March 2011
51 posts
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Tips for Grading and Giving Students Feedback... →
How does a new or veteran teacher handle the hours of grading that can amount to a second full-time job? And as our class sizes increase, something’s gotta give. The key is to provide feedback in different formats. It keeps students alert to your message, and it keeps you from going out of your mind.
“Academics are trapped in this paradox of using Wikipedia but not contributing....”
– Dario Taraborelli, research analyst for the Wikimedia Foundation, quoted by Zoe Corbyn in a Guardian article, Wikipedia wants more contributions from academics.
Seems most academics either A) feel Wikipedia is beneath them or B) just have too much on their plate trying to publish in academic...
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Visual Turn: If you really want a book ... →
visualturn:
I am currently teaching an evening class at a new, modern campus at local community college. I wandered into the campus library before class tonight. It was a lot like the computer lab I teach in, with row after row of computers. Just one lonely bookshelf of reference books sat behind the main…
Skype in the Classroom: a new network for teachers →
theteachersdesk:
On Tuesday, Skype launched Skype in the Classroom, a dedicated teacher network.
Using the platform, teachers can create profiles that describe their classes and teaching interests. They can then search a directory of teachers from all over the world by student age range, language and subject, finding classrooms that match theirs. This will allow teachers to connect with other...
An ancient profession adjusts to the 21st-century... →
Last week, for the first time ever, world leaders in education from 17 countries gathered in New York and traded ideas about how to put the best on education’s front lines. As leaders of the world’s top school systems shared ideas on everything from credentialing to salaries, a number of tools for elevating the teaching profession emerged, and they may be Canada’s brightest hope to avoid...
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The Game of India: update #4
The class met today (yes, we have classes on Saturday) and here’s how things have come along since the last post.
Once they decided on the coordinates for their initial destination, they DM’ed them to AgentShiva on twitter. This action unlocked an achievement on the website. They then officially became “agents” of the GODS (governmental order of divinity and society),...
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Museum Box: Create Virtual Museums →
revolutionizeed:
“If you could put a number of items into a box that described your life, what would you include? What do you think would be included if you were a Victorian Servant or Queen Elizabeth I. If you lived during the English Civil War, what items would you include to make a case for, or against, the parliamentarians? And what if you were an abolitionist and wanted to show that slavery...
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The game is coming together
Alright, so the past week or so has been two things. 1. It’s been the most productive time for me in weeks. 2. It’s left me completely exhausted. There’s just not enough time in a day to do all the things I feel I need to do. Despite this, I tread onward.
In faculty meeting this week I gave a presentation on gaming and the elements of gaming that provide insight to human...
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Growing Up Digitally: The iPad As a Learning... →
world-shaker:
His name is Bridger Wilson, and he’s two years old. He’s just like any other toddler, full of imagination. But Bridger’s father Mike has bought him an iPad. It’s not immediately clear how much experience that Bridger has had with the device previous to the taking of this video (which we should mention is about 8 months old now), but the results are seemingly rather stunning.
He...
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Let Kids Rule the School - NYTimes.com →
IN a speech last week, President Obama said it was unacceptable that “as many as a quarter of American students are not finishing high school.” But our current educational approach doesn’t just fail to prepare teenagers for graduation or for college academics; it fails to prepare them, in a profound way, for adult life.
We want young people to become independent and capable, yet we structure...
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Twitter in the Classroom and Twitter Posters →
world-shaker:
This is a great write-up from an educator who is working with a school to integrate Twitter into the learning process. They go into the setup, and share their resources. Anyone interested in using Twitter to teach should find something valuable here.
PS: Don’t forget…you can like…email these to people :o)
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Facebook and Education - Do Opposites finally... →
Since Facebook’s launch there have been a couple of attempts to build education related applications or communities on the platform but none of them actually succeeded in attracting a critical mass of users. The idea though seems to be pretty obvious. Facebook itself started as a closed network for Harvard University.
Only then it has become the world’s largest social network with users...
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Designing the Game: Part 2
I got some great feedback from Twitter and Gameful peeps about the game. One of my colleagues posed some pertinent questions, which got me thinking:
Good questions.
First, I haven’t thought about expanding the audience. Someone else asked me about this and while my goal is to make it clear and transparent, I haven’t found the right venue for that yet (online). But I get what...
