Education Week Rae Fearing, Educational Technology Coordinator and STEM Coordinator for Del Norte County Unified School District in Crescent City, California was quoted in CUE's spring publication, OnCue as saying, "Anyone can AND SHOULD know how to code. It is the universal language of our digital future." In May, 2013 Mitch Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research, wrote an article for EdSurge entitled, Learn to Code, Code to Learn: How Programming Prepares Kids for More Than Math. In the article, Dr. Resnick says: In addition to learning mathematical and computational ideas (such as variables and conditionals), they are also learning strategies for solving problems, designing projects, and communicating ideas. Gary Stager helps teachers create learning environments that support personal computing and adapt to the changes in curriculum and...
Mobile learning John Dewey, writing in the early years of the twentieth century, may not have foreseen the proliferation of 21st century ‘mobile devices’ but, in the quotation to the right, he does point out something that remains relevant: that mobile learning involves change, initiative and adaptability. Mobile learning involves change in the sense that the ability to communicate with tutors and peers, as well as access learning resources, changes what is possible in education. It takes initiative for leaders to create a vision to sustain that change and, finally, mobile learning requires adaptability by members of staff to carry out the change. This infoKit is a practical guide to thinking through the issues relating to institutional adoption of mobile learning. As with other forms of Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) it is possible for mobile learning to be used in a small-scale and ad-hoc manner. Emerging Practice in a Digital Age Bee motif
This is your brain on knitting Sarah Huerta says knitting has helped her overcome post-traumatic stress disorder and extreme anxiety. Crafting can help those who suffer from anxiety, depression or chronic pain, experts sayIt may also ease stress, increase happiness by releasing neurotransmitter called dopamineLeisure activities such as reading and crafting may protect brain from aging, study finds (CNN) -- Her brother's sudden death in 2004 hit Sarah Huerta hard. In the years that followed, Huerta couldn't leave the house without suffering a panic attack. Her physician diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder and extreme anxiety. Her husband gave her knitting needles. Huerta was skeptical at first. "That's when I seriously started crafting," Huerta said. This story is part of CNN Health's "Inside Your Brain" series. Crafting can help those who suffer from anxiety, depression or chronic pain, experts say. Designer Mark Fast makes knitting 'sexy' When paintings come to life Wings for the fallen: 9/11 in metal
cnet In an announcement that likely won't surprise gamers themselves, researchers who analyzed the behaviors of thousands of online gamers -- mostly those playing massively multiplayer online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft -- found that loners are the outliers, not the norm, and that online gaming can actually enhance one's social life. Reporting in The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, researchers at North Carolina State University, York University, and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology say they traveled to more than 20 gaming events in Canada and the UK that ranged from 20-player events in bars to 2,500-player competitions in convention centers. After observing thousands of gamers in these settings, the researchers conducted an in-depth survey with nearly 400 of them. "Gamers aren't the antisocial basement-dwellers we see in pop culture stereotypes; they're highly social people," Dr. Of course, Dr.
10 Problems That Parents Can Have With Minecraft • Snagglebox “I hate Minecraft. I want to kill it with fire.” A friend was ranting to me in an email about her kids fighting over the game and running into problems on a multiplayer server. She’d well and truly reached her limit, and was thinking about banning Minecraft from her house altogether. She’s not alone - there are loads of parents who are baffled, frustrated or tearing their hair out over their kids’ passion for playing in this blocky little world. Which is a shame because the game is full of a lot of really positive things and can be a wonderful experience for kids. But it’s important to remember that Minecraft was never specifically designed with kids in mind, and so naturally there are aspects to the game that can be a problem for families - including a couple of things that have the potential to cause some major drama. The good news is that all of these things are fixable and shouldn’t prevent you from letting your kids harness the very real benefits to the game. 1. 2. Tips for fixing: 3.
