ElectroCity SimCityEDU | Tech with Jen: Interactive Reading Notebooks Interactive Reading Notebooks seem to be all of the rage. Its no wonder because Common Core State Standards require students to read, examine, and discuss a variety of texts. The reading notebook is a tool to aide comprehension, write about thinking, and provide evidence from text. So, we as teachers, should provide students with many opportunities to examine and discuss them. Now don't get me wrong, I believe in the reciprocal nature of reading and writing. First, begin by aiding comprehension through the use of graphic organizers. Once students have created their page, I like to have students share. Click on the link to see a presentation I did for the Schools Without Walls Conference that has several student examples. Be sure to open the link from a device. If you would like to learn how to create your own Interactive Reading Notebooks check out the videos below: (Sorry for the long videos.) What do you think about this idea?
Muzzy Lane - MiddWorld Online Muzzy Lane is partnering with Middlebury Interactive Languages (MIL) to create an innovative 3D language learning role-play game as part of MIL's online world language courses. The MIL courses will adapt the highly successful full-immersion formula modeled on the Middlebury College Language Schools for online delivery. Initially, Muzzy Lane will produce versions of the game to support French and Spanish languages, and each version will include a rich 3D environment specific to that culture. "We are excited to be partnering with Muzzy Lane to develop a full immersion language game as a part of our new Middlebury Interactive product," said Dave Benoit, chief executive officer of Middlebury Interactive Languages.
What's wrong with educational games (and how we can fix them) I’ve been designing, building, playing and promoting educational games (both digital and non-digital) all my working life. Starting out as a TEFL teacher, games were a huge component of my classes: from number games with little kids to complex role plays with adults. As I began to work more with digital media I started to design games for web and mobile: everything from location-based drawing games to a million-selling multi-level world for kids to learn English. Games provide a unique environment in which students can step out of their everyday persona and try on new ways of thinking and behaving. I’ve never had to think too hard about whether games are a good thing for learning – it’s a no-brainer for me, and should be for anyone with an ounce of common sense. And yet, for all my tub-thumping about how great games are as a tool for learning, I’ve found myself let down time and time again by the quality of most educational games. We make educational games for the wrong reasons
50 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Languages Learning another language is important. And even in the United States (where learning non-native language has typically been lagging a bit behind many other countries), nearly all students are studying another language. Languages are a part of everyday life – whether you speak one or more, they are one of the main keys of communication. Other than being able to speak a language (or not being able to speak it) there are a lot of fun facts about languages more generally There are about 7,000 languages in the world.There are 50,000 characters in the Chinese language. Gamestar Mechanic LA VIE EST UN JEU • L’école dont vous êtes le héros DE NOTRE HORS-SÉRIE - Créer des jeux vidéo, gérer un réseau social ou monter des podcasts, tels sont les cours donnés aux élèves de Quest to Learn, un collège new-yorkais considéré comme précurseur par certains spécialistes de l’éducation. Un matin de l’hiver dernier à New York, à l’intérieur d’une école publique tout ce qu’il y a de plus classique, dans une salle ordinaire, Al Doyle, professeur de collège, donne un cours un peu différent des cours habituels. A 54 ans, cet enseignant est un vétéran de l’éducation, avec trente-deux années passées à faire cours un peu partout dans Manhattan, où il enseignait à l’origine le graphisme et l’infographie. Dans cette école, baptisée Quest to Learn [Soif d’apprendre], il donne un cours, Sports for the Mind [Sports pour l’esprit], que tous les élèves suivent trois fois par semaine. La leçon du jour porte sur le mouvement de l’ennemi, en l’occurrence une ignoble troupe de robots hérissés de piquants errant dans un jeu vidéo.
What Is A Flipped Classroom? Flipped classrooms are becoming more and more common, both for in-person classes and in online learning settings. It’s a great way to shake things up, bring more personalized attention to your classroom, and put some of your technology to use. Flipped classrooms are one of the more popular trends we’ve seen since Edudemic was created, and it is certainly one of the most long- lasting. If you’re new to flipped classrooms or have known about the concept for awhile but haven’t made the plunge, the handy infographic below takes a look at some of the basics of flipped classrooms: what are some of the advantages, why and how they work, and how both teachers and students are responding to the flipped classroom model. What Is A Flipped Classroom Flipping the classroom involves moving the lecture out of class – generally via the use of a video lecture that students watch at home on their own time. Why Flip The Classroom? What Do Teachers Think? Is It Helping Students?
