The Best “Fun” Sites You Can Use For Learning, Too

I decided to bring together, in one “The Best…” list, my picks for The Best “Fun” Sites You Can Use For Learning, Too. These are websites that were not designed with education in mind, but which can easily be used for learning purposes — particularly, though not exclusively, for English language development. I only hope that creators of “educational” content can learn from the qualities that make these sites so engaging.

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Oconomowoc school budget levy increases

Oconomowoc school budget levy increases Enrollment, fiscal changes force revisionBy AMY RINARD
arinard@journalsentinel.comPosted: Oct. 30, 2007

Oconomowoc - The School Board on Tuesday approved an amended budget for the 2007-'08 school year that calls for a nearly 10% increase in the property tax levy and a 2% increase in the tax rate.

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Elmbrook remains unsettled on sex ed

Elmbrook remains unsettled on sex ed By LISA SINK
lsink@journalsentinel.comPosted: Oct. 30, 2007

Brookfield - Saying they needed more time to review the district's human growth and development curriculum, an Elmbrook School District committee Tuesday did not make decisions on what topics to teach at what grade levels.

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PbWiki Responds to my nightmare of a day with wikis

On the official Get Satisfaction page, the founder and CEO of PbWiki responded to my inquiry.

Hi! This is a tough issue. We’ve had a lot of teachers emailing us asking for us to make sure an address gets entered before proceeding so they know which students are making which changes, so several months ago we started asking that *some* address be provided. It sounds like you’ve just discovered that that solution doesn’t work well for you. Can you help us think of a setup that would work better?

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School officers proposal trimmed

School officers proposal trimmed Barrett offers cuts to fill $3.6 million hole in city budgetBy LARRY SANDLER
lsandler@journalsentinel.comPosted: Oct. 30, 2007

Milwaukee police officers would be stationed in fewer schools than planned next year as a result of the state's decision not to increase shared revenue, Mayor Tom Barrett said Tuesday.

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Thin crowd prompts MPS to postpone vote on taxes

Thin crowd prompts MPS to postpone vote on taxes By JESSE GARZA and ALAN BORSUK
jgarza@journalsentinel.comPosted: Oct. 30, 2007

The Milwaukee School Board postponed action Tuesday on a proposed 16.4% increase in the property tax levy for city schools in order to gather more public response to the proposal.

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Teach hope, learn love

Teach hope, learn love Kettle Moraine High students trying to help counterparts in AfricaBy AMY HETZNER
ahetzner@journalsentinel.comPosted: April 5, 2008

Taxpayers spent $16.9 million to renovate and expand Kettle Moraine High School following a successful referendum in 2001.

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Learning Classifications

Informal learning is a theme of this blog and has been an area of professional interest for the past couple of years. There is a link between informal learning and collaborative work; the latter is a key focus of my consulting. This link was highlighted by Teemu Leinonen in a recent post on networked learning, starting with a definition of informal learning:

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The e-lance economy?

In 1937, economist Ronald Coase published an article, The Nature of the Firm, in the journal Economica. Within the article, Coase argues that firms exist because there are costs inherent to free markets – such as costs of communication, of sharing information, of trying to find goods and services. Given these costs, Coase suggests that firms are formed because it is more efficient and less expensive to complete many of these tasks internally within a formal organization rather than outsourcing them to the market and thus incurring these added costs.

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MPS wants to increase property tax levy by 16.4%

MPS wants to increase property tax levy by 16.4% Andrekopoulos seeks more money after changes in state budget, other fundingBy ALAN J. BORSUK
aborsuk@journalsentinel.comPosted: Oct. 29, 2007

Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent William Andrekopoulos will ask the School Board tonight for an over 16.4% increase in how much Milwaukeeans will pay in property taxes for this school year.

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