Planets³ by Cubical Drift Imagined by video game lovers, Planets³ (pronounced «planetscube») combines the excitement of role playing with the pleasure of construction and the boundless freedom to roam about in a 3D universe. Its intricate plot and outstanding voxel based design offers opportunities for intense action and unlimited creativity. Planets³ has been designed to promote multi-player gameplay, to share the fun with friends.Today, in the early development stage, all the elements are in place to develop a first PC (windows) release. What we need now is your help to make it happen! Evolution and statsMaterials and combat systemMaterial's recipesMultiplayerGravity Rumors have it that aliens who look like humans, crashed onto the planet some years ago. To discover the answers to these questions, Planets³ players will have to solve a number of mysteries and build up their own little world, before expanding into the universe. Planets³ adventures take place in a universe entirely made of 25cm³ blocks (voxels).
Research: Online Gaming Expands the Social Life of Gamers Gaming Research | News Research: Online Gaming Expands the Social Life of Gamers By Dian Schaffhauser04/10/14 People who play massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) may notprefer the company of avatars to live humans after all. In fact, reports new research supported by the United States Air Force Research Laboratory, online gaming expands players' social lives. Researchers from North Carolina State University and Canada's York University and University of Ontario Institute of Technology found that online social behavior doesn't replace offline social behavior in the gaming community. "Gamers aren't the antisocial basement-dwellers we see in pop culture stereotypes; they're highly social people," said Nick Taylor, lead author of "Public Displays of Play: Studying Online Games in Physical Settings" and an assistant professor of communication at North Carolina State. In fact, he added, a player could be "ruthless in a game and still socialize normally offline." About the Author
Scratch 2.0 WeDo extension is now in beta! - Discuss Scratch Today's update to Scratch adds support for the LEGO WeDo - a first for Scratch 2.0! LEGO WeDo is a robotics kit that you can use to connect your Scratch projects to the physical world. If you have a LEGO WeDo, you can add the WeDo extension by clicking the more blocks palette, and then select “add an extension.” Select LEGO WeDo and follow the instructions to install the plugin. What are Scratch Extensions? The WeDo extension is just the first of its kind: It will soon be possible to connect other kinds of hardware to Scratch. I want to make a Scratch extension so I can… (program my 200 foot tall My Little Pony robot / monitor my pet Nar-Nar’s temperature / whatever else you can imagine ) You can find more information about Scratch extensions on the wiki page. Scratch On!
Tynker plans launch of its teach-kids-to-code iPad app at SXSW | VentureBeat | Dev | by Christina Farr Young kids can acquire foreign languages extremely rapidly. How about computer languages? Education experts are putting pressure on schools to introduce students to programming concepts. Teachers can now access a slew of new apps and online tools, which have emerged in recent years to teach children to code. Tynker is one of the best known of the bunch, as it’s specifically designed for classroom and at-home learning. Above: The tasks in Tynker’s lessons are kid-appropriate On the Tynker website, parents or teachers can enroll students to access a variety of web-based course content, such as games, quizzes, and interactive tutorials. Tynker claims its online learning service is used by teachers in 8,000 schools across the United States. In its first year, Tynker has yet to release any mobile applications, despite the persistent demand from parents. Tynker’s goal is to introduce children to programming concepts, and not to make them experts in JavaScript by first grade.
Demand for Computer Science Classes Grows, Along With Digital Divide Alex Tu, left, an Advanced Placement student, works during a computer science class in Midwest City, Okla. There's been a sharp decline in the number of computer science classes offered in U.S. secondary schools. By Eric Westervelt A handful of nonprofit and for-profit groups are working to address what they see as a national education crisis: Too few of America’s K-12 public schools actually teach computer science basics and fewer still offer it for credit. It’s projected that in the next decade there will be about 1 million more U.S. jobs in the tech sector than computer science graduates to fill them. So some in the education technology sector, an industry worth some $8 billion a year and growing, are stepping in. At a Silicon Valley hotel recently, venture capitalists and interested parties heard funding pitches and watched demonstrations from 13 ed-tech start-ups backed by an incubator called Imagine K-12. So should kids who’ve barely shed their pull-up diapers really learn to code?