Free Flash Jeopardy Review Game The Instant Jeopardy Review Game has been designed and dramatically improved to make it the perfect review game for a wide variety of classroom uses. This tool is a fun and interactive way to review content in your classroom, meeting, conference, or other group setting. The new and improved version of the Jeopardy Review Game includes the following features: Simple insertion of pictures on Question and/or Answer slides Full support for symbols, such as exponents and wingdings style fonts Better support for foreign language Question and/or Answer slides Simpler visual editing process Embed anything in your question slides, even Youtube videos, flash objects, etc.
Quest to Learn, ou les leçons du jeu appliquées à l'éducation Des projets ambitieux en éducation, il y en a eu des tonnes. Des réformes puissantes qui « allaient révolutionner les méthodes d'apprentissage ». En réalité, bien peu d'entre elles ont été appliquées assez longtemps pour porter leurs fruits. Parce que le projet coûte plus cher que prévu, que la technique n'est pas à la hauteur ou simplement parce que le milieu éducatif n'est pas prêt à modifier ses pratiques en profondeur. En 2009-2010, quand le monde a entendu parler de ce projet d'école new-yorkaise qui basait les apprentissages sur l'usage massif du jeu vidéo, cela a soulevé beaucoup d'enthousiasme, mais aussi beaucoup de questions. Quest to learn (Q2L) allait-elle survivre au choc du réel? Il semble que oui. Accompagner plus, transmettre moins Contrairement à ce que l'on pouvait imaginer, les élèves qui fréquentent Q2L ne sont pas des mutants. Mais les deux univers diffèrent sur un point capital : la perception de l'erreur. Quest to learn encourage aussi la créativité de ses élèves.
5 Tools for Quickly Building Simple Announcement Pages School websites and classroom blogs are excellent tools for distributing information to parents and students. But sometimes you might want to make your announcements stand-out from the rest of the cyber noise that parents and students experience on a daily basis. Or perhaps you want your students to create their own webpages to showcase their best work or to announce an upcoming school event. In those cases, you might take a look at a tool to build a stand-alone webpage dedicated to one specific event or announcement. Striking.ly is a service that can be used to create one page websites to show off your best digital work or to advertise an event. Page O Rama is a free service for quickly creating stand alone webpages. Pagefin is a free service for creating simple webpages without the need to register for an account. Smore is a service for quickly creating great-looking webpages. Populr is a service for creating simple webpages to advertise events and promotions.
Newsmaker: James Gee on Why the Power of Games to Teach Remains Unrealized Gee: “We need to begin to get teams of people — game designers, content people, assessment people, learning people — who can get on the same page.” For more than a decade, James Paul Gee has been writing about the potential power of games and game mechanics to change the way we learn, to create new “deep” learners. But in this newsmaker interview Gee says most of the possibilities of games remain unfulfilled as the American education system continues to focus on tests and fact retention. He worries that even as learning games become more prevalent, they are in danger of being changed by the schools they seek to sell to rather than changing the school itself. “The textbook was the worst educational invention ever made because it was a one size fits all type thing and we don’t want to do the same things with games. We don’t want to bring games to school,” he said. Listen to the full interview: The following is an edited version of the full conversation: Has much changed in the last decade?
25 Sites For Creating Interesting Quote Images If you’ve used Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or just about any other social network then you’ve probably seen some interesting quotes presented in the form of a splashy and colorful image. You may have thought “I wish I had the time and graphic design expertise to create something nifty like that! My students and friends would love it.” Well, the long wait is over. For example, you can have students find a favorite quote, create an innovative image out of that quote, and then stand up and explain why that quote matters to them. An example I made on PicMonkey for this post: However you use your quotes, check out this fabulous list from Denise Wakeman and try out some of them for yourself.