Group items tagged

"Whether you are new to the computer, returning for review or just want to gain more 21st century skills, our free computer tutorials can help. From computer basics and online safety to social media and using the cloud, we have a wide range of free technology tutorials to choose from."

"My post last month on Why a Makerspace isn't a Magic Cure-all for Your Problems gained a lot of notice.  I've seen a vibrant social media conversation take off since then.  I have heard many people say in the conversation about making and libraries that they have reservations.  Many are worried about sacrificing literacy or reading when they create a makerspace.  They feel that traditional library programs and values will suffer.  They worry that the makerspace will replace the reading programs that they love. But I feel like they're missing out on something - the beautiful connection that can happen between making and literacy.  You don't have to give up your literature and reading programs when you start a makerspace.  Rather, makerspaces can help to bring a new dimension of literacy into your library.  There are so many elements and activities in makerspaces that fit perfectly into the types of library programs we all know and love."

"The SAMR Model for integrating technology into teaching, developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, has gained a good deal of exposure in recent years. "SAMR" is an acronym that stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. The SAMR model provides a technique for moving through degrees of technology adoption to find more meaningful uses of technology in teaching and move away from simply using "tech for tech's sake". We recently discussed the SAMR model during an Academic Technology Work Group meeting at The College of Westchester. We examined the video, SAMR in 120 Seconds. One thing that really struck me is how much the example helped, so I made it a point to gather and/or create some more examples."

"The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement has gained unstoppable momentum. And thanks to the burgeoning mobile app market, employees have high expectations for these tools. They want an attractive user experience tailored to their devices. In other words, companies need to invest in building apps, period."

"The Maker movement continues to gain momentum. At this year's White House Science Fair, President Obama invited Super-Awesome Sylvia from Auburn, California to exhibit her water color robot as a representative of the Maker community. At the same event, the Corporation for National Service announced its commitment to place Americorps VISTAs in Maker movement organizations across the country. Maker Ed is placing those Maker VISTAs in makerspaces to help build their capacity for engaging low-income students as makers. In this spirit, we are starting to see more and more makerspaces springing up in schools across the country. If you are a teacher experimenting with making projects in your classroom, here are some successful fundraising strategies we've seen educators use to fund a makerspace for their school community. "

"Pinterest is a visual bookmarking platform that has gained so much in popularity within the educational circles.Tons of teachers are now using it to organize, curate, and share teaching and learning materials. Pinterest has also made it easy for users to interact with the content they read via adding comments, liking , and joining others Pinboards ."

"The art of animation - a series of related images that depict movement - is arguably several thousand years old. The use of equipment that could display animated images in rapid succession to create the illusion of motion is a more modern phenomenon that gained wide popularity with the development of motion pictures. Cartoons and animated movies from the studios of companies such as Disney, Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon and others have had a tremendous impact on modern culture. Production of an animated movie requires skilled artists, expensive equipment and an investment of countless hours of labor. No longer. Mobile devices with built-in cameras such as the iPad enable budding animators to use a variety of easy to use animation apps to capture and stitch together photos of characters and objects into seamless, fluent animated movies. Further, the process of designing, scripting and staging animations has tremendous educational potential. Animation can be a wonderful mix of art, science, collaboration and problem solving."

"The gaming trend is gaining more and more ground within the educational landscape. Online games are being integrated into students learning strategies and while they are not a game changer, they do seem to have a promising potential in education. As Dr Jackie argued , the use of games for educational purposes have undergone three main phases and in each phase games have been repurposed in such a way as to align with the ethos of that phase. In education 1.0, online games which are nothing else but electronic worksheets were played in one unidirectional way and there was only way correct way for players to win ; in education 2.0 commercial games have made it into the educational scene and teachers and students started using them, examples of these games include: SIMs, World of Warcraft, Portal. However, in education 3.0, learners are not only using these commercial games in unique ways but they are also using several platforms to create their own games."

"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."

"About a year ago, I read Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking. I wanted to tell everyone about this book right away, but I also wanted to let what I'd learned sink in. I wanted to sit alone with my new self-awareness, process my experience, and absorb the revelations I'd had -- all in true introverted fashion. See, as I'd read Cain's book, my predominant thoughts were, "She's describing me! I'm an introvert! And there's nothing wrong with that!" The margins of my copy are littered with stars, exclamation points, and scribbles that, as I look back, reflect my profound relief and gained understandings. "

"The idea of this Skype lesson is to have students visit every province and territory across Canada so that they can gain knowledge of and an appreciation for everything this beautiful country has to offer."

