Smart Teenage Brains May Get Some Extra Learning Time : Shots – Health News : NPR

Posted on by
Reply
Approximate Reading Time: < 1 minute

2010-01-13_23-15-54_wmSmart Teenage Brains May Get Some Extra Learning Time : Shots – Health News : NPR.

We have long accepted that there are specific critical periods in animals as they grow up – we know a fair bit about how dogs grow up. Doesn’t surprise me a bit that there are similar periods in a human’s life as well. It’s just that our complexity (including the complexity of our surroundings) makes it less noticeable.
I’ve thought for a long time that in a sense the brains of really intelligent people run “hotter” than others. It would make sense that the plasticity of their brains would be greater. I predict that we will eventually discover that the really intelligent have brains that never really “settle”.
While I don’t pretend to have any understanding of the mechanisms, I also think that this plays an important role in mental illness, especially schizophrenia – the brain just runs too hot.
Having a Formula 1 brain in a Studebaker body is bound to have some consequences.

Be the first to like.

Unlike

Places I’ve Been (to Sept. 21 2013)

Posted on by
Reply
Approximate Reading Time: < 1 minute

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Be the first to like.

Unlike

Video games becoming required coursework in schools – Technology & Science – CBC News

Posted on by
Reply
Approximate Reading Time: 2 minutes

Video games becoming required coursework in schools – Technology & Science – CBC News.

Unfortunately, they got my institution wrong. I’ve got a request in to fix it, but I’ve had no response yet. Below is an edited excerpt (with the correct institution named).

I have to say I am disappointed at how many people are *still* dead set against the use of games in the classroom. In most cases they are classic examples of what Harlan Ellison calls “idiot hearsay” – forming opinions based on second hand information at best, and uninformed knee-jerk reactions at worst.

Experience without consequences

Screenshot from Animal Crossing New Leaf

Screenshot from Animal Crossing New Leaf

“If the outcome is learning in the end, then why not?” says Katrin Becker, an adjunct professor at Mount Royal University who researches and designs educational video games.

She added that games can provide students with learning experiences that could be “painful or dangerous or expensive” in real life — such as running their first business or performing surgery on an animal.

“In a game, they can find out what happens if you do it wrong without any negative consequences to the real world,” Becker said. “And that’s really very valuable.”

Nevertheless, game-based learning modules are still are far less popular in the classroom than traditional methods.

“The shift that needs to happen … is the reawakening of the idea that learning can and should be fun and entertaining,” she said.

 

Challenges for teachers

That may all be encouraging to teachers, but incorporating games into coursework can be more challenging than it looks.

Wershler said he is mindful of the fact that many games take longer to complete than a book, can be expensive and sometimes must be played on expensive technology. Because of that, he chooses older, cheaper games that can be downloaded and played on a computer or mobile device.

Becker said commercial games can also be challenging for teachers, because they don’t come with lesson plans.

“Teachers don’t have time to develop their own courseware,” she said.

Despite the difficulties, Becker said she is a huge proponent of games in education, as they provide new options for learning.

“It’s yet another tool to use,” she said. “And I think the richer the environment, the better off we are.”

 

Be the first to like.

Unlike

Places I’ve Been (to Aug. 31 2013)

Posted on by
Reply
Approximate Reading Time: < 1 minute

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Be the first to like.

Unlike

It’s Not PowerPoint’s Fault

Posted on by
Reply
Approximate Reading Time: 2 minutes

There’s a discussion going on (again) on one of the forums I follow that is trashing PowerPoint. Now, I’m not a big fan of Microsoft, but really, PowerPoint is one of their better applications. The fact that there are millions of crappy PP presentations out there is not the fault of the application. Really.

Also: Prezi (or any of the other applications people love to rave about) will NOT magically make a mediocre presenter into a star. Honest.

It’s NOT about the tool.2012-11-11_09-06-05

Too much focus on the tool – which includes positive (eg. Prezi is the ONLY way to go) as well as negative (eg. I hate PowerPoint) focus – interferes with the design and development of good instruction.

