05
Oct
2018
Oct
2018
anthropologist about Cold War history
categories: teaching
Searching for "cold war"
10
Nov
2020
Nov
2020
Economist Jeffrey Sachs and US post-election
categories: information technology
Jeffrey Sachs was once a magnet for criticism over the market-based shock therapy he prescribed for Eastern Europe. Today, he is calling for the United States to move more in the direction of a social democracy, with Germany as a role model.
The man who was once the godfather of the birth of capitalism in Eastern Europe is now working to curb the influence of the free market in the United States. Sachs even endorsed self-proclaimed “socialist” Bernie Sanders for president.
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more on history in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=history
most on the Cold War in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=cold+war
05
Jan
2018
Jan
2018
social media election fake news
categories: Digital literacy, social media
Election Strife, Protest And Noise: In 2017, Russia Cranked Up The Volume
The Russian Facebook scandal damages liberals as much as the right
The Republicans might have been tarnished by the St Petersburg troll factory, but Democratic fantasies about social media were rubbished in the process
The ads in question were memes, manufactured and posted to a number of bluntly named, pseudo-American Facebook accounts in 2016 by workers at a troll farm in St Petersburg, Russia. There were thousands of these ads, it seems, plus parallel efforts on Instagram and Twitter. Between them, they reached over 100 million people.
The memes were big news for a while because they showed what Russian interference in the 2016 election actually looked like, in vivid color. Eventually the story faded, though, in part because it was superseded by other stories, but also, I think, because the Russian ad story was deeply distasteful to both sides of our atrophied political debate.
The ads were clumsily written. They were rife with spelling errors and poor grammar. Their grasp of American history was awful. And over them all hovered a paranoid fear that the powerful were scheming to flip the world upside-down in the most outlandish ways: to turn our country over to the undocumented … to punish the hardworking … to crack down on patriots and Christians … to enact Sharia law right here at home.
The social media platforms aren’t neutral arbiters, selflessly serving the needs of society. As is all too obvious now, they are monopolies that manipulate us in a hundred different ways, selecting our news, steering us towards what we need to buy. The corporate entities behind them wield enormous power in Washington, too, filling Democratic campaign coffers and keeping the revolving door turning for trusted servants. Those who don’t comply get disciplined.
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Russia calls for answers after Chechen leader’s Instagram is blocked
Internet watchdog demands explanation after Ramzan Kadyrov claimed Facebook also suspended him without explanation
Kadyrov has accused the US government of pressuring the social networks to disable his accounts, which he said were blocked on Saturday without explanation. The US imposed travel and financial sanctions on Kadyrov last week over numerous allegations of human rights abuses.
The former rebel fighter, who is now loyal to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is a fan of social media, particularly Instagram, which he has used in recent years to make barely veiled death threats against Kremlin critics.
Leonid Levin, the head of the Russian parliament’s information technologies and communications committee, suggested the move by Facebook and Instagram was an attack on freedom of speech.
Dzhambulat Umarov, the Chechen press and information minister, described the blocking of Kadyrov’s accounts as a “vile” cyber-attack by the US.
Neither Instagram nor Facebook had commented at the time of publication.
In 2015, Kadyrov urged Chechen men not to let their wives use the WhatsApp messaging service after an online outcry over the forced marriage of a 17-year-old Chechen to a 47-year-old police chief. “Do not write such things. Men, take your women out of WhatsApp,” he said.
