Group items tagged

Intel announced the launch of its durable 7-inch tablets, called "Intel studybooks."  The tablets will cost less than $200 each, half the price of the new iPads.  Will the affordability of this device beat out the all-popular iPad?

If computers can score writing, of course the first use will be for assessment. No surprise there. But how might we use this more creatively?

I tried to bring an scoring software program into my school. Nobody liked it except for myself. I thought the objective measure would be more motivating to students. But the other teachers thought that the students should have more practice with rubrics themselves. My school focused heavily on peer editing and scoring. Also, when teachers see such a large number of average scores they tend to disbelieve the results. For example, when I score the essays, there may be a lot of 'B's but I've sees the difference in between Betty's 'B' and Joe's 'B'. The grade is more of a reminder of my experience scoring Betty's writing. When the software scores it, I haven't necessarily seen the essay therefore the score doesn't mean as much. Of course the scoring makes much more sense for official assessments. Open Ended Responses are a much better measure of a student's understanding than multiple choice, if the software is able to distinguish the nuance of language. Some programs are scoring grammatical patterns, sentence length, and paragraph length; therefore, a student can be totally off topic and get a high score. I'm curious if this latest software corrected for this.

'DU The Math' (http://www.duthemath.com/) is an educational game and this competition touts prizes and pop stars. Interestingly, the reporter asks important questions, such as : But is competition between students the best way for educational gaming to increase its penetration into formal K-12 education? Or would game makers be better served to focus gaming on competition between the student and him or herself, especially for players who are struggling to keep pace with class and feel left behind?

MIT students are creating and sharing short videos about STEM subjects for K-12 learners.  

I now know where the EMF Rater should live or at least get a link...

More help to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

"Identifying promising models for mixing online learning and face-to-face instruction Challenges in e-learning Building partnerships to increase virtual learning collaboration among districts Teaching a "flip model" of instruction with online lectures as homework"

Cooney center survey digital games classroom

exergaming advocated by president's fitness council

Game on!

Definition of "digital games" probably too broad... but three video case studies of teachers using "games" referenced in article worth watching: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA3C69D48D4FFE87E

Agreed about the definition. However, "Almost all the teachers surveyed who said they used games reported that they used ones specifically designed for education, and the games most often corresponded with literacy and reading (50%) and math (35%).", which is encouraging. Kurt Squire is correct in that the data may include a good number of 'trivial games', but that is probably to be expected since the biggest barriers seems to be cost (50% respondents) and technology (46%).

In a world dominated by iPad news , a story on Kindle - motivating kids to read

Salman Khan (graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard Business School) talks about the flipped classroom and how tech changes the shape of future "classrooms" in an Education Week interview.

An article from the popular press that I think is worth reading. It mentions the increasing importance of virtual worlds and simulations, a topic we will be covering next week !

Everything in moderation, but this article helps people see how well-developed, age-appropriate video games are a positive.

I think vocational schools give students the means for making time spent in school relevant and useful to them. They pursue an interest and see it connected to a relevant future. In the current age where interdisciplinary work is the norm, jobs are mutable, and careers are evolutionary, vocational education is no longer preparing students for a job or career; just their first one.

I completely agree! I have a good friend who dropped out of high school, earned his GED the same week, and went on to a technical vocational school to study IT/systems management. Turned out that once he got to the vocational school, he became the top student in most of his classes, and well-known for staying after class to engage instructors in intellectual debate. I find it disappointing that our society tends to devalue vocational schools; it seems to me that we should instead be focusing on what fits each student best.

Draw Something was acquired by Zynga this week for $180 million!!!!

Thoughtful reflection by 8th grade teacher... enjoys experimenting with technology, but stresses the importance of questioning the pedagogical value of integrating tech in classrooms

Hi Leslie, Thanks for sharing. The article not only talks about the effectiveness of social media tools but a range ot technology which I found useful.