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Excellent article explaining concepts of Graphic Design to 4 year olds.

"When Jennifer Lanier began working as a media specialist at Summit Parkway Middle School in South Carolina's Richland School District Two, the school library looked like one most of us remember from our own school days. "There were large heavy tables and chairs with shelves lining all walls," she says.  "It was a very fixed space."  After a period of intensive research, she was ready to make some major changes. "My library is now split into two main sections," Lanier explains, "with the circulation desk as the dividing point.  I focused on renovating the back half first.  This would become the Creative Commons area.  I removed the shelves from the corner, purchased six tall mobile tables, a few stools, six white boards, and twenty beanbag cubes." The idea, Lanier explains, was not to set up the tables, stools and cubes ahead of time but, rather, to leave the furniture out of the way and let users (both students and staff members) grab it and reconfigure the space to meet their needs.  "The arrangement of the space does not dictate the way collaboration is carried out; instead the collaboration can freely flow in the direction it takes.  Users can gather around on the cubes to discuss an idea.  They can break out to a project table and visualize it on a white board.  The simple act of moving allows the brain to be more creative." "

"One of the most important steps in selling a product is making sure consumers are knowledgeable about what it offers. For many businesses and marketers, this means creating an animated explainer video. According to Wyzowl's State of Video Marketing report for 2019, more than 80 percent of marketers say video helps them increase the number of time users spend on their website, generate more leads, and, most importantly, and help users better understand their product. Marketers aren't the only ones saying video makes a difference. Consumers agree - 68 percent say they prefer to learn about a product or service by watching a video. Additionally, 79 percent say a video convinced them to purchase software or an app."

"What is 3D printing? What's it good for? How does it work? We simply explain this exciting technology in depth. 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is a manufacturing process where a 3D printer creates three-dimensional objects by depositing materials layer by layer in accordance to the object's 3D digital model."

"As anyone who's ever spent hours hunched over Candy Crush can attest, there's something special about games. Sure they're fun, but they can also be absorbing, frustrating, challenging and complex. Research has shown our brains are "wired for pleasure," and that games are an effective way to learn because they simulate adventure and keep our brains engaged and happy. But what exactly do we learn from them? In an era consumed with teaching 21st-century soft skills, are games any good at building critical thinking or collaboration skills? The answer is likely yes, but, much like games themselves, it's complicated. "What you'll find from the research is that it's very much dependent on, 'under certain types of conditions, certain types of skills seem to be developed,'" explains game designer and theorist Katie Salen, a former executive director at the nonprofit Institute of Play. "I never want to make claims that games writ-large for any kid-under any circumstances-teach these sort of skills.""

"Yesterday, I shared a student-produced video from Next Vista for Learning. This morning I have a good example of a teacher-produced video found on Next Vista. In the following video Brian Ellis explains what the Snap programming language is, demonstrates how it works, and explains the differences between Snap and Scratch. Take a look at the video and think about how your students might make use of Snap's features."

"Computer science education is not a new field. Much of what we know about the pedagogy and content for elementary students comes from Seymour Papert's research on teaching elementary students to code back in the 1970's and 80's. But, as we shift from labs and one-off classrooms to a broad expansion for all students in every classroom K-12, we are seeing changes to how computer science is taught. This means we are working in a rapidly evolving field (insert metaphor of building a plane while flying it). Over time, we have gone from a focus on coding (often in isolation) to a more broad idea of computer science as a whole, and now to the refined idea of computational thinking as a foundational understanding for all students. Pause. You may be asking, "But wait, what's computational thinking again?" In her book Coding as a Playground, Marina Umaschi Bers explained: "The notion of computational thinking encompasses a broad set of analytic and problem-solving skills, dispositions, habits, and approaches most often used in computer science, but that can serve everyone." More simply, you can think of computational thinking as the thought processes involved in using algorithms to solve problems. Sheena Vaidyanathan writes some good articles explaining the differences between computer science, coding, and computational thinking here and here."