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more on fake news in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=fake+news
01
May
2017
May
2017
history Becker
categories: Digital literacy, information literacy
Digital Literacy and History
Plamen Miltenoff – http://web.stcloudstate.edu/pmiltenoff/faculty/
with Heather Abrahamson, Becker High School Social Studies, 763-261-4501 (Ext. 3507)
9:50-11:15; 11:20-11:45; 12:20-1:20 |
link to this blog entry: https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/05/01/history-becker/
short link – http://bit.ly/histbecker
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list of web sites with images for the students’ projects:
- Holocaust
https://www.ushmm.org/collections/the-museums-collections/about/photo-archives
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/holocaust-photographs
https://go.fold3.com/holocaust_records/
https://www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/Photographs
https://www.thoughtco.com/large-collection-of-holocaust-pictures-1779703
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/resource_center/item.asp?gate=4-2
- Cold War
http://www.gettyimages.com/photos/cold-war
http://www.coldwar.org/museum/photo_gallery.asp
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/04/world/gallery/cold-war-history/
http://time.com/3879870/berlin-wall-photos-early-days-cold-war-symbol/
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/theme/cold-war-history
http://archive.millercenter.org/academic/dgs/primaryresources/cold_war
- others
http://www.gettyimages.com/editorialimages/archival
https://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/photography.html
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Defining my interests. Narrowing a topic. How do I collect information? How do I search for information?
| How do we search for “serious” information? | |
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https://www.google.com/; https://scholar.google.com/ (3 min); http://academic.research.microsoft.com/; http://www.dialog.com/; http://www.quetzal-search.info; http://www.arXiv.org; http://www.journalogy.com/ |
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http://digg.com/, https://www.reddit.com/, https://www.quora.com/ StackExchange http://stackexchange.com/Kngine.com; AskScience https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/, , and similar, https://medium.com/ (5 min) |
| YouTube, SlideShare https://www.slideshare.net/ and similar | https://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?searchfrom=header&q=modern+history |
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(10 min) |
| Wikipedia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_history |
| blogs, listservs | http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/100-awesome-blogs-for-history-junkies/ |
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| LinkedIn Groups https://www.linkedin.com/groups/my-groups |  |
| team work | using your social media accounts (e.g. Facebook, Twitter), search for information related to your topic of interest (5 min) |
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https://www.semanticscholar.org/ |
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(20 min) |
| every university library has subject guides for different disciplines. here are the ones from SCSU http://stcloud.lib.mnscu.edu/subjects/guide.php?subject=HIST-WOR | Kahoot game (5 min) |
| basic electronic (library) search information and strategies. Library research services (5 min)
using the library database, do a search on a topic of your interest. compare the returns on your search. make an attempt to refine the search. retrieve the following information about the book of interest: is it relevant to your topic (check the subjects); is it timely (check the published date); is it available |
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| Strategies for conducting advanced searches (setting up filters and search criteria) | |
| Articles and databases (10 min) |     |
| Kahoot competition | use your smart phones to find the best researcher among you https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/c376c27a-d39a-4825-8541-1c1ae728e1bc https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/5e6d126f-be4d-47d0-9b6e-dfc3f2c90e61 https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/89706729-3663-4ec3-a351-173bf1bf4ed7history: https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/7510e6d8-170f-4c0c-b7bd-6d7dd60c3f6e |
| Reference and Facts | |
| Streaming and Video | http://www.stcloudstate.edu/library/research/video.aspx |
| Journal Title and Citation Finder | |
| shall more info be needed and or “proper” session with a reference librarian be requested | http://stcloud.lib.mnscu.edu/subjects/guide.php?subject=EDAD-D |
| Institutional Repository | http://repository.stcloudstate.edu/ |
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| Academic.com and ResearchGate |
 academia |
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http://bit.ly/360lib and http://bit.ly/360lib2; http://bit.ly/VRlib (15 min) |
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| Refworks | https://www.refworks.com/refworks2/default.aspx?r=authentication::init& |
| Zotero, Mendeley, Endnote | |
| Fast and easy bibliographic tools: | https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2013/12/06/bibliographic-tools-fast-and-easy/ |
| Primary and secondary sources video | |
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more on history in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=history
08
Jul
2020
Jul
2020
decline of the Roman Empire
categories: information technology
The climate changed again and began to warm, inspiring the rise of the Roman Empire. The warming trend allowed Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) to conquer and civilize Europe.
The climate change resulted in a sharp trend to a colder climate, which inspired the barbarian invasions (migration) into the Roman Empire where they moved south as the north grew severely colder.
the geologists discovered “a gradual drying between about 100 and 700 A.D. , with sharp drops in rainfall at 100 A.D. and 400 A.D.
