Inspiring New Futures

Berners-Lee calls for computer science education at a younger age | VG247 : Accredited with creating the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee Knows a thing or two about the possibilities of computer coding. In a new new interview, Berners-Lee has called for an increase in computer science education at a younger age, to help children develop greater understanding of what makes computers tick, and how to code new applications and even games themselves. Speaking in a video interview with World Economic Fórum , Berners-Lee cautioned that while millions are using computer programs and using services like Twitter and Facebook, a low percentage of those users actually know how to code, or to understand why these tools and services work the way they do. Full interview on: http://www.weforum.org/sessions/summary/insight-idea-tim-berners-lee 

Nine Characteristics of a Great Teacher | Faculty Focus : Years ago, as a young, eager student, I would have told you that a great teacher was someone who provided classroom entertainment and gave very little homework. Needless to say, after many years of K-12 administrative experience and giving hundreds of teacher evaluations, my perspective has changed. My current position as a professor in higher education gives me the opportunity to share what I have learned with current and future school leaders, and allows for some lively discussions among my graduate students in terms of what it means to be a great teacher.

5 Ways The Education Technology Of 2013 Will Improve : The Education Technology of 2013 Moore’s Law says that computer processing power doubles roughly every two years. In the 1970s, processing speeds ranged from 740 KHz to 8 MHz. The Commodore 64, one of the best-selling personal computers of all-time, was delivered to the world in the Spring of 1982. It featured 64 bits of memory and an 8-bit powerhouse whose processing speed would have wowed the world years before Clear Pepsi even had a chance to fail. The Nintendo 64 was released in Japan in June 1996. It featured a 64 bit processing system (and 4 MB of RDRAM), and a processing speed of closer to 100 MHz. The 14 year gap between the two commercial products would suggest huge, exponential growth. 1 MHz in 1982 should be 2 MHz in 1984, 4 in 1986, and 8 in 1988. In 1990 this number jumps to 16, 32 in 1992, and 64 MHz in 1994. 1996? 128 MHz, which fits the mathematical expectation almost perfectly. While the above is an...

The Top 12 Education Stories Of 2012 | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation : As technology infiltrates the classroom and as the skills required in our new economy change, how can we rethink education to better prepare us for the future? Education is at a crossroads. Technology seems like it should open up vast new possibilities for teachers and students alike. And while that possibility is starting to become reality, there are also many pitfalls to avoid. With the widespread adoption of iPads and other tablets throughout the education system, 2012 saw the first real tests of how pervasive tech might change how we learn.

How Disruptive Technologies Are Leading the Next Great Education Revolution -- THE Journal : Futurist David Thornburg argues that "disruptive technology" is reshaping how students learn. But how can schools prepare for what they can't predict? These days it may seem like education is changing faster than educators can keep up--Common Core State Standards, the charter school movement, "new normal" shrinking budgets -- but it's not moving nearly as fast as technology. That's par for the course though, according to David Thornburg, a noted futurist and education consultant who teaches graduate courses on emerging technologies at Walden University. After all, education is a deep-rooted part of society, one that can't always keep up with rapid-fire advances in technology. "It's a common error that people make, which is to overestimate social change and to underestimate technological change," Thornburg says. That makes it especially tou...

Making Math Meaningful with Online Games and Videos | MindShift : Re-Roofing Your Uncle's House Math can be made meaningful when connected to students’ experiences. With video clips and interactive games from public media students practice math concepts while exploring real world concepts. Learn how to decorate an intricate cake, play the role of the pharmacist, roof a house and more using  PBS LearningMedia  resources to measure with math.

Closing the Data Gap -- THE Journal : The education mantra of data-driven decision-making has morphed into "accountability for results." Teachers are charged with using data to improve their instructional practices, which in turn is expected to improve student outcomes. What's not so clearly laid out is how to do this.