"I first became aware that there might be a problem a few years ago, when one of my kids was studying weather systems: high- and low-pressure systems, cold fronts and warm fronts. We were trying to help her prepare for a test and also do some sort of homework, and she didn't get it at all. We were really frustrated, my husband and I, because all we really had as a reference was the top half of this worksheet that explained the concept. So we were having trouble explaining it to her, and at one point I finally said to her, "You know, in your class, didn't your teacher ever draw a diagram on the board?" She said, "No.""

" I heard a great talk a few months ago. It was Conrad Wolfram (probably one of the world's leading mathematicians) who suggested, that we should stop teaching our kids maths. Whoah! He said, and I'm paraphrasing, we needed to teach them computational thinking instead. What is that? He said every problem needs breaking apart, exploding it into its parts - if we are to begin to properly solve them. And better still that we explain to kids how to put that idea into practice. Explain to them, for example, that to make their bike go faster they might figure out how much bigger the peddle wheel needs to be than than the one on the back wheel. According to Wikipedia computational thinking is an iterative process based on three stages: 1. Problem formulation (abstraction) 2. Solution expression (automation) 3. Solution execution and evaluation (analyses) That REALLY works for me."

"Children are quick to ask "why?" and "how?" when it comes to new things, but research suggests elementary and preschool students learn more when teachers (and, presumably, parents) turn the questions back on them, writes Sarah Sparks in Education Week. Sparks reports on a symposium at the annual Association for Psychological Science research meeting held late last month, where panelists discussed how and when asking students for explanations can best enhance their learning:"

"Welcome to the Global Alphabet Screencast! The purpose of this experiment is to explore the capabilities of global collaboration facilitated through the use of iPads as a screen casting device. Anyone is welcome to contribute to the global alphabet screencast by simply selecting one letter of the alphabet and creating a short (30 second or less) screencast that captures the meaning, essence or unique perspective on that particular letter. This project would not be possible without the creation and thoughtful development of Explain Everything"

"Augmented reality should not be confused with virtual reality, for the boundaries of each concept are clearly demarcated. While virtual reality denotes a reality that exists only in the virtual world (online), augmented reality, on the other hand, keeps the real world but only adds a digital layer to it. or amplifies it. In other words, augmented reality gives you  actual information without changing or displacing the real world you are experiencing."

"The infographic we have for you today provides an excellent explanation of what Universal Design for Learning is all about. We invite you to check it out and share with us your thoughts "Universal Design for Learning is a set of principles designed to guide curriculum and lesson development to ensure that all individuals have equal opportunities to learn and can quickly engage with the instruction.Digital technologies, online resources, and mobile devices can be used to design flexible instruction with options to support all students in achieving the Florida Standards" "

"Problem based learning ( PBL) is a teaching strategy that involves the minimum amount of direct and formal instruction characteristic of lecture based teaching.  In a PBL model, students are provided with complex problems to work on and during the process they get to learn the lesson content and theoretical knowledge underlying the problem. In other words, unlike traditional content-based teaching where the primacy is put on the delivery of content and the imparting of knowledge to students, PBL foregrounds problem-based activities as a way to stimulate students cognitive skills and engage them in hands-on learning."

"You can use Google Drive and Google Documents in any recently modern web browser including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Chrome. You can find out if you are using the most up to date version of a web browser by going to WhatBrowser.org. Simply visit WhatBrowser.org and you will be shown which web browser you're using and if it is the most updated version of that browser. Chrome is the web browser produced by Google. Learn more about web browsers in the video embedded below."

"Augmented Reality - Explained by Common Craft (Free Version) "

In this Connect@NMC online seminar, Lee will share a bit on their development and video process for the unique style they call "Paperworks." This session is designed to be an open discussion, so please come with some questions you may want to ask Lee about his technique or some suggestions for what other topics should be explained in "Plain English." If you missed this session, you can now view the archived recording http://nmc.na3.acrobat.com/p92246187/