Group items tagged

Gates & McArthur foundation looking to sponsor a version of Sim City for Educational use. 

"GlassLab is working with commercial game companies, assessment experts, and those versed in digital classrooms to build SimCityEDU, a downloadable game designed for sixth graders. Scheduled to be be released in the fall of 2013, it builds on SimCity's city management theme, but provides specific challenges to players in the subject of STEM. "The big pain point we've heard from teachers is that they cannot entertain their kids to the level that they are being entertained outside of the classroom," said Jessica Lindl, general manager of GlassLab. "They want to be able to create meaningful learning experiences and they just can't compete with the digital tools their kids are accessing all the time.""

Numbeo is the world's largest database of user contributed data about cities and countries worldwide. Numbeo provides current and timely information on world living conditions including cost of living, housing indicators, health care, traffic, crime and pollution.

A recent paper published in leading medical journal The Lancet has attributed the high occurrence of child myopia in East Asian cities to rising educational pressures and lifestyle changes, which lead to children spending less time outdoors. 

Summary via The Scout Report (May 2012): "Fashion Institute of Technology: Teaching & Learning Resources ---- Located in New York City, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is known for its excellent programs in fashion design, marketing, and related fields. What people may not know is that FIT also has a great collection of materials for teachers, courtesy of its Center for Excellence in Teaching. The site includes sections such as Printable Resources, Syllabus and Student Learning Outcomes, and Podcasts, Videos and Powerpoints. In the Printable Resources area, visitors can view 15 different handouts, including "Good Teaching Practices for Software" and "Classroom Feedback Questionnaire." Moving on, the Syllabus and Student Learning Outcomes area includes sample syllabi and information on evaluating student learning. Finally, the site also includes helpful videos titles "First-day Icebreakers" and "Tips for Teachers." [KMG]"

"Teacher Kelly Finn, left, works with students Rachel Mathews, center, and Sarah Xu during a writer's workshop at The Barstow School in Kansas City, Mo." - Photo to the right of the article.  Article advocating tech use in schools. One school is doing writer's workshop and using technology as part of the process. Not much detail on how they are doing that exactly, but interesting to see how schools are forging tech & writers workshop together

"Ten years after the world's nations pledged to cut deeply into the problems afflicting the world's poor by 2015, a  Millennium Development Goals Summit is being held at the United Nations today through Wednesday to assess progress. The event overlaps with a batch of related meetings in New York City, including Climate Week and the Clinton Global Initiative."

"Welcome to Myths and Legends. This site is for pupils, teachers and all those who enjoy stories and storytelling. The British Isles is rich in myths, folktales and legends. Almost every city, town and village in Britain has its own special story, be it a Celtic legend, Dark Age mystery, strange happening or fable."

a Biblioburro -- library by donkey -- in Colombia -- good complement to the book, My Librarian is a Camel

"HIGHRISE is a multi-year, multi-media, collaborative documentary project about the human experience in global vertical suburbs. Under the direction of documentary-maker Katerina Cizek, the HIGHRISE team will be making lots of things. Web-documentaries, live presentations, installations, mobile projects and yes, documentary films. We will use the acclaimed interventionist and participatory approaches of the award-winning National Film Board of Canada's Filmmaker-in-Residence (FIR) project. Our scale will be global, but rooted firmly in the FIR philosophy - putting people, process, creativity, collaboration, and innovation first."

"The Information Fluency Continuum provides a framework for the instructional aspects of a library program. The framework is based on three standards that form the basis for the skills and strategies that are essential for students to become independent readers and learners."

Very good site for ideas on mobile learning