Group items tagged

Building Lego Robots is amazing. Here are some great tutorials that get you through the tricky parts of making the bricks sentient. Note: not sure if tutorials are actually operational?

From the library to the dorm room to a friend's computer, it's not uncommon for college students to find themselves using a different computer all the time. Putting small and versatile apps on flash drives allows students to take their important programs with them wherever they go. The following portable apps cover everything from documents to note-taking to organization to security to helpful tools and more, are all small enough to go anywhere, and cost absolutely nothing.

From the Google For Students blog comes this set of notes on how to set up a group project using gmail and Google Docs. There are some other good tips in the Comments.

"What Makes a Great Teacher? Image credit: Veronika Lukasova Also in our Special Report: National: "How America Can Rise Again" Is the nation in terminal decline? Not necessarily. But securing the future will require fixing a system that has become a joke. Video: "One Nation, On Edge" James Fallows talks to Atlantic editor James Bennet about a uniquely American tradition-cycles of despair followed by triumphant rebirths. Interactive Graphic: "The State of the Union Is ..." ... thrifty, overextended, admired, twitchy, filthy, and clean: the nation in numbers. By Rachael Brown Chart: "The Happiness Index" Times were tough in 2009. But according to a cool Facebook app, people were happier. By Justin Miller On August 25, 2008, two little boys walked into public elementary schools in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both boys were African American fifth-graders. The previous spring, both had tested below grade level in math. One walked into Kimball Elementary School and climbed the stairs to Mr. William Taylor's math classroom, a tidy, powder-blue space in which neither the clocks nor most of the electrical outlets worked. The other walked into a very similar classroom a mile away at Plummer Elementary School. In both schools, more than 80 percent of the children received free or reduced-price lunches. At night, all the children went home to the same urban ecosystem, a zip code in which almost a quarter of the families lived below the poverty line and a police district in which somebody was murdered every week or so. Video: Four teachers in Four different classrooms demonstrate methods that work (Courtesy of Teach for America's video archive, available in February at teachingasleadership.org) At the end of the school year, both little boys took the same standardized test given at all D.C. public schools-not a perfect test of their learning, to be sure, but a relatively objective one (and, it's worth noting, not a very hard one). After a year in Mr. Taylo

Want to get started with Edmodo, then these are the official getting started notes?

Edistorm takes the metaphor of sticky notes on a boardroom wall and brings it online allowing anyone - anywhere to brainstorm with only a web browser. Each user picks their favorite ideas and Edistorm brings the best ones forward.

Students are using a dual-boot machine with UbuntuLinux and Windows XP. I love this account of how he got the change going at a Technology magnet school...note the focus is on bringing innovative experiences to students rather than making it easier for District Technology Department staff to do their job, which unfortunately, is what keeps GNU/Linux out of many school districts: The Rudd laptop scheme damaged the use of linux in schools in Aus. Maybe this will help.

Tool that allows you to keep notes on the Kindle but outside of a specific book.

Spider Scribe is an online mind map creation service. Spider Scribe can be used individually or be used collaboratively. On Spider Scribe users can add images, maps, calendars, text notes, and uploaded text files to their mind maps. Users can connect the elements on their mind maps or let them each stand on their own

Gates says his foundation is currently focusing on using private funds to inform and redirect how public education dollars are spent, specifically in the form of research.- my note "agreeable findings" concern as "research" can then rapidly influence policy.

Glassboard is an app for Android, Windows, and iOS phones that enables you to create and participate in private groups. Using the app you can create and participate in as many groups as you like. You can specify which groups can see the content you share and you can share notes, links, pictures, and videos. The content you share and the content others share with you is displayed in a news feed on your mobile device.

On 31 August 2011, the Review of Funding for Schooling panel released a Paper on Commissioned Research and four research reports, seeking feedback from the general public. It is important to note that these research reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the panel.

This You Tube movie looks at how the US Best Buy chain is using Social Networking tools including wikis and other networking tools and spaces. Note the lack of mention of Office Suites and presentation tools such as PowerPoint. Fabulous evidence to counter arguments that we should be concentrating on teaching about the tools that workplaces use and not social networking.

SCAMPER is a strategy that can be used to assist students to generate new or alternative ideas. It is a tool to support creative, divergent thinking. SCAMPER is an acronym for: substitute, combine, adapt, modify/magnify/minify, put to other uses, eliminate, reverse/rearrange. What is its purpose? SCAMPER is a thinking tool that helps students to ask questions about a concept, text, or idea that require them to think beyond the obvious. It can help develop critical thinking skills and creativity and is a useful cooperative learning tool and a great stimulus for role play. In this post from Litemind, Lucciano " ....... presents a complete SCAMPER primer, along with two free creativity-boosting resources: a downloadable reference mind map and an online tool that generates random questions to get you out of a rut whenever you need." In this very comprehensive post Luciano note only explains the terminology associated with SCAMPER but also lists suggested questions as well as "Trigger Words".

Stixy makes it fun and easy for you to collaborate online! Create tasks, appointments, files, photos, notes, and bookmarks on your Stixyboards, organized in whatever way make sense to you. Then share your Stixyboards with friends, family, and colleagues.

online notice board for making announcements, notes etc.

If you are using iTouches in schools you may need to create an iTunes App Store account without the usual registration of a credit card, (note to purchase pay for apps you will need a credit card). This page from Apple shows the procedure to use.

"TodaysMeet is a free online tool that allows you to backchannel. What is a backchannel I hear you ask? Backchanneling is having real time online conversations alongside live presentations. A backchannel lets participants ask questions, discuss what is being presented, share links and reflect on their learning. Backchanneling could be describe as "virtual whispering or note passing" during lessons, presentation or activities."

"Project-based learning is centered on the learner and affords learners the opportunity for in-depth investigations of worthy topics. The learners are more autonomous as they construct personally-meaningful artifacts that are representations of their learning. This article examines the theoretical foundations of project-based learning, particularly constructivism and constructionism, and notes the similarities and differences among implementations, including project-based science (Blulmenfeld et al., 1991), disciplined inquiry (Levstik & Barton, 2001) and WebQuests (Dodge, 1995). In addition, an anatomy of a model case will be considered using a WebQuest example developed by the author, describing seven characteristics common among the various implementations of project-based learning. Finally, practical advice and recommendations for project-based learning are discussed, including beginning slowly with the implementation, teaching students to negotiate cooperative/collaborative groups and establishing multiple forms of performance assessments."