Group items tagged

"I have to admit I originally bought the Apple Watch due to my desire to be an early adopter and explorer… BUT I soon realized that my tech accessory was ticking with unexpected benefits…"

"These talks are here to set the record straight and illuminate the unexpected ways formulas and fractions influence everything, from love and war to origami and coral reefs."

"As a curriculum supervisor and a demonstration teacher at the A. Harry Moore School of New Jersey City University - an innovative urban special education school - we are always looking for new and interesting technology applications that will pique the interest of our student population while connecting to academic and social goals. We recently found a learning opportunity that benefits our student population in many ways and in an unexpected way: through the Pokemon Go App. This piece will share our story and discuss how we used Pokemon Go Pokestops on the New Jersey City University Campus and in various Jersey City neighborhoods to supported social engagement, community awareness, travel, and 21st century instruction."

"From the programmers behind Pokemon Go to the creators of chatbots, the impact of computer science (CS) is ubiquitous in our daily lives. This is because computer science education provides a way of thinking that focuses on problem solving, teamwork and a powerful way to express yourself - important skills for any career. And with a projected 1 million jobs going unfulfilled in computing-related roles by 2020, we need computer scientists from all backgrounds to bring their unique perspectives to solve real-world problems. That's why today, we're excited to announce Careers with Code in the US, a free high school "CS + X" career magazine that shows how to combine your passions, your "X", with computer science. We partnered with STEM specialist publishers Refraction Media to create a CS career magazine that illuminates the range of computer science careers and highlights the impact they have across industries. Readers can get to know people who use CS in their daily work in sometimes unexpected ways, such as Jonathan Graham. "

"Today I handed out 100 iPads to teachers that will shortly be in the hands of students."

"Does your child have an iOS device (iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch) or access to your personal device? iOS devices have many security features that parents don't know about. You can use these features to help protect your child from accessing inappropriate content; guard your personal data on a shared device; and safeguard you from unexpected credit card bills due to unapproved app and itunes purchases. The following video explains how!"

"A whole year and a half ago, I wrote up a five part blog series about how I got to use a set of 20 iPads for two weeks. It was a phenomenal two weeks. "

"The Irish Times has a good, short piece on The Moth, the not-for-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. The Moth started in George Dawes Green's living room in 1997, but soon the storytelling club founded by Green started hosting events in cafes and clubs throughout New York City. The name "The Moth" came from the idea that people are attracted to stories the way moths are attracted to a flame. From The Moth website: "Each show starts with a theme, and the storytellers explore it, often in unexpected ways. Since each story is true and every voice authentic, the shows dance between documentary and theater, creating a unique, intimate, and often enlightening experience for the audience." The storytellers are usually novice storytellers who have something interesting to share. Yet, The Moth directors work with the speakers before each show to help them find their stories and shape them. The focus is on meaning and quality but also on naturalness and authenticity, therefore, no notes or scripts are allowed. "

"I'm one of four teacher facilitators for our Junior Coding Club. We meet once a week during second nutrition break to code. The group's made up of many beginner coders, but also a couple of advanced coders. At lunch today, one of the advanced coders came rushing into the classroom, so excited to share his news. He decided to put a hold on Code Academy, and start using Scratch. During the week, he used the computer version of Scratch to create a flight simulator. This simulator was truly incredible! This Grade 4 student was so thrilled about what he did, that it was hard not to also feel thrilled. While it was wonderful to see this student so passionate about learning, it was also amazing to hear all of the thinking behind his choices. I was honestly in awe! He thought of everything. He even researched to find out the details about planes at take-off, and used this information in his simulator. He could explain all of his choices and the thinking behind these choices. In this short video clip below you can hear just a tiny snippet of this explanation."

