Faculty Development News This Week:


Teaching Resources


--The Teacher's Guide to the U.S. Department of Education


This site is intended to make the U.S. Department of Education more accessible to teachers.


The Teacher's Guide


--The Center for Futurism in Education


Education for the twenty-first century? Here is the mission statement for this Israeli site.


The Center for Futurism in Education at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev was established by the Israeli Ministry of Education and the Ben-Gurion University in order to "advance and foster paradigmatic changes in the Israeli education system. Guiding the Center's activities is the understanding that:


a. Current educational paradigms cannot provide answers to the challenges posed by the recent rapid transition to a post-industrial (or post-modern) information society and those serious answers to these challenges require the readiness to try out radically new educational paradigms.


b. The new suggested educational paradigms, processes, models and curricula should be based on macro-strategic thinking. Such thinking should rely on one hand on the understanding of the implications of the post-industrial information revolutions for education and on the other hand on a coherent, operational set of humanistic values."


Visit the site:


The Center for Futurism in Education

Think Tanks: Conservative, Centrist, Liberal, and New-Age


--The Center for Democracy and Technology


This organization works to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age. Read the mission statement:


"The Center for Democracy and Technology works to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age. With expertise in law, technology, and policy, CDT seeks practical solutions to enhance free expression and privacy in global communications technologies. CDT is dedicated to building consensus among all parties interested in the future of the Internet and other new communications media".


The Center for Democracy and Technology


--CIRCLE


CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement,
promotes research on the "civic and political engagement of Americans between the ages of 15 and 25."


CIRCLE

--The Heritage Foundation


The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute. All thirty of Heritage's policy issue pages feature "archived research, expert contact information, and links to related interactive products."


The Heritage Foundation


--The Brookings Institution


This is the think tank utilized by the Bush administration.


The Brookings Institution


--RAND


Non-profit research and analysis institute. Although centrist to conservative, recommended for reliable data.


RAND


--The Wandwaver Solution


The Wandwaver Solution is "a proposal and an unbudgeted plan for revolutionary change in the university (as an instrument of higher education around the world). While the change is revolutionary in scope, it can be achieved through well-defined, well-tested evolutionary processes, which minimize the costs of transformation while still carrying out essential functions." Associated with George Mason University, Virginia.


The Wandwaver Solution


--The Electronic Policy Network


"....Our goal is to improve collaboration and dialogue between policy and grassroots organizations, and to promote their work to journalists and legislators.
Moving Ideas posts the best ideas and resources from leading progressive research and advocacy institutions, as well as promotes high-quality websites and publishes original content. We hope to strengthen democratic participation by providing a more inclusive and intelligible debate about the issues that shape our world."


The Electronic Policy Network


--The Russell Sage Foundation


This is a liberal think tank focusing on research in the social sciences.


The Russell Sage Foundation


--The Urban Institute


The Urban Institute" measures effects, compares options, shows which stakeholders get the most and least, tests conventional wisdom, reveals trends, and makes costs, benefits, and risks explicit." Recommended.


The Urban Institute

E-Learning


--The Virtual University Gazette


The Virtual University Gazette is a free monthly e-mail newsletter and webzine for practitioners and students of distance learning. It announces new programs, jobs in distance learning, and news of new events in virtual learning


The Virtual University Gazette


-- Distance Education: The Wellspring


This site is useful for ideas and resources applicable to E-learning.


Read the mission statement:


"The Wellspring is a collaborative project from Instructional Systems Inc. and members of the Teachers College, Columbia University community. It is devoted to the needs of Distance Educators using the World Wide Web to deliver post-secondary courses to their students. Our primary focus is on Web-based asynchronous courses, many of which are available from ISI, but most of the topics in the Discussion Forums and Reading Rooms are broadly applicable to Distance Learning regardless of delivery mechanism. We frequently add new readings and links to this site, so we encourage you to visit often. The threaded discussions in our Discussion Forums and chats in our Seminar Sessions feature continually evolving conversations that go where you take them."


The Wellspring


--World Lecture Hall


This site contains pointers to pages created by faculty worldwide who are using the web to deliver course material. The site is useful for ideas in course content as well as graphic design models.


