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"littleBits are ingenious snap-together magnetic elements used to create whimsical machines and prototype complex electronic circuits. It's impossible to short-circuit the littleBits or create a syntax error in your physical "program" since they only snap together the "correct" way. Kids from 5-85 love inventing with littleBits. We recently created two "Quick Start" guides for the trickier aspects of working with littleBits. You may download them here: littleBits Quick Start Guide littleBits Arduino Bit Quick Start Guide (for programming your littleBits-based machine) littleBits Cloudbit Quick Start Guide (for Internet of Things) Download our complete 20+ page workshop kit"

"One of the basic tenets and strengths of the maker movement is its emphasis on constructive and collaborative learning through hands-on, trial-and-error experimentation. While a live mentor demonstrating and leading activities is the gold standard, a growing number of titles offer inspiration, support, and clarification for a wide variety of maker topics. The following list of recommended books was crowdsourced by librarians running maker spaces and/or offering maker programming in their libraries or schools."

"One of the basic tenets and strengths of the maker movement is its emphasis on constructive and collaborative learning through hands-on, trial-and-error experimentation. While a live mentor demonstrating and leading activities is the gold standard, a growing number of titles offer inspiration, support, and clarification for a wide variety of maker topics. The following list of recommended books was crowdsourced by librarians running maker spaces and/or offering maker programming in their libraries or schools."

"This tutorial is meant to show ways of easily figuring out tolerances for simple items with cardboard instead of using 3D printing or other time consuming processes. This process is more responsible, and more efficient. Each model will take no more than 15 minutes start to finish and the materials can be found in your recycling receptacle. As a furniture-maker and designer I am often looking to house specific items. Fitting items can be a tricky task. Measuring the dimensions of your item is a great place to start. However, you can not simply make the housing for the object the same size as the object itself. There is always a period of trial and error where you are adding and subtracting dimensionality in order to find the perfect fit for your object."

Teresa Penedo posted this item in the #change11 Facebook group. The one-hour video tells us "most of what we think we know about technology in general is false." According to Andrew Feenberg, "Our error stems from the everyday conception of things as separate from each other and from us. In reality they belong to an interconnected network the nodes of which cannot exist independently qua technologies." This leads to ten 'paradoxes of technology': "1. The paradox of the parts and the whole: The apparent origin of complex wholes lies in their parts but in reality the parts find their origin in the whole to which they belong. 2. The paradox of the obvious: What is most obvious is most hidden. 3. The paradox of the origin: behind everything rational there lies a forgotten history. 4. The paradox of the frame: Efficiency does not explain success, success explains efficiency. 5. The paradox of action: In acting we become the object of action. 6. The paradox of the means: The means are the end. 7. The paradox of complexity: Simplification complicates. 8. The paradox of value and fact: Values are the facts of the future. 9. The democratic paradox: The public is constituted by the technologies that bind it together but in turn it transforms the technologies that constitute it. 10. The paradox of conquest: The victor belongs to the spoils." from Stephen Downes OL Daily

"The app store on your tablet or phone can be intimidating. There are so many options! If you want to incorporate learning with electronic time, you've probably been looking for the best educational apps for kids. Today, we've got them! Instead of trial and error, we encourage you to try these education apps that we've collected, inspired by iGame Mom. We love combining learning AND fun!"

"You know those grammar errors that students make in second grade ... and third grade ... and are still making in high school? Here are 10 lesson ideas that just might make the grammar rules stick, by WeAreTeachers blogger Erin Bittman. This is the fifth post in the Teaching Young Writers blog series sponsored by Zaner-Bloser's Strategies for Writers."

"I have always believed that teachers (and people in general) MUST have an open midset; one that tolerates and celebrates mistakes and errors; one that looks at failure as an opportunity for a better beginning. It is through falling down that we stand up robust and it is through misfortunes that we gather our strength to live the life we want and pursue our dreams. If we want to raise up socially and  emotionally strong students who can face up and overcome  the hardships of life, an important key in this is to teach (and model) them about failure. We need to show them that failure is a healthy sign and a good omen for a healthy life experience. They need to view failure as an attempt for deep reflection and meditation about what work or did not work. They also need to be reminded that failure has been a common denominator behind most of the historical achievements and invention in the history of humankind."

