HGSET545

This is a superficial treatment of a significant event in the life of this school. I hope teachers and admins were more thoughtful than is represented here.

MSN sponsored site on home schooling topics.

an interesting point from the article: "adolescents aren't reckless because they underestimate risks, but because they overestimate rewards-or, rather, find rewards more rewarding than adults do."

I really enjoyed this article, thank you. I find it very interesting to explore from a neurological perspective how some aspects of our modern world impact children and teens. So often parents say that the world is different today, but it is important to realize that the way we function does not change so quickly.

I noticed this article as well - I think it's absolutely fascinating! Now I'm curious about the implications of these findings for designing educational technologies for adolescents: how can products take advantage of these proclivities? A more difficult question would be - is there any way that technologies can counteract these tendencies in order to bring more balance/rationality into a teenager's world?

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.

I'm still not sure if I agree with David Foster Wallace, but his quote did made me wonder: Does the idea of being "smart" tap into some essential human need? Might we add "smartness" to Ryan & Deci's list of intrinsic needs?

When you design a didgital product, it pays to look ahead and see what is coming around the corner.

Some nice pointers for User Interface design in the current context

This NRC book is freely available as a pdf.

Pradeep, thanks for sharing this resource.

On trialling these games from Pearson ( download demo available for -math and english) it is obvious that there is no integration of learning content with game play mechanics...... do share your thoughts if you should trial it.

In this presentation by Cecilia d'Oliveira, MIT OpenCourseWare's Executive Director and Shigeru Miyagawa, Chair of MIT OpenCourseWare's Faculty Advisory Committee and Head of MIT's Foreign Languages and Literatures Department, we'll examine the how open educational resources are changing the educational landscape and meeting the global demands for open knowledge.

Assess students in real time, using open-ended tasks to probe student understanding.

Some interesting opinions on the future of games from game designers.

Podcast about the need for students to be engaged and motivated in their learning before they can apply higher-order creative thinking skills. They are most engaged when they themselves are part of constructing meaning, not when teachers do it for them. This podcast is about engagement in the real schools but I listened through the virtual learning lens.

"Instead of Edutainment, maybe we should call it edu-engagement."

An awesome infographic on digital natives and the evolution of technology in the classroom.

At the Learning and the Brain Conference last week, Dr. Gee listed 10 (research-validated) reasons why video games are good for learning.