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Collaboration Our primary goal at this point is to prove or disprove the effectiveness of puzzles as a learning strategy. If you are a teacher who would like to experiment with these ideas in your classroom please contact us. We'd love to work with you. In fact, regardless of who you are, if these ideas seem promising and you'd like to help or try them out, please contact us. We're very open with our work and are interested in collaborating with anyone we can, within the constraints of our very limited resources. You can reach us at info@puzzleschool.com Our Mission The Puzzle School was started with the mission of creating educational environments that will inspire a greater love of learning. We strongly believe that learning is something people truly love to do when it is presented in a way that gives the learner a sense of progress toward their learning goals. We focus on puzzles as they provide one of the most effective ways of creating a learning environment that is interactive, giving students an immediate sense of progress as they try to "figure out" the material they are learning. The methods we use at The Puzzle School mimic the learning environments that children thrive in while learning how to walk and talk. This model can best be summed up as hypothesis and error driven learning, where students develop a hypothesis toward solving a problem and are able to test that hypothesis using feedback loops, learning from a success or failure as they move closer to a solution. This model has been used successfully in thousands of schools around the world, most notably Montessori Schools. We simply want to highlight this method and make it so that all students have access to environments where they can learn in this way. We believe this will encourage a love of learning in all students.

If you have used Google+ hangouts (the free group video chat) on Google+ then you might have already known that it only allows a maximum of 10 users including the host. Often we hear complaints from users that I tried to join an hangout but it was already full. Google+ team listened to our feedback and sometime back announced a new feature called Google+ hangouts on Air which when available will allow more than 10 users and a large number of audience to participate as spectators or viewers.

"Video games have both positive and negative effects on the human brain. They can be used to educate through repetition and feedback, but they also have some less-positive side effects. Our kids and students are excessively using video games and sometimes to the point of addiction. Adults too have recourse to them once in a while. The infographic below has some amazing facts and data about the impact of video gaming on the human brain. You need to go through it attentively and share it with your students and colleagues."

Phil Brady's Blog post 60+ Fake and spoof websitesI've updated the pages on my site that deal with science spoofs, commercial fake sites  and social, political, historical, news, religious, travel and educational spoof and fake sites. I know from the feedback that I get that these sites are well used, so I have deleted the few that no longer work and I have added some more in. There are now a total of 61 sites split between the two pages. It's not a complete listing, and it's just my personal choice, but you might be interested in them. They're primarily designed as a teaching aid, but some of them are very amusing indeed, if you have that sort of a mind!

"Death to the Digital Dropbox: Rethinking Student Privacy and Public Performance Death to the Digital Dropbox: Rethinking Student Privacy and Public Performance By Patrick R. Lowenthal and David Thomas * Requiring students to submit work privately using a digital dropbox (or even worse, e-mail) can be a destructive pedagogical practice. * Students benefit from public performance and public critique because people have to perform in the "real world" and are regularly subject to critique. * Online faculty should strive to incorporate authentic, real-world types of experiences in the online courses they teach - including public performance and the accompanying public feedback. "

Welcome to Piazza-a place where students can come together to ask, answer, and explore under the guidance of their instructor. It'll save you time, and your students will love using it. It's also free, and easy to get started. Learn more...