Hello everyone. It’s been four months since my last post, and while some of that was definitely due to my medical emergency*, mostly I haven’t shared anything, because there is so much to share. I know that doesn’t really make sense, except that it is the way that I sometimes feel when I try to catalog the sites I serendipitously stumble upon. There is so much good stuff happening online, that it is impossible to stay focused long enough to write about it. But here goes. Below you will find a handful of links and brief descriptions for the sites. Most sites are “educational” in nature, and make for a great classroom resource. Some sites are better organized than others, and therefore easier to navigate and find what you want. All, however, are worth checking out.
- TED Ed: An outgrowth of the popular TED Talks videos, TED Ed’s tagline is, “Great educators and animators collaborating to create lessons worth sharing.” Short animated videos cover topics in a range of subjects and allow visitors to view lesson plans others have uploaded to the site. View one of my favorites, “5 Ways Social Media is Changing Your Brain”.
- Crash Course Who knew that author John Green (“The Fault in our Stars” and “Paper Towns” among others) had a brother, Hank, who appears to be as knowledgeable and as full of boundless energy as he is. Seriously, how do these two have the time to create and record all of the frenetic, fast-paced videos you will find at their ever-growing website. John covers world history, American history and literature, while Hank talks about biology, ecology and general chemistry. Videos are ten to fifteen minutes long, are animated and have a recap of the major ideas at the end. View one of my favorites, “Meet Your Master; Getting to Know Your Brain”.
- The School of Life: According to the opening line of their About Us webpage, “The School of Life is devoted to developing emotional intelligence through the help of culture.” I’m not exactly sure what that means, but I love their videos covering topics in philosophy, political theory, pop culture, and the history of ideas. Maybe it’s the simple straightforward illustrations used, maybe it’s the erudite British accent of the narrator. Whatever it is, it works. View one of my favorites, “What’s wrong with the media”?
- Story Corps I first learned about this website by listening to the radio broadcast on NPR. Story Corps calls itself a national project, collecting oral histories of ordinary people. Since 2003, they have collected more than 60,000 stories that are also archived in the Library of Congress. You can also find thirty-one stories that have been animated wonderfully. View one of my favorites, “Facundo, the great”.
- VSauce Host Michael Stevens invites you to ponder the imponderable with him as he takes you along a speculative, but fact-filled journey of almost answers to life’s biggest (and weirdest) questions. Sample topics are, “How to count past infinity” and “What color is a mirror”? Many videos are between ten to fifteen minutes long, with some reaching twenty minutes. View one of my favorites, “This is not yellow”
* For those who are not aware, I suffered a Spontaneous Subarachnoid Hemorrhage on Feb. 10th and was hospitalized for two weeks. Fortunately for me, the damage was minimal and did not affect my communication, language or memory functions. I am recovering very well and want to thank everyone for their support, assistance and thoughtfulness during my time of need.
Thank you for stopping by, and as always, I hope you found something interesting and useful.
Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2016. All rights reserved.
Thinkers Link 