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100 Websites You Should Know and Use (updated!)

In the spring of 2007, Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH, gave a legendary TED University talk: an ultra-fast-moving ride through the “100 websites you should know and use.” Six years later, it remains one of the most viewed TED blog posts ever. Time for an update? We think so. Below, the 2013 edition of the 100 websites to put on your radar and in your browser.To see the original list, click here. While most of these sites are still going strong and remain wonderful resources, we’ve crossed out any that are no longer functioning. And because there are so many amazing resources out there, please add your own ideas in the comments. Happy surfing!BUSINESS + E-COMMERCE

AUDIO + VISUAL

LITERATURE, MEDIA + CULTURE

POLITICS, NEWS + GLOBAL ISSUES

EDUCATION

SCIENCE + TECHNOLOGY

And now, the original list from 2007, created by Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH. While most of these remaining thriving websites, we’ve crossed out defunct websites and added notes when possible:

CURIOSITY & KNOWLEDGE

GRAPHICS, MUSIC & ARTS

E-COMMERCE EXPERIENCE

SEARCHING & FINDING

ONLINE RESOURCES

TOP INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE CREATORS

12
Nov 2014
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Innovation in education – latest research updates

Since January, we’ve been exploring the area of evidence in education technology. This follows on from the finding of our ‘Decoding Learning‘ report that hundreds of millions of pounds are spent on technology in schools with little evidence for the impact it makes on learning outcomes.

Back in January, I set out the rationale for this work, and in April I gave an update on how things have been progressing. As the teachers and learners we have been working with enjoy a much needed summer break, here is a further update on how the projects have been progressing.

The Visible Classroom

This project explores the use of real time captioning and transcription for student learning and teacher professional development. It is an EEF funded pilot, and has run in 10 schools since February.

As a pilot project, it has been a case of working with teachers to develop different aspects of the technology and the way it is implemented and explore the process by which it works as well as the impact it has on students and teachers. The project has now come to an end in schools, and the various teams are collating their data and findings and preparing to report on the impact it has had.

The use of the technology developed as we were trialing, most significantly as we explored the professional development aspect and whether teachers found it better to respond to ongoing ‘drip fed’ feedback on their teaching or an intensive programme. Some teachers on the trial tried having a single lesson a week transcribed and fed back on over the course of two terms, some tried an intensive 5 week programme where a lesson was transcribed every day.

Pulling together and synthesising all of the rich data we have collected will take some time. However, it is clear there will be some very interesting findings and implications for teacher CPD and technology programmes when the report is published in a few months.
Find out more about this project.

Flipped Learning

Our Flipped Learning trial takes the model of delivering new content prior to lessons in the form of videos and exercises, then following up with more interactive and personalised learning activities in class. So far we have run the trial in five high schools in Scotland, exploring how students and teachers experienced the approach in a topic in their Mathematics lessons.

Some interesting findings and questions have come out of this work so far. Trouble free access to educational websites outside of school is still a challenge for some schools, as is making sure students complete homework tasks.

The traditional structure of lessons have many benefits, one of them being that familiarity means teachers and students know how to get the best out of them, so changing to a new and unfamiliar structure takes some adjustment. Mapping a new approach to the existing curriculum is really important, and the mapping we have done for the Maths curricula has been fundamental in making this trial work.

The Khan Academy resources have received much praise from the teachers we have worked with. The next stage is to refine our approach based on the feedback so far, and continue this trial in a further seven secondary schools in England in the autumn term.

Find out more about this project.

Remote Tutoring

We are working with Third Space Learning to explore the impact of additional one to one tutoring, delivered remotely, to support primary children to achieve their potential in Maths. As a large random controlled trial, there has been significant work on the setup and initial data collection for this project.

We now have our full complement of schools identified and ready to start in September, and will work with six hundred children over the two years of the project. We will be discovering whether the children (around ten per school) who receive the intervention have better outcomes on average to those identified in other schools.

