Resources for Japan Earthquake & Tsunami

Resources gathered by Librarian Linda Straube:

Libguides regarding recent news and the Science related to events in Japan can be found here:

• Info on Earthquake in Japan - UMass at Amherst (also used by Eastern Connecticut)
  
• Japan Disaster Outreach - Arizona State University
  
• Japan - Earthquake & Tsunami - College of the Mainland, Texas City, Texas
• Japan Studies - University of Washington Libraries

See also Lesson Plans and news from

• PBS NewsHour contains Lesson Plans and news
  
• The Atlantic's posting of news sources
• New York Times' Learning Network: Teaching Ideas: Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan
  

Provided for parents and educators, these links (and their description) are taken directly from MindShift Blog -- add this blog to your reading list:

• Tsunami Visualizations links to science sites about the Japanese earthquake, as well as photos and videos, interactive maps, and news stories [from Carleton College].
  
• The British Red Cross pulled together an informative site about how to address the events with students, including the social and emotional effects of hearing about tragedies.
• A collection of Tweets, posts, videos, and photos collected by one teacher using Storify.
• Learning to Give is a website that offers classroom lessons about disaster relief organized by grade level.

AND more ideas on "Best Sites for Learning about the Japanese Earthquake & Tsunami" from Larry Ferlazzo - another blog to follow.

If you have some to add, post a comment.

Interactive: A Visual Guide Inside Japan's Reactors

This was recently shared by librarian Deborah Lazar; Lazar's son is living in Japan and she has been following the Japan earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear reactor disaster.

NPR's interactive graphic and video are worth viewing.

Earlier this morning, Twitter published a blog post detailing ways you can help with the relief efforts. Not only have they updated Japan’s mobile website with the latest information on the disaster, but they have also published a list of hashtags to tweet and/or follow related to the crisis.

Here are some key hashtags to remember:

• #Jishin: focuses around general earthquake information
• #Anpi: a hashtag for the confirmation of the safety of individuals or places
• #Hinan: Evacuation information
• #311care: a hashtag regarding medical information for the victims
• #PrayforJapan: A general hashtag for support and best wishes for victims of the crisis

Japan: Amazing Before and After Earthquake Photos

Social studies teacher Spiro Bolos recently shared these aerial photos featured on ABC News. 

Be sure to hover and drag from the right over each satellite photo to view the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami.

Awesome Storytelling with Digital Photos

A video shared to celebrate the unblocking of YouTube at New Trier on Monday, March 14:

Scenes from Libya

View scenes from Libya from the New York Times. This slideshow features the latest images from Libya, along with pictures going back to the beginning of the revolt.

View breaking news from Libya here. 
Recent highlights of the conflict between rebel forces and Gadhafi:  from CNN

• Gadhafi's foes announce the formation of a body to represent Libya.
• Opposition members shot down a military plane in the east.
• Fight rages in Zawiya after a lull and almost 200,000 people have fled Libya.

A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn

Shared on Twitter by Social Studies teacher Spiro Bolos.  Be sure to bookmark this one.
Howard Zinn, a historian from Boston University, best known for his book People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present, has been brought to YouTube. This video presents an animated version of Zinn’s essay, Empire or Humanity? What the Classroom Didn’t Teach Me about the American Empire. 

Crisis in Dairyland - Message for Teachers

Nobody says it better than Jon Stewart:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Crisis in Dairyland - Message for Teachers
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Is cyber-utopianism delusional?

Is the Internet making political revolution faster and more efficient or is it facilitating dicatators' agendas?

While many of us fluent with social media think that Twitter is the greatest thing since sliced bread, others react with fear and trepidation to the potential for abuse by corrupt dictators. What's at stake here is:

....the murky relationship between governments and technology companies, and the Internet’s dual role as a tool for the oppressed and for the oppressor. The shift in conversation dovetails nicely with the central arguments laid out in “The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom,” written by Evgeny Morozov, a fellow at the New America Foundation and a blogger for Foreign Policy magazine.

