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"As parents and teachers, we encourage our kids to become well rounded people who love learning.   In our world of cell phones, ipads, and computers, it's easy for kids to become passive consumers of media and technology.   We, however, want are kids to be active, curious, and creative.   Since I'm a musician and a software engineer, I hope that my kids learn to express themselves emotively and become creative thinkers.   We're trying to foster a family culture where we are active, encourage tinkering, and building physical things with our hands.    With these ideas in mind, I wanted to share a great video I found by Vinnie Vrotny and Sheryl Peterson entitled "STEAM: Creating A Maker Mindset."   In this conference talk from the K12 Online Conference in 2013, they share their experiences encouraging a "maker" mindset in the Quest Academy .   Their school has a very unique class teaching design thinking to kids.    It's giving me lots of ideas for building a maker environment for our family.    In this class, Sheryl encourages her students to invent a creative design problem and solve it.   With the tools and support of the teacher, the kids are encouraged to build their design.    In some cases, the kids ask Sheryl to assign a problem to them.    The kids aren't used to having creative freedom to design and make.    In these cases, Sheryl encourages the students to keep thinking."

"In celebration of Media Awareness Week (November 2-6, 2009) we are encouraging students, teachers, and the general public to create videos, digital stories, text, images or any digital media that showcases the different ways they are Media Literate. To get things started, we have created a video that is hosted here on our YouTube Channel (also located at http://drop.io/medialiteracyvideo). Watch the video and then we encourage you to create your own short digital representation of media literacy. Anyone can then upload their video responses or link to any digital artifact you create here in the comments to this video. Celebrating and Sharing: Teachers and students are encouraged to take part in this exposition of student media literacy, we encourage you to promote your activities with local media outlets and draw attention to the critical importance of developing media literacy in the digital age. We hope you choose to participate in this exciting event with your students. You may attend the Media Literacy evening in person on Monday, November 2, 2009, from 7:00 - 8:30 PM CST at the St. James-Assiniboia School Division's Professional Staff Development Centre (PSDC) - 150 Moray Street (access off of Portage Avenue) or via our uStream channel (http://www.ustream.tv/lwict) where everything will be archived. If you have any questions regarding any aspect of this event, leave us a comment here. Category: Education Tags: lstu manace literacy medialiteracy mediaawarenessweek media education lwict "

"I've been exploring the new PuppetMaster app and I am enchanted. I see serious potential for this free, intuitive, open-ended tool to encourage creativity across a wide range of ages, from pre-school to adult! PuppetMaster allows children to animate anything and to record their action and sound to create movies. It encourages the creation of visual art in any medium and it encourages active storytelling and sharing. And the learning curve is tiny!"

"There's an old saying that the things that change your life are the books you read, the places you go, and the people you meet. But I'd like to add a fourth: the challenges you face (and how you face them) will always change your life. If we want our students to respond to challenges with creativity and inventiveness, we must create the conditions in which innovation is not only possible but encouraged. You don't help students learn to invent by giving worksheets or cookie-cutter assignments. In fact, these one-size-fits-all approaches may actually take up the time that could be used for such creativity. ADVERTISEMENT According to the Torrance Test-which measures CQ, or creativity quotient-the United States has been declining in creativity since 1990. There has to be a reason. Perhaps it is because we focus on students' weaknesses instead of their strengths. In many schools, we'll put a math genius who struggles with grammar into extra English classes. Should we not give this math genius access to college-level advanced math work, and figure out the basic English requirements he or she needs for a basic understanding of grammar? Why do we think that all students should be good at everything? We can either be average at everything or exceptional at something. With this in mind, here are some things we need to do to encourage student inventors as we nurture student passions, interests, and strengths."

"Encouraging diverse participation in STEM in middle school is crucial. Students who do not have STEM opportunities in middle school and high school are very unlikely to take those opportunities in college. We are committed to offering creative learning experiences and the best career opportunities for all kids. How do we recruit and retain a diverse student body in elective STEM classes such as computer science and engineering? For your students who don't typically identify as "engineers"-many female and minority students as well as some boys-what motivates them to sign up for, and become invested in, an engineering class or activity? While we don't claim to have completely cracked the code, focusing on this effort has made us better, more culturally inclusive teachers, and we believe our students will be better off in the long term because of sustained efforts to broaden access to CS and engineering."

