Group items tagged

"I have been thinking a lot about the topic of literacy as I review iPad books at Digital Storytime. As the mother of a preschooler who is just now learning to read, the idea of digital books both delights and terrifies me. When I first read an iPad book to my son, back in April of 2010, I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. What did these new picture books, with their instant appeal, mean for print books and more importantly, for reading as a pastime? Would my son 'read' or would he instead be distracted by books he could passively watch, or even worse, books that were more like toys and less like educational tools for literacy?"

"Let's say you have a big paper coming up, a presentation that involves some in-depth online research, or perhaps something completely pointless to look up on Google. Whatever your reason for diving into the bottomless pit that is online searching, it's important to know about the resources and guides that are out there. Lucky for you, the people basically running online searches (Google) have you hooked up. If you're a student of any age, then listen up. Check out the guides and free Google tools available at 'Search Education,' a free site filled with anything you could ever dream of … if you dream of helpful guides to Google searching."

"For years, Canadian parents and educators have engaged in passionate debate over how kids learn math. The math wars, especially contentious in Alberta, have pitted "old" math versus "new," or "discovery," math. But Daniel Ansari, of the University of Western Ontario, says it's time to end the wars. The researcher says the evidence shows that the best way to teach math is with elements from both methods. He refers to the two schools as  "procedural learning" and "conceptual learning," and says they can complement each other when taught together. Ansari says he understands why the topic is so contentious, but adds that it doesn't need to be that way. He offers his solutions for educators, and for parents too. "

"Minecraft in Education is on the cusp a new era.  A new dawn of integration into classrooms and learning environments across the globe and we eagerly await the launch of the full, licensed product that schools will stump up valuable cash for.  The marketing has been done, the conferences have been spoken at and the webinars delivered.  You've experienced the "wow", so what about the "How"?  While for many will mean "How do I get started?" or even "How do I do X?", for me it has led me to ask… …"How would I do Minecraft Education Edition?".  With a blank canvas to work on and a bottomless pit of resources, what would my Minecraft Education Edition look like?  For me there are 7 C's that are at the very core of my vision of Minecraft in Education.  Read on and let's reignite this discussion of growth and development starting, as every learning experience should, with the curriculum."

"Excerpted from Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies For Joyful Classrooms (c) 2017 by Timothy D. Walker. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton.  Schedule brain breaks Like a zombie, Sami*-one of my fifth graders-lumbered over to me and hissed, "I think I'm going to explode! I'm not used to this schedule." And I believed him. An angry red rash was starting to form on his forehead. Yikes, I thought, what a way to begin my first year of teaching in Finland. It was only the third day of school, and I was already pushing a student to the breaking point. When I took him aside, I quickly discovered why he was so upset. Throughout this first week of school, I had gotten creative with my fifth grade timetable. If you recall, students in Finland normally take a fifteen-minute break for every forty-five minutes of instruction. During a typical break, the children head outside to play and socialize with friends. I didn't see the point of these frequent pit stops. As a teacher in the United States, I'd usually spent consecutive hours with my students in the classroom. And I was trying to replicate this model in Finland. The Finnish way seemed soft, and I was convinced that kids learned better with longer stretches of instructional time. So I decided to hold my students back from their regularly scheduled break and teach two forty-five-minute lessons in a row, followed by a double break of thirty minutes. Now I knew why the red dots had appeared on Sami's forehead."

"With so many Raspberry Pi projects to choose from, it can be tricky to find the one you really want to build. Our advice is to find a way to marry the Pi with something you really love. One great example is TV and movie robots - iconic characters from popular sci-fi that can be rebuild at home with a Raspberry Pi built in. Once constructed, your robot might be able to utter commands when a condition is met (perhaps a sensor detects motion). Or it might move around, learning about its surroundings, or reading information to you from Wikipedia. Whatever you have in mind, it should be relatively straightforward to plan and execute. It may take some time, however. Here are five example projects that show how you can combine a Raspberry Pi 2 or later with your favorite fictional robot. 5 Things Only a Raspberry Pi 2 Can Do 5 Things Only a Raspberry Pi 2 Can Do The latest edition of the pint-sized computer is awesome. So awesome, in fact, that there's 5 things you can only do on a Raspberry Pi 2. READ MORE 1. R2-D2 We've all wanted our very own astromech droid, haven't we? Sure, no one on earth is (currently) operating a light speed drive, but Star Wars droid R2-D2 has far greater abilities than onboard spacecraft maintenance. For instance, he can hold torches, carry a tray of drinks, and launch lightsabers across pits in the desert. Okay, it's unlikely you'll manage to get your own R2-D2 robot to do that… but don't let that put you off. Check out this little guy, controlled by a Raspberry Pi. While this project was based on an existing R2-D2 toy, that shouldn't limit your ambition. You'll find plenty of R2-D2 builds on YouTube. There's a massive R2-D2 building community online. Finding one that has a drive unit should be ideal for integrating a Raspberry Pi (and perhaps an Arduino, which you can use the two together) and developing a more realistic R2-D2 experience. Arduino vs Raspberry Pi: Which Is The Mini Computer For You? Arduino vs Rasp

It is important to safeguard your PC against malicious software. You need to resist dodgy downloads, suspicious pop-up and ads.