How Music Can Become A Bigger Part Of Your Classroom - Edudemic : When you think of ‘multimedia’ in a broad sense, what things come to mind? Video? Text? Images? Audio? Interactivity? Modern classrooms use many of these things on a regular basis. We have interactive web tools and apps that employ all of the aforementioned tools as part of their lessons.  And while audio is (almost always) part of the ‘video’ piece, I think that sometimes we tend to forget that it can offer its own array of instructive materials for students of any age and in a variety of subjects. Not only that, but it can offer this in a form that we are all familiar with (and furthermore, already enjoy!): music. Learning From Lyrics: Not Just For Music Class So how can you take the music out of music class and bring it into, say, history class? You find songs whose lyrics and melodies explain something: the lyrics might pertain to historical happenings, the instruments used might explain what types of materi...

Facebook Pages and Groups for Teachers ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning : Facebook "notoriety " as a mere  socializing social media website has clothed its real educational value. Some of the eyebrows are raised now as they see this " queer " combination between education and Facebook, but judging the worth of something cannot be placed out of ignorance and hearsay and sentences like " Facebook is no good for education " are but  a product of this unmindful thinking. As teachers and educators, critical literacy theory taught us to be skeptic about the taken for granted assumptions and unless there is a scientific study based on a rigorous research, we can not say that Facebook or any other social media site is not suitable for education. I have to say these things because after I published  Teacher's Guide to The Use of Facebook in Education , I got some very severe ( but constructive ) criticism saying that Facebook s...

Kiki Prottsman: Why American Students Are Trailing in Computer Science : Imagine, if you will, a world where Americans don't teach their children math in elementary school. Imagine that children no longer learn addition in first grade, subtraction in second or multiplication and division in third and fourth. Imagine instead that children make it all the way through high school without having any formal presentation of mathematical concepts. Now imagine that a student is observant enough to realize that adults who have a firm grasp on mathematics have much better problem-solving life skills and financial opportunities than adults who don't. If that student is curious enough to enroll in an undergraduate math class, imagine how frustrating it would be to have the whole of arithmetic, algebra and statistics thrown at you in your very first term. Wouldn't it feel overwhelming? Wouldn't you be discouraged... especially if you noticed that several people in the class alr...

“The motivational power of video game play for education lies not so much in the technology – the ‘video game’ – but in the way people approach and interact with it – the ‘play.’” – Sebastian Deterding, Germany | Daily Edventures : Trends in education can come and go, and many educators are wary of adopting a new approach, only to see it quickly replaced by the “next big thing.” One trend that I’m confident is paramount to engage students, increase their motivation and improve learning outcomes is game-based learning (GBL). However, “gamification” is: hot, hyped, oversold, misunderstood, unavoidable, a buzzword, a question mark, a quick fix, a huge unfulfilled potential. In the past two years, the notion of infusing digital products and services with game elements to make them more engaging has been stirring up the digital industries. Multiple vendors have sprung up that sell gamification as a software service, and ‘gamification gurus’ are beginning to litter the online airwav...

Working with Students Who Have a Hard Time Collaborating | Edutopia : You already know collaboration is essential to today's classroom -- especially in the age of Common Core State Standards ( CCSS ) and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills Framework ( P21 ). Students who truly collaborate construct knowledge together. When we ask students to collaborate, we’re asking them to take responsibility for their learning. Okay. You get it. Collaboration's important. But how do you motivate productive collaboration within your classroom? First, figure out what's going on with the uncollaborative student. There are any number of reasons a student may not like to collaborate: Collaboration may clash with her culture. He simply may not understand the project or assignment. She may be shy or introverted.

