Literacy with ICT

"Motors provide a clean way to convert electrical energy (such as from batteries) into mechanical energy (or movement.) This document explains what a motor is, a little of the theory about how it works, and shows some of the different types of motors."

Corporate leaders aren't the only ones who need to consider how to adjust to the new world the 4th Industrial Revolution is ushering in. Educators, schools, government officials, and parents must re-think education and how to prepare the next generation to take advantage of the plethora of opportunities and overcome the challenges enabled by ever-increasing technological change. Here are some of the changes happening because of the 4th Industrial Revolution and eight things every school must do to prepare for the 4th Industrial Revolution.

"Rivet is a reading app from Area 120 (a Google property). The free app offers more than 2,000 books for students to read independently. The books are appropriate for students in Kindergarten through second grade (5-8 years old). All of the books provide audio support to students in the form of an option to tap on a word and hear it read aloud. When students tap on a word they will hear it read aloud and can then read a definition of the word. Students also have the option to practice saying the word aloud. When students say a word aloud they get instant feedback on their pronunciation of that that word."

"Listicles are a humorous way for students to condense and share information through text and images. But how do they work in the classroom? Here's why teachers and students can learn a thing or two (or nine) from BuzzFeed."

"I am by no means a 3D printing expert.  But I do have three 3D printers in my library makerspace (and one in my previous space).  And I have a lot of students who are very interested in learning more about 3D printing.  Some students have built their own 3D printers from kits and love to come hang out and tell me about their latest projects.  Other students have no CAD (computer aided design) experience but are eager to start building. In order to help all of these students better utilize and access our 3D printers, I created a short, Intro to 3D printing session that I teach afterschool every quarter.  It's essentially an orientation to how 3D printing works, how to create a design and how to get it ready to print."

"For much of the past half-century, children, adolescents and young adults in the U.S. have been saying they feel as though their lives are increasingly out of their control. At the same time, rates of anxiety and depression have risen steadily. What's the fix? Feeling in control of your own destiny. Let's call it "agency." "Agency may be the one most important factor in human happiness and well-being." So write William Stixrud and Ned Johnson in their new book, The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives. Feeling out of control can cause debilitating stress and destroy self-motivation. Building agency begins with parents, because it has to be cultivated and nurtured in childhood, write Stixrud and Johnson. But many parents find that difficult, since giving kids more control requires parents to give up some of their own."

Today I had the pleasure of joining over three-hundred educators for a day of learning and sharing. That this was a Sunday and that the event was organised as a free event for educators by educators speaks volumes of the quality and care that educators bring to their role. 

"Anyone who says you can't apply computational thinking and digital learning strategies to strengthen students' writing skills is wrong. To the contrary, this innovative learning style helps students hone critical-thinking skills across every discipline. In my classroom, I teach students computational thinking through free materials from Ignite My Future in School, a partnership between Tata Consultancy Services and Discovery Education. I especially enjoy using their Curriculum Connectors, online resources for teachers across disciplines to help their students apply computational thinking techniques. The core tenets of computational thinking are the building blocks that help my students become better learners and problem-solvers across every area of their work-from all areas of reading and language arts. Here's how five core computational thinking approaches help my students build stronger critical thinking and writing skills:"

"Making animated videos is a great way for students to bring their written stories to life on screen. Those could be fiction or nonfiction stories. Some nonfiction animated video topics include making a video to illustrate a historical event, making biographies, and explaining complex concepts in simple animations like Common Craft does. In the fiction realm you might have students make an adaptation of a favorite story or an animation of their own creative writing. Whichever direction you choose, the following five tools offer good ways for students of all ages to make their own animated videos."

"Over the past year, I have been gradually working to implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) into my classroom. Our new Wisconsin State Science Standards were designed with the NGSS in mind. They align very well, so please forgive me if my language focuses on the NGSS in this post. As I design lessons aligned the standards, I am considering to the skills students will be implementing that carry across multiple units. This relates to the Science and Engineering Practices contained in the standards. I am looking at the technology tools that can be used to leverage these practices. While there are 8 different practices and I hope to delve into each one and the technology tools that can help learners in each, this post will only focus on one practice. That practice is Developing and Using Models. As the name indicates, there a"

"When thinking of ways to support those who are legally blind, two supports often come to mind. Guide dogs and Braille. It's no wonder. Guide dogs provide their owners with a sense of freedom, an increased level of confidence, and a feeling of safety. Blind people who know Braille and use it find success, independence, productivity, and are more likely to find employment. Surprisingly though, of the 1.3 million people in the United States who are legally blind, only about 2% have guide dogs according to Guiding Eyes for the Blind. Also surprising is that fewer than 10 percent are Braille readers according to a report from the National Federation of the Blind. Unfortunately, these supports are currently generally reserved for the elite in our society because of cost and access. These are unfortunate statistics. Fortunately, there are low-to-no-cost technologies that provide support to the visually impaired and blind population. Five technologies to support the visually impaired and legally blind. "

"The value of technology, as Apple Education states, is in its empowering character, when individuals use it to extend their physical and cognitive limitations and transform their learning. Technology opens a world of limitless learning possibilities for persons with learning difficulties and in today's post we are featuring some of the important features embedded in iPad that can help complement learners' vision, hearing, motor skills, and literacy. To access these assistive features head over to your iPad home screen and click on settings icon, next click on General and select Accessibility and then turn on the features you are interested in. Some of the assistive features as lied out in Apple's guide include:"

"E-cigarettes and vapes have exploded in popularity in the last decade, especially among youth and young adults -- from 2011 to 2015, e-cigarette use among high school students in the US increased by 900 percent. Biobehavioral scientist Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin explains what you're actually inhaling when you vape (hint: it's definitely not water vapor) and explores the disturbing marketing tactics being used to target kids. "Our health, the health of our children and our future generations is far too valuable to let it go up in smoke -- or even in aerosol," she says."

"Serial is a podcast from the creators of This American Life, hosted by Sarah Koenig. Serial tells one story - a true story - over the course of a season. Serial has won every major award for broadcasting, including the duPont-Columbia, Scripps Howard, Edward R. Murrow, and the first-ever Peabody awarded to a podcast. Serial, like This American Life, is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago.  It comes from Serial Productions, which released S-Town in 2017, and has more projects in development."

"The week after my dad passed, I decided to come back. Bereavement time was up and I felt that getting back into my classroom would help. I was wrong. By the third day I was still feeling lost, overwhelmed, and exhausted. I ended taking the last two days of the week off. I came back, what I felt as "refreshed", the following Monday. Only still feeling lost, overwhelmed, and exhausted. As soon as I walked into the school I immediately met with the principal and told him that I couldn't continue. I needed more time away to deal with my emotions and to understand the scope of what took place. I could hear words of my dad echoing in my ear - "take care of yourself… if you don't, you'll end up sick." While my dad's health wasn't that great, and he knew it; he always made sure that everyone else took better care of themselves. Exactly like me. I make sure that others are always put before me. I could not longer do that. I needed to take care of myself before I ended up lying on the floor unable to move, like Izzy in Grey's Anatomy. Those four extra days was what I needed. I processed his death, I cried, I slept (for nearly two whole days), and I remembered the good times. I sat on the couch catching up on missed shows, Netflix, and Days of our Lives. We stress the importance of good mental health to our students, but I wasn't heeding my own words. I knew that being in the classroom too soon after his death wasn't making me a good teacher for my students."