This Free Font May Actually Help Dyslexic Students Read Better This is one of those developments that make you love technology and how it can truly benefit education. There’s a free open font now available that may actually help dyslexic people read better. Whether it’s true or not, this idea is incredible. The font, available for download here , was made by Aberlardo Gonzalez and has a license that lets you use it for free without any restriction. In other words, it might be time to start trying this out with any of your students (or you, perhaps) who have dyslexia. 1 in 10 people have dyslexia so this font may make a big difference in comprehension. How To Use The OpenDyslexic Font From The Font Creator Your brain can sometimes do funny things to letters. Get The Font The font is available for download here on GitHub
The Dunbar Number, From the Guru of Social Networks A little more than 10 years ago, the evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar began a study of the Christmas-card-sending habits of the English. This was in the days before online social networks made friends and “likes” as countable as miles on an odometer, and Dunbar wanted a proxy for meaningful social connection. He was curious to see not only how many people a person knew, but also how many people he or she cared about. The best way to find those connections, he decided, was to follow holiday cards. After all, sending them is an investment: You either have to know the address or get it; you have to buy the card or have it made from exactly the right collage of adorable family photos; you have to write something, buy a stamp, and put the envelope in the mail. Working with the anthropologist Russell Hill, Dunbar pieced together the average English household’s network of yuletide cheer. This was exactly the number that Dunbar expected. In 1992, Dunbar published his answer: brain size.
5 Things Google Wants You To Know About World Teachers' Day It’s World Teachers’ Day tomorrow and that means teachers around the globe should be honored and shown the respect they truly deserve. But in this truly connected age, there should also be a big emphasis on the world part of World Teachers’ Day. Take the day as an opportunity to grow your PLN, share your insight on Twitter, or simply connect with a teacher anywhere you are. In honor of World Teachers’ Day, Google has assembled a few key statistics that I wanted to pass along. They touted the many education products they’ve developed over the past few years ( YouTube Edu , Google Apps for Education , and cost-effective Google Chromebooks … but the meat of a recent blog post by Google is in the stats. As of today, more than 20 million students, faculty and staff worldwide use Google Apps for Education. We at Edudemic wanted to join Google (and everyone else) to congratulate all the teachers around the world for doing what they’re doing.
"MOOCs" for Credit Come to California Take note, folks. It’s here: “MOOCs” for credit. California Governor Jerry Brown, San Jose State University President Mo Qayoumi, and Udacity co-founder and CEO Sebastian Thrun held a press conference this morning to announce a pilot program that marks a first for the state: San Jose State will award college credits for special versions of select Udacity classes. The pilot program will be available to a group of 300 students from San Jose State, community colleges and high schools, but it’s really aimed at the latter two groups — in the hopes of boosting students’ “college readiness” and with the recognition that the wait lists for California’s community colleges make it incredibly challenging for these students to get into introductory classes. But as Thrun stressed at last week’s Reboot CA Higher Education event, the emphasis must be on making education better not just cheaper. The Year of the “MOOC”? As for me, I’ve put “MOOCs” in scare quotes throughout this piece.
35 Ways To Build Your Personal Learning Network Online Personal learning networks are a great way for educators to get connected with learning opportunities, access professional development resources, and to build camaraderie with other education professionals. Although PLNs have been around for years, in recent years social media has made it possible for these networks to grow exponentially. Now, it’s possible to expand and connect your network around the world anytime, anywhere. But how exactly do you go about doing that? Check out our guide to growing your personal learning network with social media, full of more than 30 different tips, ideas, useful resources, and social media tools that can make it all possible. Tips & Ideas Get started developing your social media PLN with these tips and ideas for great ways to make use of social tools. Actively make ties : It’s not enough to just follow and read, you need to connect. Guides Tools & Resources Want to really make the most of your PLN?
Why MOOCs are like Farmville Another day, another report from one of the thought leaders on higher education. This time it is from Moody’s, which proclaims the death of the traditional model of higher education. While the concerns raised by Moody’s are real – diminished resources due to state budget cuts, declining family incomes, and less willingness by students to take on debt – we should hesitate before leaping to the conclusion that these challenges necessitate a radical change, through massive adoption of online learning technologies such as MOOCs. Over the past few weeks, for every piece of commentary extolling the virtue of MOOCs, I have found another that calls into question whether this particular type of online learning is sustainable over the long term. As MOOCs have now reached the peak of inflated expectations, I expect that skepticism of their potential will become more widespread and accepted. De-emphasis of the traditional classroom lecture.
