‘Tis the season to quiz yourself on holiday trivia! See how much your know about Christmas and the holiday season.

Good Luck!

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Today it seems everyone is talking about The American Debt.

Politicians, analysts, TV and radio commentators and surprisingly people just like you and me. People whose economic discussions used to center around how much interest they were paying on their credit cards or the interest rate no their homes – are suddenly acquiring as much information as they can get, not just about their personal economy but about the nation’s economy. Problem is most of us are starting out with a handicap. If we haven’t taken economics in school, there’s a lot being discussed that we may not understand.

That’s why FunnelBrain put together a  fast and informative 10 question Quiz about The American Debt to help us all understand what those politicians, analysts and commentators are talking about. And more importantly, in order to form our own opinions.

So before you join the conversation on The Debt, take FunnelBrain’s American Debt Quiz now!

Click here to take quiz

The ten year anniversary of 911 has been marked and the heroes of that day and all the days since have been honored. The cost of human life lost on that day and since the War on Terror began is incalculable. But have you any idea what the financial costs of keeping our country safe for the last 10 years really adds up to?

To find out Newsweek had Ian Yarett and Clark Merrefeld do the math.

Then FunnelBrain turned that information into a short, interesting quiz that you can share with friends by embedding it in any of your other favorite social networking sites.

After 10 years, the nation that will  never forget our heroes, is also ready to celebrate our resiliency.

Little did the forces that attacked us on 9/11 realize that a single day could galvanize a nation and bring it together to show the indomitable spirit of patriotism and resolve that has always made America great.

Click to take the 911 Quiz now!

Funnelbrain, LLC works with thousands of companies, schools, and non-profits to deliver high quality leads.  You may be thinking…’Funnelbrain is a social learning platform, why are they delivering leads?’ and the response is simple; educated consumers are quality consumers.  And Funnelbrain can produce a lot of quality consumers.

So which tool do we use? It’s simple; we set up online quizzes mapped to a specific program, product, or service.  In order for the consumer to become a lead, they must first take, and more importantly, pass a quiz.  So why is this consumer of higher quality?  A couple reasons:  1) Clearly, the more time a consumer spends filling out a lead form, the higher propensity the lead has to convert as the consumer has shown a higher interest rate.  2) By spending time on the quiz, the consumer has also now ‘bought in’.  They have committed time to engaging in your brand and are therefore more likely to convert.  3) Over the long term, the consumer will remember your product, service, or process.  While they may not convert TODAY, the consumer has a much higher likelihood of coming back to YOU versus a random banner ad they’ve seen.  While you are only PAYING for leads you receive today, you have actively engaged in a branding campaign at no cost.

Take one of our lead gen quizzes; interested in your thoughts

Today, FunnelBrain LLC, the leader in online group learning, launched a retooled Flashcard and Quiz Study Widget with dramatically improved usability and functionality to help active learners collaborate on and off the FunnelBrain website.

FunnelBrain’s Study Widget gives learners on FunnelBrain the benefit of hosting review materials in the form of flashcards and quizzes anywhere on the web. Learners can now use FunnelBrain’s user generated content tools to create multi-media flashcards and quizzes and embed those materials on any website, blog or social networking site including Facebook.

Review materials on the new FunnelBrain Study Widget are presented in an easy to use flashcard or quiz player that is available for any content created and hosted on FunnelBrain’s website. Learners simply click the embed link and copy the embed code to add the Study Widget to their website, blog or social network. The Study Widget can display materials created with text or images using FunnelBrain’s user generated content tools. Quizzes have the added benefit of displaying analytic information including community stats and the quiz leaderboard.

You can check out a couple examples below…

Embedded Quiz about the Environment

Embedded Flashcards about United States Presidents

Today, FunnelBrain LLC, the leader in online group learning, launched a redesigned FunnelBrain search experience backed by new technology that combines multiple search capabilities into an integrated and seamless search result to help active learners find review materials faster and connect with other online learners.

Powered by a new platform built with proprietary technology and FunnelBrain’s user generated education content database, FunnelBrain search results are now easier to navigate while providing access to learning materials from thousands of students, teachers and publishers.

“A primary objective for the redesign was to create a search experience that connects learners to study materials created by other learners, “ said Joe DeTuno, FunnelBrain CEO. “Today’s launch solidifies our position as the trusted collaborative learning source for todays active learners.”

Study materials on the new FunnelBrain search page now presents information so learners can better scan, evaluate and identify flashcards, quizzes, people and study groups of interest. As part of the redesign, the search results now provide a categorized at-a-glance summary of each flashcard deck, quiz and study group that better displays the title, number of questions, rating, tags and more. The new design also provides dynamic search options that support filtering and sorting the result set to make the learning materials even easier to find.

We invite you to visit FunnelBrain.com and see the power of collaborative learning first hand. Browse through thousands of flashcard decks, quizzes and study teams. Test your knowledge on popular subjects you find and then challenge your friends!

KaBoom is a new social learning game that’s created when teachers, students and users build a custom quiz on FunnelBrain or choose from thousands of existing quizzes. Your challenge, accumulate enough points to escape and arrive safely to the next level without a…KaBOOM! The game allows you to practice timed quizzes while promoting comparative and collaborative learning. Students can share scores and challenge friends while mastering the subject matter.

You have 60 seconds to answer each question by feeding answers into FunnelBot, a robot with unlimited learning potential. Answer wrong and your lives are transformed into the dreaded dunce caps. If you don’t know the answer or run out of time…KaBOOM! and game over.

KaBOOM! is designed to be challenging for audiences of all ages – because its social in nature and supports virtually any question/answer content you can create. Test your smarts against FunnelBot on everything from the GMAT to important facts surrounding the world’s current events.

