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A great post by Chris Wejr in regards to providing time for teachers to tinker. Going beyond the PLC model, Wejr discusses how he provided his staff with time where they were released from class to go and tinker and explore.

"In a fantastic discussion as a part of +Ed Tech Crew Episode 240 focusing on what it takes to be an IT co-ordinator, +Ashley Proud spoke about the demise in tinkering amongst students. Although +Mel Cashen and +Roland Gesthuizen mentioned about taking things a part, giving the conversation a more mechanical theme, I feel that tinkering is best understood as a wider curiosity into the way things work."

Excellent overview of the model of exploratory learning.  Tinkering.

In the past 12 months, Google doubled its staff, tinkered with its search engine to speed up results, and now answers more queries than Microsoft and Yahoo combined. But there's one query we had to answer ourselves: How does Google work?

I have managed to get the Windows powered assessment and reporting software Accelerus that our school uses running on my OSX laptop. Check out the screenshot below. Was a bit tricky but Google was my friend as I tried out a couple of different ideas. The best guide I found was perhaps this one. It does require a knowledge of partitions and terminal commands but it worked a treat fo me. Along the way, I learned heaps and enjoyed the tinkering. I might have some fun and try to get Ubuntu Linux running again on this computer.

SciStarter will bring together the millions of citizen scientists in the world; the thousands of potential projects offered by researchers, organizations, and companies; and the resources, products, and services that enable citizens to pursue and enjoy these activities. We aim to:  Enable and encourage people to learn about, participate in, and contribute to science through both informal recreational activities and formal research efforts. Inspire greater appreciation and promote a better understanding of science and technology among the general public. Create a shared space where scientists can talk with citizens interested in working on or learning about their research projects. Satisfy the popular urge to tinker, build, and explore by making it simple and fun for people-singles, parents, grandparents, kids-to jump in and get their hands dirty with science.

"In our book, Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, Gary and I took what I would consider a fairly even-handed view of the current fad of celebrating "failure" in the classroom. I'm starting to reconsider a more radical stance."

"Quick Makes is about giving the chance to tinker with a range of applications and programs, each with their own constraints, to discover that creating, making and engaging with technology is not only easy but can be fun, especially when we are focused. From mashing up a website with Mozilla Thimble to creating your own visual with Google Draw, spend a few minutes exploring the potential for technology to make giving a voice to learning more doable."