However, the evaluators York Trials Unit will also be exploring the wider effects of such an intervention. A case could be made that supporting children in a class who are struggling allows the entire class to achieve better. We will be testing that case to see if there is evidence for such claims.

Find out more about this project.

What’s next?

Over the coming months the results of some of our work will be analysed and start to be published, and I will blog as they do.

For now, I can report that we have learned a lot from these projects already in terms of how the experience of research affects schools and how the implementation of trials can be successfully approached. I will consider these practical findings in future posts.

– See more at: http://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/innovation-education-latest-research-updates#sthash.GX36SsIQ.dpuf

10
Nov 2014
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21st Century Education: 5 Lessons from China

by Catherine Yan Wang, National Institute of Educational Sciences

China has redesigned its education system since embarking on opening up the country and engaging in reforms in the late 1970s. The journey of change started from an ethos of “Orientation Towards the Modernization, Orientation Towards the Future, and Orientation Towards the World” created in late 1970s, went though a three-decade long reflection and debate on quality-oriented education (vs examination-oriented education), gained momentum in an Action Plan for Invigorating Education for 21st Century in 2001, and resulted in ground-breaking Basic Education Curriculum Reform that profoundly changed education philosophy, content and pedagogy for education from Grade 1-12. After 3 decades, not only has China achieved universal access to basic education, but also Shanghai became a top-performer in PISA tests in 2009. And in 2014, the changes still continue. Although there are still many challenges and barriers with education system in China, several strategies and approaches proved to be workable and effective, including the following 5 lessons:

1) Evidence-based, participatory policy-making: Like many policies of China, the formulation of the Basic Education Curriculum Outline involved five steps: conducting surveys, drafting, consulting, experimenting and implementations and expansion. It began with stakeholder survey including teachers, parents, researchers, local authorities and communities, followed by drafting the document by a team consisting of researchers, practitioners and administrators. It then went through consultations with schools, teachers, local governments to solicit their opinions on the relevance and feasibility of the policy. The policy for trial was piloted in four provinces and amended on the basis of piloting. The finalized Outline was put into implementation nationwide.

2) Provision of professional support for teaching: China created a Teaching Research System to provide ongoing support to teachers’ classroom teaching, consisting of teaching research institutes at provincial, prefecture (municipality) and county levels. The researchers, mostly selected from the best teachers, support teachers’ work by coordinating school-based research projects, regular visits to schools, interpreting curriculum standards, analyzing classroom teaching, preparing teaching lessons, developing teaching materials and distilling best practices for extension (e.g. through demonstration class). Some of the institutes have been integrated with teaching training college and this made teaching research a booster of teacher’s professional development.

3) Learning from the world: China, its government agencies, research institutions and even schools all look to other countries’ experiences for inspiration in the process of making changes for improvement.  Since the 1980s, Government officials have made many overseas study tours to learn different practices.  These brief glimpse of the outside world impacted their way of thinking and doing their work. Major studies almost always contain a component of international comparative study to benchmark against developed countries, and draw upon best practices to generate policy recommendations. The schools, in their pursuit of internationalization, developed exchange partnership with overseas counterparts, and also kept on learning from outside world to update their teaching content and methods.

4) Experimentation: Partly originating from the principle borrowed from economic reform, “cross the river by touching stones,” various new thoughts and ideas have been tried as experiments in the education system continually, with successful experiments often being translated into policies. A typical example is the “Shiyi Experimental School”: it abandoned traditional way of organizing students’ learning in fixed classes on dozens of subjects, and instead, developed over 1000 courses from which 4600 students could choose, many of them relating to emerging issues of the 21st century.

5) Balancing between centralization and decentralization, emphasizing both unity and diversity: In 2001, China adopted a three-level curriculum structure aligned with the principle of “common basics, diversified options” that encompasses national, local, and school-based curricula, of which the national curriculum accounts for 80%, and local and school-based curriculum 20%. Such a structure ensure that all the students master fundamental knowledge and skills, while leaving schools ample room for experimentation and innovation.

