Video from my council, Circle 10, in and around Dallas, Texas:
Interestingly, I’ve not seen the video before I found it on YouTube. Have I just missed chances, or has it not been promoted as well as it should have been?
Scouting as a tool to fight gang violence
September 22, 2009
2 Comments | 
Boy Scouts of America, Dropouts, Ethics, Leadership | Tagged: Boy Scouts of America, Circle 10 Council BSA, Denzel Long, film, Scout recruiting, Texas, video | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Daniel Webster Council, Boy Scouts of America, wants you
September 21, 2009Interesting recruiting film for the Daniel Webster Council, BSA (New Hampshire).
More councils should spend a little more effort filming the reasons to join, I think — and put the films on YouTube.
Do you know of other good Scout recruiting videos — Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts or Campfire?
1 Comment | Adventure, Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts, Leadership, Video and film | Tagged: Boy Scouts of America, Daniel Webster Council BSA, film, Join Scouting, video | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Boy Scouts of Harlem, Troop 759
September 20, 2009First I’ve heard of this film: “759: Boy Scouts of Harlem,” a film by Jake Boritt and Justin Szlasa.
Have you seen it?
2010 is the 100th anniversary of Scouting in the U.S. This film is not officially a part of that celebration — but expect to see more like it. This film was produced independently, with approval from one Scout council, but entirely independent from Scouting otherwise.
Would this make a good recruiting device for your troop? Why or why not?
Perhaps one of the Scouts in your troop, working on the cinematography merit badge, might be inspired to make a film like this about your troop.
Resources:
- Website for the film
- WordPress blog for the film, 759: Boy Scouts of Harlem
- FAQ on the film and the filmmakers
- You can buy a DVD of the film, or get a kit to use the film to raise money for your Scout unit
- Wikipedia site for the film
- Facebook page for the film
- MySpace page for the film
- Ten Mile River Scout Museum clip from the film, on YouTube
3 Comments | Boy Scouts of America, Ethics, Leadership, Learning, Life, Outdoor Recreation, Urbanization, Video and film | Tagged: Boy Scouts of America, Ethics, film, Leadership, Troop 759 in Harlem, video | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Vote for your favorite science video
July 4, 2009The Scientist Magazine’s 2009 Science Video Awards closes voting in just a few days, on July 9.
Some cool stuff.
2 Comments | Science, Video and film | Tagged: 2009 Video Awards, Science, Science Magazine, video | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
A vision of students, today (thanks, Bug Girl!)
April 30, 2009Bug Girl put this up, and you can watch it there and comment on it there in a lively and informative discussion, but it’s just too good not to show here:
Teachers, show it to your colleagues, and especially to your librarians and your administrators.
Students, show it to your teachers.
And, go thou and do likewise.
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.
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Oh, and note that Bug Girl’s post was a year ago.
Other stuff to see:
- Blogsite of the Digital Ethnography class at KSU (mentioned in the film)
- While we’re on the topic, look at “Web 2.0,” especially if you’re confused by things like Wikipedia
4 Comments | Education, Learning, Pedagogy, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Tagged: Classroom technology, Classrooms, Education, Learning, Teaching, Technology, video | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
DFH were right
March 19, 2009Some guy who goes by Joeyess seems to be the one who put this together — wrote the song? Performed?
Call it sequencing. Students often ask — at least once a week — whether I was a hippie. They figure that’s a possibility since I don’t like much of the rock of the ’80s, and they don’t know much history of the ’50s and ’60s. They don’t believe me when I tell them I thought college was a better idea. They look confused when I tell them I was a plainclothes hippie.
Noodling around the radio dial the other day, I wondered how an antiwar movement could work with ClearChannel running so much of the radio formats, and none of the formats being exactly friendly to the slightest political commentary.
So, take a look. Tell us what you think in comments.
