Inspiring New Futures

Inspiring knowledge is what we do best. The results of our work are visible every day, in every classroom we have implemented and now, we have further evidence of recognition. JP-inspiring knowledge won a World Education Summit Award , in the category "Best Innovation in Teaching-Learning Technologies," during the ceremony of the World Education Summit , held in New Delhi, India. The development of large-scale educational projects all over the world justifies the recognition of the impact of JP in the 21 st century Education. The key to the success of JP-inspiring knowledge is a determined team, committed to create, innovate and find new solutions. A team that has the desire to make a difference.

“For learners it is very important to see that their work is valued by others, and they will respond to the challenges that sharing knowledge and skills with others involve by creating great work!” – UK | daily edventures : Alessio Bernardelli is quick to attribute his success as an educator to those who shaped him along the way. “I was able and fortunate enough to have great role models who helped me step up and face a global audience through the development of my  personal blog  and personal learning network on Twitter,” Bernardelli notes. That act of sharing his ideas with a wider audience led to an opportunity for him to make an even bigger impact through his work as science lead at  TES  (billed as “the largest network of teachers in the world”). Bernardelli also tweets as @tesScience and promotes innovative resources and practices from the TES website, which has over two million members worldwide. Here, Bernardelli shares his pride in educators he’s mentor...

The Ultimate Guide To Emerging Technologies | Edudemic : Gene therapy? Anti-aging drugs? Neuroinformatics? If this sounds like something out of some Minority Report, you’re in for a surprise. According to a simply amazing visualization by the geniuses at  Envisioning Tech , all this and more is coming to your world in the next few decades. And it all starts with education. If we want each of these incredible (some scary, some not) technologies to actually happen, we need to make sure every student and teacher sees this visualization. Seriously. Show this roadmap to a student contemplating a degree in science or math and they’ll be pretty inspired. Who wouldn’t want to be the person who discovered a way to build a SPACE ELEVATOR?! That’s right. That’s one of the emerging technologies. Click the visualization to read more.  Click here for the printable PDF .

“I still prefer to see a teacher who teaches with dusty books and a chalkboard but knows how to inspire kids and shows them how interesting learning can be, rather than a high-tech teacher that uses ICT without a bigger plan.” – Belgium | daily edventures : “In my job as ICT Coordinator and as an employee of the biggest teacher web portal in Flanders, I’m in the perfect spot to bring change to education,” says Bram Faems. “I myself am very interested in everything where technology is concerned. And my jobs allow me to put these new technological innovations to the test for their educational use.” In Faems advising role as ICT Coordinator, he works hand-in-hand with the teachers at his school. Together, they search for ways to best use technology in their classrooms.  Faems also works for an online teacher community where he advises teachers from all around the country, and networks with them to discover the latest trends in schools. In fact, networking is Faems passion. “By s...

48 Ultra-Cool Summer Sites for Kids and Teachers | Edutopia : A good majority of northern hemisphere and international schools are winding down the 2011-12 school year, and doors will be closing as the students and teachers take off on their summer adventures. Here is a list of great sites for kids and teachers to keep you happily productive and learning this summer. These are in no way in any order of personal preference or coolness. Happy summer!

Summer School for Teachers | Edutopia : While we all know there is no such thing as having a "summer off" as a teacher, the summer does afford us the time to do some exploring. I wanted to share some things with you that I think are worth exploring while school is out. 1)  If This Then That I just recently learned about this tool and cannot believe I've lived without it for this long. ITTT is a simple web-based program that allows the user to create recipes of actions. For example, I set up a recipe that will send a tweet that I "favorite" into a designated notebook in my Evernote account. Now all of my favorites are in Evernote for me to manage and read when I want. You can also connect to Dropbox, Facebook, Blogger, Instagram, Gmail, foursquare and many more great tools. Managing information is the name of the game for connected educators, and this tool will help keep things in order. 2)  Livebinders Livebinders in an excellent site to use for professio...

WES Awards are delivered during the World Education Summit held in New Delhi, India, that is now on its 2 nd edition. WES is the world’s premier platform on education thought leadership, being jointly organized by renowned institutions such as the Indian Ministry of Labour and Employment and UNESCO. The main goal of WES Awards is to recognize global innovation and excellence in Education. As a Private Sector Initiative , JP Sá Couto is a finalist in the category "Best Innovation in Teaching-Learning Technologies". Vote now for JP Sá Couto’s project   - “JPSC as Education Solution Provider”. Thank you for the confidence.

Introducing the Science Museum's pet particle physicist | Science | guardian.co.uk : It's the job of Dr Harry Cliff to bring the Higgs boson and the Large Hadron Collider to South Kensington Dr Harry Cliff: 'It’s unusual to find a role that lets you combine active research with creative science communication.' Photograph: Science Museum Dr Harry Cliff cheerfully describes himself as the  Science Museum 's "pet particle physicist". In reality, he's much more than that. The 26-year-old physicist is the museum's new fellow of modern  science , and it's his job to bring  Cern  to South Kensington. For two days each week, you'll find Harry at his Cambridge lab, where he decodes the data churned out by the Large Hadron Collider. He's part of the LHCb detector team: he is, as he explains in  this Bright Club set , something of an expert on bottoms (bottom quarks, that is). He's rather proud of the fact that the LHCb is the most abundant...

Blogger: Inspiring New Futures - Modelo : VIDEO: First-Class Citizens: Civics Isn't Just a Class   Running Time: 7 min. For the students and staff of Hudson High School, in Hudson, Massachusetts, civics isn't just a class. It's part and parcel to everyday life at this New England high school, which has become a laboratory of democracy, challenging widely held assumptions about how schools can and should operate. Several years ago, when the district set out to build a new high school facility, Superintendent Sheldon Berman, longtime principal John Stapelfeld, and the entire Hudson High community embarked on a journey that would take them to uncharted waters. Credit: Edutopia Their mission: to plan and build a school whose design would encourage a sense of community among its occupants and to move into the new facility after having laid the groundwork for a bold new experiment in school governance in which students have a say in the big and little decisions that make up sc...

“Innovation doesn’t only apply to technology, but also to the way teachers inspire students to act, think, react and create things that may help them to become better members of our society.” – Mexico | daily edventures : “Many English teachers in Mexico struggle with the way they encounter English – both as a second and as a foreign language in the country,” says  Zayheri Velazquez Carillo.  “Additionally, most students who are part of the public school system in Mexico may not have the opportunity to study English at home or after school. So we have to adapt our speech and struggle with different English levels in the classroom.” But these challenges aside, Carillo,   who has been an English teacher for three years ,  works each day to bring her English students as much innovation as she can – even while working with some outdated technologies. She participated in the  Partners in Learning Institute in Seattle  in 2011, and works as a teacher train...

How to Develop a Welcoming Culture | Edutopia : Dr. Richard Curwin is the director of the Master's program in Behavior Disorder at David Yellin College in Jerusalem. The issues explored in today's post are explored in-depth in his book  Recovering Hope: Our Greatest Teaching Strategy . Visit his website,  Teacher Learning Center  to learn about this, and his many other books related to motivation and behavior. Have you ever noticed that the worst behaving children are never absent? I was tempted many times, when teaching seventh grade, to breath on certain students when I was sick. I wondered if the reason that these students never missed school was because their parents didn't want them at home. Of course, it was never that simple. Some parents worked and had no one to watch their children. Other students lived in dangerous home environments, and school was safer than staying home. Regardless of the reason, I wonder how many children feel unwanted wherever they are; ...

Grammar and secondary modern pupils talk about year 8 | Education | The Guardian : When we began following five Kent children at the start of secondary school, they were fretting about big kids and swearing. Now, they have more sophisticated concerns Ellie, Lewis and Cameron - no longer 'nobodies' now they are in year 8 at King Ethelbert school. Photograph: Martin Godwin It's two years since  Education Guardian first met a group of year 6 children  from St Saviour's primary school in Westgate-on-Sea, Kent, who shared with us their hopes and fears for the future at "big school". But moving up to a secondary wasn't the only thing they had to worry about. Living in one of the 36 local authorities that still have grammar  schools , they also had the 11-plus exam to contend with and the divide between who would go to grammar school and who wouldn't. Two of the children from St Saviour's were off to a grammar and three to a non-selective high scho...

8 Nations Leading the Way in Online Education | Edudemic :   Online education is quickly becoming a major phenomenon around the world. The ease and convenience it offers learners appeal to people just about everywhere, especially those who are trying to balance work, family, and other obligations with completing a degree or certification program. Yet certain nations have embraced online education more than others, leading the way both in terms of the number and variety of programs and new innovations to online learning itself. Here, we’ve highlighted some of the nations that are really stepping up the game when it comes to online education, though with the proliferation of high-speed nternet connections and a growing need for highly educated candidates in technical positions around the world, other nations likely aren’t far behind.

Xing Wei College, China's Experiment In Liberal Arts Western Education, Opens In Fall : In a bold bid to experiment with western education methods, a Chinese college modeled after American liberal arts institutions  receives its first class of students this fall ,  The New York Times  reports. Xing Wei college , a privately run institution in Shanghai, is the first of its kind in China. The college represents a divergence from traditional Chinese education, which is widely criticized for emphasizing rote memorization and stifling creating thinking. Weiming Chen, a Harvard-educated investor and founder of the college, said he wanted to cultivate a crop of students who could think in new ways. "We want students who have the courage to pursue their desires, to know what they really want; that's different from the traditional definition of top students," he  told the  South China Morning Post .

Education Week: Finland Rethinks Factory-Style School Buildings : Students enter the Kirkkojärvi School in Espoo, Finland. The school is among those featured in an exhibit that highlights the country's move away from factory-style schools to contemporary campuses built to meet the pedagogical and social needs of their students and teachers. Education watchers have dissected Finland’s educational leadership on international tests from practically every angle, but a new traveling exhibit at that nation’s embassy here suggests one more: that the buildings themselves support student achievement. Finnish students consistently have placed among the top countries on the Program for International Student Assessment, which gauges 15-year-old students’ ability to understand and transfer concepts in reading, mathematics, and science. For example, in the  most recent mathematics assessment , in 2009, Finnish students scored 54 points higher than their American peers on a scale of zero to...

20 Must-See Facts About The 21st Century Classroom | Edudemic : The classroom of the future is on your doorstep. We’re getting slapped in the face with  technology  (sorry about that, partially my fault),  flipped classroom models , and  innovative ideas . So what is the current state of the 21st century classroom? How many teachers have computers in their classroom? What are the 3 biggest reasons to use technology in your classroom? A new infographic from  Open Colleges  spells it out. We had the honor of helping them with this infographic so please spend at least half a second to check it out. Make me think that someone actually sees some of our hard work! Key Takeaways 91% of teachers have computers in the classroom Just 20% think they have the right level of technology in the classroom More than half of all colleges surveyed say their biggest priority is upgrading their wi-fi system 43% of teachers surveyed have used online games in the classroom ...

Five-Minute Film Festival: Why Open Education Matters | Edutopia : Amy Erin Borovoy is Edutopia's digital media curator, and she has a passion for content at the intersection of online video, new technologies, and education. Follow her on Twitter  @VideoAmy  or  subscribe to her YouTube channel  for more videos for educators. You may have heard some buzz about the  "Why Open Education Matters" video contest , sponsored by the  U.S. Department of Education ,  Creative Commons , and  Open Society Foundations . The contest raises awareness about the promise of open educational resources (OER) -- free online materials with open licenses which allow teachers and learners to reuse, revise, remix and redistribute the digital resources to their heart's content. What better way to keep educational materials relevant, customizable, and inexpensive? Over sixty videos were submitted to the contest, and checking out just a few of them will help you understa...

School food: we've changed our ideas, now for the hard work | Comment is free | The Observer : Everyone agrees on the theory of feeding kids well. The challenge is putting it into practice School food: healthy meals must be a priority. Photograph: Getty Images I have tried hard to turn my children into little foodies. Our eldest, George aged four, has his own tiny vegetable patch in our back garden, in which he and I have grown radishes, lettuces and wild strawberries. I taught him how to knock limpets off their rocks and chew on their briny flesh; he has even helped me butcher a pig. And yet, if left to his own devices, he would subsist entirely on Cadbury Fingers. His evolutionary instinct to gorge on sugary, fatty foods at every opportunity is simply too strong to be overridden by his tender will. He has not, to my knowledge, come face to face with a Turkey Twizzler, but if he did I am sure it would be love at first sight. So I have a lot of sympathy, both personal and pr...

Teachers' Quick Guide on The Use of Games in Education : Online gaming plays a major part in most of young people's lives. The gaming trend  that started off as a sole leisure activity a couple of years ago is now integrated into the mainstream and more and more people are using them on everyday basis.Game developers and business corporations are generating billions of revenues out of their sales .In March 2008, a government-funded report from  DCSF  indicated that sales of games for the under 12 age group represented nearly three quarters of the total UK games market. 87 % of 5-16 year old have a game's console at home, and the enormous success of the Nintendo Wii has shown that new technologies can reach and hold audiences never expected to enjoy playing online or computer games. Regardless of the negative features associated with gaming such as frivolity, violence and mindlessness, games do have a growing potential in education. Just to make it cle...

Student Voice and the Teaching of Democracy | Edutopia : Mark Phillips is a columnist for the  Marin Independent Journal  and the  The Answer Sheet . He volunteers with the  California Film Institute's Educational Outreach Program  and serves on the Board of the  Buck Institute for Education . You can find him  @MarkPSF  on Twitter or on  Facebook . School's out. Politics is in. Five months of presidential political combat lie ahead. So I'm psyched to revisit the challenge of effectively educating kids to be active participants in our democratic processes. I plan to post a number of columns over the next months that focus on student voice, the teaching of democracy, civic engagement and political literacy. I'm hoping some of you will join the discussion and toss in your two cents. The prime directives, cutting across all these topics are: To effectively teach democracy, you have to model it. To teach students how to be actively engaged ci...

“There are more than two billion social network users connected together. There are more than two billion potential teachers from around the world who can share their experience and learn together. Everyone can be your teacher!” – Hong Kong | daily edventures : Because of our Chinese tradition, it is not easy for teachers in Hong Kong to change from teacher-centered learning to student-centered learning,” says Chu Tsz Wing. “With the use of technology in the classroom, we have more choices and opportunities to access knowledge or even contribute to it.” And Chu has certainly done his share of contributing to educational innovation in Hong Kong, and beyond.  As the IT panel head of The Hong Kong Institute of Education Jockey Club Primary School, Chu is responsible for the use of information technology in both school administrative works and students’ learning. He was nominated as a coach teacher at the 2011  Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum 2011  in W...

Survey Results: 67% Educators Report Flipped Classroom Improves Test Scores | Edudemic : The Flipped Classroom is one of the most talked about movements in education, perhaps surpassed only by the iPad and online learning itself in buzz.  ClassroomWindow  has taken the results of  their survey  on the Flipped Classroom and created an infographic to help visualize some of the numbers. And while a survey and an actual study are two very different beasts indeed, the data here was overwhelmingly positive. 88% of educators said flipping their classroom improved their job satisfaction 67% report improved student test scores 80% claimed improved student attitude 99% would use it again next year

12 Twitter Tools Every Educators Must Know about : Social networking is a topic that I have been posting about for sometime now. I have published a set of series on this issue and will soon be adding more to it. You can check out  Educational Social Networking from part one to part 4  to learn more. Twitter is one of my top social networking tool that I use for both professional development and educational purposes. I don't like to have any personal uses on Twitter because Facebook is already doing this job. The thing about Twitter is that, while it has a huge potential in education, yet many teachers and educators ignore the great arsenal of tools that can be used to get the maximum of this tool. It is no longer about just logging on to Twitter and checking our tweets or posting ours but it is all about how smart we are in interacting with Twitter.In this regard, I am introducing you to a set of highly important Twitter tools that can help you better manage your Twitter ...

How an Ocean's Journey Inspires One School | Edutopia : Bob Lenz is chief education officer and co-founder of Envision Schools. Lenz has served public education as a teacher, a student-activities director, a school-reform leader, a consultant, and a principal. Aloha! This past year, our new division,  Envision Learning Partners , has been partnering with educators in Hawaii to bring education,  Envision Style , to the youth of the islands. Along this journey, I became connected and inspired by the work of the  Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) and their leader, Nainoa Thompson. As the group's website explains: The Polynesian Voyaging Society was founded in 1973 for scientific inquiry into our history and heritage: How did the Polynesians discover and settle small islands in ten million square miles of ocean, geographically the largest "nation" on earth? How did they navigate without instruments, guiding themselves across ocean distances of 2500 miles? In 1973-1975,...

Inspiring New Futures : Eric Brunsell ( @brunsell  on Twitter) is Assistant Professor of Science Education at UW-Oshkosh. He is the facilitator of Edutopia's  STEM group , and a  regular blogger for Edutopia . It's summertime: time to relax, refresh and get connected. Joining an online community of science teachers is a great way to find resources, inspiration and like-minded colleagues to collaborate with as you re-tool your courses for the next school year. The list below is a good starting point to find a community or two that meets your needs. However, the list is not exhaustive. Use the comment section to share any online groups or communities that you find valuable! Edutopia's STEM Group This group has over 2000 members engaged in discussion and sharing ideas. Topics range from sharing favorite STEM resources (with over 100 comments) to discussions about what an effective STEM magnet middle school would look like. Scitable Scitable is a social network created by...

“In my experience the greatest obstacles are cultural – and children’s educational prospects are greatly shaped by the expectations of their teachers, families and communities.” – UK | daily edventures : Do you remember the first time you learned about HIV/AIDs?  What about  Ebola ? Both frightening diseases, both highly infectious. There are few people in the world that know these diseases – discovered them, in fact – more intimately than  Dr. Peter Piot . Piot’s career has indeed been exceptional. He co-discovered the Ebola virus in  Zaire  in 1976 and was part of the first international project on  AIDS  in Africa in the 1980s. In fact, he is widely acknowledged as having provided the foundations of our understanding of  HIV  infection in Africa. He has led the  International AIDS Society  and was assistant director of the  World Health Organization ‘s Global Program on HIV/AIDS. He was appointed Ex...