It is hard to generalize about education development, given its inherent complexity compounded by the size and diversity of such a large country as China. A Chinese idiom “Bearing global perspective (big picture) in mind, and start from (small) concrete action” might best summarize and illustrate the lessons in setting educational policy for the 21st century from China. Education can and will make a difference on students’ learning and social well-being, when taking into consideration the tremendous changes happening and coming in the 21st century and taking actions to meet these challenges and opportunities step by step.

08
Nov 2014
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iNACOL Report: Online Learning Can Close The Opportunity Gap

Originally posted in Education Week

Course Access programs allow students to participate in part-time online learning. Half a dozen states have taken steps to expand access, particularly for high school students, to advanced courses, electives, world languages, and career and technical courses. According to a report issued by The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL), Course Access, “Is a mechanism by which students can gain equitable access to a variety of courses in a programmatic effort to increase access, quality and equity in public education.”

Most school districts report that they currently have, or plan on adding part-time online learning options. Course Access takes that idea a step further; it is state initiatives that authorize a group of diverse providers, ranging from individual teachers to national organizations, to provide public school students with expanded course offerings.

The iNACOL policy brief, Course Access: Equitable Opportunities for College and Career Ready Students provides an overview of Course Access as a state policy solution to opportunity and achievement gaps in K-12 education. The brief suggests that Course Access can easily and affordably extend access to quality college and career preparation to every high school student in the country. For example, few high schools can afford to offer all 32 Advanced Placement courses and 6 world languages, but with Course Access it is provided and cost effective. In addition to these suggestions the brief includes model legislative principles for state Course Access legislation.

The iNACOL report recommends that Course Access initiatives should prioritize poorly served students, should use a rigorous review and authorization process, and should be based on sustainable funding that encourages completion and achievement.

“The funding model should allow for progression and funding based on demonstrated competency, not seat time,” and according to the brief, “Courses should have clear, explicit, mastery-based learning outcomes, and the funding model should reward providers for student attainment of these outcomes.”

While districts should not be able to limit student learning options, the expansion of online learning options requires that students are connected to guidance and support services. The iNACOL brief mentions options that could be used in tandem:

 

  • Local support: The student’s home school may retain a portion (e.g., 10-25%) of the student’s funding for the course to cover a relative share of costs for services such as assessments, counseling, custodial, and administrative functions. (For example, in a state with an average expenditure of $9,000, one of six classes would be worth $1500, 85% of that would be $1275).

 

 

  • Online support: One key lesson learned in Louisiana was the importance of the counseling program set up to provide technical assistance to school counselors, students, and parents. Course Access program counselors work with school counselors to make them aware of the program and course options, and to ensure that courses selected by students and families are educationally appropriate, logistically feasible, and keep the student on track to an on-time graduation. (For more, see DLN paper onGuiding and Personalizing College & Career Readiness.)

 

The release of iNACOL’s brief follows Digital Learning Now’s Leading in an Era of Change: Making the Most of State Course Access Programs released last summer. This white paper recommends that multi-state networks share the burden of course reviews, while encouraging reciprocity of teachers and approved providers across state lines.

A group of Stanford Students developed A Framework for Selecting Quality Course Providers at Competitive Prices which builds on Louisiana’s market-oriented pricing strategy.

Ken Bradford, leads Louisiana’s innovative Course Access program. He said the goal is, “To provide high-quality educational options to students in both rural and urban areas of the state that currently do not have access to the classes they need to prepare for college or a career.”

07
Nov 2014
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Assessing 21st century learning and teaching?

February 21, 2014

The Program for International Student Assessmet (PISA) Math scores from 2012 were released in December 2013, ranking students from Asian countries at the top of the list, with Finland being the sole non-Asian country included in the list of top performers in science.