Political folk music in the Internet Age, Pete Seeger channeled through Lawrence Lessig (profanity in lyric makes it NSFW, NSFC, alas):
1 Comment | Citizenship, Dissent, Economics, Music, Politics, Santayana's ghost, Video and film, War | Tagged: DFH, Economics, Folk Music, Politics, protest, video | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Flash media, animation and movies for your classroom
January 28, 2009I’m struggling. I’m looking for software that will allow me to make animations and movies for classroom use. I know very little about it, though, and I’m not sure where to look.
I stumbled on this site, from the University of Houston, Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling.
Do me a favor: Social studies teachers, especially hop over there and look at the video/animation/presentations they offer — on the Dustbowl, on human rights and Nobel winner Aung San Suu Kyi, on Hiroshima, the race to the Moon, and other stuff. Look at the presentations: Can you use them? Do you have better stuff to use?
Other examples include mathematics, art (some of which might also be good for history), English as a Second Language (ESL), language arts, and other subjects.
Do you make movies or animations for your classroom? What do you use?
What does a teacher need to get started in digital story telling?
The UH site offers a free download of Microsoft Photo Story 3 — have you used it? Good stuff? What’s your experience?
3 Comments | Classroom management, Classroom technology, Education, Education quality, Technology, Technology in the classroom, Video and film | Tagged: Classroom management, Education, Education Automation, film, Technology in the classroom, video | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
The value of science
November 24, 2008Sometimes people go into science and do great work for deeply personal reasons. Listen to Tim Subashi, a Senior Scientist at Pfizer.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Much more stuff over at Big Think.
Gotta explore the history links there . . . anything you can use in a classroom?
And a gripe about the value of video, fumbled: A resource like this should be a prime candidate for numerous short videos explaining evolution, to make up for the education you didn’t get in high school. On a scary note, if you scan for “evolution,” you get intelligent design advocate Deepak Chopra.
Get with it, Big Think. That’s embarrassing.
Go film P. Z. Myers for a couple of days. Spend some time with Kenneth Miller. Go interview Carl Zimmer about writing the books. Get Andy Ellington’s explanation for the ins and outs of chirality. With dozens of experts available, you don’t have even one?
Tip of the old scrub brush to Pamela Bumsted, Life Hacker, and The Boston Globe.
Leave a Comment » | Research, Science, Technology, Video and film | Tagged: Research, Science, Technology, video | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Obama went to the White House, and all you got was . . .
November 17, 2008Oh, wait. He’s still interested in recruiting your help.
Change you can count on. Change you can believe in. Change we need.
What sort of thing did that campaign unleash? We’re still learning.
Leave a Comment » | Barack Obama, Government, History, Obama 2008, Politics, Technology | Tagged: Barack Obama, Government, History, Politics, Technology, video | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Fused chromosomes: A proof of human evolution
January 20, 2008Yes, I know: It’s a test of human evolution, and evolution passed. When I put “proof” in the headline, more people will give it the attention it deserves.
Teachers, you can register for the teacher information, and download this video for free use in your classroom presentations. I recommend it highly. (These rights are rather fuzzy about blogs, so I have not put the video here.)
This has become part of Ken Miller’s presentation to teachers — it was part of his lecture at Southern Methodist University on November 16, and I suspect it was a key part of his presentation to the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST) in Austin, on November 17 — a conference sponsored by the Science Teachers Association of Texas (STAT) and at which attendance would probably get Texas state education officials fired.*
__________________________
* Chris Comer was a featured speaker at this meeting. It’s likely the poobahs at the Texas Education Agency didn’t figure out that any meeting of science teachers and scientists in Texas would feature evolution; one may hope that they don’t figure that out, if they continue to campaign against evolution and other science.
2 Comments | Accuracy, Biology, Evolution, History, Science | Tagged: Education, Evolution, human evolution, Science, video | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Ten minutes on Yellowstone NP in winter, with outdoor writer Tim Cahill
November 4, 2007Yellowstone National Park is just a cool place. If you’re not using it for anything in your geography and U.S. history courses, you’re missing out.
Here’s a ten-minute video that the producers hope you’ll show far and wide to encourage television stations to pick up the series. It’s a ten-minute pilot for “Travelers’ Tales,” featuring outdoor writer Tim Cahill, a founder of Outside magazine, and photographer Tom Murphy.
