Critical Perspectives in Education

Finding the best education technology tools is a time-consuming task. It may even be viewed as a chore (for some). Not with this fabulous list, though!

"Apple TV is a little black box that can work miracles in a classroom. Built largely for entertaining purposes by Apple, Apple TV is used increasingly in the classroom by educators who primarily want to take advantage of the mirroring capabilities of the device. For those who are not familiar with the term “mirroring”, simply put, a key feature in Apple devices called “AirPlay” can literally mirror or project your device’s screen (iPod/iPad/iPhone), via an LCD projector that is connected to the Apple TV. All you need aside from an Apple TV is an iPad 2 or newer, an LCD projector, and then, the sky is the limit."

Editor’s NoteThis post is part of Co.Exist’s Futurist Forum, a series of articles by some of the world’s leading futurists about what the world will look like in the near and distant future, and how you can improve how you navigate future scenarios...

The whole thing that powers a PechaKucha event -- whether it's a city-based PechaKucha Night or a "Powered by PechaKucha" event -- is the "20 images x 20 seconds" format. WATCH is where you'll find presentations from all over the world -- get inspired!

1. Skills are not sufficient; we must also have the disposition to use them.
Possessing thinking skills and abilities alone is insufficient for good thinking. One
must also have the disposition to use those abilities. This means schools must
develop students’ inclination to think and awareness of occasions for thinking as
well as their thinking skills and abilities. Having a disposition toward thinking
enhances the likelihood that one can effectively use one’s abilities in new
situations.
2. The development of thinking and understanding is fundamentally a social
endeavor, taking place in a cultural context and occurring within the constant
interplay between the group and the individual. Social situations that provide
experience in communicating oneʼs own thinking as well as opportunities to
understand othersʼ thinking enhance individual thinking.
3. The culture of the classroom teaches. It not only sets a tone for learning, but
also determines what gets learned. The messages sent through the culture of the
classroom communicate to students what it means to think and learn well. These
messages are a curriculum in themselves, teaching students how to learn and
ways of thinking.
4. As educators, we must strive to make students thinking visible. It is only by
making thinking visible that we can begin to understand both what and how our
students are learning. Under normal conditions, a studentʼs thinking is invisible to
other students, the teacher, and even to him/herself, because people often think
with little awareness of how they think. By using structures, routines, probing
questions, and documentation we can make studentsʼ thinking more visible toward
fostering better thinking and learning.
5. Good thinking utilizes a variety of resources and is facilitated by the use of
external tools to “download” or “distribute” oneʼs thinking. Papers, logs,
computers, conversation, and various means of recording and keeping track of
ideas and thoughts free the mind up to engage in new and deeper thinking.
6. For classrooms to be cultures of thinking for students, schools must be
cultures of thinking for teachers. The development of a professional community
in which deep and rich discussions of teaching, learning, and thinking are a
fundamental part of teachersʼ ongoing experience provides the foundation for
nurturing studentsʼ thinking and learning.

Zoho Show is an online presentation tool that helps you to create visually appealing presentations, collaborate online with your peers and deliver them anywhere...

The next time you’re at Starbucks, you won’t see the company’s Pick of the Week cards on display. Instead, the coffee maker is now offering free iOS apps via the official Starbucks app, according to CNET.

This project’s aim is to explore ways in which school librarians can use DL open content to expand and enrich the school library’s resource base and instructional support. This project uses the newest web-based technologies to help school librarians identify DL open content, integrate open content metadata into their OPACs, and help use open content for learning.

"Let’s focus on the resulting element — the “collective intelligence”. Think about it as billions of human brains working using future super computers as a platform. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Srini Devadas described “collective intelligence” as consisting of two pillars: cloud computing and crowd computing. Cloud computing is using the Internet as a platform and making access to information available to everyone. Crowd computing, according to him, involves the analysis of information into “collective intelligence” far beyond what we have today."

WHAT’S MINE IS YOURS is about Collaborative Consumption, a new, emerging economy made possible by online social networks and fueled by increasing cost consciousness and environmental necessity. Collaborative Consumption occurs when people participate in organized sharing, bartering, trading, renting, swapping, and collectives to get the same pleasures of ownership with reduced personal cost and burden, and lower environmental impact.

"Cargo Bot is a fun and challenging game that students can play to learn some principles of logic and programming. The object of the game is to program a robot to complete increasingly complex sequences of tasks. Students start out by programming the robot to move one box from point A to point B. After successfully programming the robot students are advanced to programming more complex tasks like a repeating loop of movements and staggered movements."

Stanford's new head of online learning explains his vision for how the Internet can remake college classrooms.

After years of eyeing it with suspicion, many of America's elite colleges are suddenly bear-hugging online learning, and Stanford University is at the forefront of the movement.