The top performers in math: China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea
The top performers in reading: China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea
The top performers in science: China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Finland
(Source PISA 2012)

According to the PISA website, since the year 2000, every three years, fifteen-year-old students from randomly selected schools worldwide take tests in reading, mathematics and science, with a focus on one subject in each year of assessment. The 2-hour tests are a mixture of open-ended and multiple-choice questions that are organised in groups based on a passage setting out a real-life situation.They and their school principals also answer questionnaires to provide information about the students’ backgrounds, schools and learning experiences and about the broader school system and learning environment.
PISA claims that it is “unique because it develops tests which are not directly linked to the school curriculum. The tests are designed to assess to what extent students at the end of compulsory education, can apply their knowledge to real-life situations and be equipped for full participation in society” (PISA website).
Sample questions can be found here.
07
Nov 2014
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iNACOL Report: Online Learning Can Close The Opportunity Gap

Originally posted in EdWeek

Course Access programs allow students to participate in part-time online learning. Half a dozen states have taken steps to expand access, particularly for high school students, to advanced courses, electives, world languages, and career and technical courses. According to a report issued by The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL), Course Access, “Is a mechanism by which students can gain equitable access to a variety of courses in a programmatic effort to increase access, quality and equity in public education.”

Most school districts report that they currently have, or plan on adding part-time online learning options. Course Access takes that idea a step further; it is state initiatives that authorize a group of diverse providers, ranging from individual teachers to national organizations, to provide public school students with expanded course offerings.

The iNACOL policy brief, Course Access: Equitable Opportunities for College and Career Ready Students provides an overview of Course Access as a state policy solution to opportunity and achievement gaps in K-12 education. The brief suggests that Course Access can easily and affordably extend access to quality college and career preparation to every high school student in the country. For example, few high schools can afford to offer all 32 Advanced Placement courses and 6 world languages, but with Course Access it is provided and cost effective. In addition to these suggestions the brief includes model legislative principles for state Course Access legislation.

The iNACOL report recommends that Course Access initiatives should prioritize poorly served students, should use a rigorous review and authorization process, and should be based on sustainable funding that encourages completion and achievement.

“The funding model should allow for progression and funding based on demonstrated competency, not seat time,” and according to the brief, “Courses should have clear, explicit, mastery-based learning outcomes, and the funding model should reward providers for student attainment of these outcomes.”

While districts should not be able to limit student learning options, the expansion of online learning options requires that students are connected to guidance and support services. The iNACOL brief mentions options that could be used in tandem:

 

  • Local support: The student’s home school may retain a portion (e.g., 10-25%) of the student’s funding for the course to cover a relative share of costs for services such as assessments, counseling, custodial, and administrative functions. (For example, in a state with an average expenditure of $9,000, one of six classes would be worth $1500, 85% of that would be $1275).

 

 

  • Online support: One key lesson learned in Louisiana was the importance of the counseling program set up to provide technical assistance to school counselors, students, and parents. Course Access program counselors work with school counselors to make them aware of the program and course options, and to ensure that courses selected by students and families are educationally appropriate, logistically feasible, and keep the student on track to an on-time graduation. (For more, see DLN paper onGuiding and Personalizing College & Career Readiness.)

 

The release of iNACOL’s brief follows Digital Learning Now’s Leading in an Era of Change: Making the Most of State Course Access Programs released last summer. This white paper recommends that multi-state networks share the burden of course reviews, while encouraging reciprocity of teachers and approved providers across state lines.

A group of Stanford Students developed A Framework for Selecting Quality Course Providers at Competitive Prices which builds on Louisiana’s market-oriented pricing strategy.

Ken Bradford, leads Louisiana’s innovative Course Access program. He said the goal is, “To provide high-quality educational options to students in both rural and urban areas of the state that currently do not have access to the classes they need to prepare for college or a career.”

06
Nov 2014
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Are You Ready to Be Relevant, Or Will Natural Selection Happen to You?

