"Beyond Distance is teaming up with the Australian Digital Futures
Institute at the University of Southern Queensland for the 2011 Learning Futures Festival.
The Festival is a celebration of innovation in teaching and learning in higher education, and offers a chance for practitioners and policymakers to share their visions for the future.
With handovers between Leicester (UK), Seattle (USA), and Toowoomba (Australia), Follow the Sun will beginin Leicester on
Wednesday 13th April and conclude in Australia 48 hours later."
"On Monday past, I emcee'd a Film Festival for students in Junior and Senior High. The Festival was a huge hit thanks to my amazing team of colleagues and dozens of talented teens. But my proudest moment of the evening was one video in particular - created by a kindergarten class."
Great resources of images such as :
Inspirational images The Big Picture from the Boston Times. .
For Science; Mercury Images, Robots, Hubble Images, International Space Station, Earth and Environment, Animals, Zoos, Swine Flu.
For Citizenship powerful images of the protests in Iran, and here. Also Life in Iraq,
For Geography - images of Cyclones, Earth Observed, Hurricanes from Above, Hurricane Ike
For RE - Carnival, Easter, Holy Week, Hindu festival of colours, The Haaj, Christmas,
For Art - La Princesse, festival of Lights,
The BBC website also has an "In Pictures" section
"McPherson Square Library, a site that launched Maker programming just last month, held a Fall Festival this past weekend. Maker Jawn was invited to attend and host an activity table. Gavin and I went, ready for some animation with a set of iPads and a big box of Play Doh. We decided to do stop motion animation because the event was projected to have hundreds of attendees and from experience we know that this activity is usually a crowd-pleaser, and one that doesn't require a lot of consumable supplies. Because the theme of the Festival was food and nutrition related, Gavin brought a recent plaster cast of his teeth, which proceeded to eat all different kinds of Play Doh creations."
"Whether you're a technophobe or a geeked-out early adopter, there's no denying that the world is run on computers, and the language of computers is code. It seems only natural that there's a wave of interest in the idea of teaching kids to code -- some say it should be a requirement in every school. I think no one would argue that every kid is cut out to be a programmer, but a basic understanding of code couldn't hurt. In fact, this knowledge could give a leg up in an increasingly technology-centric society. Hopefully this playlist of videos will help you learn more about some of the people and organizations who are working to change the opportunities available for kids to learn code. "
"I'd like to offer up a video playlist to remind all of us about the power of empathy, kindness, and human connections. It's always a good time to practice gratitude for the relationships that sustain us all -- for the people who have taught us in a school setting and beyond, and for the young ones we are able to nurture and inspire.
I was also thinking about how many of us are living out the paradox of being ever more plugged in, and ever more aware of what's happening in our community via social media platforms, while at the same time, face-to-face interactions are less frequent than ever before. We are in constant touch, but barely touching. Watching these videos made me remember the importance of re-connecting, treating people with kindness and respect, and being generous and compassionate to both loved ones and strangers. If each of us pledged to do more of that, we'd make a better world for all of us to learn and grow in."
"There are some wonderful discussions in the Edutopia community right now about girls and STEM education -- have a peek at Women (and Girls) in STEM or Are We Getting Too Aggressive Promoting STEM to Girls? The fact is, women still make up less than a quarter of the STEM workforce in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The good news is that there are some amazing people, organizations, and companies working to remedy this. I've collected some videos to ignite your imagination about what girls can do in science, technology, engineering, and math -- when given opportunities and encouragement."
"We know there's no silver bullet for improving learning outcomes for kids, and Stanford researcher Carol Dweck, who originated the concept of growth mindset, has spoken out recently against the misapplication of her findings. But with a deeper understanding of the idea, and more exploration around what proper implementation looks like, growth mindset has a lot of potential. If you'd like to learn more, or want to clarify the idea for the people around you, these five videos offer something for every audience-from preschoolers to parents and colleagues to college kids."