Web Design Ideas Looking for something to add a little punch to your website design and make it stand apart? We bring you some ideas to trigger your creative thoughts and entice the user into your site. Single Page Design Singe-page websites are a popular design trend away from “information overload” into simplifying content presentation for the impatient web visitor who is out of your site in less than three clicks if he doesn’t find what he wants. Using CSS, HTML5 and JQuery, single-page websites are fully loaded in the initial page load, or page segments are replaced with page fragments from the server on demand. Several innovative website design techniques are deployed to generate user interaction and retain interest on single-page websites. 1.Fixed/sticky navigation 2.Interactive navigation elements like parallax scrolling - creating a 3D feel with background images scrolling more slowly than foreground images 3.Flat web design or Flat UI was made popular by the flat Apple iOS7 interface design.
How 21st Century Thinking Is Just Different How 21st Century Thinking Is Just Different by Terry Heick This content is proudly sponsored by The Institute for the Habits of Mind, promoting the development of personal thinking habits in 21st century learners. In an era dominated by constant information and the desire to be social, should the tone of thinking for students be different? After all, this is the world of Google. In this world full of information abundance, our minds are constantly challenged to react to data, and often in a way that doesn’t just observe, but interprets. As a result, the tone of thinking can end up uncertain or whimsical, timid or arrogant, sycophant or idolizing–and so, devoid of connections and interdependence. The nature of social media rests on identity as much as anything else—forcing subjectivity on everything through likes, retweets, shares, and pins. But this takes new habits. Information Abundance Persisting. Managing impulsivity. Responding with awe. Questioning. Innovating. Thinking interdependently.
Fun, Flow, and Fiero: Reflections on Week 1 of the Games Based Learning MOOC | Remixing College English As mentioned in my last post, I am planning to gamify next Fall’s first-semester FYC course, using Interactive Fiction (IF) and the multiplayer classroom model. The decision to do so came completely independently of a new MOOC that started this past week that focuses on Games Based Learning (GBL). I had not intended to take this MOOC, since I had already signed up for another MOOC that would overlap with it. Case in point: the three concepts we covered during the first week are fun, flow, and fiero. Fun Learning doesn’t have to be fun. Hard fun doesn’t always feel like fun, though sometimes it can. Flow Flow is, according to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the secret to happiness. It turns out that you can design “play” along something called an engagement curve, which basically means that (as a game designer) you present challenges to people in roughly the order they’re equipped to handle them. If you’re an educator, then this game-designer language probably sounds very familiar. Fiero
6 Learning Methods Every 21st Century Teacher should Know After writing about the 14 techy concepts every teacher should know about, Educational Technology and Mobile Learning is providing you with a list of learning methods together with their definitions. Knowing about these methods and employing them in your classroom will definitely make a difference in your teaching practics. Check them out below and share with us what you think of them. Enjoy1-Inquiry-Based LearningThis is a learning process that is based on inquiry or asking questions. Through asking challenging questions learners get intrinsically motivated to start delving deeper to find answers for these questions and in doing so they are exploring new avenues of knowledge and insight.As you can see in the graphic below inquiry-based learning is a cyclical learning process composed of many different stages starting with asking questions and results in asking more questions. Watch this video learn more about inquiry-based learning 1. 2. 3. and encouraging one another. 4. skills. 5.
PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor Schools shift from textbooks to tablets - US News & World Report By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Well before the cleanup from Superstorm Sandy was in full swing, students could read about the weather system that slammed the East Coast in their textbooks. Welcome to the new digital bookcase, where traditional ink-and-paper textbooks have given way to iPads and book bags are getting lighter. Publishers update students' books almost instantly with the latest events or research. "We must use technology to empower teachers and improve the way students learn," said Joel Klein, a former New York City schools' chief who now leads News Corp.' News Corp. introduced their Amplify tablet during a breakfast Wednesday at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. Orders placed by June 30 will be ready for the start of the school year in the fall, officials at Rupert Murdoch's company said, adding yet another platform for schools to consider. Putting a device in every student's hand is not a pie-in-the-sky dream.
NCSU Research Shows Video Games Might be Useful for Grandma | North Carolina Health News Video games can challenge a player’s responses, concentration and creativity. They also might keep their an older player’s brain limber. It’s not every psychology professor who could coax his grandma into playing World of Warcraft, an online fantasy game. But a few years ago, that’s exactly what Jason Allaire, PhD did when he found himself hanging out with his grandmother, who was then 75. Photo credit: Anne McLaughlin. “After she was done playing she said, ‘My brain is tired,’” said Allaire, a researcher at N.C. Allaire, a longtime fan of video games decided that digital games – computer, phone, handheld devices, or consoles like Nintendo Wii – were a good tool to measure cognition and memory in the elderly. “They had more positive emotions and lower rates of depression,” said Allaire. He said two-thirds of those polled said they played digital games at least once per month, but often more frequently. “Digital games are a great way to do that.”
