Group items tagged

Compendium of student activities, grouped by student interest.

""Successful" multitasking has been shown to activate the reward circuit in the brain by increasing dopamine levels-the brain chemical responsible for feelings of happiness.... This is comparable to the rush you might feel while playing the slot machines in a casino.... It's important to be aware of how multitasking can stimulate us into mindlessness, giving the illusion of productivity while stealing our focus and harming performance."

It's pretty amazing stuff, really. According to one hypothesis, dopamine is a reward for unexpected stimuli: "...rewards that are expected do not produce any activation of dopamine cells, but rewards that are greater than expected produce a short-lasting increase in dopamine." And it has profound effects on cognition: "It is now known that both dopamine and norepinephrine have essential actions on prefrontal cortical function, and help coordinate cognitive state with arousal state.[28] Dopamine has an "inverted U" influence on prefrontal function through its actions on D1 receptors, where either too little or too much impairs working memory function.[29]"

The National Archives Digital Classroom: Primary Sources, Activities and Training for Educators and Students (documents are organized by date/time period).

From Explain Everything: "Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design tool that lets you annotate, animate, and narrate explanations and presentations. You can create dynamic interactive lessons, activities, assessments, and tutorials using Explain Everything's flexible and integrated design. Use Explain Everything as an interactive whiteboard using the iPad2 video display. Explain Everything records on-screen drawing, annotation, object movement and captures audio via the iPad microphone. Import Photos, PDF, PPT, and Keynote from Dropbox, Evernote, Email, iPad photo roll and iPad2 camera. Export MP4 movie files, PNG image files, and share the .XPL project file with others for collaboration. Explain Everything has been designed for use in educational, business, and entertainment settings."

Great pedagogy tool to help you design enhanced learning experiences for your students with the iPad. Apps are recommended for each level of Bloom's Taxonomy along with suggested learning activities. From the article: "I have added 62 iPad apps to the wheel and put them where they could serve the pedagogy. These are not necessarily the best app for the job and many of the apps can be used in different realms but it is a good start. I hope it helps you rethink the iPad's use in Learning and Teaching… it is not about the tool nor the app … it's all about the students."

Specific link to the Padagogy Wheel: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3138780/padwheelMASTER_V110712.pdf

Ink2Go is a screen annotation and recording solution that lets you write on top of your active desktop applications in real time. Save your annotations as image files or even record the entire annotation process as a sharable video!

Multitasking feels good because of your brain chemicals, not because you're good at it. Excerpt: "Research has shown that when you multitask 'successfully', you activate the reward mechanism in your brain which releases dopamine, the happy hormone. This dopamine rush makes you feel so good that you believe you're being effective and further encourages your multitasking habit."