To Do If Delicious Shuts Down . I will have to make a choice in this book marking dilemma and change my links.

The Year of Change? It looks like there may be many transformations coming up this year. I will do my best to "keep you posted"!