Here’s your chance to give KaBOOM! a try: Test your knowledge on important facts about the Japanese nuclear power reactors now in danger. Click here and select “Play KaBOOM! on the next page or click the game below.

Welcome to FunnelBrain’s Monthly Highlight’s

A series of monthly updates specifically designed to connect you with the most highly rated learning resources on FunnelBrain. So whether you dream of a new career, a new degree or passing your AP Biology Exam, our quizzes, flashcards and study teams will help you to succeed.

Further Your Career and Secure Your Future
Considering a career change or college degree? This month’s top degree quizzes allow you to quickly determine whether you are ready to take the next step.

Criminal Justice Degree
Business Degree
Education Degree
Computer Science Degree
Project Management Degree
Graphic Design Degree

Highlights Include the Ability to Compare and Challenge Friends

Today we launched a new user generated quiz engine for FunnelBrain’s online learning community. FunnelBrain Online Quizzes help learners of all ages work together to improve test scores and academic performance. The quiz platform, available free of charge on FunnelBrain, provides access to the thousands of existing quizzes or allows you to create your own.

The new quiz brings social gaming concepts to the learning process with  real time leader boards, instant score analysis, and the ability to share quiz challenges with friends across the social graph and compare your results against various data points including your location.

“We are dedicated to providing users with collaborative products that help students of all ages learn more effectively, ” said Joe DeTuno, FunnelBrain CEO.  “We know working together is more fun and helps people learn more effectively. Our new collaborative “game-based” quiz experience will enable students and teachers to learn and have fun in the process.”

FunnelBrain’s new quiz engine provides another level of interaction between test takers. With the highly anticipated new challenge feature, FunnelBrain users can create a quiz, post their results, challenge their classmates and instantly compare how they rank against their peers.

Today we’re introducing several new features:

The improvements to FunnelBrain Online Quizzes are just the beginning of our continual efforts to provide enhanced study tools for today’s active learners.

We invite you to visit FunnelBrain.com and see the power of collaborative learning first hand.   To view a list of existing quizzes click here or to create your own, visit www.funnelbrain.com.

Education and Technology From a High School Teacher’s Perspective

Interview with Scott Milne, High School Math Teacher in New Hampshire

I’ve seen a clip of you playing guitar and singing at a High School graduation. Do you use any type of interactive creative techniques in the classroom?

First, this is DUCK green in anticipation of the championship game.  Second, the most interactive technique I use in the classroom is good old fashioned getting to know the kids by talking to them about their lives … sometimes that includes academic topics, sometimes the college application process, sometimes whatever sport or activity they are involved in, sometimes politics and sometimes even the likelihood of Oregon beating Auburn!  The creative part would be my willingness to bring in personal stories and anecdotes from my 40+ years of life and in this process of getting to know each other, each class develops its own personality and I can then bring out the student’s individual personalities into the lessons or activities in a fun (funny) way.  I do make fun of myself, the subject I am teaching (you would be surprised at how ridiculous examples in math textbooks can be) and the students daily – always in a good natured way – but it helps to engage them in the class and the subject matter and it brings them together as a group.

Do you students use “study groups” as a tool to help prepare for exams? Do see where online tools could help in the collaboration process of a study group in today’s education process?

I know some teachers who do and it does work for them.  I have an open door policy during my free periods and after school for anyone who wants to come get extra help to come see me.  This often evolves into a half dozen to a dozen kids – especially on days near test time!  Some kids I will specifically stress that they come in to get help … others simply don’t need it.  Once I get to know the kids I know who they are friends with and try to get them to do study groups within their peer group … again some do and some don’t.  I think online tools could be incredibly helpful.  I have a rather basic website (www.milnemath.com) … where kids can turn in homework & check on due dates and assignments – but if there was an interactive feature where I made myself available at certain times in the evening or weekend around exams or due dates for big projects I can see how quite a few students would partake.  As it is – on the nights before tests I check my school email account up until I go to bed to answer any questions they have while they review (they know of this option).  Unfortunately, I go to bed quite a bit earlier than many students typically start to study so this is not utilized by a lot of kids.  There are also web based programs like EDMOTO that can link “classes” together and distribute important information as emails or texts.  I have not used this yet but know a teacher who does and I think it can have powerful impacts on helping students keep tabs on big deadlines and exams/tests. I am an advisor for a club and they created a facebook page for the group and distribute information to all members … again there is great potential for something similar to facebook but dedicated to education to link entire classes with their teachers.  Kids could ask each other questions on problems or topics and/or the teacher.  Due to our somewhat litigious society there do have to be certain cautions taken when entering the cyber-world with students.

We are seeing more educators use technology in the classroom from Blogs where homework sheets are posted to shared resource site where they post suggested readings, etc… Can you see ideas here for the math world?

I do see ideas for the math world.  Many are already in place.  Several of our textbooks are “online” so kids actually don’t have to take their books home if they don’t want to … they can see examples (sometimes interactive) and see the homework problems.  The text I use for AP Stats has a link with interactive applets that I have the kids go to for reinforcement or I will use them in class. They also have online quizzes that the kids can take to assess their knowledge as they prepare for tests.  I also have applied for a grant for an interactive white board – which I think will allow me to better demonstrate many concepts and help get the students more active as well.  I would love to have a blog for each of my courses where kids could ask other kids homework questions or conceptual questions.  If kids don’t abuse that type of forum, it could be very helpful.  I have also, on several occasions, used a document camera in the class (a souped-up overhead projector) that really helps with graphical demonstrations and anything that requires 3-D perception (geometrical shapes).

Scott, thank you for your time and education insights.

Keep on Learning!