Learning-Featured1

In 1859, Charles Darwin advanced his theory of natural selection. It states that for a species to survive, production of variations in traits needs to occur throughout generations. Though he formed his theory while observing animal species on an island chain over 150 years ago, Charles Darwin could have just as easily been talking about teachers today. As such, there are certain characteristics of effective teaching that lead to an extra survival probability in the classroom. After reading the following six traits, ask yourself, are you primed to remain relevant, or a potential victim of educator evolution?

Pursuing professional development is not an exception, it’s the rule. Blogs, Twitter, wikis, podcasts, Edcamps, and other social-learning activities are not simply add-ons, but complements to what thriving teachers and principals do. In the 21st century, best practices are being crowd-sourced and largely found online. Whether or not you have time to log on isn’t a relevant concern anymore. It’s an expectation.

Collaborating with colleagues is a fundamental extension of a willingness to grow. About as obsolete as classroom desks are classroom doors. Successful educators are engaging in rich and meaningful discussion with professional learning communities on a regular, if not daily, basis. Contrary to using their prep time for photocopying or updating grades, collaborative colleagues analyze student data and create differentiated instruction to meet individual learners’ needs so that every student has an equal opportunity to grow, succeed, and achieve.

Creating context in the classroom isn’t explaining when math students are ever going to use the quadratic formula beyond Algebra. It is students engaging in work that actually matters. Teaching content standards is important, but learning in a meaningful context is essential. To survive as a teacher today, ensure that your students are too busy asking how they can demonstrate their learning to be asking how much work they actually have to do.

Sharing student work on social platforms follows from adding context to the curriculum. Instead of asking students to turn their work in, require them to publish it online. Why else would we spend our time working on a project if we weren’t going to share what we did with the world? In addition to creating an authentic audience to motivate quality engagement with learning, having students publish their polished projects on the Internet is assisting them in establishing a positive digital footprint long before they will ever wish they had one.

Offering autonomous learning paths is also a practice whose time has come. School is the only place where we are expected to leave our personal pursuits at the door. Apparently, they aren’t valuable enough to budget classroom time for. Not anymore! Allowing students to design self-directed learning projects isn’t en vogue. It’s encouraged by neuroscience. Whether that is time carved out of the day for Genius Hour or a pedagogical approach through quest-based learning, it is imperative that we empower our students by acknowledging that what drives them is at least as important as what drives the curriculum.

Building bridges beyond the blackboard through connecting with other classrooms, experts, and cultures can not only transform your teaching but take instruction to new heights. No longer do you need a school-bus, permission slips, and a cooler full of sack lunches to leave the classroom for the day to explore the greater world. With an Internet connection and a webcam, endless opportunities abound. Software such as Skype, Google Earth, Adobe Connect, and Ustream, along with social networks including Twitter, Google+, and Instagram provide a number of avenues to exit the classroom for an academic journey that will move students to higher order levels of thinking. By designing virtual field trips, video conferences, live streamed productions, and more, your classroom can be as large as you allow it to be.

It’s not sexual selection, but it’s just as important; adopting characteristics of effective teaching leads to survival of the fittest in education. Failure to evolve most likely won’t cost you your job. Much worse, it will cost you your students as they disengage and daydream about getting back to real life, real meaning, and really anything other than what you have to offer. So, are you willing to steer your own HMS Beagle or let natural selection happen to you?

12
Jun 2014
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10 Considerations for Blended Learning in the Classroom

Here are ten considerations that I have developed for students to review before taking an online course that will strengthen their engagement and increase their chance of online learning success. These considerations are all connected; being able to adopt all ten as a student will be especially effective. Students already taking an online class would also benefit from reviewing these items and finding some keys for improvement.

