Virtual
Teacher Newsletter No. 97 18th September 2004 BRAINY
THE
FREE ONLINE FORTNIGHTLY IT TEACHERS' NEWSLETTER
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CONTENTS
1.
Welcome
2.
Mind Candy
3.
WWWinfo Guinness Book of Records
4.
New Printables - George Lucas
5.
Technical Stuff - TIGER
6.
Web Site Focus - ELECTIONS
7. PROFESSOR SUSAN GREENFIELD
8.
Great Sites
9. Readers' Requests/Comments
10
Next Issue
11.
Code of 'Netizens'
12.
Tips
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PROFESSOR SUSAN
GREENFIELD was a stand out interview
on Andrew Denton¹s
ŒEnough Rope² the other night.
Talking all
about the brain and how it works, how she hated school, what
made her excited
to learn, and how humans are brilliant at learning
from their
environment, using their senses to figure out how their
world works. We¹ve always known this, and here is a
pre-eminent
scientist
reinforcing it yet again on national TV.
Prioritize learning,
here it is from a
different perspective. My son has been working
as an apprentice
chef at the newly opened ŒPaparazzi¹ restaurant
the old ŒRestaurant
Rules¹ place at 241-247 Crown St Darlinghurst).
I¹m pleased to
say, great light Italian food. Like Susan, he hated
school, the
excitement came when he started to learn in a real life
situation, and
boy has he learned, and loves it.
School has to be
relevant and this
is priority number 1.
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2.
MIND CANDY
"You
can't have everything. Where would you put it?"
~~
Steven Wright, comedian and actor
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"The
right half of the brain controls the left half of the body.
This
means that only left handed people are in their right mind."
Author: Anonymous
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Disclaimer:
Any errors in spelling,
tact,
or fact are transmission errors.
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Maybe
in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the
word
itself: "Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate
words
- "mank" and "ind". What do these words mean? It's a
mystery,
and that's why so is mankind. Jack Handy
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The
earth may spin faster on its axis due to deforestation.
Just
as a figure skater's rate of spin increases when the arms
are
brought in close to the body, the cutting of tall trees may
cause
our planet to spin dangerously fast.
http://www.brainofbrian.com/topten.html
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The
average human brain has about 100 billion nerve cells
nerve
impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles
(274
km) per hour.
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3.
WWWinfo
The
Guinness Book of Records
Great
Search engines site also includes video clips and
instructions
on how to make your own world record attempts.
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/
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4.
NEW PRINTABLES
Download
the George Lucas article- a must read & share.
If students aren't taught the language of sound and
images, shouldn't they be considered as illiterate as
if they left college without being able to read or write?
http://www.edutopia.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=art_1160
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5.
TECHNICAL STUFF
Mac
OS TIGER preview
Tiger keeps up Apple¹s blazing pace of innovation with
more than 150 breakthrough new features, including
Spotlight, a revolutionary new way to find files and
information on your personal computer; Safari RSS, a
new version of Apple¹s innovative web browser that
provides instant access to the most current RSS
information
on the web; Dashboard, a dazzling new way to get in
and
out of a collection of new all-purpose ³widgets²
quickly;
and iChat AV multi-way video and audio conferencing,
the industry¹s first consumer solution with a stunning
3D interface.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/
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6.
WEBSITE FOCUS
Voting-
Elections How do you make it relevant to students?
http://www.edutopia.org/sageadvice
Elections ACT
http://www.elections.act.gov.au/
Elections ACT is
an independent statutory authority responsible
for conducting
elections and referendums for the Australian
Capital Territory
Legislative Assembly. Our mission is to provide
the ACT community
with high quality electoral services that ensure
fair and open
elections and referendums.
Elections 2004 -
Opinions, Media and Press
http://www.abc.net.au/elections/
Australian Electoral
Commission - The Who What When Why
and How of
Elections
Who represents
you, divisional ma[s, history etc. Great search
engine.
A database of
parties, elections, governments and representation
for state and
federal parliaments since 1890
Elections around
he World
http://www.aph.gov.au/library/intguide/POL/WorldElections.htm
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7. PROFESSOR SUSAN GREENFIELD¹s
Interview with Andrew
Denton was excellent, and covered many
universal themes.
she hated school, she learned best when things
were relevant and
when she could ask questions, that¹s when the ¹
excitement¹
begins. Research shows that humans
are great at
learning from
their environment. She addressed the need to work
out what we are
trying to achieve so that appropriate Œsoftware¹ in
this case can be
produced. She also addressed issues of the future,
including a
redundancy in reading and writing, Great provocative
food for thought,
download the full article :
http://www.abc.net.au/enoughrope/stories/s1198694.htm
ŒIt was, 'cause I
hated science at school. I say to any of your viewers
who don't like
science because they've learned about amoebas and
distilling water,
etc, that really the excitement comes when you start
to use science to
everyday life and your own experiences. And I
suddenly saw that
this was a way to answer, or tackle, the kind of
questions that
I'd asked as a schoolgirl, which...you know, why do
people go to war?
