By the Letter E

In 1980 a typical school day in Central Texas consisted of reading, writing on paper, the utilization of pencils, pens, loads of construction paper and glue to get a lesson across to the students.  The days when the lesson included a trip to the AV supply room to wheel in a large television set propped up on a metal stand with the latest technological marvel, the VCR attached were added bonuses to the learning schema. These days our children are living in an advanced society that few could have imagined back then.  While most children were learning how to walk and talk back then these days one can find children easily perusing their parents' cell phones or tablets using newly refined motor skills like swipe and touch.  Never has technology given our children such an appealing opportunity to learn.  Why then are there so many educational systems in the world that are reluctant to embrace such technology in the classrooms?  Smart phones provide an o...

By the standard Webster dictionary definition the internet is; In ter net  |ˈintərˌnet| an international computer network providing e-mail and information from computers in educational institutions, government agencies, and industry, accessible to the general public via modem links. By reading this I began to think and wonder about just what the internet is and if this definition is correct.  Is the internet a physical thing?  Can we see it somehow?  I know that we cannot really see the data transfer between networks, or modems but is there a physical thing that we can see that will enable us to realize just how vast our modern internet expands across the globe?  In searching answers for this topic I stumbled across a TED talk by author Andrew Blum.  In it he tries to answer just what the internet is and does an excellent job of depicting the physicality of it as it extends it's reach around the world.  I hope you enjoy... You can check out more of...

Few things can hold my attention these days.  In a society where attention is becoming a valuable commodity, an online presence is extremely important.  So, in an online environment where the world is literally at your fingertips, how does one come to learn about what is really out there for the surfing?  Well one could technically start at the letter a and work your way through the alphabet making up words and adding the .com at the end to see what comes up.  You could do a google search and hope for the best OR you could log in to a site called StumbleUpon .  StumbleUpon allows the user to select a list of interests and customize the 'stumble'.  When you click on the Stumble button the website then sends a billion little feelers out and pulls back several different options for you to view.  As websites open up onto your screen you have the option to 'like' them or not.  If you like them, they are saved to your profile for future use if you do no...