My son is a gamer he plays all types of games (card, board, live action and computers). He knows he wants to do “something” with computers when he heads off to college in a couple of years. To help him figure it out he is taking a course on The Foundations of Game Design at our community college. He is particularly intrigued with the design of games; what motivates the player to keep going, strategy, scoring and leveling. He recently…
I am putting the finishing touches on presentation materials for the upcoming MassCUE 2013 conference. If you are in the area and able to attend it is a well run and worth your time. I always walk away having learned new skills and strategies to promote deep learning. I learn a lot and it keeps me thinking and reflecting on my instructional practice for months to come. This year I am co-presenting with Kristin Cannistraro at teacher of the visually…
As we are all well aware iOS 7 was released earlier this week. Change is inevitable; it is pure excitement and joy for some but not always easy for others. As any provider of tech support knows our focus is on the later. Apparently we know all the answers even though we are seeing the new iOS for the first time as well. Thankfully there are those excited to explore and test out the iOS and share their findings. Can’t…
Though many of you may have seen these videos I wanted to share them again. Vi Hart does some great videos to get inspired about math. She helps take math from the rote work of endless problem solving and highlights the wonder of numbers. Math Doodling Vi Hart on YouTube
Teachers in the 1990’s were for the most part provided textbooks, teacher’s guides, lab manuals and workbooks. Many schools had libraries with audiovisual departments. How many of us remember filmstrips and laserdiscs? Teachers did not create class web pages nor need to search for or create the materials need for their classrooms. Now we expect teachers do all of these things in addition to their usual duties and responsibilities. In the early 1990’s we did not have the technologies that…
Many schools are looking for alternative digital books such a free open source texts like those found on CK-12.org, which are not interactive, or encouraging teachers to create their own interactive texts. The tools available to create interactive texts for the iPad are available; for a Mac there are iWork Pages and the free iBooks Author. The basic skills need for assembly of an interactive digital text are already mastered by most teachers; create text in a word processor, insert…
Many schools and districts are discussing the possibilities of adopting 1:1 devices such as the iPad. They are conducting trials to work out the technical issues and have teachers begin to think about how to integrate them in the classroom. One of the reasons schools give for this move is to be rid of traditional textbooks and move to digital books. However many digital textbooks are just non-interactive PDFs of their print cousins and cost about the same. Apple recently…