80+ Videos for Tech. & Media Literacy

This blog entry contains a number of interesting Internet videos that would be appropriate for lessons and presentations, or personal research, related to technological and media literacy. Here are 80+ videos organized into various sub-categories. These videos are of varying quality, cross several genres, and are of varied suitability for classroom use.

80+ Videos for Tech. & Media Literacy

Wolfram Alpha Search Engine

As you may know, there is a new search tool on the block; Wolfram/Alpha. First released May 15, this search tool is still in its fledgling stages, but many are looking to Wolfram as a viable alternative to Google.

It's not a search engine. Though widely compared to Google, Wolfram/Alpha does not try to match queries against a list of indexed documents. It attempts to compute answers to questions based on established facts.

To help understand this site, check out the range of examples they've posted. As you click through the examples, there is a description of the type of search that can be conducted in the search box based on the topic you have chosen. This is a great way to help users to learn the most appropriate use of the tool and the proper syntax for searches.

The Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, a group out of Eugene Oregon, has published two documents for schools to send home to parents.


Cyber Safe Kids: A Guide for Parents
Cyber Savvy Teens: A Guide for Parents

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard

This is a fabulous video that provides an overview of our consumption-driven wasteful economy and describes it as a system in crisis. It comes from an American perspective and the NY Times says , "it has been embraced by teachers eager to supplement textbooks that lag behind scientific findings on climate change and pollution."

This video, though simplistic (as is necessary when describing a global system in 20 minutes) is essential viewing. It is an essentially accurate representation of the problem we face as a global society. And it represents one of the key ways in which technology in the classroom can have a beneficial and sustaining effect on society as a whole.

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard

Flash Animation of the Growth of the International Space Station

This site contains a great flash animation that illustrates the components and growth of the International Space Station.

http://i.usatoday.net/tech/graphics/iss_timeline/flash.htm

USATODAY.com feature

Oxygen (Video)

Oxygen from Christopher Hendryx on Vimeo.

SpanishConnects.Us: Recorded conversations between native Spanish speakers and students learning Spanish

SpanishConnects.Us is an audio blog that documents student discussions with native Spanish speakers in distant parts of the world to better understand each other’s culture and share perspectives on local events impacting the world today.

http://www.spanishconnects.us/?page_id=51