Tech Table Wednesday, November 6, 2013
November 6, 2013
Justin: Welcome to MPA’s Tech Table. I’m Justin.
Diana: And I’m Diana.
Justin: And we’re your hosts. We’ll be serving up a heaping spoonful of all things tech.
Diana: We promise, it will be easy to digest. Hi Justin.
Justin: Hi Diana. It’s Wednesday.
Diana: That’s right.
Justin: And today, you know, we’re talking about educational websites. It’s web Wednesday. We always talk about websites and things things on the web, and these are educational sites, and if you have kids or you know, even yourself. Honestly, I think these could be interesting, you know, are a hobbyist.
Diana: Yes. Well, you know, we spend a lot of time on Internet for fun, a lot of us do.
Justin: Who?
Diana: Oh, not me.
Justin: Yeah, you?
Diana: Um.
Justin: Yes.
Diana: People in general.
Justin: Yep, I know that you do.
Diana: And, yeah, there’s a lot of fun things you can do to waste time.
Justin: It’s okay.
Diana: You can also learn stuff.
Justin: I must admit, I’ve found myself watching Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin.
Diana: Aw.
Justin: Yes, which was great cause I’m trying to, you know, relive some of. Honestly, those classic, you know, those specials, they’re great, great music and everything. So a lot more than the educational stuff they put on TV these days.
Diana: Oh, they’re layered with all sorts of.
Justin: Oh, they are.
Diana: Great messages and stories, so.
Justin: Absolutely, yeah. So the Association of Library Service to Children, which is a division of the American Library Association, puts together a phenomenal list of websites for kids.
Diana: Yeah!
Justin: And you can find that at this address:
Diana: gws.ala.org
Justin: Yeah, and so you know, a lot of people these days don’t even use a library, unfortunately.
Diana: Right.
Justin: And we need to remember to do that.
Diana: I love the library.
Justin: Absolutely, you do. You still.
Diana: You smell the books when you walk in.
Justin: Yeah.
Diana: It’s so special.
Justin: Oh it is, it is. And a lot of our libraries are in need of people using them.
Diana: That’s right.
Justin: To stay relevant. So yeah, I think that we should do that. So you can visit this website, which it also to note in that address that Diana just gave you, is there is no www.
Diana: Right.
Justin: So don’t, don’t use a www, just a gws.ala.org you know, you can find a list there of great websites for kids, and these are pretty cool. There’s American Folklore, and that site contains retelling’s of American folktales.
Diana: Ah.
Justin: They have American myths and legends, tall tales, weather folklore, interesting. Ghost stories from all 50 states.
Diana: Oh.
Justin: In the USA including famous characters like Paul Bunion, Texas Bill, Daniel Boone.
Diana: Aw.
Justin: You know, that sort of thing.
Diana: That’s nice.
Justin: So it’s stuff that we grew up with.
Diana: That’s right.
Justin: You know, that we read out of books. And sometimes.
Diana: I hope the kids are still reading that in school, I don’t know.
Justin: I don’t know if they are. But you can find it at that website.
Diana: Yeah.
Justin: And then the Smithsonian. Have you been to the Smithsonian?
Diana: I have not.
Justin: Yes, I have.
Diana: Oh.
Justin: Yeah, I mean I’ve only been to one museum of the Smithsonian compound. It’s very cool.
Diana: Uh huh.
Justin: Very cool.
Diana: You’ll have to take me sometime.
Justin: Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s in Washington. The National Museum of the American Indian is another website that you can go to and find some educational but interesting things for kids. Part of the Smithsonian Institute of course this museum is devoted to the protection and study of the life, languages, literature, history and the arts, of Native Americans. So that’s pretty cool.
Diana: Good, good.
Justin: And then this is one that I said might appeal to adults as well.
Diana: All about birds.
Justin: That’s right.
Diana: That’s right.
Justin: There are a lot of people who love to watch birds.
Diana: Bird watchers, people that are bird enthusiasts. You can learn all about birds on this website, and it’s created by the Cornell lab of Ornithology.
Justin: Very cool. Very cool. So bird, name, species, locations and history and all that.
Diana: And bird song, videos.
Justin: Yeah.
Diana: Yeah.
Justin: There’s some cool stuff there. There’s a ton of things out there, educational smart things to make your kids smarter and maybe to make you smarter, what’s that web address Diana, again so that I can find the list.
Diana: gws.ala.org
Justin: Great. Until next time.
Diana: Take care.
Justin: Tech Table is brought to you by MPA of Bloomfield Iowa, and God’s County Radio. You can visit us online at askmpa.com.
Diana: If you have questions or comments, please send them to questions@askmpa.com. That’s questions@askmpa.com.
Justin: And thanks for listening!
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