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"It seems only fitting to explore the role of questions in education by asking questions about the process of doing so. I propose that we start with the customary way of framing this topic and then proceed to questions that are deeper and potentially more subversive of traditional schooling. 1. WHICH QUESTIONS? To begin, let's consider what we might ask our students. The least interesting questions are those with straightforward factual answers. That's why a number of writers have encouraged the use of questions described variously as "true" (Wolf, 1987), "essential" (Simon, 2002), "generative" (Perkins, 1992; Perrone, 1998), "guiding" (Traver, 1998), or "fertile" (Harpaz & Lefstein, 2000). What the best of these share is that they're open-ended. Sometimes, in fact, no definitive right answer can be found at all. And even when there is one - or at least when there is reason to prefer some responses to others - the answer isn't obvious and can't be summarized in a sentence. Why is it so hard to find a cure for cancer? Do numbers ever end? Why do people lie? Why did we invade Vietnam? Grappling with meaty questions like these (which were among those generated by a class in Plainview, NY) is a real project . . . literally. A question-based approach to teaching tends to shade into learning that is problem- (Delisle, 1997) and project-based (Kilpatrick, 1918; Blumenfeld et al., 1991; Wolk, 1998). Intellectual proficiency is strengthened as students figure out how to do justice to a rich question. As they investigate and come to understand important ideas more fully, new questions arise along with better ways of asking them, and the learning spirals upwards. Guiding students through this process is not a technique that can be stapled onto our existing pedagogy, nor is it something that teachers can be trained to master during an in-service day. What's required is a continual focus on creating a classroom that is about thinking rather

"Esta extensa cita que dejó escrita Carl Sagan y que posiblemente nos haya hecho sentir y pensar sobre nuestra vida, nuestra sociedad y nuestro planeta, es la antesala a un tercer paso, también importante, para una plena toma de conciencia de nuestro lugar en el mundo, experimentarlo. Einstein decía que la única fuente de conocimiento era la experiencia y una de las propuestas de este artículo es llevar a la experiencia personal esas sensaciones y pensamientos que nos ha transmitido Sagan con su reflexivo párrafo. La segunda propuesta es llevar esa experiencia a un nivel colectivo y para ello propongo desarrollarla como una posible actividad educativa y familiar a conveniencia del facilitador. A mi parecer, esta actividad encajaría perfectamente en la semana de la ciencia que se suele celebrar en diferentes localidades y países alrededor del 11 de noviembre, día mundial de la ciencia para la paz y el desarrollo. Un viaje de mil kilómetros comienza con un paso Hace unos días, coincidiendo con la semana de la ciencia, asistí a diversas actividades y en concreto una de ellas "Como descubrir a los mamíferos de nuestro entorno" ha sido el detonante de este artículo. Esta actividad familiar se desarrolló en el paisaje protegido de Elía y consistía en un pequeño paseo para descubrir huellas, rastros y señales de diferentes mamíferos como el jabalí, el gato montés, el zorro etc. Durante el pequeño paseo me vinieron a la memoria dos actividades parecidas y también realizadas en familia que experimenté cuando vivía en el Reino Unido. Una era sobre una caminata con un experto en forrajeo, búsqueda de plantas y recursos comestibles en la naturaleza. Durante ese paseo nos enseñó distintas plantas, su uso comestible o su posible uso medicinal. A lo largo del camino se probaron varias plantas y finalizó, para disfrute de los niños, en un claro del bosque con un pequeño fuego para cocinar un rebozado de dientes de león. La otra actividad ll

"Open with a question or two. Another favorite education writer of mine, the cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham, argues that teachers should focus more on the use of questions. "The material I want students to learn," he writes in his book Why Don't Students Like School?, "is actually the answer to a question. On its own, the answer is almost never interesting. But if you know the question, the answer may be quite interesting." My colleague Greg Weiner, an associate professor of political science, puts those ideas into practice. At the beginning of class, he shows four or five questions on a slide for students to consider. Class then proceeds in the usual fashion. At the end, he returns to the questions so that students can both see some potential answers and understand that they have learned something that day. What did we learn last time? A favorite activity of many instructors is to spend a few minutes at the opening of class reviewing what happened in the previous session. That makes perfect sense, and is supported by the idea that we don't learn from single exposure to material - we need to return frequently to whatever we are attempting to master.But instead of offering a capsule review to students, why not ask them to offer one back to you?Reactivate what they learned in previous courses. Plenty of excellent evidence suggests that whatever knowledge students bring into a course has a major influence on what they take away from it. So a sure-fire technique to improve student learning is to begin class by revisiting, not just what they learned in the previous session, but what they already knew about the subject matter.Write it down. All three of the previous activities would benefit from having students spend a few minutes writing down their responses. That way, every student has the opportunity to answer the question, practice memory retrieval from the previous session, or surface their prior knowledge - and not just the students most likely to

* Create new PDF or edit existing ones. * Add and/or edit bookmarks in PDF files. * Fast and simple PDF forms fill out. * Changing font attributes (size, family, color etc). * Encrypt and/or protect PDF files using 128 bit encryption. * Convert XPS files into PDF. * JavaScript support. * Dynamic XFA form support. * Validation Forms and Calculate Values. * Add PDF controls (like buttons, checkboxes, lists, etc.) into your PDFs. * Import/export PDF pages into common graphical formats including BMP, JPG, PNG, and TIFF. * Signing PDF documents with digital signature, signatures creation and validation. * Free PDF Editor on Linux ( for non-commercial use)

* Create new PDF or edit existing ones. * Add and/or edit bookmarks in PDF files. * Fast and simple PDF forms fill out. * Changing font attributes (size, family, color etc). * Encrypt and/or protect PDF files using 128 bit encryption. * Convert XPS files into PDF. * JavaScript support. * Dynamic XFA form support. * Validation Forms and Calculate Values. * Add PDF controls (like buttons, checkboxes, lists, etc.) into your PDFs. * Import/export PDF pages into common graphical formats including BMP, JPG, PNG, and TIFF. * Signing PDF documents with digital signature, signatures creation and validation. * Free PDF Editor on Linux ( for non-commercial use)

"En 2013, Edward Snowden filtró miles de documentos de la Agencia Nacional de Seguridad de los Estados Unidos (NSA por sus siglas en inglés) a los periodistas Glenn Greenwald y Laura Poitras. Desde entonces se han publicado decenas de reportajes periodísticos a nivel mundial que revelan programas de vigilancia masiva de alcance global. Las filtraciones muestran que esta agencia tiene la capacidad de recolectar las comunicaciones de Internet. Cables de fibra óptica, comunicaciones satelitales y telefonía celular son algunas de los medios sobre los que la agencia recolecta información. Las grandes empresas de Internet entregan los datos sus usuarios a esta agencia. Si esto no es suficiente se recurre a los ataques informáticos para buscar la información restante. Las comunicaciones recolectadas son procesadas en sistemas sofisticados. Los mismos permiten a los analistas de la NSA encontrar información a través de buscadores similares al de Google o DuckDuckGo que operan sobre las comunicaciones privadas de quiénes usan Internet. Si bien la NSA sostiene que los programas de vigilancia se realizan con el fin de combatir el terrorismo. Se revelaron operaciones que muestran espionaje político y a sectores estratégicos de países alrededor del mundo. En este trabajo se enfatiza el caso de América Latina. El documento completo se lo puede descargar acá: La NSA Según las Revelaciones de Snowden (pdf) La NSA Según las Revelaciones de Snowden (odt)"