50 Higher Education Technology Infographics We Loved in 2012 | EdTech Magazine : nfographics are often the best way to quickly digest a lot of information, especially in the technology world, where data abounds. In 2012, we collected 50 higher education technology infographics from around the web, all of which are displayed below. These infographics provide a snapshot of the advances in education technology we witnessed in 2012, which was definitely a blockbuster year. As we prepare for the new year, we referenced the  Washington Post’s  article  Eight thoughts on higher education in 2012 , which was published just over a year ago: The future holds unimagined opportunities. Innovation, especially in the form of new technology, tends to worry even the best-educated and most-skilled workers. In fact, innovation often creates short-term disruption, and that is likely to be true of the innovations coming to higher education. However, the long march of innovation has prod...

Is homework worth the time? | eSchool News : A recent study led by an Indiana University professor found that traditional homework assignments won’t improve a student’s grades but could boost standardized test scores. With many students reporting they spend more than 100 hours each year on homework, it begs the question: Is homework still worth the time? While most experts believe it is, some recommend that educators rethink their approach to giving homework. Traditional assignments might become a thing of the past as teachers move toward assignments that are more project-based or require more critical thinking, they say. Indiana’s Taylor High School is among the schools making those changes.

30 Surprising (And Controversial) Ways Students Learn - Edudemic : Have you checked your assumptions about student learning at the door? People in general, hold onto beliefs that are shaped by early experiences, the media, and faulty influences. The following list is a compilation of research that may surprise you. Video games, e-books, playtime, and music are all a part of an educator’s repertoire. Read on, and be prepared to put your traditional beliefs aside as science points to innovative methods that indicate future success. 1. Playing scary and violent video games help children master their fears in real life. Until recently, studies done with regards to children and video games usually centered on the negative impacts and consequences of prolonged use. But a study done by Cheryl K. Olson that appeared in the  Review of General Psychology  suggests that there are a lot of psychological benefits to video games. She recognized several social motivations for playi...

Students in Bangladesh making change - Healthabitat : Working in an area of northern Bangladesh student groups tackled a variety of simple but important local problems.  Many examples of work done were sent to HH and just a few of the projects are reproduced here. The Bangladeshi architect and teacher F.S Emu, who recently visited Australia for the Bangladeshi Architects “Bringing Architects Together” Symposium, gives some background about the project: We went to Dinajpur two weeks back along with a team of students of  Kabir  bhai.... the assignment for the students was to find out any problem (health related) from any family of a remote village of Dinajpur  and then to solve that very problem ..........within a very short time (one and a half day) ,short budget where labour came from that  village....I am attaching the presentations they made on their projects.......

'Let nature be your teacher': Bhutan takes conservation into the classroom | Annie Kelly | Global development | guardian.co.uk : The Jigme Losel primary school in the Bhutanese capital, Thimphu, is a riot of green. Plants cover most surfaces and are piled precariously on walls and stairwells. On the wall behind the school's vegetable patch a hand-painted sign says: "Let nature be your teacher." "It's become our unofficial slogan," Choki Dukpa, who has been headteacher at Jigame Losel since 2005, says. "We want nature to be everywhere the children are. Most of our country is mountains, but here in the city I think the children can feel disconnected. It's our way of bringing the outside to inside the school environment." For the past three years, Dukpa has been putting the environment at the heart of all teaching and activities at this busy primary school. " Environmental sustainability  and nature is now central to the way we t...

12 Buzzwords You'll Hear in 2013 : What buzzwords will have workers buzzing in 2013? Only time will tell, but to help, BusinessNewsDaily  interviewed small business owners, PR people, entrepreneurs and others to give workers a heads up on which buzzwords they may see in the coming year. Advertainment  -- "Advertising is no longer about interrupting what people are interested in, it's about being what people are interested in." Phablets  -- A mixture of a  smartphone  and tablet. Growth hacker  -- "A role that replaces traditional marketing roles in fast-growing businesses." Social learning  -- "An individual's learning a skill through observation, without necessarily changing their behaviors or on-the-job performance. Alphanista  -- "Successful women in powerful positions having it all." Acqui-hire  -- "A blend of acquired and hired." Return on involvement  -- A brand that "gets involved with their community will ...