Twitter and I have had a love/hate relationship for a long time now. I've had a hard time understanding all of its functionality, but am slowly figuring it out. I like using it for educational purposes, a lot of educators share great links there, and are very active. One of the live Twitter Chats I was a part of was #stuvoice. #stuvoice contained a plethora of resources about empowering students and making sure that they were getting what they wanted/needed out of their education. One of the great links I found I retweeted on my page @jdteach36, it was from @edutopia. The article gave a list of 8 questions that are great to ask kids.
As the Student Council advisor at Carleton Washburne getting new ideas on how to increase student voice is extremely helpful, and here on Twitter there are live conversations happening and people sharing ideas daily. I'm very glad you keep pushing us to use Twitter because once you get over the hump of the terminology, the interface, and the thought of it just being another social media platform, you start to see all the amazing content inside.
Monday, August 22, 2016
Sunday, August 21, 2016
Thing 35- Hot Topics (MOOC's and 3D Printing)
One of my "Hot Topics" this week is MOOC's, which stands for Massive Open Online Course. The term MOOC came out of the Open Educational Resources movement and was coined in 2008. Thoughout this class, we have talked about a wide variety of MOOC's including Khan Academy and iTunesU.
There are two different types of MOOC's, xMOOC's and cMOOC's. An example of a xMOOC is a course you can basically audit through "Stanford University." An xMOOC is more like a traditional classroom where you learn through checkpoints, curriculum, and watch a teacher's lesson then leave. This type of MOOC is criticized for it's ability to engage the students compared to an cMOOC.
A cMOOC's is more about connectivity through pedagogy, you speak with the teacher virtually, you participate in group assignments virtually, basically you are connected with your classmates and your teacher. A cMOOC is more like this course, but it is a closed MOOK.
A lot of MOOC's are free to access, but there are some school's that have closed MOOC's that only enrolled students can "attend." MOOC's contain an almost endless amount of educational opportunity, and the best part about MOOC's is that they are mostly free! This means people who cannot afford higher education classes can "attend" classes of interest, and lifelong learners who simply don't have the time to enroll in classes can "attend" at their own pace. This is the theory behind so many MOOC's that are funded by non-profits like the "Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation" for example.
Some MOOC's offered by universities are offered at a much more affordable rate because of the cost savings to the university. These MOOC's are worth college credit and are desirable to students who can perform without direct classroom interaction.
I personally feel that a hybrid of both types of MOOC's makes the most sense. If there can be teacher and tech support but still be hands off, MOOC's will be able to remain free for students and affordable for their non-profit sponsors.
My second "Hot Topic" is about 3D Printing, something I've been interested in for a long time. Our school recently got a 3D printer and I've been very curious about it's potential with all I hear about 3D printing in the news.
The term 3D Printing is also called "Additive Manufacturing," where the printer "deposits a binder material onto a powder bed with inkjet printer heads layer by later"-Wikipedia. The process was first invented by Hideo Kodama in 1981, but was only popularized in the last decade. While "additive manufacturing" was gaining its relevance the same technology was being used actively as "reductive manufacturing" carving metal into shapes of desire.
3D printers work in correspondence with CAD (Computer Aided Design) programs, and a 3D scanner. This process allows for 3-Dimensional printing on an x,y, and z-axis. The cost of 3D printers has dropped substantially since their mainstream introduction in 2010. A printer costing $20,000 then, is somewhere around $1000 now.
One common misconception about 3D printers is that items are printed in usable condition, this simply isn't true. What happens is that each part of the item is printed independently, then you can hypothetically put the pieces together. Some of the things being printed using 3-D printers now include guns, medicine, organs, and many other items that are simply amazing!
One common and cost effective use of 3D printing is prototyping. A once very expensive tooling process is now much simpler and inexpensive due to 3D Printing. This is a very awesome use for educational purposes when students are innovating and design thinking.
There are two different types of MOOC's, xMOOC's and cMOOC's. An example of a xMOOC is a course you can basically audit through "Stanford University." An xMOOC is more like a traditional classroom where you learn through checkpoints, curriculum, and watch a teacher's lesson then leave. This type of MOOC is criticized for it's ability to engage the students compared to an cMOOC.
A cMOOC's is more about connectivity through pedagogy, you speak with the teacher virtually, you participate in group assignments virtually, basically you are connected with your classmates and your teacher. A cMOOC is more like this course, but it is a closed MOOK.
A lot of MOOC's are free to access, but there are some school's that have closed MOOC's that only enrolled students can "attend." MOOC's contain an almost endless amount of educational opportunity, and the best part about MOOC's is that they are mostly free! This means people who cannot afford higher education classes can "attend" classes of interest, and lifelong learners who simply don't have the time to enroll in classes can "attend" at their own pace. This is the theory behind so many MOOC's that are funded by non-profits like the "Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation" for example.
Some MOOC's offered by universities are offered at a much more affordable rate because of the cost savings to the university. These MOOC's are worth college credit and are desirable to students who can perform without direct classroom interaction.
I personally feel that a hybrid of both types of MOOC's makes the most sense. If there can be teacher and tech support but still be hands off, MOOC's will be able to remain free for students and affordable for their non-profit sponsors.
My second "Hot Topic" is about 3D Printing, something I've been interested in for a long time. Our school recently got a 3D printer and I've been very curious about it's potential with all I hear about 3D printing in the news.