Grant_SS_Latin

  • Time Management. Create a personal calendar for the course that consists of a layout of what activities (readings, journals, etc…) need to be accomplished each day.
  • Organization. Make sure that you have everything you need to succeed in the class, including materials (note cards or digital flashcards, laptop, passwords, books) and that you create quiet time in your life for class work daily.
  • Flexibility. Adapt and go with the flow. Remember that you may need to revise and rethink your calendar plans as you begin the class. Being successful also means taking care of all areas of one’s life.  Sometimes during my open period I train for sports, study for another class, or focus on Latin work, depending on how I have planned the needs of any specific day.
  • Learning Style. An audio or tactile-based learner might struggle in an online environment. Take the time to develop a metacognitive perspective and consider learning about learning styles through an online quiz to gain insights and strategies to give you success.
  • Group. Develop a group of study friends as a support network. I was fortunate enough to have two other friends take the same class. Someone who understands a certain concept particularly well can assist the group, which is especially valuable.
  • Extra help. A student needs to be open to looking for extra help, whether that is from a tutor or teacher of a similar class. I was reluctant at first, but I met with a tutor and quickly recognized what I was missing without this valuable asset.
  • Use of technology. Use technology to your advantage. This might mean finding an online textbook or a website that helps you with the topic. Get help with any technology bugs or glitches that may set you back.
  • Independent work. Most of the time, you won’t have other people to work with, so you need to be able to go through your work on your own.
  • Communication. Make yourself comfortable e-mailing or calling the instructor. This is necessary if you have any questions, content-related or other.
  • Course reputation. Research the program or course that you are going to be taking. If a particular course has bad reviews, you might want to look into other schools that offer the class.

These ten considerations are something that I wish I had had before I started taking my online Latin class. I would have then been able to construct an outline with a plan laid out for the future and organized everything beforehand. These ten crucial considerations are extremely valuable resources; make sure to use all the resources that are accessible for a successful educational experience.

About the Author: Grant Ryerse is in the Class of 2017 at East Ridge High School in Woodbury, Minnesota. He is currently enrolled in a two-year online Latin course through Brigham Young University’s K12 Independent Study program.

07
Jun 2014
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Five Good Online Tools for Creating Infographics

Great tools for creating infographics….

Infogr.am is an online tool for creating interactive charts, graphs, and interactive infographic posters. There are four basic chart types that you can create on Infogr.am; bar, pie, line, and matrix. Each chart type can be edited to use any spreadsheet information that you want to upload to your Infogr.am account. The information in that spreadsheet will be displayed in your customized chart. When you place your cursor over your completed chart the spreadsheet information will appear in small pop-up window. Infogr.am infographics can include videos and maps along with pictures and text. Your Infogr.am projects can be embedded into your blog, website, or wiki.

Easel.ly provides a canvas on which you can build your own infographic by dragging and dropping pre-made design elements. You can use a blank canvas or build upon one of Easel.ly’s themes. If Easel.ly doesn’t have enough pre-made elements for you, you can upload your own graphics to include in your infographic. Your completed infographic can be exported and saved as PNG, JPG, PDG, and SVG files.

Piktochart provides seven free infographic templates. Each template can be customized by changing the colors, fonts, icons, and charts on each template. If you need more space on the template, you can add more fields at the bottom of the templates. If you need less space, you can remove fields from the templates.

EWC Presenter is a new tool from Easy Web Content (a website creation and hosting service). EWC Presenter makes it easy to create slideshows, banner graphics, and interactive infographics. The slideshow creator and banner graphic creator don’t stand-out from other tools like them. The EWC Presenter’s infographic animation option is worth noting. EWC Presenter’s infographic tool allows you to animate elements within your infographic. And as was featured in a post early this month, EWC Presenter infographics support audio files.

Canva is a service that makes it easy to create beautiful slides, flyers, posters, infographics, and photo collages. Creating these graphics on Canva is a drag-and-drop process. Start by selecting a template then dragging and dropping into place background designs, pictures, clip art, and text boxes. Canva offers a huge library of clip art and photographs to use in your designs. You can also upload your own images to use in your graphics. Your completed Canva projects can be downloaded as PDF and PNG files. You can also simply link to your online graphic.

05
Jun 2014
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