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In this Edutopia post, I share ideas from teachers who are using today's headlines to design relevant projects. The challenges: maintaining student attention once the news cycle ends, and going deep into content areas. Pls share more ideas in comments.

Are you looking for a new approach to engage your students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics? NASA's Do-It-Yourself Podcast activity sets the stage for students to host a show that features astronauts training for missions, doing experiments in space or demonstrating equipment. We'll provide a set of audio and video clips along with photos and information about a space-related topic. You and your students may choose as many items as you want to include in your project and download them to your computer. Students may use the information we provide or conduct their own research to write a script for an audio or video production.

Social network sites, online games, video-sharing sites, and gadgets such as iPods and mobile phones are now fixtures of youth culture. They have so permeated young lives that it is hard to believe that less than a decade ago these technologies barely existed. Today's youth may be coming of age and struggling for autonomy and identity as did their predecessors, but they are doing so amid new worlds for communication, friendship, play, and self-expression. We include here the findings of three years of research on kids' informal learning with digital media. The two page summary incorporates a short, accessible version of our findings. The White Paper is a 30-page document prepared for the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Series. The book is an online version of our forthcoming book with MIT Press and incorporates the insights from 800 youth and young adults and over 5000 hours of online observations.

A contest for students in Middle and High School. What new jobs will be available in the 2020.

Origins of the internet - a great article to introduce the internet to students. Wow 15 years have passed. No wonder high school students don't see access to information on demand as 'wow'. it has always been like that. I bet teachers can remember life before ... some need to let go and move towards the light. :)

Great article on the future of the web from people who predicted it's growth a decade or two ago. Where to they see it heading now. Interesting to compare this to NMCs Horizon Report 2008.

Open Sim made easy Wiki - how to download, set up and run your own grid and connect it to the new world grid. Uses API type set up and interface.

from Free Technology for Teacehrs Digital storytelling guru Kevin Hodgson has recently launched a new website all about stopmotion movie creation. Kevin developed Making Stopmotion Movies as a how-to resource for teachers who are interested in having students create stopmotion movies. On Making Stopmotion Movies teachers will find downloadable storyboard and character development guides. Kevin provides an excellent outline of the whole movie making process. Visitors to Making Stopmotion Movies will also find video examples of real student productions. Below you will find one of the videos from Making Stopmotion Movies. Applications for EducationIf you've wanted to try a stopmotion or claymation movie project in your classroom, but you weren't sure how to get started, Making Stopmotion Movies should get you off on the right foot.

The MIT Professor describes why games are great learning tools, and how new gaming paradigms can change the educational system.

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) seeks to produce learners who not only remember the theory, they know how and when to apply it. However, providing a problem to a group of students is not a guarantee that they will be able to solve it. Even more uncertain is whether the solution the students offer and the journey they undertook to arrive at it resulted in them learning the intended underlying concepts and theories. As students become increasingly time poor, they are less inclined towards a learning approach which requires them to be self-directed and motivated. This paper reports on a learning design which seeks to scaffold and accelerate the PBL process by providing a balance of facts and concepts to be remembered and tested via an online quiz, followed by an activity-based tutorial session that focussed on the application of those concepts to new problems in conjunction with the use of resource material and memory aids

Thanks!. Is very intersting.

A framework is provided for making connections between everyday math problem and solving real world math problems. Connections are made regarding project based learning for teachers new to the process, along with recommendations for teachers who are veterans of project based learning.

Earth Day is around the corner - April 22nd - and every year teachers and students try to come up with new and innovative activities. Recycling is a popular activity to keep the idea recycling going strong. Classrooms often come up with ideas to recycle paper, ink cartridges, plastic bottles, metal cans, and newspapers. However, there are other recycling activities that students can get involved in to support Earth Day.

When word of a natural disaster is spreading from somewhere in the world or announced on the news, students can use Google Earth to conduct an investigation of the disaster's effect.

new Elements course on Project-Based Learning! Anyone may take this course independently online.

The 5 E's is an instructional model based on the constructivist approach to learning, which says that learners build or construct new ideas on top of their old ideas. The 5 E's can be used with students of all ages, including adults. Each of the 5 E's describes a phase of learning, and each phase begins with the letter "E": Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. The 5 E's allows students and teachers to experience common activities, to use and build on prior knowledge and experience, to construct meaning, and to continually assess their understanding of a concept.

Vision: Digital games are widely used and played to address pressing issues, producing sustainable and positive impact on our society. Mission: Founded in 2004, Games for Change is the leading global advocate for supporting and making games for social impact.  We bring together organizations and individuals from the social impact sector, government, media, academia, the gaming industry and the arts to grow the field, incubate new projects and provide an open platform for the exchange of ideas and resources.