World Lecture Hall


--E-Learning Task Force


Eighteen members of Estrella Mountain Community College took eight months (November 11, 2001 - June 2, 2002) to conduct a broad investigation into the best practices related to learning with technology.


Here is their report:


E-Learning Task Force


--Pedagogy and E-Learning: Learning Circuits Blog


Want to read a rant against E-learning?


Here you are.


We Are the Problem

Blog Grab Bag


--Journalism: The American Journalism Review News Link


This page enables you to go to a number of online newspapers and journals classified by geographical region and type. The left sidebar also enables you to go to a number of other Internet resources.


News Link


--Cross-Disciplinary / Multi-Disciplinary: Critical Thinking Rubric


This critical thinking applications site is sponsored by Washington State University.


The Critical Thinking Rubric


--Economics / Sociology/ Political Science: The Digital Death Rattle of the American Middle Class: A Cautionary Tale


This thought-provoking article is from CTHEORY, an international journal of theory, technology, and culture. C-Theory publishes articles, interviews, event-scenes and reviews of key books. Free mailing list available.


Digital Death Rattle


--Art / Graphic Design: netbaroque


Abstract: "Voice place of disappearance, Naxsmash traces a subjective topology built from a breath inside a screen. Nascent +/- destructive, a sense of place mediates, from behind the screen, an experience of the uncanny and surrreal. Some notes on the strange experience of online and performance installation in the wake of traumatic memory."


Huh? Neat graphics and audio, though!


Naxmash Project


--English/ Linguistics/ Cultural Studies: Word Spy


Word Spy! is "devoted to recently coined words and phrases, and to old words that are being used in new ways. These aren't stunt words" or sniglets, but new terms that have appeared in newspapers, magazines, books, Web sites, and other recorded sources."


Word Spy


--Nursing and Public Health : DIPEx: Personal Experiences of Health and Illness


On this British site"you can watch, listen to or read [patient] interviews, learn more about the illness and its treatments as well as where to find support and more
detailed medical information for a variety of diseases including hypertension, several cancers, epilepsy, and congenital heart disease. Some of the information is
specific to the British healthcare system."


DipEX


--Forensics: Interactive Investigator: Your Introduction to the World of Forensic Science/Detective Interactif: Une Introduction aux Sciences Judiciaires


Here is what this site provides:


"You will be able to obtain general information and anintroduction to the main aspects of forensic science from database on the subject. You can also explore a Historical Cabinet containing actual evidence gathered from crime scenes throughout this century." Includes a timelina bibliographyphy, and a game in which you can "use your newly acquired knowledge to solve a heinous crime." This site is sponsored by the
Virtual Museum of Canada. Available in English and French.


Forensic Science

--Nutrition


The Nutrition Information and Resource Center (NIRC) at Pennsylvania State University "provides links to sites and materials relating to various nutrition topics,
including general nutrition information, nutrition for various age groups, fitness and sports nutritionutritionion for chronic disease states, and nutrition for people with
limited resources. Also includes bibliographies, and links to nutrition news and community resources."


Nutrition


--Journalism and Public Relations: Spin of the Day


Public relations, propaganda, and media spin revealed.


Spin of the Day


--Cultural Studies: Japanese Tea Ceremony


This Web site,TeaHyakka, presents articles and information about the Japanese tea ceremony. It features sections on the history of the tea ceremony, the tea room, traditional Japanese fabrics, and philosophy. Also includes a directory of tea ceremony classes and related links. In English and Japanese.


Japanese Tea Ceremony


--Civic Engagement: YES!


The Web site for the Positive Futures Network and its magazine, Yes! The Journal of Positive Futures,"provide articles and resources dedicated to "supporting people's active engagement in creating a just, sustainable, and compassionate world." The site includes articles from the magazine, classroom materials, and discussion and resource guides on topics such as voting, democracy, and activism." Searchable.


Yes Magazine


--Psychology / Heath Science: The American Institute of Stress


Just in time for end-of-term blues and the holiday season:


Why is There More Stress Today?


Visit the Web site of the American Institute of Stress:


The American Institute of Stress


--Intellectual lark: How are Legos Manufactured?


This site provides a virtual tour of the manufacturing process of Legos. Macromedia plug-in required.


Lego Factory

Until next week!


Blog editor

**Image Credits
"Lego Man,"www.nytrium.net/ack/ imagevieil.htm