Wolphram Alpha, Your Expert Assistant

Are you tired of researching a topic using Google, which returns thousands of documents and websites that may or may not have the (correct) information you need?  If so, you will want to check out Wolphram Alpha, an online system for computing answers to questions.   Your questions are answered with words, data, charts, graphs, and images.  What is the difference between a search engine like Google and Wolphram Alpha? 

Google = finding information that has been published online.  

Wolphram Alpha = answering questions about what people know collectively.  It’s like having an expert assistant nearby.  And yes, there's an app for that.

You have to try it to believe it!  http://www.wolframalpha.com/. See what happens when you enter text such as:

• Weather in Walled Lake, Michigan


• 1/6 + 5/12 + 3/4


• Life expectancy


• Carbon


• Polar Bear


• 10 M&Ms

Added February 6, 2011:  This post is part of an Ed Tech Blog Carnival, organized by Danny Nicholson, a UK educator.  Lots of interesting topics were submitted.

Simple Strategies to Help Students “Get it”

 

Dr. Betty Garner recently came to my school district to work with elementary teachers, who have asked (via online surveys) for help as they facilitate small group instruction during math and readers’ workshop.  Dr. Garner spoke about some simple strategies that may help students who seem to be unwilling or unable to make academic progress.  These are my notes from her workshop:

 

Many students are not able to make connections that would seem to be obvious.  They need to be taught how to collect and be aware of sensory data.  How might you teach this? 

•  Show an image and ask two questions:  1) What do you see? 2) What do you notice? (involves interpretation).  Discuss.


• Ask open-ended questions.


• Do not answer your own questions.


• Ask “What part do you know for sure?”


• Start a lesson with something hands-on.  Ask what the students notice. Do not tell them what to notice.  Make them do the work.


• Ask students to draw what comes to mind when they hear a word.  This is powerful.


• Provide an open-ended structure to a writing assignment.  Four paragraphs:  1) Summarize what you learned about _____.  2) What sense do you make of it?  3) How will you use it?  4) What questions come to mind?


• Ask “Which words do you wish you knew better?”

 There is such pressure to raise test scores and cover material as quickly as possible.  However, it works much better to invest teaching energy to help students learn how to learn.   These strategies will work for all grade levels and content areas.

Making an Impression: Your Digital Footprint

This video was posted on The Educator's PLN Ning and was created by Steve Johnson.  If you have children who use a computer or work with kids in an educational setting, watch this together and discuss it! 


Find more videos like this on The Educator's PLN

Kindle e-Book Review

I received a Kindle as a gift for by birthday in October. I thought I would share my thoughts and experiences after having used it for the past few months. Overall, I am very happy with it!

What I like about it:

• It's light to carry.


• I can make the font larger so I can read in bed without glasses.


• I can access any of my books on my iPod Touch using the free Kindle app.


• I can look up words in the built-in dictionary.


• Many books have a text-to-speech "read to me" feature (and the electronic voice isn't too bad).


• Lots of books are available for free and/or low cost (Amazon, Project Gutenberg, Open Library, Many Books, and Internet Archive).


• I can preview a book before purchasing it.


• LONG battery life.  I've only charged mine twice.

What I don't like:

• I cannot share the books that I purchase with my family and friends, even those who own their own Kindle. (NEW 1/3/11: a big thank you to Grace Kat, who shared info about sharing Kindle books in her comment below.  Many books CAN be shared one time for up to 14 days.  See info on this page of Amazon's web site.) 


• I enjoy reading blogs that are free on the Internet.  The blogs that are available for viewing on the Kindle cost $5 a month and most are not updated regularly.

I think it won't be long before e-readers catch on in the K-12+ education market.