I started researching the various ways that education has been and can be delivered via TV. It occurred to me that I let my kids watch a heck of a lot more TV than I was ever allowed to when I was their age (bad daddy!). But they’re watching TV shows that are educational and stimulate cognitive responses (rationalizing…). Also, because they are accustomed to interacting with games, stories and characters from TV shows via our iPad/iPhones, their approach to TV tends toward the interactive, whereas mine was (and still is!) almost entirely passive. Where all this will lead, both in terms of my research and future developments in “teaching through television,” I’m not quite sure. Stay tuned :)

Want to learn about the civil rights movement? Over the next few weeks 60-Second Civics, the daily podcast of the Center for Civic Education, will be exploring the history of the civil rights movement and the struggle for equal rights. Visitors to the podcast’s website can also take the Daily Civics Quiz to test their knowledge. 60-Second Civics has been on the air since 2009 and is now nearing its 900th episode. Used by teachers nationwide, the podcast and quiz make an ideal warmup activity for social studies, U.S. government, and American history classrooms.

http://itunes.apple.com/si/podcast/60-second-civics-podcast/id320780421

Teaching Ideas: The Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan

Here are some resources for teaching about the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan, including the latest Times articles and multimedia, related lesson plans and other materials from The Learning Network, and ideas from around the Web. We’ll continue to update this post with new material this week.