Increasingly we aim to teach dispositions but some care in the use of the term is required as it is easily oversimplified. While teaching for dispositions is encouraged it will have little effect if it means doing little other than engaging with the terminology. If we are to encourage the expansion of the desired dispositions, we must be sure to adequately unpack them and understand the implications in store for our culture of learning. 

" Rey Junco Apr 28 2014, 12:36 PM ET 38 inShare More (Mike Prosser/flickr) All video games are not created equal. I wouldn't recommend we encourage youth to play just any game. I doubt transferable skills are learned by repeatedly flapping a bird into a drainage tube. The best educational interventions are those that meet youth where they are and use the energy associated with that space to encourage learning. So where are the youth? Minecraft."

"Jennifer Wagner, creator of ProjectsByJen, has been successfully encouraging teachers since 1999 to use online projects in their PreK-6 classrooms. Using various ideas, Jennifer will help you understand how online projects will help you make the most of your time in a variety of ways. Winning numerous awards for her creative ways in encouraging teachers to collaborate, her teaching style is very user friendly, creative, and personable. "

"The maker zeitgeist has evolved far beyond the day when an educator might set objects-say, a box of robotic LEGOs-in a library corner and call it a "maker lab." Educators are now focusing on how the maker movement can be truly meaningful: it's not about where making is happening, but about how creating, experimenting, and collaborating impact education. In addition, some high schoolers tinkering their free periods away can discover a passion-sometimes leading to a future educational focus or even scholarship money. "The maker movement…encourages a growth mind-set, which tolerates risk and failure and maybe even encourages it," says Laura Fleming, library media specialist with the New Milford (NJ) High School. "It has been the great equalizer within, and in some ways against, our modern education system by allowing opportunities for creativity and innovation to take place through informal learning.""

"My objective with this wide-ranging set of skills, and involving the community so closely in their development, is to give kids the chance to practice whatever makes them passionate now and feel encouraged -- even if they're obsessed with making stuff exclusively with duct tape. It's crucial that kids learn how to be passionate for the rest of their lives. To start, they must first learn what it feels like to be simultaneously challenged and confident. It's my instinct that we should not try to introduce these experiences through skills we value as much as look for opportunities to develop them, as well as creativity and literacy, in the skills they already love. MAGICIANS CRAFT ILLUSIONS THAT BAFFLE THE SENSES AND CONFUSE OUR REASONING. THEY PLAN LIKE SCIENTISTS, BUT PERFORM AS ARTISTS. ONLY THROUGH LONG AND DISCIPLINED PREPARATION DO THEY SUCCEED. It's difficult to predict which skills will be valuable in the future, and even more challenging to see the connection between our children's interests and these skills. Nothing illustrates this better than Minecraft, a popular game that might be best described as virtual LEGOs. Calling it a game belies the transformation it has sparked: An entire generation is learning how to create 3D models using a computer. Now, I wonder, what sort of businesses, communication, entertainment or art will be possible? Cathy Davidson, a scholar of learning technology, concluded that 65% of children entering grade school this year will end up working in careers that haven't even been invented yet. I bet today's kids will eventually explore outcomes and create jobs only made possible by the influence of Minecraft in their lives. Why take any chances and build your dream house with blueprints alone? The Minecraft kid could easily make a realistic 3D model of one for you to walk through before you build. That's why DIY treats Minecraft as a tool, not a game, and encourages our members to use it to pursue art, architect

"If you build it, will they come? Just because you create a makerspace (PDF) in your school doesn't guarantee that your community will embrace it. Students who have had all personal choice removed by traditional educational models can be passive and feel overwhelmed when faced with real-world problems or design challenges. Academic passivity is common in schools where students swallow content and regurgitate it on multiple-choice tests. Students simply want to know how to get the "A." This type of learning does not stick. Teachers may find the role of facilitator (or "guide on the side") uncomfortable if they are used to being the "sage on the stage." New technology in these spaces may be intimidating. Teachers need encouragement and professional development to change their mindsets and become facilitators of learning. How do you change your culture and ensure that your shiny new makerspace will empower students to acquire 21st-century skills? How do you change the culture of student apathy to encourage a mindset of doing? Follow these steps and design tips to build a culture of making and active learning."

