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Buzz, badges and leader boards – just what is gamification anyway?(0)
Reblogged from The NFER blog: By Carlo Perrotta of Futurelab at NFER In my previous post I discussed the tension between innovation and formal schooling, and in our recent report we consciously kept to discussion of evidence relating to game-based learning in the context of formal schooling. However we did a lot of thinking about… Read More ›
BrowserQuest Is A Massively-Multiplayer Adventure Game Written In HTML5
Reblogged from TechCrunch: BrowserQuest, playable in a browser near you, is a proof of concept so ingenious that you’ll wonder why they didn’t just build a Zelda clone and be done with it. In short, the site is a multi-player RPG based entirely on HTML5 with no Flash to be found. The source code is… Read More ›
Crunch, Crunch, CrunchU: Course Registration Is Now Open
Reblogged from TechCrunch: That crunching sound you hear is software eating the world, and TechCrunch is always looking for ways to pull a chair up to the feast. For example, we have CrunchBase for startup data and CrunchBoard for jobs, and once upon a time there was CrunchPad, too. Not everything works out, but today with… Read More ›
Learning Theory Map
From Ana Cristina Pratas‘s Scoop.it we came across this visualized map of learning theories. Enjoy! Link : http://cmapspublic3.ihmc.us/rid=1LGVGJY66-CCD5CZ-12G3/Learning%20Theory.cmap From curator: This Concept Map, created with IHMC CmapTools, has information related to: Learning Theory, zone of proximal development The area of capabilities that learners can exhibit with support from a teacher., Montessori constructivism, Lave & Wenger… gregmhagar‘s curator… Read More ›
Froont wants to solve many-screen design problems from within the browser
Reblogged from GigaOM: Froont, a Baltic-U.S. startup, has released a public beta of its in-browser responsive web design tool, which aims to automate front-end development for the benefit of designers. Responsive web design is all the rage right now: it basically means designing a website so that it renders nicely across a variety of device… Read More ›
What Are You Doing to Inspire Your Learners' Moonshot Thinking?
Reblogged from User Generated Education: Your art is what you do when no one can tell you exactly how to do it. Your art is the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people. — Seth Godin From the video: We are a species of moonshot thinking – People can set… Read More ›
Top 10 Presentations at SXSW 2013
by Ellyssa Kroski, OEDb.org (licensed under CC BY) South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual music, film, and interactive conference and festival held in Austin each spring. The SXSW Interactive event is focused on emerging technology and has a reputation for top-notch presentations on the latest trends and innovations. Here are the ten most popular presentations from the conference… Read More ›
Four Pillars of Successful Communities of Practice
Reblogged from All of us are smarter than any of us…: Every so often, it’s good to revisit some of the fundamentals of knowledge management and reflect on their continuing importance to the field. I’ve been working with several different groups on Communities of Practice and Networks this month, and have taken each group back to… Read More ›
The World Used to be a Quieter Place
by Karina Barley I wanted to share briefly my thoughts on sensory issues. I’m not sure how many people are completely aware of how much of a problem this issue is for many kids who are on the spectrum. Many of the ‘negative behaviours’ exhibited I believe can be hugely linked to sensory based issues. … Read More ›
Running on Empty? 25 Tricks to Jumpstart Routine Lessons
Over the years, I’ve noticed how one question can change the dynamics of any situation. Everything might be moving along quite nicely at the dinner table, everyone’s happy and laughing but one question can send those same smiling faces into a frenzy of shouts and upset. This also holds true in a classroom. Students may be working… Read More ›
Help The Unique Minds in Digital Era – Project Autism
“The unique individuals who are on the Autistic Spectrum vibrate on a totally different frequency; they orientate within their environment in a very unique way to us; their senses are heightened in a variety of ways which makes the world a profound sensory minefield for them; and most importantly they are misunderstood by society where… Read More ›
A Message from 2038 – Help Education!
