Gamestar Mechanic metAClass Virtual Reality Discovery Channel App - Virtual Field Trips for iOS & Google The concept of virtual reality in education has grown wildly in the past few months – and it is more affordable than you may imagine. A smartphone a carefully folded piece of cardboard (aka Google Cardboard) can transport students to the depths of an ocean or the middle of the wilderness. The Discovery Channel now offers a powerful virtual reality experience. With the Virtual Reality Discovery Channel app you can take students on field trips around the world. How does it work? The folks at the Discovery Channel have loaded this app with lots of great content. Make connections to a unit on ecosystems by virtually bringing your students to underwater habitats.Kick off a unit on persuasive writing by inspiring students to learn more about the reasons different animals are endangered.Prompt students to reflect on their virtual adventure experience through creative writing.w Introducing new tools is a great way to get students interested in a new topic.
Reading challenges/resolutions for the new year This time of year is ripe for resolutions. It’s a good time to resolve to read and, perhaps, to resolve to change things up a bit. The new year may be the perfect time to invite your kids to read a little differently–to suggest they build personal challenges based on their own passions, as well as an array of prompts or intriguing options you might imagine together. Challenge inspirations I was recently inspired by Laura Sackton’s Book Riot post: 50 DIY Reading Challenges to Make 2018 the Best Year of Your Reading Life, as well as Emma Nichols’ collection of 2018 Bookish Resolutions, Both are chock full of clever ways to rid anyone of a reading rut. Here’s a taste of Laura Sackton’s first five ideas: 1. BookRiot also gathers a wealth of #Must-Read lists, many would work well for high school. A Pinterest search reveals hundreds of possible reading challenges graphically. Beyond personal reader’s advisory to personal research (or DIYRA): Choose an appropriate handful of the following:
30 Immersive Storytelling platforms, apps, resources & tools The following list was compiled by an amazing group of storytellers from around the world. Last semester, while I was teaching Building Storyworlds: the art, craft & biz of storytelling in 21c at Columbia University, I reached out via a facebook post for immersive storytelling platform, app, resource and tool recommendations. Each semester my students design, prototype and present an immersive adaption of Sherlock Holmes. I shared some of the following list with the class in an effort to provide a sandbox for their experimentation. Since the semester ended, I’ve discovered a few additional resources that I’ve included below. Big thanks to everyone who contributed (see list at the end of the post). Before you jump to the list I need your help. Course description: What if we built an immersive storytelling experience that modeled negative conversations and behaviors found on social media platforms? Now onto the list… 1. Product Hunt is a curation of the best new products, every day. 2. 3.
Discussion strategies for your pedagogical toolkit Each semester I think about how I might create more engagement in both my online and on-campus courses. I want more students thinking. I want more students talking. Across the years, I’ve gathered a number of go-to websites I visit for inspiration and I revisit a few old favorite discussion techniques. If you are new to practice, or just want a little refresh, let’s explore a few options and resources and let’s consider them as low-tech or higher-tech strategies for encouraging deeper thinking and more active, student-centered learning and to build your own pedagogical toolkit. First, these are those go-to websites and a fabulous book: I’ve curated some my personal favorite discussion strategies: Hatful of quotes: (to reinforce and prompt responses from a reading or viewing and ensure focus on the text) Select several provocative or key quotes from the source and print them on strips of paper or index cards. You may also be interested in:
On wrapping it up with a meme: reflecting on the semester Each semester I ask my Search and the Information Landscape sections to reflect on their learning by thinking about it figuratively and metaphorically, visualizing the landscape and their place in it. This year, I added the option of a meme to the visualization menu. I wonder what would happen if you asked your students to wrap up their year in the library, their year of learning, or their year in a particular class with a visualization of some sort. Why visualize learning? If you are a constructionist, you believe learning is an active process. Having some type of spatial mnemonic aids in organizing our memories for later retrieval. This semester my students described the search landscape as icebergs, porous hourglasses, archaeological digs, complex maps, equations, air purifiers, etc. First I’ll share some of suggested digital tools. Digital Tools Here are some suggested digital tools learners might use to visualize their learning. For infographics: For posters and images: Comic makers
OASIS Badge the World A true gift from SHEG: DIY digital literacy assessments and tools for historical thinking You may remember Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) for its groundbreaking and utterly depressing report, Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Online Civic Reasoning. In the November 2016 Executive Summary, the researchers shared: When thousands of students respond to dozens of tasks there are endless variations. That was certainly the case in our experience. Did you ever wonder how your own students might perform on those dozens of tasks? SHEG currently offers three impressive curricula that may be put to immediate use in secondary classrooms and libraries. Using everyday digital content, the COR paper and online assessments directly connect to the questions posed in SHEG’s study and engage learners in credibility decision-making around three COR Competencies: Who’s behind the information? The free assessments include Google Docs assessments to copy and digital rubrics to download. These assessments might be used to engage learners in discussion before an inquiry. 1.