Active learning is key, but avoiding any particular tool or approach “just because” is usually not helpful. Sometimes, “lecturing” really IS the most effective way to do something. Even drill has a place in some kinds of learning.

Ultimately, it boils down to the skills and expertise of the designer and the instructor. I’ve seen teachers do amazing things without so much as lifting a piece of chalk, and I’ve seen abysmal teaching using some of the fanciest tools around.

This quote is from a list of rules for spacecraft design, but much of it applies here too ( http://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/old_site/academics/akins_laws.html )

20. A bad design with a good presentation is doomed eventually. A good design with a bad presentation is doomed immediately.

When I design & build something, whether it’s a computer program, a course, a Halloween costume, or a rabbit hutch, my own expertise (and what I have access to through colleagues and friends) and the tools I have available inevitably affect the thing I am designing. For example, I have neither the tools nor the skill to cut curves into wood, so I design my rabbit hutches with straight edges.

When designing instruction some things are made easier by particular tools and harder by others. The tool inevitably affects the instruction that is being designed. This is neither good nor bad – it simply is. It’s great to start a design thinking about what you would do in a perfect world, but after that you need to get practical and consider the tools you have available. Then you need to fit the two together. You are usually better off using a tool you are comfortable with than one you are not. There are times when it is appropriate to try something new, and times when the tried and true are appropriate. There really is no single right way, EXCEPT that you should be authentic and committed to providing the best instruction you know how to do AND you should be prepared to adjust what you are doing to match the needs of your learners.

For any task you set for your learners, you should always be prepared to answer these two questions (with honesty and grace):

  1. Why are we doing this?
  2. What is it good for?

Finally, any time you consider changing what you are doing, ask yourself this question:
How does this make things better?
If you don’t have a good answer to this, why are you doing it?

1 person likes this post.

Unlike

Places I’ve Been (to Aug 17 2013)

Posted on by
Reply
Approximate Reading Time: < 1 minute

  • Scribus.net

    “Scribus is an Open Source program that brings professional page layout to Linux, BSD UNIX, Solaris, OpenIndiana, GNU/Hurd, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp 4, eComStation, Haiku and Windows desktops with a combination of press-ready output and new approaches to page design.

    Underneath a modern and user-friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as color separations, CMYK and spot colors, ICC color management, and versatile PDF creation. ”

    tags: publishing software opensource scribus tools graphics design desktop

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Be the first to like.

Unlike

The Animal Lover’s Dilemma | fieldquestions

Posted on by
Reply
Approximate Reading Time: < 1 minute

 

The Animal Lover’s Dilemma | fieldquestions.

This is a GREAT post. Anyone who believes they are preventing cruelty to animals by being a vegan needs to read this.


” Here I was in a vegan restaurant, eating what I assumed to be ethically pure food—only to discover that I was supporting a system of agriculture that had devastated some of the most vital ecosystems in the world. I found out that in the Philippines, Dole Corporation converts rainforest into fruit plantations by leasing the ancestral land of indigenous people from the government for a pittance.Removed from their forest, with no place to hunt and gather, they’re forced to work for the plantations, facing exposure to pesticides, chemical contamination in the water, and poverty-level wages. Despite these human rights abuses, nobody I knew had a diet that revolved around shunning banana bread or pineapple upside-down cake — only meat.

I later realized that fruits and vegetables grown at home had their own death toll. One summer, while driving through the brown California hillsides, I passed through miles of avocado, orange, and lemon groves. In these arid plantations it occurred to me that much of my diet came from California. Many of these crops are irrigated with water from the Colorado River, and years of taking water from this river for agriculture and urban use led to the complete transformation of the Colorado River Delta in Mexico. This delta, one of the largest desert estuaries in the world had been drained, killing countless fish, river porpoises, and jaguars, and taking away the livelihood of the local Mexican people, all to produce vegetables that sustained me. “

1 person likes this post.

Unlike

10 Truths About Educational Technology | Amplify

Posted on by
Reply
Approximate Reading Time: 4 minutes

This is a great list. I’ve taken the liberty of recopying it here.