What's love? What makes you different from me?
You know? What is
consciousness? ŠŠŠ..
what drives the
brain anyway? What is it that keeps all the brain
cells stimulated?
And it's a constant interaction with the environment.
And the most
brilliant thing about being born a human being is that
we are brilliant
at responding and adapting to our environment.
Even if you are a
clone, that's to say even if you are an identical twin,
you will have a
unique configuration of brain cell connections because
these are
mirroring every moment you're alive. They're affecting and
reflecting your
life. So you're born into this booming, buzzing confusion.
You evaluate the
world in terms of colour and smell and touch, how
sweet, how fast,
how coldŠŠŠŠŠŠŠ
What do you want
your son to learn or want him to be? What values,
talents and
skills do you want him to have? Until you answer those
questions, how
can the computer technologist design the software
for you, yeah?
You have to answer those things firstŠ..
So, in the
future, we won't have to rote-learn things - already we
Google, even our
generation. The young generation will use search
engines in such a
way that as we're talking, you know, they'll ask the
water - 'cause
there'll be embedded computers everywhere. You'll
say, "When
was the Battle of Hastings?" Or I'll ask my watch.
Everything will
be voice interfaced. So, therefore, you won't need
to learn things
by rote, as we did. So education will already be
different. If we
have voice interface computers, will you need to
read or write?
That sounds heretical, but will you really need to if
you can talk with
the computer?ŠŠŠŠ..²
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8.
GREAT SITES
HOT
SITES
Sheeps Brain
Dissection
http://www.exploratorium.edu/memory/braindissection/
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Primary
School sites Lessons and Resources
Human
Rights Resources for the Classroom
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/info_for_teachers/index.html
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9.
READERS COMMENTS/REQUESTS
The scandal in
English study
How can English
grammar books, nearly all of them if we may say,
hide away such
grammatical examples as "He has worked there in
the past few
years", and then preach to us a false rule that present
perfect tense
doesn't stay with past time expressions?
It is not a rule
at all. It is a cheating. Time adverbials like within the
past few years, during
the past five weeks are as past as you can
define what is
past. Because these past time expressions can stay
with the present
perfect, however, grammarians don't want you to
know them.
Eventually, they keep them away from all of your
grammar books.
As
all grammarians have concurrently done the concealment so
perfectly
that, to tell the truth, even teachers like us at first thought
simple
past tense to be the only correct tense for "in the past few years".
Now
we don't know what to do. In our class we even have to
defend
the grammars who have cheated us...... please visit the
following
link and see how unfortunate we teachers are, and how
possibly
you can help.
We
noticed your address on a web page about language, so we
write
to you for help. I hope you can be a contributor who can help
relieve
our sufferings.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
(Mr)
Xui
HK,
China
Can
anyone help???
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10.
NEXT
ISSUE Some emails directed to VT seem to be
going
astray, please include Virtual Teacher in the subject
line
of all emails you send.
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NEXT
ISSUE Your responses to ŒPrioritize¹, send in your lists.
Send
in your great ideas and websites as well.
Let¹s
share everything. ciao Cathy
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11.
Code of the 'Netizens'
This
Newsletter is not free, despite the misleading advertising
above.
The Fee is now due. Each week you must help one
colleague
on the Internet who has less knowledge than you.
Help
that person even if you have to visit their classroom or
do a
little research and get back to them. Trust me, this will
help
a lot of people get their computer classrooms running better.
OK
I'm trusting you!!!
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12.
TIPS
1.
Double click on highlighted URLS to open in browser.
2.
Send in your Questions, Questions will be published with
Answers,
send in your Answers, if you have expertise to share.
3.
Nominate a brilliant site for review and inclusion in this
newsletter.
4.
Nominate a fantastic school site for review and inclusion in
this
newsletter.
5.
Make contact with other schools using fantastic programs.
6.
Prepare and innovative article for this newsletter.
7.
Tell 2 colleagues about this newsletter.
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The
opinions expressed here are purely those of the editor,
Cathy
Brown. All other small print clauses apply. Such as:
Use
at your own risk. Nothing in life is guaranteed. If it doesn't
work
for you send me an email.
Editor:
cathy brown mailto:cathy@virtualteacher.com.au
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