Group items tagged

"Web-based games can prove to be a treasure trove of learning opportunities, and there are a variety of content-areas, age ranges, and skill levels to choose from. The true pay dirt for browser-based learning games can be found on large online digital game hubs. Here are 10 game hubs players that teachers can use to as one tool in their arsenal." By R. Schaaf. Includes PBS Kids and BBC Schools: Games. Mostly explores K-6, but some sites have activities for older kids too.

Offers ESL educators ready to use media-rich lesson plans from Northern California Public Broadcasting on a range of useful themes: health, eco-litereacy, immigration, the green economy, financial literacy etc.

"Among the many things students are expected to do, self-assessing their learning is part of the suite of metacognitive tools that are valued in today's society. This skill enables the student to think about their thinking, identify what they're doing well and what needs improvement. Self-assessment takes practice, and when it comes to schoolwork, students are not given enough opportunities. " K.Sung offers an example of ways for students to get in practice in self-assessing.

The blog article combines a great many areas: hands-on learning, analyzing poetry using robotics, and sTEM/STEAM, the creative element in the sciences. Great cross-over ideas to think about.

A review of M. Levine's Teach Your Children Well: Parenting for Authentic Success: ""There's probably no better example of the throttling of creativity than the difference between what we observe in a kindergarten classroom and what we observe in a high school classroom," she writes in Teach Your Children Well. "Take a room full of five-year-olds and you will see creativity in all its forms positively flowing around the room. A decade later you will see these same children passively sitting at their desks, half asleep or trying to decipher what will be on the next test.""

"Learnist, as many have already pointed out, works much like Pinterest - a way to catalog online resources on a topic and share them with the user's social network. And like Pinterest, it looks like a digital bulletin board with pictures and messages, and connects with Facebook accounts. In fact, the site's "learning boards" look quite a bit like Facebook's timeline feature, and Facebook membership is required to use Learnist at this point. In its current closed beta form, Learnist, launched by Grockit, is still very much in its infancy, but some curious teachers have already jumped on the wagon. Time will tell whether educators will stick with Pinterest, or migrate to Learnist because of its association with Grockit, which already has a large and loyal following as a social learning tool." Nice article on how educators are using Learnist. Hope this one makes it past Beta.

I usually don't like lists, but this one also has suggestions for using the apps with students. Info on the Wallwisher update, Padlet; infographics made easy; Thinglink for graphics; Aurasma for creating QR codes with objects, rthaer than a square, and so on.

The Science Genius project is demonstrated through an energetic classroom teacher. The project aims to use students' local culture, in this case rap/hip-hop, to engage students' attention and draw them into science concepts actively. Great video demonstration, and also works for students who haven't ever written rap music before.

Holding oneself in a "state of questioning" may be a desirable outcome of learning, as well as a process for learning. For example, "adaptive software that leads students through English/language arts or mathematics on a pace set by their own abilities fails to force students to ask questions about that material, contextualize it in real life, or communicate about the concepts with others, Lehmann said. The same is true of collaborative projects where restrictive guidelines result in several, nearly-identical finished products across student groups. "In a true inquiry-based model, how learning happens isn't as important as whether that learning encourages students to try to learn even more. Lehmann compared the scenario to the plight of a two-year-old child who has graduated from 'yes' and 'no' and proceeded onto an endless string of 'why's.' "'To me it comes down to process,'" Lehmann said. 'Inquiry means living in the soup. Inquiry means living in that uncomfortable space where we don't know the answer.'"

Much food for thought here: What is the role of the tech teacher in 2020?

"Videos have already become an important part of modern education, whether through well-known education platforms like Khan Academy or content created by teachers for their students' use. Video tutorials can help students with questions on homework or test preparation. However, students are finding the value in creating tutorial videos themselves for other students. " T/H to Nik Peachey