HGSET545

As usual, Tom Friedman finds a really snazy way to say some really cool things... but he also leaves out the 'grey" areas. 

Thanks for sharing this Lisa. I think the last sentence in the article is where the real challenge is because the outstanding is not that easily available in MOOCs.

Coach John Wooden talks about motivating and engaging his students and players. In giving students autonomy and control over their learning, it is sometimes important to focus on small details too. This could be as simple as being punctual, but it goes a long way in building self-discipline.

Further evidence to encourage gaming?

Is this the best use of $80,000 to improve a classroom?

Minecraft in the classroom - what knowledge and skills does it teach?

A video talking about how Minecraft is exceptionally great for education because of its versatility and adaptability to many subjects and concepts.

formative assessment may be possible in SimCity, but how good its its validity in terms of authentic city dynamics?

autonomy as a motivational force

An hour long video by Ben Bederson on social MOOCs . highly recommended

Some questions-driven tips on dissecting an academic article.

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. :-)

Covers topics we have been discussing for the class lately. Also, provides views on transfer from virtual world to physical world.

There are some interesting comments regarding who should be happy first, the teacher or the student.

Have you heard about Ouya? It's the $99 game console that raised over a million dollars in eight hours on Kickstarter. This week Ouya announced that game developers can begin uploading their games for the March 28 release to Kickstarter backers. The masses can buy the Ouya console in June. Here's another link that provides an overview of Ouya. http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/ingame/meet-ouya-99-game-machine-everyone-talking-about-876224

This article provides a great overview of the new technologies profiled at SXSW and makes the case that it's now cheaper than ever before to bring prototypes to market. The author notes, "The dropping costs of designing and building inventive new hardware products has prompted a wave of creativity and innovation that echoes the software boom a decade or two ago in Silicon Valley." Makes me wonder... what's next?