"If you've had an iPad (or several) in your classroom for any extended period of time, you're probably familiar with the many practical ways this technology can be used as a central hub for learning. You know all about storing materials in iCloud, and collaborating via Google Drive. You know about the main apps you'll need to run a classroom, as well as the best apps for World History, English and Math. But these applications are just the very beginning. You can hack your iPad into any number of instruments, or use its current apps and capabilities in unexpected ways to encourage learning. Here are our top 10 favorite creative uses for iPads in the classroom"

"Funny how a Learning Network trail can lead one to unexpected destinations   Follow along the bread crumbs to see where the trail came from and what it led to…"

"The groundwork for machine learning was laid down in the middle of last century. But increasingly powerful computers - harnessed to algorithms refined over the past decade - are driving an explosion of applications in everything from medical physics to materials, as Marric Stephens discovers When your bank calls to ask about a suspiciously large purchase made on your credit card at a strange time, it's unlikely that a kindly member of staff has personally been combing through your account. Instead, it's more likely that a machine has learned what sort of behaviours to associate with criminal activity - and that it's spotted something unexpected on your statement. Silently and efficiently, the bank's computer has been using algorithms to watch over your account for signs of theft. Monitoring credit cards in this way is an example of "machine learning" - the process by which a computer system, trained on a given set of examples, develops the ability to perform a task flexibly and autonomously. As a subset of the more general field of artificial intelligence (AI), machine-learning techniques can be applied wherever there are large and complex data sets that can be mined for associations between inputs and outputs. In the case of your bank, the algorithm will have analysed a vast pool of both legitimate and illegitimate transactions to produce an output ("suspected fraud") from a given input ("high-value order placed at 3 a.m."). But machine learning isn't just used in finance. It's being applied in many other fields too, from healthcare and transport to the criminal-justice system. Indeed, Ge Wang - a biomedical engineer from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the US who is one of those pioneering its use in medical imaging - believes that when it comes to machine learning, we're on the cusp of a revolution."

"Dropbox is an awesome tool for teachers. It ticks a number of boxes including being free and easy to use, and the fact that it allows you to keep all of your files in one place for easy access from almost anywhere while keeping immense piles of paper out of the classroom really makes it a win. We hear from so many of you who list Dropbox as one of your absolute must-have apps as educators."

"LEGO Bricks are toys. They're items that students willingly seek out to play with and get excited to receive as gifts under the Christmas tree. That's one of the things that make them so useful to teachers. Lessons taught using LEGO Bricks don't feel like dull schoolwork. On the contrary, students might feel like they're getting away with something. They actually get to play with LEGO Bricks in class? The idea that students can learn something valuable from play isn't new, or even controversial. A sizeable body of research has been conducted to back up what many teachers already knew to be true.  Fun and learning don't have to be mutually exclusive, and it really works better for everyone involved when they're not. As such, making LEGO Bricks part of your lesson plan can help you teach concepts that students might otherwise find tedious, in a way that doesn't feel like work to them. Many educators have already been putting this idea to the test with success. Here are a few ideas to get you started."

A recent lesson with my Year Six class reminded me of the fear teachers face when confronted by the unknown. I thought the lesson would go quite smoothly, I have taught it before but this time things went in an unexpected and frightening direction.

"LEGO Bricks are toys. They're items that students willingly seek out to play with and get excited to receive as gifts under the Christmas tree. That's one of the things that make them so useful to teachers. Lessons taught using LEGO Bricks don't feel like dull schoolwork. On the contrary, students might feel like they're getting away with something. They actually get to play with LEGO Bricks in class? The idea that students can learn something valuable from play isn't new, or even controversial. A sizeable body of research has been conducted to back up what many teachers already knew to be true.  Fun and learning don't have to be mutually exclusive, and it really works better for everyone involved when they're not. As such, making LEGO Bricks part of your lesson plan can help you teach concepts that students might otherwise find tedious, in a way that doesn't feel like work to them. Many educators have already been putting this idea to the test with success. Here are a few ideas to get you started."

"I share during many talks that creativity is a mindset not an art set. The elephant in the room is once you buy into the mantra, what steps can you take to act on the mindset? There are so many cool ways to build up our creative abilities. What I am striving to do with all my work on the Educated By Design project, is to discover ways in which creative exercises can compliment development of fundamental literacies and competencies to make our students and ourselves more capable of doing great work. For those who have yet to see the work from Stephen McMennamy, you are in for a treat. His ability to look at the world around him and find creative connections in seemingly divergent of objects is uncanny. "