Group items tagged

"Last week I wrote a post about AlfaTyping which is a good site for creating and managing online typing courses for your students. Since I published that post I have received a couple of requests for other online typing instruction and practice sites. Here are some of the others that I've tried over the years. I have tried to exclude Flash-based games from the list."

"Computer coding is promoted as a must-learn skill for 21st Century students. Dan Donahoo questions what's driving this view. Learning to code has become something of an edtech focus over the last 12 months. Venture capitalists are seeding places like Code Academy, Code.org and any number of mobile, apps and computer games to teach us and our students the language of computation. But, do all students need to learn to code?"

"new initiative in the field of interactive and game-based learning, in which learning content is combined with physical movement"

"This past year, fourth and fifth grade students at Independence Elementary School in Yukon, Oklahoma, have had the opportunity to participate in an after-school Scratch Club led by STEM teacher Chris Simon. Scratch is a free program from the MIT Media Lab, which permits learners of any age to create games, tell stories, make animations, and much more. In its new 2.0 version, Scratch is entirely web-based, so it can even run on a Chromebook! Yesterday was the final day of "Scratch Club" for students at Independence Elementary this year, and several students shared the reasons why they enjoy Scratch and have loved the Scratch Club. In this five minute video compilation of their ideas, pay attention to how several students mention the importance of "agency" and choice. Many report how they love the opportunity to be self-directed in their learning and to have opportunities to use their imaginations to create. Also notice the way one student references the "hard fun" of programming, which is something Gary Stager talks about often in the context of students learning to code. "

"AppCrawlr mines app data scattered all across the web to learn everything about apps. AppCrawlr knows good alternatives to Angry Birds are physics based, challenging, addictive games with great sound effects, solid replay value, and super fun. "

"Words are the primary tools we use to convey meanings , of course there are non verbal tools as well but particularly in formal educational settings like schools and classrooms, words take the lion share of our language.  Can you imagine yourself delivering a lesson with no words in it ? will it work? Well Peterson has an answer." Peterson is a guy who used to have dyslexia when he was young and he did not learn how to read till he was in grade five. As an adult now, he designed some great applications to help teachers teach students without having to say a word. These are basically interactive learning games based on formative feedback. Watch the 8 minutes video to see the revolution Peterson triggered by the use of his free-language teaching approach. Enjoy

"There's only one thing more satisfying than being part of a 3D printing project, and that's teaching others how to get involved with the additive manufacturing game. A few weeks ago, Netherlands-based 3D printer manufacturer Ultimaker launched its ambitious 3D printing Pioneer Program through which school teachers and university staff can share useful tips and resources for bringing 3D printing into the classroom, but Thingiverse, MakerBot's huge 3D printable file hub, has a fair amount of educational content of its own. MakerBot Learning, the educational division of the 3D printing company, has sifted through the database to identify the best STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) 3D printing lesson plans submitted by Thingiverse users. The various lessons, from which we have selected 15, include step-by-step instructions, photos, 3D design files, activity sheets, and more. Some of the lessons are targeted at high school students, while others are more suitable for younger learners."

"Now that we finally have the Oculus Rift's Touch controllers, VR gaming on the platform is about to get a lot more interactive. However, based on a video released by Oculus on Monday, the best use of the Touch controller may turn out be Medium, a software tool from Oculus that allows you to sculpt with digital clay in virtual reality."

"In a way, the current education system is already set up like a game-just not a very well designed one. Students earn points (grades), gain levels (grades), and in a way, have leaderboards. There are class valedictorians and students are essentially ranked based on their grades when colleges are deciding who to accept. Currently, the typical grading system in schools has students starting off with a 100 average, which slowly (or quickly, depending on the student's performance) gets lower and lower as the student receives anything less than a 100 on any assignments, tests, etc."

"What we've tried to do in the following list is provide an evidentiary-based counterpoint to the lingering persistence of the textbook in education. We've collected ten apps from across the content areas, from Shakespeare to the Elements, that each serve as compelling argument against textbooks. Only one of these apps is a game; the rest are examples of how-when properly designed-content can be refracted digitally, with a user-centered touch interface, full multimedia capabilities, while still maintaining a focus on delivering content to students. Or rather, providing access in a way that's more compelling than any textbook could ever imagine."

"I was super excited to attend Hack Education (originally called "EdubloggerCon"), an all-day unconference held the Friday before the formal start of ISTE 2014. This interactive day of learning, now in its eighth year, was touted to me as the event to attend in Atlanta, and it did not disappoint. The informal, small-group conversations were inclusive and welcoming. The "rule of two feet" meant that if you needed to move, you were encouraged. And session topics were diverse -- on the schedule were discussions about maker education, augmented reality, design thinking, game-based learning, coding in the classroom, digital storytelling, and many, many more!"

"The learn-to-code movement is aiming younger. MIT and partners, for example, recently released a free iPad app with its visual programming language ScratchJr., so kindergartners could use it to code stories and games even before knowing how to read. Vikas Gupta, a former Google executive who founded the startup Wonder Workshop (formerly called Play-i), has taken a slightly different path. "We learned that in order to make programming of interest to young children, it has to be a tangible product. It can't be just software," he told Co.Exist last year. Enter Dot and Dash-Wonder Workshop's two new robots that teach coding skills to children as young as five that are now being field tested in a few dozen elementary school classrooms nationally. And they are definitely tangible: Dash hears and responds to sounds, navigates around a room and avoid obstacles, and comes to life with sound and lights. He can even play the xylophone. Dot, on the other hand, doesn't have wheels and is meant to interact with Dash via Bluetooth and act as a controller. Both have their own customizable "personalities." On the back end, through four apps that control both robots, they are secretly teaching coding skills such as "event-based programming, sequencing, conditionals, and loops.""

""Contraption Maker promotes STEM learning by engaging students with a series of Rube Goldberg-esque puzzles. Students choose from hundreds of parts like hamster motors, balls, and conveyor belts to fix broken contraptions. Not only do students use logic and critical thinking skills to solve puzzles, they can also create their own contraptions and share them with friends, family or even the world. For advanced students, JavaScript modding gives kids the opportunity to make the game into anything they can imagine. It's a zany digital sandbox for project-based learning." - Contraption Maker Education Page"c

"This web site is designed to foster visual creativity by making stories out of photos. It is based completely on the Five Card Nancy game devised by comics guru Scott McCloud and the nifty web version at 741.5 Comics. However, rather than using randomly chosen panels of the old Nancy comic, my version draws upon collections of photos specified by a tag in flickr. You are dealt five random photos for each draw, and your task is to select one each time to add to your building set of images, that taken together as a final set of 5 - tell a story in pictures. When you are done, you can add a title and explanation, and save the story. You can easily put a link in your resume or send to your Mom (she may print it out and tape it to the fridge, or she may criticize your creativity, your mileage and mom may vary). Plus we offer the ability to tweet your story or use an embed code to add it to your own web site."

"Thousands of schools are participating in Hour of Code, a global initiative to get more kids engaged in computer science. Tynker, a creative platform to help children develop programming skills, has launched 10 new coding activities to support the hour of code. Tynker's unique approach motivates students to learn because they can create their own characters, animate them, and rapidly build their own games and interactive stories, using visual block-based programming. The real excitement is best heard in the voices of students who previewed an Hour of Code with Tynker:"