This is a fictional narration. You can watch it on Xtranormal. (sorry, wordpress stripes the embed codes) Help Education by: JessieChuang ~~~~~ It’s 2038. I am sending this message back to you, I hope some of you could help our education going in the right direction into digital learning age so that we won’t lose… Read More ›
Special Education 101 Infographic
According to USC RossierOnline : Although special education began in the 1950s as a movement to win individuals with disabilities a free and quality education, it has today come to embrace the ideal of inclusion, with many students with disabilities being taught in general classrooms alongside their non-disabled peers. Thus, as fully inclusive classrooms become more of… Read More ›
Comedy in the Classroom: 50 Ways to Bring Laughter into any Lesson
During a recent class session, my students stared at me with blank expressions, glassy eyes, pasty and pale skin, and jowls drooping. I think I even saw a string of saliva hanging from the corner of one student’s mouth. I was reviewing plot structure. It was perfect except for the fact that I was boring… Read More ›
Two New Game-Based Learning MOOCs
Reblogged from Educating Lotus: You might like to know about two game-based learning MOOCs (massively open online courses) that you can sign up for now. Like all MOOCs they are free and the level of participation is up to you. Games MOOC III. When you click this link, you’ll see the following overview of the… Read More ›
20 Quick Actions You Can Do Today To Set Your Classroom Up For Massive Success
When the school year begins, teachers spend a lot of time getting the classroom ready, planning lessons, and getting to know his/her students. The following list includes 20 ideas that you may not have thought of in terms of a successful classroom arrangement or organization. Each item takes no longer than an hour and can… Read More ›
The Internet Will Be Just Fine Without Google Reader
Reblogged from TechCrunch: “Google Reader will not be available after July 1, 2013″, read the popup message on Google Reader this morning. It’s impossible to ignore. It’s right there, in the center of the screen, ensuring you, the loyal user, know that Google is sunsetting Reader in three months. To some, this is a knife… Read More ›
Using Civilization IV to Present Real-world Conflicts
Reblogged from Using Civilization IV for Learning: The last week of our class’ work with this computer game, the students were tasked to utilize the game to present real-world international conflicts. Normal gameplay in Civilization IV replicates concepts in international relations, but not actual events. However, by the use of player-made modifications and the in-game… Read More ›
Sorting out "MOOCs"
Reblogged from Doing by Learning (and vice versa): It is a good season for “MOOCs”, Massive Open Online Courses, and you can spot several of them in full action. But the term “MOOC” has come to cover a range of wildly different kinds of ehm… learning events. Indeed, for some of these, “course”, might be… Read More ›
The Problem of Students’ Texting
How does an increased reliance on text messaging and techspeak is destroying our writing and verbal communication skills? Research suggests the use of abbreviations, word substitutions, acronyms, and emoticons, are all major contributors to this decline. Muhammad Saleem made this infographic to raise the awareness of this issue. We should understand the benefits and drawbacks of students’ using mobile devices so that… Read More ›
Bringing Computer Games into the Teaching and Learning Environment
Reblogged from Learning Through Play & Technology: by Hap Aziz In conversations regarding the use of games within contexts of education, there is often great enthusiasm for the transformative potential of integrating computer games in the teaching and learning environment. Kurt Squire has observed that good games allow students to explore a wide range of… Read More ›
Kno launches a free tool for publishers to turn boring files into an interactive ebook
Reblogged from VentureBeat: Ed-tech company Kno has the support of Silicon Valley venture capitalists, but it has struggled to find its niche, until today. Kno’s CEO Osman Rashid is confident about a product that can turn a boring PDF into an interactive ebook in “minutes.” This new publishing tool was originally called “Evolve,” but due to… Read More ›
The Achievement Gap [Infographic]
An Infographic by Open Colleges
Learning Creative Learning
The MIT Media Lab & P2PU Present… A course for designers, technologists, and educators interested in creative learning: Learning Creative Learning. Learning Creative Learning is offered by Mitch Resnick, who is the director of Lifelong Kindergarten and the LEGO Papert Professor at the MIT Media Lab. He has been a pioneer in technology & learning for… Read More ›
Study Proves Classroom Design Really Does Matter
News from University of Salford In a pilot study by the University of Salford and architects, Nightingale Associates, it was found that the classroom environment can affect a child’s academic progress over a year by as much as 25%. The year-long pilot study was carried out in seven Blackpool LEA primary schools. 34 classrooms with differing… Read More ›
DigitalWish – Your Wishes for Digital Classroom Come True
Digital Wish is the edtech DonorsChoose. They have fulfilled more than 30,000 classroom wishes, here is the story from their press kit. ***** In 2006, Digital Wish founder Heather Chirtea’s 7-year-old twins were enrolled in a small, rural elementary school on the brink of closure. In order to keep the school open and preserve its small class sizes, 62… Read More ›
30+ Google+ Accounts and Communities to Follow
More professionals are making use of Google+ accounts and communities for its ease of usage and integration with Google Apps. We also see Google is providing more services for education, including the Google Course Builder on which Google offers its Power Search MOOC courses.(new course will start in this week) OnlineUniversities.com had pulled together a recommendation… Read More ›
25 Literacy Projects Around the World
This post was first published on OnlineUniversities.com : 25 Inspiring Literacy Projects Around the World. A literate, educated society is a safer, healthier, and more prosperous society. So promoting reading, writing, and other academic subjects stands as crucial to keeping humanity from wrecking itself before it checks itself. Local, national, and global initiatives lead the way in… Read More ›
Which Study Strategies Are Proven Effective by Psychological Science ?