10 Truths About Educational Technology | Amplify.

10 Truths About Educational Technology

By Randy Rodgers

I am one of the many educators fortunate enough to work in the space of educational technology. It’s hard for me to believe I’ve been doing it for a decade; time truly passes in a flash when you’re engaged in something you enjoy so much. To celebrate this personal milestone, I’m offering up 10 experienced-based truisms that have become the guiding principles for me in this business.

1. The learning objective comes first.

Start by understanding the abilities, preferences, and passions of the kids in the classroom, then choose the right technology to go along with that.

One of the great advantages of the variety of tech and tools is that we can now also think about what tool or technology would best support what you want to achieve.

2. No technology is perfect.

What works for one classroom might be unsuccessful, unused, and unwanted next door.

No technology is perfect. What works for one classroom might be unsuccessful, unused, and unwanted next door.

Once again, I go back to one of my favorite quotes: “(I)nstructional technology only works for some kids, with some topics, and under some conditions – but that is true of all pedagogy. There is nothing that works for every purpose, for every learner, and all the time.” (Mann, 2001)

3. Digital natives? Sort of.

Kids are generally very fast tech learners, indeed, but they don’t come to your room knowing as much as some would assert.

YES! YES! YES! I’ve talked about this a bunch of times too.  [Here, Here, Here] Just because they are comfortable USING the technology doesn’t mean they actually understand anything about how it actually works. Knowing how it works is really important. If you don’t know what a technology CAN do (which you will learn when you know how it works), you are in a position to be innovative rather than simply copying what others do.

4. Make do.

Think big, but be realistic about what resources you have. Get creative and make the most of it. You’ll be surprised at how much you can do with very little.

This too requires a good working understanding of what the technology you have is capable of.

I taught a grad level online course last winter that included several synchronous sessions (using Collaborate) . In our very first session I could not get my audio to work : I could hear everything, but no-one could hear me. Here’s how I made do: I ended up getting one of the students to connect to me via Skype, which did work. He acted as my ‘interpreter’ – I could hear the questions being asked; I would give my answer to my student via Skype, and he relayed it to the rest of the class using Collaborate. It was not ideal, but it worked… AND it had the added bonus of modelling adaptability for my class – all of whom were adult professional educators.

5. You’ve got to know it to believe in it.

Teachers who routinely use tech—in the classroom and in their personal lives—know it’s important and beneficial for their students. Those who don’t won’t.

While I completely agree – I remind you that using something is not the same as knowing something. The responsibility for helping teachers understand tech lies with the teacher training programs. Sadly, many Professors teaching in Education do not themselves understand tech – even Ed Tech faculty often don’t use the tech they teach, except in the classroom. You really don’t get a sense for the pros and cons of a technology until you’ve tried to use it to accomplish something (i.e. until you’ve actually used it as a tool rather than an example.

6. Leaders have followers.

When the principal uses technology, the teachers will. Simple.

The school goes the way of the principal. Always.

7. Filtering: Not so fast.

Blocking is easy but can lead to missed opportunities. Take some time to explore sites and evaluate their possibilities, then make informed decisions.

We have done a lousy job of teaching people (teachers included) to evaluate what they see on the web, in print, on television, and elsewhere. In all fairness, we seem to do this throughout our society – protect people by keeping things away rather than teaching people how to cope. This is bound to fail in the long run.

8. Technology might not be the best tool for the job.

There are times when learning succeeds best without technology. Shut it off.

Yup. My farm reminds of that every single day.

9. Teaching and learning aren’t the same.

The technologies for each are often very different. Keep this in mind when setting priorities.

Just because you have taught it doesn’t mean they have learned it.

10. Aim high.

Technology can and should let students do things they cannot otherwise do, or do as well. Kick up the expectations.

Randy Rodgers is the director of digital learning services at the Seguin Independent School District in Texas. He writes about ed tech on his blog, The Moss-Free Stone.

This article is commissioned by Amplify Education Inc. The views expressed are the author’s own, and do not represent those of Amplify Education Inc.

Push the envelope. Don’t be afraid to try things and let your students see you struggle while finding a solution.

Really.

 

Be the first to like.

Unlike