Group items tagged

We tapped Twitter to learn what educators say are the downsides to implementing the Flipped Learning method, and we have provided our opinions that address the five major criticisms.

There is something in games based learning that seems to get missed out of much of the discussion. While it's common to think of using game-like approaches or video-games I find much of what is said revolves about how games work in terms of mechanics. Level ups, XP (experience) and badges seem to dominate the gamification dialogue. I wonder how you can gamify the workplace or the classroom without also exploring the more important aspects of why people play - how it feels to be immersed in a story that you feel a part of. Players are given badges and tokens all the time, except these don't provide that intrinsic motivation that people often associate with gamification. For the love of it. How do you get people to play for that reward?

It is commonly recognized that our nation's progress depends on improving learning, thereby creating healthier communities and a stronger workforce. In today's world, that requires us to take advantage of new learning tools to ensure that our children's learning is practical and prepares them for the challenges of the 21st century. The advantages of digital media now greatly outweigh the disadvantages and require that schools update their thinking and policies to provide guidance on the use of these tools to improve student learning and achievement.

Teens love their cell phones. Duh! But just how often are they using their mobile phones and why? Leveraging the data provided by the recent Nielsen study, "New Mobile Obsession: U.S. Teens Triple Data Usage", FunMobility decided to explore cell phone usage patterns further. The result of our FunChat and FAADChat customer survey with over 10,000 respondents generated even more interesting data points. The survey found teens are spending more time on mobile devices than any other media device, and 40 percent are spending more than four hours per day on their mobile devices. And that's just the beginning. We turned this data into an infographic: "Generation OMG: How Teens Use Mobile Devices", that we just announced and was recently covered by ZDNet's iGeneration blog.

Ocean Tracks is an Australian website on which students can view the tracks of marine animals in an online 3D environment. The "tracks" part of Ocean Tracks shows you where in the world tagged animals are swimming or have swum. Ocean Tracks uses the Unity browser plug-in to provide animations of the underwater views of tracked animals. You can see what bluefin tuna, swordfish, sharks, and many other fish see in 3D.

"Of all the initiatives a school can begin, integrating technology may require the most professional development. This is partly because of the equipment, hardware, and software involved and partly because of the shift that a teacher must make in his or her teaching style, technique, and planning process in order to effectively use technology in the classroom. Here are some basic "dos" and "don'ts" for anyone doing tech integration professional development.

Thanks to technologies like GPS and QR codes, these games combine real-world experiences with virtual information. The games can capture geo-tagged audio recordings, for example, or photos and videos that student players can view when they reach a particular place or meet a particular character. Characters can talk with students, provide information, exchange items or respond to tasks. Authors can also create virtual items that players can retrieve and exchange. The key is the ARIS platform, which enables teachers, designers, artists, and students to create place-based narratives. Game designers say the open-source platform is easy to use; educators don't need a programming background to get started because the work is done with an online authoring tool.

This new beta search engine has lots of interesting features including; * choice of search provider * results appearing in a full featured search window * a Multiview search option * capability to share search results and modify the menu bar * capability to search blogs and twitter

"What follows is an explanation of the Flipped Classroom Model, a model where the video lectures and vodcasts fall within a larger framework of learning activities. (Note: I am titling it the Flipped Classroom Model to get folks' attention given the Flipped Classroom popularity right now.  It really is a cycle of learning model.)  It provides a sequence of learning activities based on the learning theories and instructional models of Experiential Learning Cycles - http://reviewing.co.uk/research/learning.cycles.htm and Bernice McCarthy's 4MAT Cycle of Instruction- http://www.aboutlearning.com/what-is-4mat/what-is-4mat.

Treasure Explorer is a rich educational website where students and teachers contribute socially and engage with Australian history. Treasure Explorer contributes to the National Library's important role of disseminating Australia's cultural heritage, for all Australians. It is an invaluable and creative networking tool for teachers, families and students to share and celebrate knowledge, passion and ideas about Australia. Treasure Explorer also provides an online resource to find out more about the objects, archives and stories represented in the National Library of Australia's Treasures Gallery in Canberra. Treasure Explorer was launched in October 2011. Development of this website was made possible by the generous funding of the Harold Mitchell Foundation.

"Create your live podcast with Spreaker. It's fun, simple and free." "Spreaker provides you with a user-friendly console to manage voice, special effects, and your music library

An interesting site that provides webs of related words. To use type any word into Graph Words to see a web of alternative word choices. Click on any word in the web to generate a new web of more related words.

A Twitter pics search engine, Twicsy provides a handy 'in the last hour' search filter. You can even use pre-set widgets to access images from specific user accounts in real-time.

Sqworl is a web application that provides a clean and simple way to visually bookmark multiple URLs

The E2BN / NEN Gallery is a community resource, built and maintained by the education community for the education community. The Gallery is a growing collection, at present containing around 52,000 Image, Audio and Video resources covering a wide range of topics relevant to the curriculum. Its purpose is to provide a free repository of high quality materials, copyright cleared for use in teaching and learning.

Square provides card readers, a register function and other payment accessories for the iPad and other devices.

Power Searching with Google …a short course on becoming a great internet searcher Google Search makes it amazingly easy to find information. Come learn about the powerful advanced tools we provide to help you find just the right information when the stakes are high.

Kathy Schrock provides this post which is the support document for her ISTE 2012 presentation on literacy in the digital age

The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) received a generous grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to help promote and provide deeper learning opportunities for teachers and students.  Recognizing that 11,000 teachers will participate in BIE's 3-day PBL 101 workshop in 2012, the Hewlett Foundation helped BIE expand its professional development resources and expertise online.  Now BIE can work with every school and every teacher through PBL University (PBLU).

CAPspace is a social networking tool for educational videoconferencing. Login to find colleagues and schools interested in collaborative videoconference projects. Create and advertise your own collaborative videoconference projects to educators around the world. CAPspace also provides registration for collaborative events and projects such as TWICE's Read Around the Planet.