(Press Release from Association for Psychological Science) Report finds several popular study strategies are ineffective; effective study strategies are underused Students everywhere, put down those highlighters and pick up some flashcards! Some of the most popular study strategies — such as highlighting and even rereading — don’t show much promise for improving student learning, according to… Read More ›
How California's Online Education Pilot Will End College As We Know It
Reblogged from TechCrunch: Today, the largest university system in the world, the California State University system, announced a pilot for $150 lower-division online courses at one of its campuses — a move that spells the end of higher education as we know it. Lower-division courses are the financial backbone of many part-time faculty and departments… Read More ›
Understanding Participation in Webmaker: Practices and Identities Spanning Communities
Reblogged from Empathetics: Integral Life: I’ve been variably involved with Mozilla’s Webmaker project since it started in 2010 (before it was even called that). I had the privilege to go to the first Drumbeat festival in Barcelona, and helped with some of the early prototyping around Hackasaurus, mostly contributing ideas about what sorts of web literacies… Read More ›
Ideas about what works while learning a language - Part Four: mostly to the teacher
Reblogged from Learning and teaching English in the Netherlands: As to teaching and teachers, I hope that quite a lot of ideas may already have been presented in my previous postings, but I’d like to add and elaborate further. Most importantly, I think that interaction, speaking and revising are also the main areas which most… Read More ›
Kids' Educational App Companies Fingerprint & Mindshapes Team Up To Launch A Collection Of Interactive "Appisodes"
Reblogged from TechCrunch: San Francisco-based kids’ app platform Fingerprint is teaming up with UK educational app maker Mindshapes. The two companies are collaborating on a series of new digital learning activities called “appisodes,” which combine both storytelling and games. It’s the first in what promises to be a busy year of Fingerprint announcements, partnerships, and app launches… Read More ›
McGraw-Hill & Kno Offer A Peek Into The Future Of Textbooks: They're Dynamic, Vocal, Adaptive & Bring Stats To Studying
Reblogged from TechCrunch: For many startups, creating the educational platform (and learning experience) of the future began with reinventing the presentation, distribution — really, the essence — of educational content. And what is the most familiar package for that content? The good ole textbook, in all its rigid and bulky glory. As such, startups like… Read More ›
Point this app at your TV screen and it overlays all kinds of augmented-reality goodies
Reblogged from VentureBeat: An Intel-funded startup wants to bring augmented reality to your television screen. Telibrahma’s Point uses image recognition technology to turn your smartphone into a tool for a “second screen experience.” Using the Point app, you point your smartphone at an image on the TV screen, and it starts an interactive sequence. If… Read More ›
15 Reasons Why Daydreamers are Better Learners
The student’s eyes drift to the classroom window and the teacher’s voice fades from consciousness. The daydream begins. It’s a familiar scene, one we have likely both experienced as students and struggled against in our students as teachers. But daydreaming is not what it might seem. Recent research in both psychology and neuroscience makes clear… Read More ›
Case Study: Flipped Classrooms Work for Financially Challenged Students
Reblogged from The KnowledgeStar Blog: I’ve been advocating for the flipped classroom since I first read Daniel Pink’s article in the UK Telegraph 3 plus years ago. Since then some amazing changes have been happening (see previous post). This case study grabbed my attention for several reasons. It is written by the Greg Green, the… Read More ›
MOOCs and other ed-tech bubbles
Reblogged from Ed Tech Now: Why most of what currently excites the ed-tech world is hot air: MOOCs, Learning Analytics and Open Education Resources, amongst other fads. I already know what my new year’s resolution will be. As well as losing a stone in weight (the same resolution every year), it will be to stop… Read More ›
Fostering Team Creativity
This is a guest post from Disha Menda, HEADRUSH Ventures [P] Ltd. The fast changing business environment is forcing organizations to continuously evolve and innovate. Cutting costs and lean management are no longer the solution to stay ahead of competition. Something different and fresh is the need of the hour – Fostering Team Creativity. The aim… Read More ›
5 reasons to get excited about Augmented Reality in 2013
Reblogged from VentureBeat: This is a guest post by Trak Lord Augmented reality (AR) may seem like a futuristic concept, but it will be a reality of our digital lives in 2013. AR is a new technology that blurs the line between what’s real and what’s computer generated by enhancing what we hear, see and… Read More ›