The term 3D Printing is also called "Additive Manufacturing," where the printer "deposits a binder material onto a powder bed with inkjet printer heads layer by later"-Wikipedia. The process was first invented by Hideo Kodama in 1981, but was only popularized in the last decade. While "additive manufacturing" was gaining its relevance the same technology was being used actively as "reductive manufacturing" carving metal into shapes of desire.
3D printers work in correspondence with CAD (Computer Aided Design) programs, and a 3D scanner. This process allows for 3-Dimensional printing on an x,y, and z-axis. The cost of 3D printers has dropped substantially since their mainstream introduction in 2010. A printer costing $20,000 then, is somewhere around $1000 now.
One common misconception about 3D printers is that items are printed in usable condition, this simply isn't true. What happens is that each part of the item is printed independently, then you can hypothetically put the pieces together. Some of the things being printed using 3-D printers now include guns, medicine, organs, and many other items that are simply amazing!
One common and cost effective use of 3D printing is prototyping. A once very expensive tooling process is now much simpler and inexpensive due to 3D Printing. This is a very awesome use for educational purposes when students are innovating and design thinking.
Thing 32: Atomic Learning
Today I learned about and played with Atomic Learning. Atomic Learning is a database that teaches you about pedagogy of teaching, learning, and how to learn certain topics of your choice. I watched a great tutorial video on how to make an animation in Adobe Photoshop.
I have never used Atomic Learning before, but I think it is a great resource for teachers. One of the things I liked about Atomic Learning over Youtube is that it is very teacher/student centered. You can tell that the people making the videos are teachers by their pace and diction.
I do not think that assigning Atomic Learning sections to teachers based on their assessments is a good way to go about improving their assessments. However, sharing the links and giving the teachers the tools to improve themselves is a great idea. I feel that, as a teacher, watching videos on how to do something isn't exactly the best way to improve pedagogy. Often times, I feel that watching other teachers in action, or communicating with a teacher that has strengths where you have weaknesses is more beneficial than any tutorial video.
I could see myself using an Atomic Learning lesson as a sub activity or as an enrichment activity for a strong student, or possibly as a supplemental activity for a student that needs extra help at home.
I have never used Atomic Learning before, but I think it is a great resource for teachers. One of the things I liked about Atomic Learning over Youtube is that it is very teacher/student centered. You can tell that the people making the videos are teachers by their pace and diction.
I do not think that assigning Atomic Learning sections to teachers based on their assessments is a good way to go about improving their assessments. However, sharing the links and giving the teachers the tools to improve themselves is a great idea. I feel that, as a teacher, watching videos on how to do something isn't exactly the best way to improve pedagogy. Often times, I feel that watching other teachers in action, or communicating with a teacher that has strengths where you have weaknesses is more beneficial than any tutorial video.
I could see myself using an Atomic Learning lesson as a sub activity or as an enrichment activity for a strong student, or possibly as a supplemental activity for a student that needs extra help at home.
Thing 34: Breakout EDU
Today I learned about Breakout EDU, another great resource for "gamifying" your classroom. These Breakout games, which could be fun to do once in a while, I feel would lose their muster after one of two of them. Doing one or two of them per year though, I could see being a lot of fun for students.
"The Haunting At Farrar" is a fun breakout EDU lesson about finding a box hidden in a haunted school that can unlock the secrets of what happened at the abandoned school. I'm not sure I could use this exact lesson, but it would be fun to design a lesson similar to this as a team building activity around Halloween in my classes.
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/0B08Di9b0sN5yelZuYWR6RG5lZlk
Below is a Breakout EDU game template I made that is my version of the above game. It's pretty funny and obviously only a template, but could be really fun to do with a class around Halloween.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TdnTuenEyvH9UE_HfpkKn9Q32ZADj56oUmy9WfWwMtM/edit
"The Haunting At Farrar" is a fun breakout EDU lesson about finding a box hidden in a haunted school that can unlock the secrets of what happened at the abandoned school. I'm not sure I could use this exact lesson, but it would be fun to design a lesson similar to this as a team building activity around Halloween in my classes.
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/0B08Di9b0sN5yelZuYWR6RG5lZlk
Below is a Breakout EDU game template I made that is my version of the above game. It's pretty funny and obviously only a template, but could be really fun to do with a class around Halloween.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TdnTuenEyvH9UE_HfpkKn9Q32ZADj56oUmy9WfWwMtM/edit
Thing 33: Educators Learning Network
Below is the link for my ELN tutorial video. This video is about inspiring and engaging your students. It gives some great advice about how to get the most out of your students and to give them a real sense of accomplishment in your classroom.
https://www.brainshark.com/portal/eln/presentation.html?pid=672217632
https://www.brainshark.com/portal/eln/presentation.html?pid=672217632
Saturday, August 20, 2016
Thing 31: Gizmos
I had some time recently to play around with Gizmos, which is basically a interactive leaning tool for students to go above and beyond their typical lessons. Gizmos offer interactive tutorials for an wide assortment of topics from K-12 in Math and Science. When I was working with Gizmos I simplified Trigonometric functions in an interactive proof simulation, I did a digestion puzzle connecting the organs of digestion, and I found out how much I would weigh on the moon. All of these topics can and are relevant to curriculum taught in our math and science classrooms and should be utilized by math and science teachers. Below are a few of the Gizmos that I added to "My Class," which I called "36 Things."
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