Overwhelmed by size, underwhelmed by quality: A review of EdTech’s largest show, BETT 2018 The BETT show is emblematic of much that EdTech gets wrong. No show captures the hype of educational technology quite like the world’s largest education trade show. This week marked my fifth visit to BETT at London’s Excel arena. True to form, my two days at the show left me feeling overwhelmed with the number of products now available in the EdTech market, yet utterly underwhelmed with the educational value on offer. Spare a thought for the educator who steps into BETT in search of a solution. Upon entering the exhibition hall, they are immediately struck by the sheer size of the event. Your senses are assaulted on multiple fronts as products of all shapes, sizes and colours compete for your attention (add to this the lure of free chocolate). Virtual reality has crept up in recent years and now enjoys a prominence that almost places it in league with those interactive whiteboards. The robots seem to rise each year at BETT. · What is your pedagogy?
Runic alphabets / Runes / Futhark Little is known about the origins of the Runic alphabet, which is traditionally known as futhark after the first six letters. In Old Norse the word rune means 'letter', 'text' or 'inscription'. The word also means 'mystery' or 'secret' in Old Germanic languages and runes had a important role in ritual and magic. Here are some theories about the origins of runes: The alphabet was probably created independently rather than evolving from another alphabet. The earliest known Runic inscriptions date from the 1st century AD, but the vast majority of Runic inscriptions date from the 11th century. Notable features The direction of writing in early Runic inscriptions is variable. Types of runic inscriptions include: 'Hrolf was here' type inscriptions on cliff walls, large rocks and buildings grave stone inscriptions, often with who carved the runes and who was buried, and also who made sure the stone was raised. There are a number of different Runic alphabets including: Elder Futhark Notes Links
8 Google Sheets Add-ons Every Teacher Should Know About July , 2017 Google Sheets add-on store features a number of educational extensions to use with your forms and spreadsheets to add amazing functionalities. These add-ons are arranged into various categories. We revisited the ‘education’ category and selected for you the 8 most popular applications there. Using these add-ons will enable you to: Create graphs and forms and write complex math in your sheetsCreate and modify a planning schedule for project management in a spreadsheet; easily scaffold, manage and assess students projects in Google DriveQuickly grade and analyze students assessments, split cells, remove duplicates, clean up data and change caseAdd powerful functionality to quizzes you create via Google FormsSend personalized mass emails with Gmail and track email opens. 1- g(Math) for Sheets ‘This will be an invaluable tool for any math class or math teacher. 2- Doctopus 3- Flubaroo 4- Power Tools 5- Yet Another Mail Merger 6- Super Quiz 7- Mail Merge with Attachments
The horror of the Bett Show | Doug Belshaw's Thought Shrapnel I’ve been to the Bett Show (formely known as BETT, which is how the author refers to it in this article) in many different guises. I’ve been as a classroom teacher, school senior leader, researcher in Higher Education, when I was working in different roles at Mozilla, as a consultant, and now in my role at Moodle. I go because it’s free, and because it’s a good place to meet up with people I see rarely. The BETT show is emblematic of much that EdTech gets wrong. It’s laughable, it really is. One senses from these shows that exhibitors are floating from one fad to the next, desperately hoping to attach their technological innovations to education. But of course. I like the questions Mubeen comes up with. In the meantime, there are four simple questions every self-professed education innovator should demand of themselves:What is your pedagogy? Source: Junaid Mubeen Related Reading the web on your own terms 26 January 2018 In "Life online" Anxiety is the price of convenience 25 January 2018
Earth's magnetic song recorded for the first time during a solar storm Data from ESA's Cluster mission has provided a recording of the eerie "song" that Earth sings when it is hit by a solar storm. The song comes from waves that are generated in the Earth's magnetic field by the collision of the storm. The storm itself is the eruption of electrically charged particles from the sun's atmosphere. A team led by Lucile Turc, a former ESA research fellow who is now based at the University of Helsinki, Finland, made the discovery after analyzing data from the Cluster Science Archive. The archive provides access to all data obtained during Cluster's ongoing mission over almost two decades. Cluster consists of four spacecraft that orbit Earth in formation, investigating our planet's magnetic environment and its interaction with the solar wind—a constant flow of particles released by the sun into the Solar System. The new analysis shows that, during the collision, the foreshock is driven to release magnetic waves that are much more complex than first thought.
Interactive Video Learning Is Technology Addictive? 4 min read I was supposed to speak to a reporter today about iPhones and addiction, but the interview fell through. I jotted down some of my thoughts in preparation for the call, and I thought I’d post them here in case it’s a topic I decide to return to and flesh out more in the future… I am hesitant to make any clinical diagnosis about technology and addiction – I’m not a medical professional. But I’ll readily make some cultural observations, first and foremost, about how our notions of “addiction” have changed over time. Now, this “constantly checking their phones” behavior certainly looks like a compulsive behavior. Apps are being engineered for “engagement” and built for “clicks” – behavioral design. I think we’re starting to realize – or I hope we’re starting to realize – that those metrics might conflict with other values. I bring up “free will” here because one of the best known behaviorists, Harvard psychology professor B.