"Whether your library or school has a dedicated makerspace, you are experimenting with maker and STEM programming, or looking for inspiration to get started, this inaugural installment of "Mix It Up" offers a broad selection of free or low-cost apps, websites, and tools for engaging kids and teens in creative maker projects. Our field-tested recommendations are grouped into three main sections: Coding, Filmmaking, Tinkering, and 3D Printing. Making is all about trial and error; don't be afraid to experiment with these tools and encourage playful exploration by your patrons or students. As makers like to say, "If at first you succeed…you're probably doing it wrong.""

PaperRater checks your document for grammar and spelling errors. On top of that, it helps you to improve the document's readability, word choice and style by an in-depth analysis.

"Sometimes, we may find ourselves in a situation where we want to make our presentation (at least the audio part) and slides available for viewing at a later date. Fortunately, Keynote allows you to do this, by recording your presentation with the appropriately named option in the "Play" menu. Unfortunately, Keynote will only take one recording. You can't piece multiple recordings together. If you're like me and you feel more comfortable in front of an audience than recording your talk, this can be a problem. If I want to be sure of a clean, error-free recording, then the only reasonable option for me is to record it section by section."

Generally, to partition and format a disk in OS X you open "Disk Utility", select the disk in the tool's sidebar and then click use the Partition tab to select and apply a partition scheme. But, it may result in errors sometimes. In this tutorial, we are giving some ways to partition a drive using third-party tools.

"If you're look for a way to support your students as writers or simply would like an extra tool to check your own work, you'll want to check out Grammarly.  It is an automated grammar checker web application that is already used by over four million people around the world.  Grammarly helps users detect grammar errors in their writing, detect plagiarism, and use better vocabulary words."

"There's been a lot of discussion recently on what schools should be teaching kids. Just this month, the United Kingdom announced the addition of cybersecurity to its curriculum in response to a lack of education in the field and the rising industry skills gap. I believe U.S. schools have been hesitant and even neglectful when it comes to how they discuss social media with students, and it's time for this to change. Social media is a very real and ongoing aspect of our everyday lives: It no longer makes sense that, in 2014, several states still teach cursive writing when many students can text much faster on their smart devices. We need to be educating students on applicable skills for the world that they will interact with, and that means providing them with an understanding of how social media can affect their future. The gaping generational chasm between teachers who grew up before smartphones existed and students who were raised on them has resulted in a trial-and-error model of internet education and exploration, which could potentially wreak havoc on a student's future. The internet is written in pen, not pencil."

"Collecting data on student progress is an important part of making decisions about intervention and how to best support the children in our classrooms.  Running Record Calculator is an app for iOS devices that helps teachers who are administering this type of assessment.  It records students as they read a passage and gives you a quick way to keep track of self-corrections and errors.  After the recording finishes you can enter the word count from the passage to calculate words per minute."

"Game-based learning is moving into the mainstream as more platforms become available and more educators recognize the benefits of increased student engagement and achievement. On top of that, research shows some interesting side benefits. For instance, surgeons who play video games are 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and make 37 percent fewer errors than colleagues who don't play. Educators can incorporate game elements, such as rewards and engagement, into learning in two ways: games and gamification."

"About two decades ago The MIT Media lab introduced the concept of block-based programming. The idea was to develop an interface that allowed computer programs to be built by simply dragging and dropping puzzle blocks to represent complex programming constructs and commands. With this new method for teaching and learning computer science, the hugely popular Scratch platform was born. This approach lowered the bar for experimenting with programmatic thinking, making it possible for students to create interactive animations and small games without writing a single line of code. This simple concept removed the need to learn the syntax of a formal programming language, and made teaching and learning the basics of computer science accessible to younger learners and to teachers with no formal coding background. Outside of the classroom though, coding has always been, and still remains, a process of typing letters, numbers and symbols. This text-based programming, used in programming language such as C, Javascript and Python, requires coders to obey and conform to formal syntax. Despite the pain of dealing with typos in names of variables and inevitable syntax errors, no other coding method designed to be more "user friendly" has really caught on. Tools have been offered for managers to define business logic through a graphical user interface without writing lines of codes. Or for web developers to add interactive behaviors to their websites without learning Javascript. But in reality, neither of those substitute the power and flexibility of text-based programming. And with neither winning significant adoption, the demand for the classic skill of text-based coding continues to grow and grow."

Problem solving, critical thinking, and even spelling improves when kids start coding. But one of the most important skills that students pick up is how to fix mistakes. "You find plenty of bugs in code," says Sims. "How do you go through a systematic process of finding and eliminating error? In coding, you learn that it's okay how to make mistakes, as long as you know how to fix them.""