Group items tagged

Education and Technology - Manitoba Action and Reflection Released yesterday. The eBook is now available in from iBooks and a pdf version from this link

"Earlier this year, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York, visitors paraded through the fifth floor to see a retrospective dedicated to the abstract expressionist Frank Stella. Although many of the works on display were four or five decades old, in some ways the show felt tailor-made for the Instagram age: a riot of vibrant colors and textures, 20-foot-long reliefs, and sculptures as jagged and dynamic as 3-D graffiti. Visitors one busy Saturday afternoon stopped in front of artworks, lined up shots on their phones, snapped a few photos, and then moved on to the next piece. Some paused briefly to consider a particular painting; more stared down at their screens, furiously filtering. Few noticed an elderly gentleman sitting on a bench in one of the smaller rooms, watching the crowd engage with his work. The only visitor in the gallery not clutching a phone was Stella himself. Museum directors are grappling with how technology has changed the ways people engage with exhibits. But instead of fighting it, some institutions are using technology to convince the public that, far from becoming obsolete, museums are more vital than ever before. Here's what those efforts look like."

"If you haven't seen this suite of education books, it's worth checking out. I'll bet there's something you can find to inspire and equip you!"

"n this episode we're talking to Laura Fleming. Laura has been an educator in the state of New Jersey for 20 years.  She has been both a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently as a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12.  Laura is a strong advocate of using New Media and Vanguard Techniques for Interactive and Transmedia (multi-platform) Storytelling. She is also the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning:  Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School (Corwin, 2015). "

"Real-time collaboration has become an essential component of working and learning online, since these tasks are never complete without collaboration. There are many times, when collaborating online in real-time becomes a necessity to keep people involved, make them work together and to keep teams focused to accomplish business goals. With real-time collaboration you get the opportunity to work with people located in different parts of the world at the same time on the same document and see the changes in an instant. There are numerous tools available for the purpose."

http://www.creativebloq.com/design/online-collaboration-tools-912855 Previous link is dead.

"Have you noticed how bizarre social media and the news cycle has been lately? In the age of digital media, journalism is changing significantly. Widely available storytelling and distribution tools, misinformation spreading like wildfire, social media filter bubbles-headlines and stories are increasingly vying for attention, plastered across a smorgasbord of platforms. Can media get any stranger? Without a doubt. The videos we watch and podcasts we listen to may themselves soon be seamlessly manipulated, distorting the truth in new ways. Photoshop was just the beginning. Advanced media creation tools today are cheaper than ever, and innovative tech is accelerating the bleeding edge, further blurring the line between fantasy and reality. One of the latest developments was introduced last week at Adobe Max conference in San Diego. Engineered to make audio editing easier, Adobe's Project VoCo allows users to edit voices by rearranging words or saying phrases never actually recorded-all via typing. The software requires a minimum 20 minutes of recorded talking to do its magic. Then you can make an edited or brand new snippet of speech. In a text box below a visualization of the audio, you can copy/paste or type whatever you want. In a playful demo, Adobe presenter Zeyu Jin jokes around with comedian Jordan Peele by using the software to make him speak falsehoods. In short, this is the audio version of Photoshop-the ability to create something from nothing. A new generation of "sound-shopping," à la photoshopping, has been born."

"n florida, a coalition of parents known as "the recess moms" has been fighting to pass legislation guaranteeing the state's elementary-school students at least 20 minutes of daily free play. Similar legislation recently passed in New Jersey, only to be vetoed by the governor, who deemed it "stupid." When, you might ask, did recess become such a radical proposal? In a survey of school-district administrators, roughly a third said their districts had reduced outdoor play in the early 2000s. Likely culprits include concerns about bullying and the No Child Left Behind Act, whose time-consuming requirements resulted in cuts to play. [1] Disadvantaged kids have been the most likely to be shortchanged: According to a 2003 study, just 56 percent of children living at or below the poverty line had recess, compared with 83 percent of those above the poverty line; a similar disparity was noted between black children and their white peers. [2] FROM OUR DECEMBER 2016 ISSUE Try 2 FREE issues of The Atlantic SUBSCRIBE The benefits of recess might seem obvious-time to run around helps kids stay fit. But a large body of research suggests that it also boosts cognition. Many studies have found that regular exercise improves mental function and academic performance. [3] And an analysis of studies that focused specifically on recess found positive associations between physical activity and the ability to concentrate in class. [4]"

"What makes an effective teacher? Or more specifically, what observable characteristics might you see and hear? The University of Minnesota offered some observable characteristics of effective teaching which, while focused on teacher actions rather than student learning, had some useful tips-not so much how to teach generally, but specific actions that you can use tomorrow."

"One of my favorite innovations in recent years is the idea of TED Talks. Whether you attend a session in person or watch online, you can learn and gain inspiration and see and hear people tell their stories and share their expertise firsthand. It's accessible, substantive information on virtually every topic imaginable. If reading the news first thing in the morning is bringing you down, why not save that task for a bit later in the day? Instead, take in one of these great TED talks with your breakfast. Since they're under 20 minutes, it's the perfect amount of time to spend with your breakfast and coffee--and you'll start the day informed, motivated, and ready to go do great things."

"This question has attracted scientific research for more than a century. In fact, the first empirical study of this issue was published in 1835. Thus, I can offer a confident answer: not quite! At least not if creativity is assessed by productivity or by making original and valuable contributions to fields such as science and art. By that measure, output first increases in our mid-20s, climaxes around our late 30s or early 40s, and then undergoes a slow decline as we age. A person's single best work tends to appear at roughly the same age as their output peaks. But their expected creative productivity at 80 will still be about half of what it was at that high point. Whether you view that as a significant drop or not depends on whether you see the glass as half empty or half full."

"Students' behavior is a form of communication and when it's negative it almost always stems from an underlying cause. There are many reasons kids might be acting out, which makes it difficult for a teacher in a crowded classroom to figure out the root cause. But even if there was time and space to do so, most teachers receive very little training in behavior during their credentialing programs. On average, teacher training programs mandate zero to one classes on behavior and zero to one courses on mental health. Teacher training programs mostly assume that kids in public schools will be "typical," but that assumption can handicap teachers when they get into real classrooms."

"Free educational tools-what could be better? Anytime, anywhere, teachers like to have plenty of resources to pick from to help them create great classroom experiences to engage their students. We've got some wonderful content-packed free educational tools for teachers to explore. They're online and ready to be discovered! There are slideshows, printables, lesson plans, downloadable content and guides, videos, and much more. The sites listed below offer lots of stuff for all subjects and grades, so dive in and see what you can dig up."

"Recently I hosted 20 teachers in my school district at the zoo for an afternoon. The idea was to explore how we might use iPads during a field trip. It was certainly an exciting form of professional development."