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Stephanie Fitzgerald

GAMBIT: Do It Yourself Game Design - 1 views

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    Hear MIT GAMBIT Lab experts talk about engagement in practical terms--and get some hands-on experience designing a board or video game. The three-hour workshops are part of the Cambridge Science Festival; this event takes place on April 28 and requires a $5 preregistration. Though I'm sure EMF will be touched on one way or another in all of the workshops, I thought the Serious Games for Social Change workshop might be of particular interest to you all: "In this workshop, best practice examples of serious games for social change will be played, discussed and analyzed. Furthermore ideas and sketches for proto-types will be developed and ways of realizing them will be discussed! The workshop gives the participants hands-on experiences and insights into the potential and limits of video games designed for social change. No pre-experiences are needed!"
Uly Lalunio

For hospitals, practice in the virtual world can have major benefits - WSJ.com - 0 views

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    Healthcare facilities are discovering that practicing in the virtual world can have major benefits in real life. Doctors, nurses and students are using online community to learn how to cope with crises, boost clinical skills and make their facilities more efficient.
Malik Hussain

How to Read Academic Articles | William Spaniel - 2 views

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    Includes practical tips; even though the blog post is written mainly from undergrad perspective, I think many of the tips apply to grads as well. Hope the tips help keep us "engaged" in our readings. :-)
Brandon Pousley

SimCity EDU for the Classroom - 0 views

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    This is a webinar chat that I sat in on today (A few questions I posed are featured in the Q&A at the end.) With the new SimCity release, they have also partnered with a company called GlassLab that has designed a teacher resource hub and also modified game that enables teachers to easily use the game in classrooms. There will be specific inquiry based challenges that allow students to interact in the game environment to investigate community issues (ranging from water shortages, power outages, labor disputes, earthquakes, budget concerns, etc.) and work with citizens and government to solve the issues. There is also an exciting multiplayer format where neighboring cities are controlled by other students and they must work together to solve problems. Glass Lab is partnering with EA Games, Gates Foundation, and ETS to build the teacher hub where educators can design and share best practices, lesson plans, etc. In addition, they will be doing a long term study to measure educational outcomes. It appears as though they are using this game as a pilot opportunity to build the framework for larger commercial game integration into the classroom.
Stephanie Fitzgerald

How Schools Can Teach Innovation - WSJ.com - 1 views

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    This talks about the practices at some programs that are known for educating innovators:  "The culture of learning in programs that excel at educating for innovation emphasize what I call the three P's-play, passion and purpose. The play is discovery-based learning that leads young people to find and pursue a passion, which evolves, over time, into a deeper sense of purpose."
Jen Dick

Challenge by Choice with Tiered Instruction and Assessment - 3 views

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    Teacher David Suarez has developed a three-tiered approach to teaching math in which student choose how much of a challenge they want in class. Especially interesting because it's one of the first time I've seen a classroom teacher discussing how they support and manage a differentiated classroom.
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    I came upon this resource last December and I agree that this is a well documented effort for how to differentiate and create commitment. I have encouraged as many teachers as possible to try it out since I don't have a class right now to practice with it. It has so many elements from our readings and the video of his classes is an excellent way to help teachers understand what differentiation looks like in practice. Thanks for sharing.
Leslie Lieman

Apple and the Digital Textbook Counter-Revolution - 3 views

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    I am posting two articles: 1) Apple's recent announcement about getting into digital textbooks (article/link below) and 2) the criticism (this link) by Hack Education blogger Audrey Watters. Education needs to rethink the need for textbooks altogether. Digitizing them is not the answer. She states, "You can disassemble, reassemble, unbundle, disrupt, destroy the textbook. It is truly an irrelevant format."
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    I thought it was interesting to read Watters's criticism of Apple's textbook plans, although I also thought it felt pretty one-sided. I do have reservations about how Apple is going about this (expecting everyone to own an iPad, requiring textbook authors to surrender rights, etc.) - but I don't think that the overall idea is so unbearable. Digitized textbooks offer many affordances compared to what we're stuck with currently (textbooks that are outdated, heavy, expensive, and limited by static content). Of course, theoretically we could do without textbooks, as Watters suggests in her criticism... but I'm not yet convinced of this in a practical, realistic sense. I suspect that the resources required to realize textbook-free classrooms are beyond what most schools and teachers have access to. (I also realize that iPads are not cheap! But if digitized textbooks were to become popular across a range of platforms, perhaps they would be more accessible to a broader demographic... and it's not as if physical textbooks are cheap either.)
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    Hi Emily - thanks for your thoughts! Bloggers (especially those who use the name Hack in their title) are going to be provocative (one-sided) in their writing... but it helps raise questions about standard practices. I too agree that eTextbooks or iBooks are going to be tremendously more engaging and up-to-date than the ones that weigh down kids bookbags. But now take a look at the other article I posted: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/01/flow-digital-textbooks that suggests how publishers are not open to new and niche ideas that might be incredibly beneficial to education. The publishing market has a hold on education. Is it possible that the textbooks will not be available across a range of platforms, but only on a few that the publishers agree to work with? Maybe it is time we push for a more open source model... that could also work towards digitizing textbooks... or would innovate other ways for students to access "textbook"" knowledge.
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    Thanks for the nudge to read the other article that you posted as well! It was a nice counterpoint to Watters and the FLOW platform seems like a promising stab at digital textbooks from an open-source standpoint.
Stephanie Fitzgerald