10 Great Resources on 21st Century Education I believe the 21st century education is idiosyncratic in nature. It has acquired some distinctive features that sets it apart from the kind of traditional education that was prevalent in the 20th century. Of course it does not take you long to guess the reason behind this change , digital revolution has and is still radically transforming the way learning and instruction is delivered. Even inside this technology itself there is another deep revolution going on, we no longer talk about computers ( laptops and desktops ) as being the main vehicle of the 'technologized' ( term borrowed from New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Classroom Learning ) instruction inside schools but there is also the emergence of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets , and they are gaining more ground in the educational sector. In this post , I am providing you with the best content I have published here about the 21st century education. 1- The 33 Digital Skills Every Teacher should Have
Understanding JavaScript Prototypes. (en Español, русском, 中文) JavaScript’s prototype object generates confusion wherever it goes. Seasoned JavaScript professionals, even authors frequently exhibit a limited understanding of the concept. What is a prototype? A prototype is an object from which other objects inherit properties Can any object be a prototype? Yes. Which objects have prototypes? Every object has a prototype by default. OK back up, what is an object again? An object in JavaScript is any unordered collection of key-value pairs. You said every object has a prototype. Forget everything you learned about the prototype property – it’s probably the biggest source of confusion about prototypes. Ok fine, but false is a primitive, so why does false. When a primitive is asked for it’s prototype it will be coerced to an object. I want to use prototypes for inheritance. But the real power of prototype is seen when multiple instances share a common prototype. So is this where constructors come in? Yes. OK. Example please? Like this:
5 technologies transforming education right now From iPads in classrooms to mobile apps for educators, new technologies are changing how teachers teach and educational institutions are run. Whether they flip the classroom model, blend the learning experience or just make educators' lives easier, lots of innovators are talking about technology and how it is transforming education as we know it. To give you an idea of what's coming, we've turned the spotlight on five technologies that are driving the ed tech revolution. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Would you like to see more education news like this in your inbox on a daily basis?
Kuato teaches kids to code via Hakitzu educational game | GamesBeat Not all players are the same! Join GamesBeat's Dean Takahashi for a free webinar on April 29th that will explore why players leave Free to Play games and how you can change this. Sign up here. Kuato Studios has launched its first code-teaching game, Hakitzu: Code of the Warrior, as a title on the Apple iPad. Hakitzu is a mobile-strategy game where two robots square off against each other on a grid. San Francisco-based Kuato wants to “gamify” education, or use game mechanics to get kids interested in non-game applications such as learning computers. “We are focused on making coding fun,” said Frank Meehan (pictured right), the chief executive of San Francisco and London-based Kuato, in an interview with GamesBeat. To create the program, Kuato conducted research at schools throughout the U.S. and United Kingdom.The researchers found that students said they were eager for learning tools that were graphically rich, interactive, and challenging. Kuato set out to make a series of games.
Первые шаги по организации перевёрнутого класса | Transformation of Education Using Google Apps - Script System Update: New version is posted here The best Google Spreadsheet Event Manager (w/h Sites, Contact, Calendar integration) ever, ever, ever A while ago I was looking at Updating a Google Calendar and Google Site from a Google Spreadsheet (the beginnings of an event booking system). This idea was inspired by Tony Hirst’s work on updating a google calendar from a spreadsheet the endpoint being a way to manage a simple event booking system using Google Apps. This all started to unravel as I couldn’t find a way to create a custom booking form for each event. Tony suggested that I should look at just using a generic form which was manually updated with new events, the system handling the rest of the booking process. So with that little hurdle out of the way I revisted my script and as well as rewritting most of it I took the concecpt a little further. So what do we have now? [You might want to enable full screen view to see what is happening] Instructions Limitations/waiting for Google to fix
Alternate reality game An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions. The form is defined by intense player involvement with a story that takes place in real time and evolves according to players' responses. Subsequently, it is shaped by characters that are actively controlled by the game's designers, as opposed to being controlled by artificial intelligence as in a computer or console video game. Players interact directly with characters in the game, solve plot-based challenges and puzzles, and collaborate as a community to analyze the story and coordinate real-life and online activities. ARGs generally use multimedia, such as telephones, email and mail but rely on the Internet as the central binding medium. Definition[edit] Unique terminology[edit] Among the terms essential to understand discussions about ARGs are: Computer/console/video games.