Google - Zeitgeist 2012

Ever wonder what the top google searches were in 2012?  Are you curious to find out which of these 2012 searches was the most popular:  Gangnam Style, Hurricane Sandy or Kate Middleton (answer below)?

Well luckily our friends at google have compiled a list of the 2012 top search trends as part of their Zeitgeist 2012.  The list is broken down into images, athletes, events, people and a whole lot more.  All of this is based on over 1.2 trillion searches.  (If desired you can further break down these results by country).

I also recommend watching this 3-minute video Google put together on the year in review:

How to use in the Classroom:

I think your students would enjoy watching the above video while recounting the year that was.  How many of the events on here can they recognize?  You could also have students compare the search results in the U.S. to other countries, or to the world.  What does it say about the U.S. society?

You might also ask your students to look at the interactive map that plots where certain events were the most popular. Why are certain searches more frequent in some countries than in others?   Also how do the 2012 results compare to the 2011 results?  Part of creating global citizens is to make students aware of the wider world that we live in, and this is a creative way to do that.


Click here for Trivia Answer.

Copyright for Educators

There is no doubt that copyright can be confusing. When it comes to education, the rules are even more confusing. Fair use is a concept embedded in U.S. law that recognizes that certain uses of copyright-protected works do not require permission from the copyright holder or its agent. Fair use is primarily intended to allow the use of copyright-protected works for commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education. However, not all uses in an academic context are automatically considered fair use.

Are you confused yet?  Well, hopefully this Slideshare presentation (audio will play on playback) will help to answer some of your questions.    I'ts an hour long, but its easy listening and you are bound to learn a lot of new information.  If you have only a few minutes, click on a few of the slides to see what you can learn.

Copyright for Educators from Wesley Fryer

FirstClass Tutorial Videos

If you are anything like me, you probably get frustrated at times with FirstClass.  Well, help is now here in the form of FirstClass Tutorial videos.  Open Text has a YouTube channel devoted to learning how to use all the features of FirstClass.   If you are looking to narrow your search of help topics, I strongly recommend this link instead.  So next time you are struggling with FirstClass or want a refresher on how to do something, please take a look at these videos.

One of the questions I get asked a lot is how to add a signature to the bottom of your email.  Check out this 2 minute video to learn how to add that to your emails:

  You can also find these videos in a more organized format on the FirstClass Tutorial page.

Beyond the Bubble

Beyond the Bubble is a resource produced by the Stanford History Education Group for the purpose of helping teachers teach with primary source documents. Beyond the Bubble provides teachers with lessons that they can use to help their students analyze primary source documents. Each of the lessons is accompanied by an interactive rubric that includes sample answers aligned to each indicator on the rubric. Learn more about Beyond the Bubble in the short video below.

Assessments include The First Thanksgiving, The Civil Rights Movement, The Philippine-American War and much more.  The interactive rubrics on Beyond the Bubble could be very helpful to some teachers when they're evaluating their students' work.