Enhancing Flow in Videogames - 2 views

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    This is an MFA thesis that proposes a practical methodology for implementing Csikzentmihalyi's theory in the design of videogames.
Jerald Cole

SPOTLIGHT: Teachers of autistic students use iPads - Connecticut Post - 0 views

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    Teachers of students with autism say it's the year of the iPad. It provides motivation. It helps with therapy and handwriting practice. It even models appropriate ways to share toys or take turns.
Uly Lalunio

Numbers Wars: School Battles Heat Up Again in the Traditional versus Reform-Math Debate... - 2 views

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    "Over the past 20 years educators have fought over the best way to teach numbers to kids. Advocates of traditional math tout the practice of algorithms and teacher-centered learning, whereas reform-math proponents focus on underlying concepts and student inquiry."
Xavier Rozas

Cisco unveils ultra-fast Internet technology - Mar. 9, 2010 - 1 views

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    I find the arguement that there is no practical need for a network connection this robust ridiculous. You would think that at this stage in the revolution the experts would be aware that the old adage 'if you build it they will come' rings quite true for tech innovation. Perhaps at present 322 terabytes per second is a overkill, but think that we are still going to be surfing the web in the same ways we currently do in 5-10 years is very shortsighted.
kshapton

Mindfulness meditation benefits and changes brain structures in 8 weeks - 1 views

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    Can self-awareness exercises change our brains for the better? Is the practice of meditation a kind of flow experience?
Hongge Ren

Student Engagement and Motivation Strategies and Tips - 0 views

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    A nice video presentation of practical strategies to engage students
Leslie Lieman

Man vs. Computer: Who Wins the Essay-Scoring Challenge? - Curriculum Matters - Educatio... - 2 views

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    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?
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    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.
Kate O'Donnell

Nevermind Game - 0 views

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    A video game that uses biofeedback to help players practice and better control their reactions to stress. It's an interesting combination of entertainment and serious biofeedback training, presenting a very creative approach to designing engaging conditions for learning that allow for relevant skill transfer.
Lin Pang

Violence in Videogames: It's All Part of Growing Up - 1 views

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    An article that talks about how to view violence in games from a new angle. Violence in videogames can help kids gain practical skills. The mystique of violent and scary themes draws children's natural curiosity, and dealing with it is a part of normal child development. It's not the violence itself that is attractive to kids. It's the opportunity to develop and master skills and have the freedom to make choices in the game universe. Also, the violent games happen to have the most emotional appeal to kids.
Kate O'Donnell

Therapist-free therapy - 1 views

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    An article discussing various attempts at providing therapy for anxiety through computer programs and phone apps. One of the research projects targeting social anxiety is currently being conducted at the McNally Lab here at Harvard. The findings are still a little murky but I think it's a great start to providing education about and strategies for treating mental health issues to a broader audience- especially to those who otherwise have very limited or no access to help.
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    Thank you for sharing this, Kate. I'm a little skeptical about 1) the long-term effectiveness of this technology, 2) the transferability of learning/conditioning, and 3) the subtle implications of "therapist-free" therapy. The debate is similar to when educational technology was first heralded to be able to replace teachers and classrooms, when in fact technology is best supplemented by in-person guidance. It is a fascinating area of research and development though, and I look forward to seeing how this type of therapy can transform standard practice.
Chris Mosier

What Makes Social Games Social? - 0 views

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    Detailed examination of the axis that promote/discourage collaborative play (Synchronous vs. Asynchronous player interaction, Symmetrical vs. Asymmetrical relationship formation & Strong Tie vs. Loose Tie relationship evolution). The article provides examples of each axis in practice. Interesting application of SDT's "relatedness" in a gaming context.
Briana Pressey

Henley-Putnam Webinar Examines Student Success: Rocking Online Learning - 0 views

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    San Jose, CA (PRWEB) March 26, 2012 Henley-Putnam University's next free webinar takes an in-depth look at best practices for completing online courses. Key fundamentals of learning, including communication, self- motivation, time management, and prioritization will be discussed in depth (https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/930185490).
Tracy Tan

History in Leeds, then maths in California; The internet has opened up a huge new world... - 0 views

(Restricted access article, so I'm posting it here.) I found what was said about 'engaging online learning experiences' very insightful: "It must be a well ordered, curated experience that underst...

online learning curating

started by Tracy Tan on 27 Mar 12 no follow-up yet
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