We’re having some issues with our Facebook integration, so you may see several test posts over the next few days.  Sorry for any inconvenience.

Testing Twitter integration.  Nothing to see here.

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by the night sky.  As a child, I voraciously consumed any book having to do with astronomy and space exploration.  Back then, amateur astronomers had to rely on magazines, newsletters, and books to provide the information needed to locate objects in the night sky.  And tracking man-made objects in space was extremely difficult.  Today, though, the wealth of information online gives everyone an opportunity to see things like the the International Space Station (ISS) and numerous satellites.

This week’s Web 2.0 Weekly looks at one such resource, Heavens-Above.  Heavens-Above is a free (advertising supported) website that provides observation data for numerous satellites, the ISS, amateur radio satellites, comets, and more.  Users have the option to enter their location using an extensive database of places or manually, using latitude and longitude.  Once a location is entered, Heavens-Above will customize all reports for that location, allowing the user to locate visible objects and their relative positions in the sky.  The user can then create a detailed report, including a star chart with the desired object and its path marked on it.

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One thing that we’ve stressed to our students is the need to use proper citations in their papers and projects to ensure that they are giving the originators of an idea the proper credit.  The difficulty, of course, is that each type of work requires a different format  for a Works Cited (MLA) or Reference (APA) page and many of these have changed with the recent release of updated style guides.  While I fully support teaching students how to craft these bibliographic references, as I write my own papers, I find myself constantly referring to sites like Purdue’s OWL or my newly purchased hard copy APA style guide.

David Warlick created Son of Citation Machine (SoCM) to provide students and teachers with an easy to use tool to automate the citation process a bit.  SoCM allows you to easily create citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, or Turabian formats by filling out information about a work in a simple web form.  After entering the information, SoCM provides a Works Cited or Reference entry in addition to showing the proper in-text citation format for the given work.  The end result is making a process that can be difficult and stressful essentially painless.  SoCM even allows the user to enter ISBN numbers for a work and automatically fills out most (or all) of the bibliographic information for you.

SoCM is in active development with new features and updates being added as needed.  It is free to use (unlike some other online citation services) and requires an internet connected computer with a modern web browser.  It’s also probably a good idea to verify the created bibliographic references and citations for accuracy, but any needed alterations are likely to be minor and easily dealt with during proofreading, and it’s easy to edit an entry as opposed to creating one from scratch.

The other night, I got to drive to Detroit for a Verizon 4G LTE Preview Party. (more…)

This isn’t exactly the article I had planned to write for this week’s Web 2.0 Weekly, but this is a very timely subject.  If you haven’t heard already, Adobe has announced another vulnerability with its Reader/Acrobat and Flash player products that can lead to crashes or exploits.  It looks like all platforms are affected by one or the other of the vulnerabilities (Acrobat and/or Flash), including Android-based systems.  Adobe further announced that they are aware of exploits in the wild attacking this Reader/Acrobat vulnerability.

Computer security is a big issue for any organization, but especially for a school because of the larger number of users and computers, and the need to protect students online.  Maintaining a high level of security means having a solid plan in place to make sure all computers are receiving the latest operating system and application updates in a timely fashion, which can be a never-ending chore (or seem like it).

I’ve actually lost track of the number of Adobe vulnerabilities that have have been uncovered this year, but it has been quite a few.  And Adobe has been taking a (more…)

If I haven’t mentioned it before, I am just in awe of the Library of Congress‘s (LoC) efforts to embrace the Internet and Web 2.0.  The LoC has placed a huge number of historical images, videos, and sound recordings online in its American Memory project.  The LoC also has posted many podcasts and even professional development courses for new teachers.

Another way that the LoC has embraced new technology is by launching pilot projects on services like Flickr.  Currently, the LoC has two collections on its Flickr photostream, one for historic newspapers and the other for historic photographs.  The newspaper collection contains over 450 images, while the historic photograph one contains 13 sets with thousands of images.  Sets cover topics such as “News in the 1910s”, “Baseball Americana”, “1930s-1940s in Color”, and “Gottlieb Jazz Photos”.

Most, if not all, of the images have no known publication or usage restrictions, which means that you should be free to use these images for any purpose in your classes.  Here are some sample images from the collections (note: these images are not the original sizes).

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Although there are times, it feels funny not being in a classroom, I been doing a lot of teaching lately, or at least trying. (more…)

As some of you may know, I’ve long had a passion for online apologetics or defending the Christian faith.  Some Lutherans have expressed serious concerns about the apologetic task seeking to supplant the evangelical work of the Holy Spirit with human reason.  I would submit that, while there may very well be apologists who seek to do just that, constructing a Lutheran apologetic is both feasible and necessary in these pluralistic times.

To that end, I have created a proposal for a new, online training course in Lutheran Apologetics for the Guild.  You may download a PDF version of this proposal here.  As you can see, this is not the complete course, rather, it is a detailed explanation of the rationale for it, a defense of the Lutheran apologetic itself, and an outline of the structure of the proposed course.

I am looking for one (or more) volunteers to collaborate with me in fleshing out the details of this course and in actually conducting it for several sessions.  If you are interested, please email me at biddlej@lutheraneducators.com.

It seems like our Web 2.0 feature has been focusing on Google offerings lately, but this week’s focus is an important one.

Online safety has been the focus of much discussion for several years now. The excellent PBS Frontline report on “Growing Up Online” really brought some of these issues to the forefront of the American consciousness. As an educator or parent, it really is hard to know sometimes what steps to take to help protect our students and children from the legitimate dangers they may encounter in the digital world.

Google recently offered its own insight on the situation by releasing the Google Family Safety Center (GFSC).  The GFSC provides educators and parents with specific information about making several of Google’s many Web 2.0 services into a safer environment for children.  It also includes several short video interviews with Google employees who are parents, and the steps they themselves take to keep their own children safe online.  Links to and advice from various Google partners are included also.

A handy feature of the GFSC is the ability to choose from one of five locations (US, UK, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand).  You will see different partners and Google parent videos based on this selection.

Google also included links to online safety activities and curricula (again, location based).

All in all, I see the GFSC as a very useful resource and I hope that Google continues to expand upon it in the future.

From an educator’s standpoint, it is very convenient to have safety information for the major Google services consolidated in one handy location.  It’s also very nice to see Google working with experts in the field of online safety to provide tips and learning materials for both parents and schools.

The GFSC is free and you’ll need a computer with a broadband internet connection, a modern Web browser, and the Flash player to access it.