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"A new online platform is helping teachers use stories to make content meaningful and engaging for their students.  Visual storytelling is a powerful way for teachers looking to reach students as they introduce new topics and concepts.  Legend is a terrific website that makes it easy for teachers to use video, images, and text to transform the way they get content in the hands of their students."

"32 million people watched the Season 3 World Championships for the video game League of Legends this year. 8.5 million of those people watched at the same time. To put that in perspective, 13 million people watch a typical NFL game on Sunday. Last years' World Series drew 18 million viewers. 8.5 million viewers at one time is really impressive when you realize this was accomplished without a large TV contract and almost no marketing. The impact of these gaming tournaments has created billion dollar deals in the field of video streaming. It is big business. Competitive video gaming is nothing new. Game designers however, have figured out a formula that not only makes games that have mass appeal to players, but to those watching as well. Games are no longer just for sale as a leisure product, they are a sport. Games like League of Legends, Starcraft II, Counter Strike and Dota 2 are putting up millions in prize money and salaries to top players."

"In May of last year, Ken Robinson-he of "Is School Killing Creativity"/TED Talk legend status-gave a brief talk on the idea of contrast, specifically the difference between who we are and how we teach. His general message was that we, as human beings, are wired for certain tendencies. Three of those most immediate to education, Robinson explains, are our diversity, curiosity, and creativity, calling children "natural learners." He contrasted these hallmarks of being human with the tone in which public education in the United States currently operates-a tone that promotes conformity, compliance, and standardization."

"ome widely held ideas about the way children learn can lead educators and parents to adopt faulty teaching principles Jan 1, 2015 Credit: Kiyoshi Takahase segundo MYTH HUMANS USE ONLY 10 PERCENT OF THEIR BRAIN FACT The 10 percent myth (sometimes elevated to 20) is mere urban legend, one perpetrated by the plot of the 2011 movie Limitless, which pivoted around a wonder drug that endowed the protagonist with prodigious memory and analytical powers. In the classroom, teachers may entreat students to try harder, but doing so will not light up "unused" neural circuits; academic achievement does not improve by simply turning up a neural volume switch. MYTH "LEFT BRAIN" and "RIGHT BRAIN" PEOPLE DIFFER FACT The contention that we have a rational left brain and an intuitive, artistic right side is fable: humans use both hemispheres of the brain for all cognitive functions. The left brain/right brain notion originated from the realization that many (though not all) people process language more in the left hemisphere and spatial abilities and emotional expression more in the right. Psychologists have used the idea to explain distinctions between different personality types. In education, programs emerged that advocated less reliance on rational "left brain" activities. Brain-imaging studies show no evidence of the right hemisphere as a locus of creativity. And the brain recruits both left and right sides for both reading and math. MYTH YOU MUST SPEAK ONE LANGUAGE BEFORE LEARNING ANOTHER FACT Children who learn English at the same time as they learn French do not confuse one language with the other and so develop more slowly. This idea of interfering languages suggests that different areas of the brain compete for resources. In reality, young children who learn two languages, even at the same time, gain better generalized knowledge of language structure as a whole. MYTH BRAINS OF MALES AND FEMALES DIFFER IN WAYS THAT DICTATE LEARNING ABILITIES FACT Diffe

"League of Legends, DOTA 2, Heroes of the Storm and-of course-Fortnite. You may recognize these as titles of popular video games, even if you aren't strictly a "gamer." The reality is that video games and the communities, organizations and players surrounding them have become big business-some worth potentially millions of dollars. These aren't just games anymore; they have emerged, along with other massive titles such as Overwatch, as a phenomenon it seems everyone is racing to catch up with. Playing these games competitively, known as esports, is on the verge of becoming not only a force in the business and entertainment world, but a factor in the classroom as schools start esports leagues and curriculum springs up around gaming culture. So what do educators need to know about it?"