6 ways climate change and disease helped topple the Roman Empire
The volcano that caused famines in ancient Rome? It was in Alaska
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/06/an-alaskan-volcano-may-have-hastened-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic/
05
Dec
2019
Dec
2019
PISA Estonia China US
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/17/chinas-education-system-produces-stellar-test-scores-so-why-do-students-head-abroad-each-year-study/
Education scholars have already critiqued PISA as a valid global measure of education quality — but analysts also are skeptical about the selective participation of Chinese students from wealthier schools.
Second, Chinese students, on average, study 55 hours a week — also No. 1 among PISA-participating countries. This was about 20 hours more than students in Finland, the country that PISA declared to have the highest learning efficiency, or reading-test-score points per hour spent studying.
But PISA analysis also revealed that Chinese students are among the least satisfied with their lives.
Students look overseas for a more well-rounded education
Their top destination of choice, by far, is the United States. The 1.1 million or so foreign students in the United States in 2018 included 369,500 Chinese college students
hostility in U.S.-China relations could dampen the appeal of a U.S. education. Britain, in fact, recorded a 30 percent surge in Chinese applicants in 2019, challenging the U.S. global dominance in higher education.
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https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/12/03/us-students-gain-ground-against-global-peers.html
Immigrant students, who made up 23 percent of all U.S. students taking PISA, performed significantly better compared to their native-born peers in the United States than they did on average throughout the OECD countries.
The survey found that 15-year-old students from Beijing, Shanghai, and the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang ranked top for all three core subjects, achieving the highest level 4 rating.
Students from the United States were ranked level 3 for reading and science, and level 2 for math, while teens from Britain scored a level 3 ranking in all three categories.
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Looking for Post-PISA Answers? Here’s What Our Obsession With Test Scores Overlooks
By Tony Wan Dec 3, 2019
Andreas Schelicher, director of education and skills at the OECD—the Paris-based organization behind PISA wrote that “students who disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement ‘Your intelligence is something about you that you can’t change very much’ scored 32 points higher in reading than students who agreed or strongly agreed.”
Those results are similar to recent findings published by Carol Dweck, a Stanford education professor who is often credited with making growth mindset a mainstream concept.
“Growth mindset is a very important thing that makes us active learners, and makes us invest in our personal education,” Schleicher states. “If learning isn’t based on effort and intelligence is predetermined, why would anyone bother?”
It’s “absolutely fascinating” to see the relationship between teachers’ enthusiasm, students’ social-emotional wellbeing and their learning outcomes, Schleicher notes. As one example, he noted in his summary report that “in most countries and economies, students scored higher in reading when they perceived their teachers as more enthusiastic, especially when they said their teachers were interested in the subject.”
In other words, happy teachers lead to better results. That’s hardly a surprising revelation, says Scheleicher. But professional development support is one thing that can sometimes be overlooked by policymakers when so much of the focus is on test scores.
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https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/
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America’s education system is not bad. It is above average, in fact. https://t.co/O8msa0ZT8l
— Noah Smith 🐇 (@Noahpinion) December 9, 2019
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more on Estonia in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=estonia
03
Feb
2019
Feb
2019
Mindfulness And Trauma-Informed Teaching
categories: contemplative pedagogy
Why Mindfulness And Trauma-Informed Teaching Don’t Always Go Together
Katrina Schwartz Published on
Teachers are turning to the practice as a simple way to restore calm to the classroom, help students find some quiet space, and build self-regulation skills. Some teachers say their personal mindfulness practicehas helped them respond more calmly to students and helps them keep perspective.
“This isn’t about calming down,” said Sam Himelstein, a clinical psychologist, trainer and author who has spent most of his career working with incarcerated youth. “Calming down is great and it is a skill that youth can get better at. But if we’re talking about mindfulness, at its core, we are just talking about being present with whatever it is.”
Larry Rosenberg the dog-mind versus the lion-mind.
Reacting with the mind of a lion allows a person to say, “I’m angry right now,” and that little bit of metacognitive space between the person and the thought allows them to choose how to respond.
