Group items tagged

"older adults are actively seeking technical help from younger generations "

"According to the Pew Research Center, more than a quarter--26 percent--of American adults have not read even part of a book within the past year. It's a shame considering that researchers have found reading is beneficial in many ways."

"Children with dyslexia can have trouble with many aspects of literacy, including learning the alphabet, recognizing letters, following a sequence of directions and mastering the rules of spelling. Having a son with dyslexia, we tried many things to help him with his frustrations. We used a lot of compensatory techniques and one web-based program that is now an app. Below are six apps that aim to help kids and adults with dyslexia. "

"For a variety of reasons (which we'll get to shortly), the iPad is the pre-dominant technology form in K-12 environments. They dominate blog headlines, promote incredible user loyalty (you could say cultish, but you said it, not me), and make adults drool like teething infants. Walk by any Apple store and through their wide glass storefront you'll see otherwise rational human beings swoon and fawn, listening intently as Apple experts explain how a slideshow works, how to use iCloud, or how to sync their iPhone with their iPad. School districts buy them, teachers buy them, and parents even send their students to school with them on occasion. So it makes sense that this kind of popularity would carry over to the classroom. Educators have officially had their curiosity piqued. They want to know how to integrate it into activities, lessons, and curriculum in general, and judging by our traffic patterns here on TeachThought, they come bearing questions."

"Fostering digital literacy skills is one of the most difficult tasks for educators. Evaluating and analyzing online resources for accuracy is something that many adults struggle with - we've all been bamboozled before, haven't we? But digital literacy is more than just determining if something is true or false - it's intelligently and responsibly navigating online, it's putting countless pieces together to form a puzzle, it's determining what's important and evaluating bias, etc - the list goes on. So, as an educator, how do we reinforce these crucial skills in our classrooms?"

"Developer KidsAndBeyond have put out such a wonderful app with Map My Globe. Just this week I wrote a post for a lifestyle website that talked about the benefits and importance of teaching our kids about the world around them. This is the perfect addition to your educational library as it literally maps the globe. The first page opens up with pictures of the different continents with pictures of flags and famous landmarks in each region. If you push the blinking arrow it takes you to the next page where we can either have a young woman read to us or read it ourselves. The introduction asks us if we have ever wondered what continent Nambia was in or what currency the country of Ecuador uses. For any fun-facts loving kid (and adult) this app is filled with really interesting facts about the world!"

"Even though older adults might still carry a negative association with video game consoles and devices, today's technology is vastly different than it was 20 years ago. Apps have exploded on the scene, and while there are plenty of time wasting games available on the market, today's offerings also include a wide range of affordable apps that enrich learning and allow for quick on-the-go play. Whether your child is waiting for the doctor or relaxing on a long car ride, the following apps are some of the best games that pack an educational punch."

"The National Association for Child Development and Blue Whale Apps have announced the release of their breakthrough app aimed at assisting children and adults with speech and articulation. The application, "Speech Therapy for Apraxia-Words," which is part of their NACD Home Speech Therapist line, is now available on the App Store, Google Play, Amazon App Store, and Barnes & Noble App Store for the iPad, Kindle Fire, Nook, and Android Tablets."

"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

"I love the idea of making, inventing and tinkering. Just watch kids who are immersed in the activities and you can see the engagement. But is the learning authentic and relevant? I presented three sessions at the Free Maker Movement event at One Work Place on Wednesday, September 30, 2015 with some amazing educators who presented hands-on activities. The event will took place at our Oakland Center for Active Learning . I decided I needed to spend some time researching where the Maker Movement was happening and find examples of authentic learning. This gave me the opportunity to talk to several of my friends and share how they have transformed learning spaces to Makerspaces. Everyone I talked to made a point that it is about creativity not consumption. Yet when I went to different Maker events, I saw activities that an adult set up, purchased a kit or provided directions for activities. They were all fun, but I was having trouble seeing the connections to real learning or any ownership from kids."

""This is cool." With those three words from my 11-year-old son, I knew Apple had a hit on its hands with Swift Playgrounds, its iPad app for learning the company's Swift programming language. We didn't exactly have to pry him away, but he had reached that just-one-more-level-before-dinner type of self-motivation that warms an educator's heart. The app is free. So when Apple releases Swift Playgrounds on Tuesday in the App Store, I recommend giving it a try. It's geared for middle school kids, but adults can learn too -- it sucked me in. You'll need Apple's new iOS 10 software, also arriving Tuesday. And just so you know, some older iPads like the first-generation iPad Mini can't run it."