5 Ways To Support Teachers Skeptical Of Technology
For some, the technology rich classroom is easy to justify. Once you have made the transition and seen the benefits, it is easy to weigh them against the potential risks and worries about the problems resulting from having a room full of devices. For these “dive right in” types, the process makes a lot of sense. Give it a try and see what happens! These are the teachers who typically make up 1:1 and BYOD pilot programs and test groups. They are also the teachers who more often than not are going to lead professional development and share what they have learned. However, the teachers to whom they will be presenting may not be so easily convinced that this change will be entirely positive. As more schools move to a 1:1 or BYOD format, it becomes increasingly important to support teachers – all teachers – effectively make that transition and to support them in that process. 1. For many teachers the greatest fear that looming changes hold is the loss of effectiveness. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Lectures Aren't Just Boring, They're Ineffective, Too, Study Finds
Are your lectures droning on? Change it up every 10 minutes with more active teaching techniques and more students will succeed, researchers say. A new study finds that undergraduate students in classes with traditional stand-and-deliver lectures are 1.5 times more likely to fail than students in classes that use more stimulating, so-called active learning methods. “Universities were founded in Western Europe in 1050 and lecturing has been the predominant form of teaching ever since,” says biologist Scott Freeman of the University of Washington, Seattle. But many scholars have challenged the “sage on a stage” approach to teaching science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses, arguing that engaging students with questions or group activities is more effective. To weigh the evidence, Freeman and a group of colleagues analyzed 225 studies of undergraduate STEM teaching methods. Freeman says he’s started using such techniques even in large classes.
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50 Must-Have Educational Apps
It’s time for holiday road trips and you know what that means: driving, flying, cranky kids, and… teaching opportunities! What’s that, you say? Well, there is so much downtime during the holidays where kids and adults spend hours just passing the time… why not try out some new apps on your phone? Many of these apps were found by The Teaching Palette, be sure to check out their fantastic site for more helpful resources! From learning the ABCs to doodling, there’s plenty of terrific apps out there that will pass the time but also educate. *Most of the links below are to the iTunes store which will open another window and/or iTunes. Great Apps For Kids (And Adults) Alphabet Animals Perfect for your talented toddler, this game is packed with colorful animations, animal sounds, and tons of tips for learning their letters. WordSearch Kids Kids search and highlight vocabulary words by tapping the first and last letters. Mad Libs Just as goofy and fun as your remember. SmackTalk Annoying?
Vintage data visualization: 35 examples from before the Digital Era
This is a guest post by Tiago Veloso, the founder of Visual Loop, a collaborative digital environment for everything related to information design and data visualization. He lives in Brazil, and you can connect with him online on Twitter and LinkedIn. If you follow us regularly on Visual Loop, you’ve probably noticed we like to featured not only modern interactive visualizations and infographics, but also examples from the past, from the time when there were no computer softwares to help analyzing and designing and no Internet to access and share data. Graphics, charts, diagrams and visual data representations have been published on books, newspapers and magazines since they exist, not to mention old maps and scientific illustrations, and despite the lack of tools such as the ones we have at our disposal nowadays, they are as inspiring and important as the best contemporary visualizations. A Map of Physics (1939) (A 1939 Map of Physics) (Via Strange Maps) (image:John Snow,1854 ) (image:P.
10 Questions to Ask When Designing Your Company's Logo
Great logos are recognizable in a blink. They also should make a lasting impression. Target hits the bullseye, Nike goes swoosh, and Apple catches the eye. All three company’s iconic logos are unique, memorable and stand the test of time. They instantly and consistently do what a potent logo should: Identify a brand, make it stand out and, ideally, drive customer interest and sales. We all know great logos, but we don’t all know that great logos aren’t easy to create. Related: 5 Must-Haves for a Successful Logo “We have less time and less space to tell our stories in than ever before,” says Alina Wheeler, a Philadelphia-based branding expert and author of Designing Brand Identity (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., fourth edition, 2013). Here are 10 essential questions to ask when designing your company’s first logo: 1. Wheeler separates logos into four categories: Wordmarks are freestanding word or multi-letter abbreviation groupings comprising a logo, a.k.a. logotypes. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
5 BYOD Education Issues To Consider
5 BYOD Education Issues To Consider Posted by Derrick Rowe on Fri, Jun 21, 2013 @ 01:39 PM Another school year finally comes to its end. Some main areas to focus on when looking to prepare your school wireless network for BYOD implementation are: Network CapabilitiesSecurityManagementPolicyRole Based Access Control Network Capabilities The growth of BYOD in education means more mobile devices. Security BYOD security is important in any industry, and education is no exception. Management While your wireless network grows to a more complex system to support the growth of BYOD, it is best to have a centralized management system. Also as mentioned above, MDM (mobile device management) is essential to maintaining tight security. Role Based Access Control Role based access control is also another aid in security. Policy Having a thorough, well thought out BYOD policy is extremely important. Understanding these factors when accepting BYOD in your school is extremely important.
How to Optimize Your Brain: Why Refining Emotional Recall is the Secret to Better Memory
by Maria Popova “You are what you remember — your very identity depends on all of the events, people and places you can recall.” We’ve seen the many ways in which our memory can be our merciless traitor: it is not a recording device but a practitioner of creative plagiarism, a terrible timekeeper, and the bent backbone in the anatomy of lying. How, then, can this essential human faculty become our ally? In The Art of Doing: How Superachievers Do What They Do and How They Do It So Well (public library) — a compendium of pragmatic advice on such modern fixations and timeless aspirations as how to create a great company culture (courtesy of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh) to how to be funny (courtesy of Alec Baldwin) to how to fight for justice (courtesy of Constance Rice) — neurologist, neuropsychiatrist, and prolific brain-book author Richard Restak offers some vital tips on how to optimize your brain, central to which is honing the capacity and performance of your memory: Donating = Loving
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