Wavii

Wavii (currently in BETA) is a website that allows users to select news that is important to them and as news happens related to that topic it will appear in a "news" feed.  If you are teaching current events, this would be a great software to use to follow what is going on with that topic.  Any subject matter that is being taught can be added as a topic to your feed and then as news happens related to it, you can be updated on the topic.  The main goal of Wavii to take Google searches and put them into a Facebook type feed of information and news.  The only negative that I have found so far is that it requires a Facebook log-in to use the site.  You cannot create an account separately.

You could follow any item of content you are teaching and get the latest news on those topics and then share those topics with your students.  The focus in education today is on Rigor and Relevance.  If you can find current news and information related to what you are teaching, it will help to make the topic relevant to students.

For more information, see the video below.

PBS New Hour - Student Reporting Labs

"Student Reporting Labs connect students with a network of public broadcasting mentors, an innovative journalism curriculum and an online collaborative space to develop digital media, critical thinking and communication skills while producing original news reports for PBS NewsHour Extra."

What a great idea.  Provide students with an area for them to create and share their own journalism experiences and stories related to curriculum.  Student Reporting Labs has lessons for teachers to help students better understand the journalism field with lessons, such as: "What is Newsworthy?," "The Art of Asking Questions," and "Facts and Opinions."  In this age of digital news and student publishing, it would beneficial to teach students what proper journalism is all about.

There are several valuable news reports that relate to education that have been completed by students.  The Student Reports would be a valuable tool in providing students examples of what makes a good journalism story that other students have done.

This sort of video project could be done across the curriculum and would not necessarily have to be in journalism classes.  This would be a great addition for Civics classes and the other Social Sciences.  At the same time, Science classrooms could do the same project as at relates to environmental concerns.  Math teachers could have students interpret data and percentages and create a news story around the data that the students are studying as it relates to their school or community. 

Check out some of the work done by students that has already been contributed and think about how you could use this with your students.

Newsy

Newsy is a site dedicated to merging news stories from various sources into one video clip.  They use various news agencies, newspapers, magazines, and websites to create the story thus provide various views on a news story. 

The news is broken down in to popular categories (US, World, Politics, Business, Tech, Health/Science, and Sports.  I like the organization of Newsy for the purpose of covering current events and getting different views.  It can help create discussion because of the different views you get about different stories.  You could easily adapt the stories from Newsy to many of the subjects in schools while providing an unbiased view.

Livestation

Livestation is a site that allows you to watch live TV and listen to radio.  The TV stations are centered around news stations, but Livestation would be a great tool for classrooms that are studying current events and want to see news from other parts of the world.  There are several channels that would be of interest to teachers and provide an alternate source to news.  News stations include Al Jazeera, BBC, NASA, and United Nations.  A valuable news source separate from network and cable news stations that most, at least Americans, are used too.  You can also watch the news from their mobile station on the iPhone and Blackberry.

Current Events....and Past

Interesting Website.  10x10™ ('ten by ten') is an interactive exploration of the words and pictures that define the time. The result is an often moving, sometimes shocking, occasionally frivolous, but always fitting snapshot of our world. Every hour, 10x10 collects the 100 words and pictures that matter most on a global scale, and presents them as a single image, taken to encapsulate that moment in time. Over the course of days, months, and years, 10x10 leaves a trail of these hourly statements which, stitched together side by side, form a continuous patchwork tapestry of human life.

10x10 runs with no human intervention, autonomously observing what a handful of leading international news sources are saying and showing. 10x10 makes no comment on news media bias, or lack thereof. It has no politics, nor any secret agenda; it simply shows what it finds.

With no human editors and no regulation, 10x10 is open and free, raw and fresh, and consequently a unique way of following world events. In 10x10, we respond instinctively to patterns in the grid, visual indicators of relevance. When we see a frequently repeated image, we know it’s important. When we see a picture of a movie star next to a picture of dead bodies, we understand the extremes that exist in our world. Scanning a grid of pictures can be more intuitive than reading headlines, for it lets the news come to life, and everything feels a bit less distant, a bit closer to heart, and maybe, if we're lucky, gives us pause to think.