TRAUMA SENSITIVE MINDFULNESS
- Students don’t take the activity seriously
- Students are triggered by silence because it feels like a storm is brewing, so they don’t want to be quiet
- Students feel too many requests are made of them without the requisite trust being built up
- Students exhibit avoidance behavior
Guidelines for teachers using mindfulness:
- Don’t force it
- Don’t focus on the logistics like sitting with eyes closed
- Somatic awareness, like counting breaths, could be a good place to start. “There’s different types of awareness. Sometimes we’re really aware of what’s going on in the mind and sometimes we’re more aware of what’s going on in the body,” Himelstein said.
- Think about the child’s window of tolerance and whether he is already triggered or not. “It’s good to strike when the iron is cold in a lot of these cases,” Himelstein said.
- Build relationships
SELF CARE
Cultivating a trauma-informed classroom is much harder when educators themselves are burnt out. Building relationships, not reacting defensively to student behavior and taking time to listen to students can feel nearly impossible if the adult is barely making it through the day.
several categories of self-care, according to Himelstein:
- Regular cultivation of relaxation response (3Rs): things like watching TV, going into nature, getting a massage.
- Effortful training: These are things like more sustained meditation or exercise where the payoff comes over a longer time period.
- Creativity: something that gives purpose and adds vibrancy to life. Writing, reading, painting or other passions are examples.
- Advocacy: everything from learning to say “No” (set boundaries), to working at a higher level to impact policy or structural change.
18
Nov
2018
Nov
2018
disrupting education with technology
categories: educational technology, instructional technology
Nancy Bailey: Disrupting Education with Technology is Unhealthy for Children
Veteran teacher Nancy Bailey warns about the danger that technology poses to child development.
Technology is a helpful tool, but it won’t provide that sense of stability. It’s a cold machine. School districts push technology over teachers. They don’t stop to think about what it will mean to children and their development.
the idea that instruction should be disrupted using technology is putting students and the country at risk. It destroys the public school curriculum that has managed to educate the masses for decades.
Early childhood teachers express concern that tech is invading preschool education. We know that free play is the heart of learning.
But programs, like Waterford Early Learning, advertise online instruction including assessment for K-2. Their Upstart program advertises, At-home, online kindergarten readiness program that gives 4- and 5-year-old children early reading, math, and science lessons.
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more on technology in education in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=technology+education
more on Clay Christensen disruption theory in this IMS blog:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2016/12/19/clayton-christensen-disruption-theory/
25
Nov
2017
Nov
2017
John Craven
The Wisdom of Crowds
http://wisdomofcrowds.blogspot.com/2009/12/introduction-part-v.html
he assembled a team of men with a wide range of knowledge, including mathematicians, submarine specialists, and salvage men. Instead of asking them to consult with each other to come up with an answer, he asked each of them to offer his best guess about how likely each of the scenarios was. To keep things interesting, the guesses were in the form of wagers, with bottles of Chivas Regal as prizes.
Needless to say no one of these pieces of information could tell Craven where the Scorpion was. But Craven believed that if he put all the answers together, building a composite picture of how the Scorpion died, he’d end up with a pretty good idea of where it was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_P._Craven
The Mad Genius from the Bottom of the Sea
CARL HOFFMAN DATE OF PUBLICATION: 06.01.05.
https://www.wired.com/2005/06/craven/
Craven is hard to keep up with. His mind darts from why the Navy should make subs out of glass to the sad end of his long telephone friendship with the late Marlon Brando to the remarkable prodigiousness of his small experimental Hawaiian vineyard.
Craven’s system exploits the dramatic temperature difference between ocean water below 3,000 feet – perpetually just above freezing – and the much warmer water and air above it. That temperature gap can be harnessed to create a nearly unlimited supply of energy. Although the scientific concepts behind cold-water energy have been around for decades, Craven made them real when he founded the state-funded Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii in 1974 on Keahole Point, near Kona.
20
Nov
2015
Nov
2015
Welcome to the snow and InforMedia Services
categories: announcement
If you feel cold and need a warm place to hide, please consider InforMedia Services: we can work with you on technology, while getting warmer.. 🙂