Why are astronomers interested in gravitational waves? (Intermediate) - Curious About Astronomy? Ask an Astronomer When you look up at the night sky, you see a very particular view of the Universe. You see electromagnetic radiation, light, at optical wavelengths from objects like stars. If your eyes could see radio waves, which are another wavelength of light, they would see a very different picture of the Universe. The sources of radio light are different than the sources of optical light. For almost the entire history of astronomy, we viewed the Universe through an electromagnetic window. On February 11th, 2016, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) collaboration announced the detection of gravitational waves from a black hole binary.
Thing 26: Makerspaces “Creating is becoming a new digital competency, and libraries are building and expanding their programs and services to meet these changing community needs.” Ann Joslin, president of the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies Some of you are already immersed in encouraging maker culture in your schools. “Tinkering is about hands-on experiences, learning from failures, and unstructured time to explore and invent. Whether you call this the Maker Movement, Tinkering, Hacking, Fabricating, DIY or whatever, it’s all about creating, exploring, encouraging curiosity and creative problem-solving. Why is this important? “Why should you commit time and effort to a Maker Club or Makerspace? Still not sure what a makerspace is? What is a Makerspace? And the video on this post to see how the Castle Rock (CO) Middle School transformed its library into a learning commons and makerspace. School Makerspaces Many K12 makerspace programs are run as after-school club projects. What and Why? Your blog post:
How to Design Social Systems (Without Causing Depression and War) In my note to Mark Zuckerberg (which you probably want to read first), I urged his team and other technologists to reimagine their products as “practice spaces” — virtual places where people practice the kinds of acts and relationships they find meaningful. In this post, I will show how this is concretely possible. How to Design Social Systems (Without Causing Depression and War) Here I’ll present a way to think about social systems, meaningful interactions, and human values that brings these often-hazy concepts into focus. Reflection and Experimentation. I’ll introduce these concepts and their implications for design. Reflection and Experimentation As I tried to make clear in my letter, meaningful interactions and time well spent are a matter of values. In the section below about practice spaces, I’ll cover how to design software that supports the users’ values in this way. We often don’t know how we want to act or relate in a particular situation. The Process So, imagine a teenager.
'A new way to study our universe': what gravitational waves mean for future science | Science You wait 100 years for a gravitational wave and then four come along at once. Or so it must seem to those who spent decades designing and building the exquisite instruments needed to sense the minuscule ripples in spacetime that Albert Einstein foresaw in his 1905 theory of general relativity. The first gravitational wave bagged by physicists reached Earth on 14 September 2015 and sent a quiver through the US-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo). The second hit three months later, on Boxing Day, followed by a third in January this year. Each of the gravitational waves had been set in motion by violent collisions between black holes more than a billion years ago. “This is a story in two parts,” said Sheila Rowan, director of the Institute for Gravitational Research at the University of Glasgow. Until now, astronomers have mapped the heavens almost exclusively with telescopes that gather light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation.
Makerspace Resources All the Makerspace resources you could hope for (and more) I first started learning about the Maker Movement in education and makerspaces in late 2013. Since then, I’ve been using this page to compile and curate some of the best articles, videos, blogs, books and other resources that have helped me along the way. What is the Maker Movement? The Maker Movement has been around for a lot longer than many of us realize. Thinkers and Tinkers: The Maker Movement – Fantastic website that goes over the basics of what the Maker Movement is, how it started, and how it can fit in with your school.How the Maker Movement is Transforming Education – Great article from Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez about the basics of the Maker Movement and practical ways to bring it into your school. (Page contains affiliate links.
Limiting Your Child's Fire Time: A Guide for Concerned Paleolithic Parents According to the most recent cave drawings, children nowadays are using fire more than ever before. And it’s no wonder: fire has many wonderful applications, such as cooking meat, warming the home, and warding off wild animals in the night. We adult Homo erectus, with our enlarged brains and experience of pre-fire days, can moderate our use, but our children—some of whom never lived during a time when you couldn’t simply strike two rocks together for an hour over a pile of dried grass to eventually produce a spark that, with gentle coaxing, might grow into a roaring flame—can have difficulty self-monitoring their interactions with fire. You don’t want to be the bad guy, but you also want to make sure that your child engages in other activities, like mammoth hunting and the gathering of rocks and bones with which to make tools. Establish clear but firm limits: Fire is nice, but there’s a time and a place for it. • Distraction: ignoring people when they are in the same room as fire