iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

Playtime. Downtime. Family time.

According to Denise Pope, a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, these three factors — or PDF as she calls them — protect kids against a host of negative outcomes, strengthen resilience, and bolster students’ mental wellness and academic engagement. 

Danish toymaker LEGO has revealed a new set aimed at helping adults improve their mental wellbeing. Titled "Forma," the set uses LEGO pieces to create the skeleton of a fish, which is then finished with customizable skins. The idea behind the project comes from the view that combining organic forms and mechanical work could help reduce stress and anxiety.

The term “digital immigrants” and “digital natives” is almost as annoying as the fights are about the terminology.  These terms are often credited to Marc Prensky, and from when I have had the opportunity to have heard him speak, he doesn’t believe that kids have an innate ability to use technology over adults. They have not known a world with anything different.  It made sense to me when I thought of my parents who came to Canada as immigrants. They knew one life and then thrust themselves into another. Where growing up in Canada, I have not known anything but what it is like to live in that country.  It doesn’t mean that one group has the ability over another, but their past experiences do shape a lot of what their future looks like. Although my parents were immigrants to Canada, I saw them as less traditional than many people who lived here their entire life.  

So then why do we continue to say things like, “Kids are sooooo much better with technology than adults are”?  Yes, many kids have never known anything BUT a world with iPhones and YouTube, but the same adults have lived in that world the same amount of time kids have, and sometimes, even more.  Add the years of experience in other parts of life; there is no reason that kids should be better at technology than adults.

The difference between kids that are deemed better than adults with technology is not some innate ability; it is their willingness to push buttons. To see what happens. To act on their curiosity.12  That’s it.

According to the Pew Research Center, more than a quarter--26 percent--of American adults have not read even part of a book within the past year. It's a shame considering that researchers have found reading is beneficial in many ways.

Danish toymaker LEGO has revealed a new set aimed at helping adults improve their mental wellbeing. Titled "Forma," the set uses LEGO pieces to create the skeleton of a fish, which is then finished with customizable skins. The idea behind the project comes from the view that combining organic forms and mechanical work could help reduce stress and anxiety.

"...I recently had a conversation with a very sweet librarian at a conference who was concerned about the teachers in her school who aren't readers. She shared an exchange that she had with a teacher, in front of children, in which she asked the teacher what she was reading, to which the teacher responded by saying "oh, I don't read. I just don't have time." Needless to say the librarian was mortified. Then she mentioned that she'd shared the post I wrote with Todd Nesloney last month, with tips to help all educators unlock their inner readers, with this teacher and with the rest of her staff. She said, “I just printed out the list and put it in all their mailboxes!” I'll be honest, I was so humbled by this, but it also got me thinking of ways to make our list of tips a little more shareable. With that in mind, I decided to make an Infographic out of our suggestions:"