The Educational Technology Cost of Political Campaign Ads

Negative advertisement after negative advertisement. Makes me want to stay home on election day. But then I got to wondering, what could all the money spent so far on campaign advertisements...remind you...JUST ADS, be better spent on when it comes to educational technology. So far $180 million dollars has been spent on political campaign ads and we are not even in "sweeps" week for the candidates yet.

Allow me to do some math. If you spent all that money on one piece of technology what would you be able to buy?

- 1.2 million FLIP Cameras
- 470,000 Document Cameras
- 180,000 SMART Boards
- 203,400 Clicker Systems
- 425,000 Airliners
- 360,000 iPad's
- 720,000 iPod Touches
- 450,000 Desktop Computers
- 150,000 MacBooks
- 1.8 Million 1 year subscriptions to Glogster

So the question then becomes, how could you spend $180 million dollars to benefit education and students across the country. While our future "leaders" THROW AWAY MILLIONS, we are fighting over education reform. Is it just me or is there something wrong with this picture?

EduHound

EduHound is an Educational Technology resource site that aims to provide a central hub for all resources related to Educational Technology.  It appears that several areas of the site are under maintenance right now, such as their "EduHound Site Sets" but you can still search through their categories at the bottom of the page and find resources for topics that you are looking for.  Each category is then broken down into subjects to narrow down your search for resources and then provides an outside link to click on.  You can also search for free lesson plans for all subjects and grade levels.  You can also find some very useful classroom tools and tips to use in the classroom.  They also have a huge source of clipart, for those of you that just can't stop inserting them into PowerPoint presentations.  Eduhound also sends out a newsletter that you can subscribe to that provides links to resources and their tools and tips.  This is a site well worth exploring for some Educational Technology Resources.

Documentary Heaven

Documentary Heaven is a site dedicated to providing documentary movies for free on the web.  You can search for movies based on several different categories and topics.  These videos are found at other locations and then embedded onto this site. I will warn you that several videos in certain topics might be deemed inappropriate, but that does not take away from the educational value that several hundred of the other videos can provide in your classroom.  My suggestion is that you take a look at the videos for yourself and see which ones you might find useful.

Conjugate Verbs

Conjugation.com is a site where students can learn how to conjugate verbs.  Students can type in a verb and the website will provide affirmative forms, negative forms, interrogative forms, definition and examples, and translations in several different languages.  Conjugation.com is a simple site and could be a great addition to share with students in English classrooms.

Collaborize Classroom

Collaborize Classroom is currently a free software for teachers to create a social network with your students.  You have until October 31st to create your own community (social network) to collaborate with your students in a safe environment.  You can see a video on the main page of a teacher sharing her experience using the software with her students.  Sign up is simple, all the usual information.  Once you decide to join there is a simple wizard that you can go through to setup your network with your students.