I have been drinking the cyber-utopian kool-aid and it feels really good to consider the  Internet a powerful tool of political emancipation.  However,  Morozov convincingly argues that, in freedom’s name, the Internet more often than not constricts or even abolishes freedom.


On the other hand, I believe that so-called smart authoritarian governments cannot respond with the speed and daring of those who call for revolution. It's not only Facebook and Twitter that dictators need to worry about. There's a media literacy in general that matters.  Google Earth is not going away soon and neither is Al-Jazeera.


The big brother aspect which Morozov details is certainly worrisome. It's a title our library will definitely purchase and I will read. Perhaps I'll change my mind.
But for now, I'm betting on the speed of information against all comers.

Egyptian Solidarity

Today, a young Egyptian today his solidarity with his Wisconsin comrades, reminding us all that our problems, like our supporters, are often universal. "One world, one pain."

Nicholas Kristof in Bahrain

The Op-Ed Columnist Nicholas D. Kristof comments from Manama, Bahrain, as protesters celebrate the withdrawal of security forces from Pearl Square and a democratic future.

A Song from the Revolution: January 25

Listen to songs on NPR: Songs of the Egyptian Protests.

"One song that's been very popular with Arab-Americans in the U.S. is called "January 25," or "#Jan25," after a trending topic on Twitter. Arab-American and African-American musicians living in different parts of North America contributed to the song. The first verse, which was written by rapper Omar Offendum, begins, 'I heard them say the revolution won't be televised / Al-Jazeera proved them wrong / Twitter has them paralyzed.'"

Celebrating the Egyptian Revolution

In the middle of the world-wide celebration today we also had a mini-celebration when a lovely Trevian thought of a clever way to invite an IGSSers to the Turn About Dance.

The Twitter feed from #Egypt (keyword search for Egypt) was flying so fast that the students couldn't even read it.  So I used Visible Tweets to slow down the motion and enjoy today's Tweets.  Today we are all Egyptians.

Timetoast Timelines

Just discovered a new timeline tool which students can post to the web:  Timetoast

See sample timeline created for World War II

A Cool New YouTube editing tool -sharing only the best part

Do you have a presentation in which you only want to show a minute of a much longer video?

A new tool in beta has just the solution for you. This tool would also work well for those film makers making mashups or video collages.

And they are crowdsourcing the snips so that you can search for those video snips most watched and favorited.
1) just enter your URL at http://snipsnip.it/

Set the start and ending times.

2) your SNIP will appear below

3) your embed HTML code(for  your site or blog)

& snipped link will pop  up below.

If you would like a link to your snip URL,
please use your Firefox  or Chrome browser.
Happy Snipping! Below I am embedding a 30 second clip of Iraq War Footage from a Fallujah battle.

cropped with SnipSnip


Had a bit of trouble with the embed code and manually ended the "clip timing" in the code...but other than that, it works great.

Why Chinese Mothers are Superior

Professor Amy Chua argues that Chinese style parenting is not only different than more effective that "western" parenting in an excerpt of her new book  Tiger Mother   which appeared in Saturday's Wall St. Journal.

Chinese parents can order their kids to get straight As. Western parents can only ask their kids to try their best. Chinese parents can say, "You're lazy. All your classmates are getting ahead of you." By contrast, Western parents have to struggle with their own conflicted feelings about achievement, and try to persuade themselves that they're not disappointed about how their kids turned out.

There was considerable commenting (over 1000) so far as one would expect from someone who is writing "so expertly" on the best approach to parenting.  Bloggers were up in arms about her premise:  that  screaming at one's children to do drill work and music practice  and depriving them of  fun or social contact with their peers are the secrets to why Chinese and Chinese Americans raise smarter and more successful children than regular decadent Americans do.


Slate writer  Tom Scocca asks the question:  What makes her so sure she has succeeded?  Just because they got into a "good" college doesn't mean you have success. The jury is still out because of their relatively young ages.


Asian American adults have been weighing in on the article.  One response:  from blogger Betty Ming Liu, who says “Parents like Amy Chua are the reason why Asian Americans like me are in therapy.”  Looking forward to the follow-up discussion on the WSJ Ideas Market blog this Thursday.