The MOOC Quality Project MOOCs represent the latest stage in the evolution of open educational resources. First was open access to course content, and then access to free online courses. Accredited institutions are now accepting MOOCs as well as free courses and experiential learning as partial credit toward a degree. MOOCs are moving from an early entrepreneurial stage into the reality of more and more educational institutions. The MOOC Quality Project, an initiative of the European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning (www.efquel.org), addresses the latter question not by trying to find one answer which fits all, but by trying to stimulate a discourse on the issue of Quality of MOOCs. Each Wednesday you will find a new post, with a length of 1000-1500 words maximum length. We are looking forward to a lively debate, for EFQUEL, Ulf-Daniel Ehlers & Ebba Ossiannilsson & Alastair Creelman (www.efquel.org)
National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Chapter 2—The Themes of Social Studies Standards Main Page Executive Summary Preface Introduction Thematic Strands Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of culture and cultural diversity. Human beings create, learn, share, and adapt to culture. Cultures are dynamic and change over time. Through experience, observation, and reflection, students will identify elements of culture as well as similarities and differences among cultural groups across time and place. In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with geography, history, sociology, and anthropology, as well as multicultural topics across the curriculum. Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the past and its legacy. Studying the past makes it possible for us to understand the human story across time. Knowing how to read, reconstruct and interpret the past allows us to answer questions such as: How do we learn about the past?
Documentary 'Print the Legend' Goes Inside the World of 3D Printing The genesis of and challenges to the 3D-printing revolution are subjects that take center stage in a new documentary called Print the Legend. From directors Clay Tweel and Luis Lopez (Freakonomics), the film sets out to act as a "'time capsule' of a nascent industry," Tweel told Mashable. "The result is both a look inside a compelling new technology, and hopefully, a story about the challenges of growing any type of business, and facing the moral dilemmas our marketplace presents." That it is. Tweel said he knew "nothing" about 3D printing when he walked into the doors of MakerBot nearly two years ago, but working behind the scenes has taught him much about the industry. Print the Legend is now in theaters across New York and Los Angeles, and is also available on Netflix. BONUS: What Is 3D Printing and How Does It Work? Have something to add to this story?
Why is the Arctic and Antarctica cold? An experiment for kids. - The Hands-On Homeschooler This month, we are doing a unit study of the Antarctica and the Arctic with The Usual Mayhem, No Doubt Learning, Journey 2 Excellence, and Childhood Beckons. This week, we decided to look at why the Arctic and Antarctica are cold. Our inspiration comes from Sunshine Makes the Seasons by Franklyn Branley. (As I’ve mentioned before, I LOVE these “Let’s Read and Find Out Science books”!) The book does a wonderful job of explaining that the earth’s rotation around the sun determines which season we are in. To create your orange “earth”, you pierce an orange with a pencil, draw a line for the equator, and place a thumbtack at your approx. location on the earth. We went into a dark room, and then shined the flashlight on the orange “earth.” Afterwards, the author recommends that you tilt your orange so that the axis was at an angle, and then pictorially demonstrated how the earth’s tilt is the reason we have seasons. Finally, we started to explore the 2 poles – the North Pole and the South Pole.
Astronauts getting 3-D printer at International Space Station Now Playing NASA awards 'space taxi' contract to Boeing and SpaceX CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The 3-D printing boom is about to invade space. NASA is sending a 3-D printer to the International Space Station in hopes that astronauts will be able to one day fix their spacecraft by cranking out spare parts on the spot. The printer, made by a Northern California company called Made in Space, is among more than 5,000 pounds of space station cargo that's stuffed into a SpaceX Dragon capsule that was supposed to lift off before dawn Saturday. Rainy weather forced SpaceX to delay the launch until Sunday. Besides real-time replacement parts at the station, NASA envisions astronauts, in the decades ahead, making entire habitats at faraway destinations like Mars. "If we're really going to set up shop on Mars," we have to do this, Jeff Sheehy, NASA's senior technologist, said Friday. At Kennedy Space Center, the company showed off a number of objects made by its 3-D printers.
