The Digital Democracy
Contest is a Web-based
game hosted by high
school social studies teachers that allows students to
compete in teams to answer questions using government websites. The Digital Democracy Contest employs existing online tools to help young
people explore complex data sets and engage with them
in meaningful ways. The contest teaches participants skills
such as finding different types of campaign contributions,
investigating the voting records of members of Congress,
and investigating specific members of Congress. The website includes resources and lesson plans for teachers.
MORE INFO: www.digitaldemocracycontest.org
PRODUCTS & SERVICES |
21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in
Our Times by Bernie Trilling and Charles
Fadel introduces a framework for 21st-
century learning that maps out the skills
needed to survive and thrive in a complex
and connected world. Published by Jossey-Bass. The book costs $18.45.
MORE INFO: www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/Wiley-Title/ productCd-0470475382.html
Readability from Arc90 is a tool that makes reading on
the Web easier by removing the clutter around the content.
Install the Readability bookmarklet and then click on the link
in your “favorites” each time you come across content that
you’d rather read without the clutter. Readability allows you
to choose a font, select the size, and determine the margins.
MORE INFO: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability
The American Society for Engineer-
ing Education has launched a free
online interactive version of its
magazine for high school students,
Engineering: Go For It. The digital
magazine, titled eGFI, encourages students to pursue engi-
neering careers. It features examples of engineering innova-
tions that are transforming society, profiles of undergradu-
ates who are making a difference, and descriptions of the
most popular engineering career paths and disciplines.
MORE INFO: www.egfi-k12.org
Zoom has released the Q3 Handy video recorder, which
allows users to record stereo sound with two condenser
microphones. The Q3 will record for up to two hours in true
stereo and 640 x 480 resolution refreshed at 30 frames per
second. The Q3 features a 2.4-inch 320 x 240 resolution
LCD that displays audio level meters, a battery indicator, and
time elapsed. The Q3 accepts up to a 32 GB SDHC
card to deliver 16 hours of movie-making capacity.
Users can easily upload videos to a computer with
the flexible USB cable for immediate editing and
sharing.
MORE INFO: www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.
cfm?prodID=1916&brandID= 4
Coming Next Issue in
Transformational Digital Citizenship
Digital citizenship involves more than just
digital literacy, write Vicki Davis and Julie
Lindsay, cofounders of the Flat Classroom
Project. Educators must be able to effectively
research tech trends, monitor the use of
technology in their schools and districts,
and empower student-centered learning
mechanisms.
Learn from the Third World
While educators in the developed world
debate whether to use mobile technologies
in the classroom, some of the poorest nations
on the planet have embraced these devices,
write Mary Burns, Marianne Montalvo, and
Rebecca Rhodes of the Education Development Center, a nonprofit research and
development organization.
Engage Your Community
Learn how a district in North Carolina keeps
its community informed and engaged using
an interactive district-wide website. Superintendent Terry K. Holliday writes that they
get 50,000 hits a day on the website, which
offers online surveys, RSS feeds, newsletters, calendars, announcements, and other
resources.