"Join us in our next ThingLink Creative Challenge to investigate, create and share interactive images that explore the hidden side of the things we use everyday by deconstructing products and analysing them. We are pleased to announce the Product Deconstruction Challenge, a creative challenge designed by Ed Charlwood. Ed is the Head of Design and Director of Digital Learning at an Independent school in West London. About Product Deconstruction This challenge is designed for individual students or small groups of students, but we encourage teachers to sign up to receive communication. The goal of Product Deconstruction is to learn about the hidden world of products by taking them apart to understand how they are designed, made and used. We will be deconstructing products by taking them apart and finding out what they are made of and why they are the way they are. We encourage teachers to sign up and submit entries on behalf of their students."

"Are schools taking advantage of the breadth of career opportunities for young people? Is there a fixed mindset in the structure and organisation of school as if nothing has changed? Who is making the choices for technology? The educators, the techies or the persuasive sales-people?  The key is being open and willing to embrace the opportunities of a changing world. Creativity flourishes within the context of constraints. There are conditions that must be maintained, including: academic rigour, standards, student safety and the joy of learning. So rather than see the world either/or, how do we embrace the both/and to encourage an entrepreneurial mindset? To meet community expectations AND create the context for entrepreneurs to flourish."

"f you build it, will they come? Just because you create a makerspace (PDF) in your school doesn't guarantee that your community will embrace it. Students who have had all personal choice removed by traditional educational models can be passive and feel overwhelmed when faced with real-world problems or design challenges. Academic passivity is common in schools where students swallow content and regurgitate it on multiple-choice tests. Students simply want to know how to get the "A." This type of learning does not stick. Teachers may find the role of facilitator (or "guide on the side") uncomfortable if they are used to being the "sage on the stage." New technology in these spaces may be intimidating. Teachers need encouragement and professional development to change their mindsets and become facilitators of learning. How do you change your culture and ensure that your shiny new makerspace will empower students to acquire 21st-century skills? How do you change the culture of student apathy to encourage a mindset of doing? Follow these steps and design tips to build a culture of making and active learning."

What we've decided is that we will no longer use the web filter as a classroom management tool. Blocking one distraction doesn't solve the problem of students off task - it just encourages them to find another site to distract them. Students off task is not a technology problem - it's a behavior problem.

What we've decided is that we will no longer use the web filter as a classroom management tool. Blocking one distraction doesn't solve the problem of students off task - it just encourages them to find another site to distract them. Students off task is not a technology problem - it's a behavior problem.

What we've decided is that we will no longer use the web filter as a classroom management tool. Blocking one distraction doesn't solve the problem of students off task - it just encourages them to find another site to distract them. Students off task is not a technology problem - it's a behavior problem.

"There are some wonderful discussions in the Edutopia community right now about girls and STEM education -- have a peek at Women (and Girls) in STEM or Are We Getting Too Aggressive Promoting STEM to Girls? The fact is, women still make up less than a quarter of the STEM workforce in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The good news is that there are some amazing people, organizations, and companies working to remedy this. I've collected some videos to ignite your imagination about what girls can do in science, technology, engineering, and math -- when given opportunities and encouragement."

"Did you know that this week (December 8-14) is Computer Science Education Week? There are resources available via the previous link to help encourage kids to learn to code, to bring computer science education to your school or district, and more. While the concept is mainly aimed at encouraging schools to teach more computer science and more kids to (want to) learn computer science, it can address a much, much wider audience. 'Computer Science' can sound like a big scary unknown thing if you're someone who has never done any type of programming before, but it doesn't have to be."

"After weeks of poring over reviews and testing the app in my classroom, I can say with confidence that instaGrok offers the best research engine experience for education of any app for tablets running iOS or Android. The instaGrok app is more classroom-friendly than its competitors, and its visual presentation of results is unparalleled. With instaGrok, teachers can encourage self-directed learning, empowering students to hone research, critical thinking, and writing skills. The search results engage students and encourage them to dig deeper in research projects. Read on to learn why instaGrok is the ideal classroom research app."

"APPS & WEB TOOLS 20 FREE characters to encourage Scientific Thinking1 ByPaul HamiltonPosted on January 1, 2016 I've learnt a few things in my 15 years of classroom teaching. One of these gems is 'the power of visuals' to prompt, stimulate little imaginations. Whether it be using world builders to ignite creative writing, or a simple image to develop thinking routines. One subject area that I see huge potential to prompt thinking is Science. I often have my students taking photo's of different stages of science experiments and investigations. But it is sometimes difficult for my students to think scientifically and communicate these ideas with others. So here are 20 FREE kids scientist images that I hope will act as a stimulus for scientific thinking."