Instructify

BY BILL FERRIS

In this week’s by-the-numbers edition, read about the things you need to know before going 1:1, find the best free web-design tutorials, and read the heartwarming story about how the 112th element finally became a real boy got a name. More after the jump.

10 Things Teachers Should Know Before 1:1
1:1 classrooms are probably going to be the norm within our lifetimes. Any change of that magnitude will carry a lot of headaches along with it, though. Mr. Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers offers up this little devotion to the god of unforseen consequences. It’s a reminder that not all students are equally tech-savvy, and that plopping kids in front of a computer doesn’t magically make learning more fun. They’re good thoughts to keep in mind if your school plans to make the leap to a 1:1 environment.

Element 112 shall be named “copernicium”
After 13 years of periodic limbo, element 112 has finally gotten a name: copernicium, after Nicolaus Copernicus, the guy who discovered that the earth revolved around the sun. The scientific community is relieved that the naming battle is over, and that they didn’t choose the name “ununbium.” (Credit goes to to Twitter user @samharrelson for finding this one)

26 Websites for Tutorials Starting out in Website Design & Development
The nice thing about web design is that so many of the resources for learning it are available for free online. These 26 tutorials will show you HTML, XHTML, PHP, and lots of other acronymic web programming languages. If you or your students learn the ropes of designing web pages, maybe you can overhaul the school website, or start a page for a club or organization.

Photo credit: Jill Clardy (at Mt. Shasta this week) on Flickr.