Tips by Tony

Google has taken their Street View technology and applied it to some of the world’s most famous paintings, resulting in the Google Art Project. You can zoom in so far as to see the individual brush strokes. You can explore various art museums and view over a thousand works of art. You can even create your own collections, including specific views and comments, then share the collection with others.

In this first Roundup of the new year, you’ll find links to articles about fixing the algebra problem, biliteracy for long-term English learners, and some fun History resources using popular music.

A few “quick hit” articles that I’ve read recently regarding education and/or educational technology.

Interactive Fiction (IF) is a type of story where the player uses text commands to control the main character and influence the environment, and is often used to refer to text adventures. IF can be used to simulate an historical event or location, or to create an entirely new fictional environment.

We hear a lot these days about digital textbooks, but most examples I’ve seen are nothing more than digitized versions of the printed copy. While electronic versions of textbooks make your backpack much lighter, and provide the ability to search, what’s really needed is a complete re-thinking of how the content is provided. A new company named Inkling is taking the first step.