Inspiring New Futures

Where Do Educational Games Come From? | MindShift : Increasingly, digital games are cropping up everywhere in education. And that’s stimulated a flurry of activity leading to the expectation that no longer are learning games only likely to come from traditional education companies, but a wide variety of sources. The expectation-setting stats and statements, at least, are straightforward. Both the New Media Consortium’s  2012 Horizon Report on higher education  and its 2011 Horizon Report for K-12 put game-based learning in the mainstream (defined as adopted by about 20% of institutions) in the next two-to-three years. “The greatest potential of games for learning lie in their ability to foster collaboration and engage students deeply in the process of learning,” noted the 2012 higher ed collaborative effort of NMC educators and research centers. Then there’s the expectation of the “demand” side: students. An  Educause survey  last October found 37% of co...

Why The Future of Education Depends on Educational Technology ? : As you probably know Norway and Sweden 's educational systems are the top leading ones in the world. I have recently read two or three articles about the reasons for this educational prosperity in these countries and all of them relate it to the commitment and perseverance of teachers there. But I think there is more to it than just the role of teachers, probably the role of policy makers there is way important. When policy makers   support and cooperate with  practitioners, schools prosper and do well. Let us take an  example of educational research. One way to advance the quality of education is to encourage educational research both qualitative and quantitative ones. These researches are the real mirror that reflect the true status of education and it is based on them that recommendations are made as to what should be modified, deleted, or applied in curriculums. Norway and...

Reframing: Seeing Students in a New Way | Edutopia : There has been a lot of talk lately of what makes a good teacher. It is easy to make lists of hundreds of values, skills and attributes that make for good teachers, but there are two skills that separate the good teachers from the great ones. One skill is the ability to "reframe" a situation for students, which I will discuss today. The other, which I've mentioned in earlier posts, is the recognition that "fair is not equal." I will devote next month's post to some specific teaching techniques which build on this. Redefining the Event Reframing is having the insight to interpret events in different ways -- and to choose interpretations that lead to better outcomes. The truth is, we don't act on what children  do , we respond to  the name we give it . Since interpretation can be heavily subjective -- and since we can't always know of our students' intentions -- we never know which name is ...

9 Surprising Ways Schools Are Using iPads Around The World : iPads are making waves in education all over the nation, even in college classrooms, where they’re replacing laptops, textbooks, and notebooks. Some colleges have even gone so far as to hand out  iPads  to new students, helping students and faculty all work with the same technology for learning. This year, the iPad is still going strong and schools are continuing to innovate new ways to use the tablets in class and around campus. Here we share just a few of  the coolest ways iPads are making waves in higher ed this year , from helping teams play better to ensuring students never forget their notes.

UK Students Create Campaign To Find Teaching Heroes | Edudemic : A UK Radio and social media campaign has been launched created by students for teachers. Working with Eteach, St Wilfrid’s school pupils wrote and voiced a radio advertisement and created  a campaign to find a Teaching Hero in every school. During the campaign there will be monthly prizes  for teaching heroes and the pupils who nominate them, culminating in awards for the country’s most outstanding teachers in January. Eteach,  the UK’s leading online teacher recruitment service, commissioned students from St Wilfrid’s School in Crawley to create the campaign for teachers, to celebrate all the hard work and dedication they put into their work and the difference they make to their pupils’ life chances. They chose students because of their creativity – and the fact that nobody knows more about teachers than pupils!

How An Amsterdam School Uses Facebook Timeline In History Classes : Facebook, despite its massive size, is one of the least talked about social media tools in the education technology world. But a high school class in Amsterdam has started using it for educational purposes and you can check out the hard work they’ve done! Students at  Het 4e Gymnasium Amsterdam  have had their history class infused into their digital lives thanks to school principal Hans Verhage and the creative agency  THEY . The students have built Facebook Timelines for four history subjects: - Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union - Fashion from 1950 – present - Inventions of the 20th Century - Magellan’s Voyage Historical events were represented by uploading a variety of media including audio, video, photos, maps, and historic documents. Visit the individual History Timelines here: -  Fashion – 1950 To Now -  20th Century Inventions -  Magellan’s Voyage

Google Shares Inside Look At What We All Did This Summer : Before we finally hit the official end of summer on September 21, the  Google Maps  team thought it’d be fun to see how those of us in the Northern Hemisphere have spent the dog days. To do this, they reviewed the summer search activity on  maps.google.com  in several countries between the end of May and the beginning of September. Within each country, a look at some of the top-rising searches and the often-searched landmarks on Google Maps gives us a sense of how people around the world spent their summers. Take a look and click through for a larger image: