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:

The Role of Video Games in the English Classroom | Edutopia : Perhaps more than anything else, the English Language Arts classroom is a place of diversity. There is diversity of academic expectations for teachers. The ELA Common Core assigns literature and informational reading, writing, speaking/listening and language to what is usually a single "class." This is a total of five extremely broad topics, each of which could more than stand on its own as a content area. There is diversity of content, where media from two thousand years ago to yesterday, from Gilgamesh to Tupac Shakur, can find a place. This is a content area where students read and reflect, write and discuss, revise and rethink, compose and present, speak and observe -- all in the company of some of the greatest thinkers in mankind's history. There is also diversity of assessment, where projects, exams, open-response questions, essays, digital products and community projects all vie for a chance to de...

Memory tricks and techniques to boost students' learning | Teacher Network Blog | Guardian Professional : Memory champion and primary teacher  Jonathan Hancock shares his secrets for use in class - or even EBacc exams. Meeting my new class of year 5s last week, I was delighted to see that the  Guinness Book of Records  is as popular as ever. It's a few years now since my name was in there, but the children still love to look me up and talk about what I did, which gives me the perfect opportunity to excite them about their own memory skills. I'll show them a party trick or two, but what I really love is revealing the secrets, and showing the children how they can do some amazing things themselves.

“Practical advice for teachers: always plan and realize your classes in a team, in cooperation with other teachers.” – Snežana Marković,Serbia | daily edventures : Serbia’s education policies don’t allow online education for primary and secondary students, but that hasn’t prevented computer science teacher Snežana Marković from implementing effective online learning programs in her school. Marković doesn’t allow regulations to hamper her work, and the innovative ways she’s dealing with those rules and limitations have translated into strong results. Marković and her team were recognized with first place awards in  2010  and  2012  as a creative school program from  Microsoft Partners in Learning , and the work they’ve done has transformed learning for both students and teachers at the school. Marković  has a long history of innovating. “In 2003, I was among the first in Serbia to promote the use of multimedia in education by showing a PowerPoint pr...

The Secrets To Effectively Using Twitter As A Learning Tool : The problem remains that if you’re anything like me, even on a good day you can still find Twitter elusive for finding coherent conversation. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo  revealed at a conference  in June of this year that 400 million Tweets are now sent out each day. So even if you have done you’re homework on how to best use the site and are balancing following a sensible mixture of opinion-leaders, journalists, experts, academics and friends, while also contributing Tweets at a good rate (while staying short of overkill) I’d bet that the real-time, river-like nature of your Twitter feed can still feel like a situation of chaos.

Sweden’s Newest School System Has No Classrooms | Edudemic : There’s a whole new classroom model and it’s a sight to behold. The newest school system in Sweden look more like the hallways of  Google  or  Pixar  and less like a brick-and-mortar school you’d typically see. There are collaboration zones, houses-within-houses, and a slew of other features that are designed to foster “curiosity and creativity.” That’s according to  Vittra , which runs 30 schools in Sweden. Their most recent school, Telefonplan School (see photos below) in Stockholm, could very well be the school of the future. Architect  Rosan Bosch  designed the school to encourage both independent and collaborative work such as group projects and PBL. Even the furniture is meant to get students learning. Bosch says each piece is meant to “aid students in engaging” while working. The un-schoolness doesn’t stop with the furniture and layout though. The school has no letter grades, studen...

Great Teaching : Education Next In February 2012, the  New York Times  took the unusual step of publishing performance ratings for nearly 18,000 New York City teachers based on their students’ test-score gains, commonly called value-added (VA) measures. This action, which followed a similar release of ratings in Los Angeles last year, drew new attention to the growing use of VA analysis as a tool for teacher evaluation. After decades of relying on often-perfunctory classroom observations to assess teacher performance, districts from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles now evaluate many of their teachers based in part on VA measures and, in some cases, use these measures as a basis for differences in compensation.

Education Week: Research Links 'Responsive' Teaching to Academic Gains : "Fifth graders in schools where teachers faithfully used the Responsive Classroom teaching approach performed better on statewide assessments of mathematics and reading skills than their peers at schools that did not use the social-emotional-learning program’s strategies as much, according to new research presented at a national conference here last week." 'via Blog this'

OECD Exam For Students Around The World: Could You Pass The Test? : " The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's 2012 Education at a Glance report released today is a trove of education indicators. By analyzing the education systems of the 34 OECD member countries and eight others, the report makes a number of global education comparisons. The United States, for example, is the fifth most educated country in the world, with 42 percent of those aged 25 fo 64 having attained some level of higher education. American students, however, were also found to struggle more than their foreign peers to top their parents. The odds of a young person reaching a level of education higher than that of their parents is a mere 29 percent, one of the lowest levels among OECD countries." 'via Blog this'

Education Week: Research Links 'Responsive' Teaching to Academic Gains : "Fifth graders in schools where teachers faithfully used the Responsive Classroom teaching approach performed better on statewide assessments of mathematics and reading skills than their peers at schools that did not use the social-emotional-learning program’s strategies as much, according to new research presented at a national conference here last week." 'via Blog this'

Tools for Teaching: The Amazing Sticky Note | Edutopia : "This week, I watched a science teacher use sticky notes in a very creative way. To check for understanding, the teacher gave each student a sticky note and asked each of her science students to give concrete examples of the vocabulary that they had learned in class. As the students exited the classroom, they placed the sticky note on the door. After the students all left the classroom, the teacher collected the sticky notes and was able to tell right away which students understood the concepts and which ones needed some targeted assistance." 'via Blog this'

Survey: Teachers, Parents Want More Ed. Tech. - Digital Education - Education Week : "by guest blogger Mike Bock Both parents and teachers want to see more technology in the classroom, a survey from the Leading Education by Advancing Digital Commission suggests, as 82 percent of teachers and 71 percent of parents said greater emphasis on technology would be helpful for learning." 'via Blog this'

High Schools Teachers Address Post-9/11 Stereotypes - High School Notes (usnews.com) : "High Schools Teachers Address Post-9/11 Stereotypes By KELSEY SHEEHY September 5, 2012 RSS Feed Print Classroom discussion and debate can help students work through the complicated consequences of 9/11. Schools across the country will mark the anniversary of the September 11 attacks next week with memorials, moments of silence, and special lesson plans. Teaching high school students about 9/11 and its aftermath is a lofty task, as most students were not old enough to remember and understand the attacks, and many educators will need to wade through the emotions and stereotypes already woven into the narrative." 'via Blog this'

Why Web Literacy Should Be Part of Every Education | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation : "Teaching our kids to code will make them uniquely prepared to fully contribute to the world. 12 Comments Like reading, writing, and arithmetic, web literacy is both content and activity. You don’t just learn “about” reading: you learn to read. You don’t just learn “about” arithmetic: you learn to count and calculate. You don’t just learn “about” the web: you learn to make your own website. As with these other three literacies, web literacy begins simply, with basics you can build upon. For some it can lead to a profession (i.e. becoming a computer programmer) while for most it becomes part of the conceptual DNA that helps you to understand and negotiate the world you live in." 'via Blog this'

Back to School: Why Letting Your Kids Struggle Helps Them Succeed | TIME Ideas | TIME.com : "The back-to-school season is upon us, and once again, parents across the country have loaded their kids’ backpacks up with snack packs and school supplies. It’s a good moment to reflect on what else we should be giving our kids as they head off to school." 'via Blog this'

Free Web Sites for Teaching the Election - NYTimes.com : "f you’re like us, you see the election everywhere on the Web. But finding useful Web sites for teaching the election? That’s a different story. Below, we’ve gathered a list of what we think are the best election-related Web sites for teachers we’ve seen, and organized them by category. And if you haven’t looked already, visit our own Election 2012 resource page. There you’ll find links to lesson plans (including our special curriculum unit), student crosswords, a special Election 2012 student contest, and links to a huge variety of Times articles, Opinion pieces and multimedia." 'via Blog this'

Afghan girls embrace school - CSMonitor.com : "KABUL, AFGHANISTAN You see them all over town: girls wearing white head scarves over black clothes – their school uniform. It's a welcome sign of progress. Under Taliban rule, fewer than 50,000 girls were in school. Today, 3.2 million attend. Two sessions a day are needed to accommodate all the students." 'via Blog this'