Why (And How) You Should Create A Personal Learning Network What Is A PLN? Through the use of my own Personal Learning Network (PLN) , I came across several great examples that both define what a PLN is, and explain the value of creating one for yourself. According to a wikispace about creating PLNs, “Personal Learning Networks are systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning. 1) set their own learning goals 2) manage their learning; managing both content and process 3) communicate with others in the process of learning and thereby achieve learning goals Simply put: A PLN is a system for lifelong learning. ” Why Start Your PLN Now? Teachers in our district, especially freshmen teachers, have a ton on their plates this year. Here are some ways that educators are using their PLNs: 10 Easy Ways to Kick Start Your Personal Learning Network Thanks to a fellow blogger/teacher named Kate Klingensmith, here’s a directory of some resources you can use to start developing your own community of connections and resources: Resources
Measuring the Success of Online Education One of the dirty secrets about MOOCs — massive open online courses — is that they are not very effective, at least if you measure effectiveness in terms of completion rates. If as few as 20 percent of students finishing an online course is considered a wild success and 10 percent and lower is standard, then it would appear that MOOCs are still more of a hobby than a viable alternative to traditional classroom education. Backers reason that the law of large numbers argues in favor of the online courses that have rapidly come to be seen as the vehicle for the Internet’s next big disruption — colleges. If 100,000 students take a free online course and only 5,000 complete it, that is still a significant number. However, MOOCs are a moving target. Udacity, along with other MOOC designers, is moving rapidly away from the video lecture model of teaching toward an approach that is highly interactive and based on frequent quizzes and human “mentors” to provide active online support for students.
New Presentation Tool Lets You Easily Keep Students Engaged From Prezi to Google Docs to PowerPoint , there’s no shortage of ways for teachers to put together a dynamic presentation. But Klowd wanted to take a different approach to help improve the presentation experience for both the person at the front of the classroom and in the back row. SlideKlowd is now available for your classroom and it could be the much-needed tool you’ve been looking for. So what are the features of SlideKlowd aside from the misspelled name? “There are some fantastic tools out there to help create great presentations, but they don’t address the core of the presentation issue, the skills and engagement capabilities of the presenter or teacher. ” says Ken Holsinger, Klowd.com’s Founder and CEO. Will it work? Inequality in American Education Will Not Be Solved Online - Ian Bogost With funding tight, the state of California has turned to Udacity to provide MOOCs for students enrolled in remedial courses. But what is lost when public education is privatized? Unlit road at night (MRBECK/Flickr) One night recently, it was raining hard as I drove to pick my son up from an evening class at the Atlanta Ballet. There are ways to fix such dangers. Such is essentially the logic the state of California has adopted in its plan to offer online classes in the California State University System, a deal the state has struck with "massively open online course" (MOOC) provider Udacity. The startup, which has received more than $15 million in funding from Silicon Valley venture capitalists, will provide online classes in remedial and introductory subjects for students at San Jose State University (SJSU), in exchange for an undisclosed sum from the state. In response, California could reinvest in public schools and the profession of secondary teaching. That's the political situation.
5 Recommended iPad Screensharing Apps The iPad is supposed to make teaching and learning easier, right? But if you’ve ever tried to talk your mom through a new task on her computer or iPad without being able to show her what you’re doing, you can understand that some frustration might ensue as you try to get an entire class to follow along with you. Or maybe you want to show a quick video or diagram, but holding up your iPad to the class really isn’t reaching everyone. There are a lot of folks out there who feel your pain, and to ease it just a bit, they’ve created Apps to share your screen. Join.me With the join.me viewer, you can join an online meeting no matter where you go. View someone’s screen, share ideas and collaborate in real time, for free! Optimized for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, join.me is fast, free and nimble, and makes attending an online meeting as easy as touching your screen. We’ve tried out Join.me and really enjoyed the ability to share screens across our iMacs and iPads at the same time. Air Sketch
How to succeed at Mooc-ing without really trying Heard about MOOCs but far too busy doing more interesting things to sign up to one? Not sure if they’re for you? Feeling pressure to be part of the “mooc crowd”? Keep signing up for MOOCs but keep getting that cba (can’t be a****) feeling after the first week? Fear not, here’s a handy list of tips to ensure you too can get maximum impact, increase your twitter followers, and look like you are at the heart of the next Mooc that takes your fancy. The quickest way to get noticed in MOOCs is via twitter, so start using the course hashtag as early as possible. Only sign up for MOOCs where you know someone who is part of the course team. @ them at every opportunity (with the hastag of course). Alternatively start a tweet off (my polite description for a fight) with the official course twitter account. @ them slightly left field questions that are impossible to answer in 140 characters, but which they can’t be seen to not to answer. Dazzle people with analytics.