Group items tagged

"There are a lot of gadgets out there, right? Shiny new products with fun, useful, or amazing capabilities are being churned out at quite the clip. They're available for use in workplaces, schools, and at home, and the scope of what we can do with all these neat devices is only expanding. So, we know that students are connected - Very Connected. They have computers, smartphones, tablets, and a variety of devices in between. But just how connected are they? And what does this mean for teachers?"

"I'm not exactly sure who made being a "personal brand" a thing on the Internet, but I'd really like to sit down with them and ask them why they thought that it was a good idea. You see, an entire ecosystem of people looking to make money have cropped up around this notion of helping people become a "brand." Honestly, it's bull, and I'd like to see it stop. Why is it bull? Because unless you're Kim Kardashian and have a line of clothes or stinky fragrances, you are not a brand. You are a person."

"It's honestly the people who figured out one day that being them was fun who are successful in life. They're weird, odd, loud, quiet, sexy, ugly, bald, rude, or funny and they don't care what other people think. I don't think that Box's CEO Aaron Levie took a class in "personal branding," I just think he's cool with being himself."

"Today, computer science is absent in 95 percent of high schools in the U.S. Yep. Why? Because developing curriculum for these subjects requires time and expertise, and finding the qualified candidates to teach these subjects demands significant capital to lure talented programmers away from high-paying jobs in the private sector.  That's where CodeHS comes in. Founded by Stanford students Zach Galant and Jeremy Keeshin and incubated at StartX and Imagine K12, CodeHS is an online program built for high school students (and teachers) with no previous coding experience that intends to provide an easy and fun way to learn computer science."

"ATOMS are creative toys that enable kids - big and small - to make things that do things. Fun, innovative, and iOS controlled."

"In the case of Breaking Tweets, it was a personal blog that I started for fun on Jan. 31, 2009. I had just witnessed the power of Twitter for news as mainstream media highlighted it covering the Hudson Plane Crash on Jan. 15, 2009 and many (including myself) live tweeted Barack Obama's Inauguration at the National Mall on Jan. 20, 2009."

The Academy offers a wide variety of STEMx topics offered as online workshops, mini-courses, or "massively open online courses" (MOOC's) that are fun, practical, and engaging. Topics include "Helping students solve community challenges through app design" (offered by AppsforGood.org), "Game Design for Learning" (offered by LearningGamesNetwork.org), "Using Remote Science Labs" (offered by Northwestern University) and more. Educators earn recognition from the host institution and from the HP Catalyst Academy by collecting electronic badges.

Anyone who has ever tried to teach a kid how to multiply knows how hard that job is. (Try teaching a child what an adverb is long enough and you'll develop a facial tic.) But set the student up with an interactive, electronic game that is fun, competitive, and self-diagnostic, and suddenly teaching these basic subjects becomes both efficient and effective. Does that make teachers obsolete? Quite the opposite: it frees them to teach the higher levels of the cognitive domain-analysis, problem solving, synthesis, and creative thinking. The parts teachers normally never get around to because they're too bogged down in the basics.

"I made a series of posters that I often hang around the room when I facilitate workshops. It's fun for participants to get up and scan them at break time. Each poster features a quote about education or technology. Part of the quote or its author is missing and has been replaced with a QR code."

"I love being a scholar, but one thing that really depresses me about research is that so much of what scholars produce is rendered inaccessible to so many people who might find it valuable, inspiring, or thought-provoking. This is at the root of what drives my commitment to open-access. When Zizi Papacharissi asked Nancy Baym and I if we'd be willing to guest edit the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media (JOBEM), we agreed under one condition: the issue had to be open-access (OA). Much to our surprise and delight, Taylor and Francis agreed to "test" that strange and peculiar OA phenomenon by allowing us to make this issue OA. Nancy and I decided to organize the special issue around "socially mediated publicness," both because we find that topic to be of great interest and because we felt like there was something fun about talking about publicness in truly public form. We weren't sure what the response to our call would be, but were overwhelmed with phenomenal submissions and had to reject many interesting articles. "

"Liveshout offers a simple and quick way to react on the content you watch. The mobile app and website provide an interactive experience with the show and other viewers. Quizzes and exclusive content are also available to make it more fun!"

When Tweeting was Fun to read during an open session

"how can you use Skype to do more than just make calls? Well, there's a pantload of interesting ways! Check out these fun ideas:"

"We tend to over think some things in life and here's proof.  Do you suffer from high levels of narcisim or low self esteem?  Or, maybe you use Facebook, because it's just a fun way to keep in touch with friends?"

"In February 2011 I started participating in something called the Daily Shoot, in which amateur photographers were encouraged to complete a photography assignment sent out via Twitter each morning. Photos uploaded to Flickr and tagged appropriately were aggregated on the Daily Shoot website, where I had a lot of fun seeing how others interpreted each day's assignment. I'm a much more creative photographer because of my participation in the Daily Shoot."

Nancy and I decided to organize the special issue around "socially mediated publicness," both because we find that topic to be of great interest and because we felt like there was something fun about talking about publicness in truly public form. We weren't sure what the response to our call would be, but were overwhelmed with phenomenal submissions and had to reject many interesting articles.

"Below, we collect some "rules" we've derived from these features and from other pieces on the Times site, along with links and related activities we hope writers at any stage will find fun or useful - or both."

101 websites that every teacher should know about

Nice! I will copy this link into Diigo. Thanks for sharing.

"I put together this list of websites for elementary teachers, hoping that you'll finally be able add something fresh and fun to your lesson plan."

"To help consumers understand the data being collected about them, Acxiom just launched a new website called AboutTheData.com. The site allows you to enter some personal information (name, birthdate, etc.) and discover what marketers think about you. Granted, the site is likely also a way for Axciom to build up its reservoir of data, but it's kind of fun to see what the marketing data says about us."

"One of the most fun and useful things I've been doing lately is automating small processes I do all the time. It took me a while to work up the courage to dive into automation, as it always seemed like a really difficult, technical thing to do, which should be left to programmers."

"On the first day of school, instead of going over your classroom rules, why don't you just create some memes explaining your rules. A quick and memorable way for your students to connect with routines and procedures. Either way, these are fun ways to express your sentiments."