Atlantis Remixed Transformational play involves the use of virtual worlds to help people learn and grow in a context where they can fail safely. Theory At its core, transformational play is a learning and empowerment philosophy that is grounded in the belief that each one of us is capable of, wants to, and deserves to achieve, great things. Unlike any other form of curriculum, these games offer entire worlds in which learners are central, important participants; a place where the actions of a ten-year old can have significant impact on the world; and a place in which what you know is directly related to what you are able to do and, ultimately, who you become. The theory highlights relations among the three interconnected elements of person with intentionality, content with legitimacy, and context with consequentiality. This stands in sharp contrast to the more traditional positioning of content as facts to be memorized, not as meaningful tools that are necessary for transforming a problematic situation.
Maker Movement.pdf Games for Science Learning and Scientific Discovery Even though more people are recognizing the potential for teaching and learning through video games, there are still plenty of skeptics -- those who see video games as a mindless distraction, as entertainment and not education. But the work of a research center at the University of Washington may be at the forefront of challenging that notion. And this isn't just about how students can benefit from educational gaming either; it's about how scientific discovery can benefit from gamers. That latter element has found UW's Center for Game Science in the news a lot lately, as one of the games it developed has helped lead to a breakthrough in AIDS research. Creative Research Outsourcing The game in question is called Fold.it, an online protein-folding game. Since the game's release, some 100,000 people have played Foldit, most of whom have little or no background in biochemistry. "We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed," Dr. A Peek Under the Hood
The Future Of Education Eliminates The Classroom, Because The World Is Your Class This probably sounds familiar: You are with a group of friends arguing about some piece of trivia or historical fact. Someone says, "Wait, let me look this up on Wikipedia," and proceeds to read the information out loud to the whole group, thus resolving the argument. Don’t dismiss this as a trivial occasion. It represents a learning moment, or more precisely, a microlearning moment, and it foreshadows a much larger transformation—to what I call socialstructed learning. Socialstructed learning is an aggregation of microlearning experiences drawn from a rich ecology of content and driven not by grades but by social and intrinsic rewards. The microlearning moment may last a few minutes, hours, or days (if you are absorbed in reading something, tinkering with something, or listening to something from which you just can’t walk away). Think of a simple augmented reality app on your iPhone such as Yelp Monocle.
Science Writer Welcome to CAST Science Writer, the tool that supports students in writing lab and class reports. This tool is geared toward middle school and high school students. Check out the supports and help available in Science Writer described below. A Report Structure All parts of a science or lab report are broken into small steps so the author can concentrate on one part of the report at a time. A Process for Writing Science Writer helps you through the process of draft, revise, and edit when writing a science report. Sentence Starters The "Help Me Get Started" button has two functions (1) it divides the writing into smaller sections and (2) provides sentence starters when on the draft screens in the writing process. Checklists Checklists are available when you revise and edit your science report. Journal This is a place in Science Writer where you may write notes, reflect, make comments or questions, or keep track of data. Text to Speech Animated Helpers
60 Excellent Free 3D Model Websites 3D printers have immensely revolutionized the art and manufacturing industry. With advancements in the 3D printer technology, it is now not very difficult to own one, even in your home or office. Moreover, you don’t have to be an AutoCAD engineer to design a 3D model for your needs, as this job is taken up by numerous 3D model websites. So, either you want to create 3D furniture, a mechanical component, or even human or animal figurines, here are 50 of the best free 3D model websites to cover up all your needs. 10 Cheap and Affordable 3D Printers to Buy 10 Cheap and Affordable 3D Printers to Buy There was a time when 3D printers were a novelty - but not anymore. Pikbest Pikbest offers thousands of 3D models that are presented under various categories like decoration, wedding, appliances, bathroom, kitchen, furniture. GrabCAD GrabCAD Community Library offers 2.8+ million designs and models including CADs, thanks to its largest community of designers, engineers, and students. CGTrader Clara.io