"For years, it has been no secret that many students who start post-secondary education programs drop out early. To address this issue, many schools and institutions decide to redesign their courses with the hope that students might gain a greater feeling of success, continue with their chosen program and graduate. When considering courses for redesign, many questions are asked but the most important is this: "What data should be considered to ensure our course redesign efforts are successful?" Data metrics like grades, attendance or participation rates are obvious considerations. These can be reliable metrics in driving decision-making. However, I recommend also considering student feedback, faculty load, student experience, and assessment performance as additional data points which can better inform decisions that directly impact the course redesign process."

"Planning for Earth Day 2014 is well underway around the world. Bring environmental issues to your classroom with resources from PBS LearningMedia. Highlights include an animated video from Loop Scoop using orange juice consumption to teach about biodegradation, a lesson tracking waste in neighborhoods from America Revealed, and a QUEST video transporting viewers to the beginning of the environmental movement. PBS LearningMedia allows 3 resource views before it will ask you to create a free account to gain full access."

"A new study, published in Psychological Science, found that children in highly decorated classrooms are more distracted and make smaller learning gains compared to a minimally decorated classroom. Children's visual environments can affect how much they learn, researchers explain. Therefore, it's important to maintain focused attention in the classroom since young children usually spend the entire day in that environment."

"The child in the photo above just received the most amazing toy! It might have been a giant stuffed giraffe, or a truck, or a new game. However, the cardboard box is even more exciting. The child will eventually outgrow the giraffe or the truck because those toys can be only one thing -- but the box is timeless. The box can be a racecar, a submarine, a suit of armor, a castle, or a cave. We can learn a lot from children's infatuation with cardboard boxes. It shows us how much they want to shape and construct new things, how they long for the freedom to create. In fact, as illustrated by the phenomenon of Caine's Arcade, when students gain the freedom to explore, to learn independently, and to share their creations, they will astound us. Consider the fact that one boy's cardboard arcade inspired thousands from around the world to create and share their own inventions."

"Dialogue circles, arts programming, and team-building activities create a positive school culture and support academic growth at Glenview Elementary School."

"Using games or game play elements in the classroom to drive learning outcomes is sill gaining popularity. Though most teachers aren't ready to embrace bringing serious games like Minecraft into their classrooms, many are willing to gamify learning or use other types of games. That said, getting an idea of how many teachers are (or aren't) using gamification (or are interested in doing so) is a somewhat difficult task: Many people define gamification in different ways, when it may be a more accurate description to identify different levels of gamification. The handy infographic below takes a look at gamification and more 'serious gaming' in organizational learning. It offers some interesting statistics on just what types (or levels) of gamification are happening in classrooms. Keep reading to learn more!"

"The SAMR Model for integrating technology into teaching, developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, has gained a good deal of exposure in recent years. "SAMR" is an acronym that stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. The SAMR model provides a technique for moving through degrees of technology adoption to find more meaningful uses of technology in teaching and move away from simply using "tech for tech's sake"."

"As the Maker Movement has gained steams schools and educators alike have begun to incorporate makerspaces as exploratory centers for students to invent, tinker, create, and make to learn. A makerspace can best be defined as a physical place where students can create real-world products/projects using real-world tools. "

"The maker movement and maker education, in my perspective, are such great initiatives - really in line with what student-centric education should be in this era of formal and informal learning. Maker education (often referred to as "Maker Ed") is a new school of educational thought [at least in terms of having an "official" educational label - JG] that focuses on delivering constructivist, project-based learning curriculum and instructional units to students. Maker education spaces can be as large as full high school workshops with high-tech tools, or as small and low-tech as one corner of an elementary classroom. A makerspace isn't just about the tools and equipment, but the sort of learning experience the space provides to students who are making projects. (9 Maker Projects for Beginner Maker Ed Teachers) Social media has helped me gain a more global perspective and become aware of some of the problems associated with the maker movement. The two I discuss in this post are: Maker movement initiatives are often driven by more affluent white males. The maker movement is too often being associated with the tech stuff - Arduinos, Littlebits, Makey-Makeys - stuff that less affluent schools and community programs can afford."