Here are some of the points you might use in class:
- Yellowstone in winter, especially the wildlife, like bison, elk and coyotes (all shown), and wolves (not shown)
- Volcanic geology — Yellowstone is the world’s largest caldera, after all
- Diversity of landforms in the U.S., or in the world. More than half the hot water features on the planet are in Yellowstone
- Travel and adventure
- What makes good writing (travel writing in this case)
- Western geography
- Development of the west, especially after the Lewis and Clark Expedition
The video features a lot of snow, elk, bison and coyotes, hot springs flowing into a river making swimming in January feasible, Mammoth Hot Springs and the travertine pools, and the cold northern desert of sagebrush and juniper.
Questions you might consider to turn this into a warm-up exercise (bell ringer):
Geography, not answered in the video (map or internet exercise):
- Yellowstone National Park covers parts of which three states?
- Yellowstone National Park is mostly located in which state?
- What is the most famous feature of Yellowstone National Park?
- Ashfall Beds State Park features ancient mammals killed by an eruption in the Yellowstone Caldera. Where is Ashfall Beds State Park?
- Thomas Moran played a key role in getting Congress to designate Yellowstone as a park. What did he do to help convince Congress to act?
Geography, answered in the video:
- What year was Yellowstone designated a National Park by Congress?
- What sort of volcanic feature is the entire Yellowstone area?
- The Yellowstone Caldera explodes catastrophically about every 600,000 years, according to some geologists. How long has it been since the last such catastrophic explosion?
- The wags say there are two seasons in Yellowstone, ______ and winter.
- What is a “hot pot?”
2 Comments | Adventure, Bell Ringers, Geography - Physical, geology, Natural history, Natural resources, Travel, Warm-up exercises | Tagged: geography, geology, Lesson plans, Tim Cahill, Travel, video, Yellowstone | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Turning a sphere inside out: Video in the classroom
October 28, 2007How come the science guys get all the really cool videos?
I found this from Mollishka at a geocentric view, and I crib it entirely from there:
Ever wanted to see what it looks like when a sphere gets turned inside out, or simply know what is meant when people talk about turning closed surfaces (like a sphere) inside out? Hat tip to Scott Aaronson for this video:
As it turns out, I actually recognize several of the intermediate steps (for a few of the algorithms they show) as neat-o sculptures that often show up near math departments.
a geocentric view has several other features I found interesting. It’s written by a graduate student in astronomy — go noodle around.
1 Comment | Point of personal privilege, Science, Technology, Technology in the classroom, Video and film | Tagged: Education, Mathematics, Technology in the classroom, video | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
NBC video — free from HotChalk, through December
October 27, 2007Teacher magazine reports that NBC News made available to teachers more than 5,000 chunks of news video and still photos from their news archives, for use in the classroom.
The service requires a free subscription to HotChalk through December. After that, a school subscription to HotChalk is necessary, starting in 2008.
Great resources, but I predict few teachers will have the connections to put these to work in the classroom. Comments are open, of course, for you to share your experience. Please comment on how useful you find these images, and how you use them.
Historic photo of woman on early cellular telephone, NBC News photo, from HotChalk.
Leave a Comment » | Education, Geography - Economic, Globalization, History images, History video sources, Images, Video and film | Tagged: Classroom technology, Education, history video, HotChalk, NBC News, video | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Our cat, Smokey, made famous
September 22, 2007Can’t figure out how to embed this in WordPress (there’s gotta be a way). You need to see it, especially if you are owned by a cat like our Smokey. Fortunately, Smokey hasn’t found the baseball bat, but she plays mantle hockey with anything and everything. Plus, she’s fond of shredding paper — books, magazines, bills to pay — knowing that such noise usually gets us out of bed.
It’s a production from an English group. Big money, no doubt — could we ever hope to find such productions for classroom use?
3 Comments | Personal, Video and film | Tagged: , animation, cats, video | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 