Group items tagged

"I'm currently teaching a STEM/STEAM online course for Powerful Learning Practice with my arts expert buddy of 20 years - Nancy Flanagan. Our task, among other things, is to show how to put the "A" in STEM. We both have points of agreement, points of divergence, and plenty of questions."

"Augmented reality experiences are generally triggered by geographic location or image recognition. In the latter case, apps can be programmed to recognize specific images and then take a series of actions when those image are encountered. For example, when looking at a car engine an augmented reality app may identify where and how to top up fluid levels. Of course that trigger image can also be a printed image in a book or on a wall. Imagine walking around an art museum and pointing your device at a painting on the wall. A video pops up immediately displaying an interview with the artist and explaining the nuances of the painting. Tap on the screen and it shows you other works by the same artist. Another tap and you can order a print. The art becomes a digital doorway to an augmented experience that enables you to explore and learn more. Now consider a similar scenario with a printed image in a book."

"Sunnyside Unified School District, a self-proclaimed "tech-savvy school district" in Tucson, AZ, has completed the introduction of a 1-to-1 program for the 2012-2013 school year for students in grades 4 through 9. As part of that initiative, the district, with about 18,000 students, implemented a new learning environment with digital curriculum aligning with the Common Core State Standards for core subject areas, encompassing math, language arts, social studies, and science."

"Even before the invention of photography, certain images have gained iconic status in human culture. Our history and art textbooks are full of examples and many of them are etched in our memories. 440px-Join_or_DieBenjamin Franklin's "Join or Die" snake image, said to be the first American political cartoon, originally appeared during the French and Indian War, was repurposed by Paul Revere in 1775, and continues to be a powerful representation of the movement toward U.S. independence and nationhood. More recent visual texts, from the Hindenburg disaster, to Iwo Jima, to MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, to the haunting images of September 11, help us understand what "iconic" means in terms of cultural memory and messaging."

"As the STEAM movement grows, more and more schools are integrating the arts into their STEM curricula. Those who have already made the transition offer these suggestions for schools just getting started:"

"A performance task is any learning activity or assessment that asks students to perform to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and proficiency. Performance tasks yield a tangible product and/or performance that serve as evidence of learning. Unlike a selected-response item (e.g., multiple-choice or matching) that asks students to select from given alternatives, a performance task presents a situation that calls for learners to apply their learning in context. Performance tasks are routinely used in certain disciplines, such as visual and performing arts, physical education, and career-technology where performance is the natural focus of instruction. However, such tasks can (and should) be used in every subject area and at all grade levels."

"s a boy, I loved taking things apart. Clocks, radios, my mother's kitchen appliances. Luckily for her, I was fairly adept at reassembly. I wanted to discover how things worked, what made them tick (and not just the clocks). But at school, the closest I came to engineering was art lessons and woodworking class. "

"Many students face the same strange situation when learning to read. There are plenty of hours allotted for reading instruction-far more than for writing, science, art, or even math-yet a child can go through an entire day without holding an actual book in her hands."

"Grade Essays Faster - "Impossible!" you say? Look, we can't grade the essays for you, but we can reduce the repetitive, inefficient manual labor involved - and in doing so we open up a new world of invaluable student data. Welcome to the future."