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Scooped by
John Evans
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Over the years, Google has left its humble origins behind to become one of the largest companies in the world, offering a wide range of devices and services.
To keep those services free, Google records data about you and uses it to display targeted advertising—their main source of revenue. As the debate around online privacy ramps up, many people are looking for an alternative.
Fortunately, DuckDuckGo might be the privacy-focused search engine you’ve been looking for.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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I love to read books about creativity and the artist’s process. It’s fascinating to learn the stories of authors, artists and other creatives and learn about their how they create their works. And there’s a common theme I’ve noticed in all of them.
No matter what. Sit down and create something everyday.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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Educators need to decide which tool is best for them. If you want to create your own animation from scratch, then you want to go to sites such as Animwork. If you want to select from an animation that’s already set up, for you then perhaps Explainia makes more sense.
One of the easiest ways to animate, however, isn’t with your own camera and modeling clay, it’s with your links to sites that hand you everything within their own forums.
Use the first part of this list for creating original animation or using animation tools to create lessons. Use the second part to select animated lessons that are already completed and set to share.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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IKEA is cheap, stylish, and a superb solution for furnishing an entire dwelling on a budget. It’s also the leading cause of divorce in couples who attempt to assemble its furniture at home, according to a poll I just made up for the sake of this joke.
Researchers at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore created a robot to do the grunt work for you, assembling an IKEA chair in all of 20 minutes. All told, the machine divvied up its time by spending 11 minutes and 21 seconds planning its motion pathways, three seconds locating parts, and then eight minutes and 55 seconds assembling the chair.
Built entirely of off-the-shelf parts, the team designed the robot with an array of sensors, a 3D camera, robotic gripping arms, and some really complex AI, relatively speaking.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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I almost wrote an article about this, but Sensible Prepper did such a great job on this subject that I figured I may as well just share his video.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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Makerspaces are becoming a big deal for schools all over the world. In these unique areas, student ingenuity takes the lead. From primary to senior grades makerspaces drive innovation, creativity, and critical thinking. Since their popularity is increasing, you can source makerspace project ideas from lots of educators and entrepreneurs who have had success with them.
If you’re new to the idea, this video gives a simple description of what makerspaces are. The key ideas behind them are geared toward creativity and problem-solving. This is why they’re on the rise in education (and why shop class isn’t just for the big kids anymore).
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Scooped by
John Evans
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STEM and Computational Thinking go together. Today’s guest is a PhD, Biomedical engineer and STEM Teacher. Stephanie Zeiger helps us see the potential of STEM and computational thinking.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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Learning experiences in education are rapidly evolving as augmented reality and virtual reality are making their way into classrooms. First, it is important to distinguish the difference between these two technologies. Augmented reality (AR) superimposes a computer-image overlay on an existing environment. For instance, Abraham Lincoln's log cabin can pop up in the middle of your classroom using AR Flashcard's Abraham Lincoln app. Virtual reality (VR) is more immersive in that it takes us some place else usually by using VR goggles or glasses. An example of virtual reality would be diving deep into the ocean to swim with sharks and experience the ocean habitat using Google Cardboard's VR Abyss. Both AR and VR provide unique learning opportunities that children would never be able to experience just by reading a textbook or visiting a website. This post focuses on how educators can use augmented reality to help support instruction.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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"Deep machine learning will likely automate the writing of code relatively quickly. Creativity is going to be far more important in a future where software can code better than we can"
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Scooped by
John Evans
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Since the turn of this century, the “4C’s of 21st century” skills—critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication—have seen growing recognition as essential ingredients of school curricula. This shift has prompted an uptake in pedagogies and frameworks such as project-based learning, inquiry learning, and deeper learning across all levels of K-12 that emphasize higher order thinking over rote learning. I argue that we need computational thinking (CT) to be another core skill—or the “5th C” of 21st century skills—that is taught to all students.
There is growing recognition in the education systems around the globe that being able to problem-solve computationally—that is, to think logically and algorithmically, and use computational tools for creating artifacts including models and data visualizations—is rapidly becoming a prerequisite competency for all fields.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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Google Arts & Cutlture is one of the best educational platforms for virtually exploring world museums. It allows you to search for, access and explore beautiful artworks from all around the world. You can create collections of your favourite artworks and share them with others, take ‘guided tours curated by experts’, step ‘inside the most famous museums in the world and visit iconic landmarks’. You can also use the search tool to find local museums and cultural events around your area.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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A long time ago I responded to Ian Sands on twitter asking for digital images of children's art that he could offer to his high school students to play with as they learn to animate. Some of his students selected my students "He Came with the Chair" paintings. The animations turned out SO adorable and inspiring-see example below or check them all out here. It has been one of my goals to figure out an elementary level lesson with a straightforward app that would give my students the experience of animating their own artwork in the same style. I think I might have figured it out. This technique isn't perfect, but, it will work.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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For Earth Day and Earth Week, your students can create their own Google logo that celebrates what they care about in the world.
As the Scratch Project Page states, students can make a Google logo that celebrates what you care about. Show your appreciation for your favorite animal, share ways to protect the environment or encourage others to be mindful of their energy use.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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The “Today” screen of iOS contains many widgets for things like weather, news and tabloid headlines, calendar, maps, suggested apps, stocks, amongst others. This “Today” screen is available on the left-most screen and is accessible from the lock screen or Home screen of an iPhone or iPad by swiping to the right (unless you disabled the Today screen, that is). Some users may wish to declutter the widgets that show up on this swipe-over Today screen of their iOS device, and remove widgets that are not applicable or useful to them. Maybe you don’t want your calendar visible at the widget screen, or maybe you don’t want to see tabloid headlines mixed in with news, or maybe you don’t want to stocks or apps on the widget screen, whatever you decide is your choice.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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To remedy the situation, and grow fruitful and happy students within the confines of the syllabus you are bound to, start to fix the problem yourself by creating an atmosphere of problem-solving in your classes. Create situations where students have to think for themselves. Here are some ideas:
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Scooped by
John Evans
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"Plum's Creaturizer from PBS Kids is a free iOS and Android app hat lets students create fun cartoon creatures then place them into outdoor settings through the use of augmented reality. The purpose of the app is to have students learn and show how the characteristics of an animal help it thrive in its environment."
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Scooped by
John Evans
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A major criticism I have of most educational institutions is that their primary focus is on students’ intellectual and cognitive development. Too often individual learner’s needs do not enter into the equation of their educations. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a useful model for educators to use to help insure that they are addressing more of the whole child.
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John Evans
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Our campus moved to a combination fixed/flexible schedule, which has allowed our students additional opportunities to visit the makerspace outside of their normal library time. Currently, Monday and Fridays are open check-out days and have also become open makerspace days. Makerspace Monday and Fun Friday have become a way for students to have additional time to invent, create, and make. During these days students can visit the library with a makerspace pass. The pass is laminated and has a place for the teacher to write in the student’s name and amount of time they can visit the makerspace with a dry erase marker making the pass reusable.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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Not long ago, a filmmaker wouldn’t dream of shooting a movie on a phone because the quality was so inferior to what you could capture on pricier devices. But that’s changing. Consider this: The most recent project from the renowned American film director Steven Soderbergh, “Unsane,” was shot entirely on an iPhone.
Today, there are lots of reasons everyone from pro photographers to amateur shutterbugs are using phones to shoot video projects.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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Math matters for computer science because it teaches students how to use abstract language, work with algorithms, self-analyze their computational thinking, and accurately modeling real-world solutions.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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In today's classroom STEM is a vital topic covered universally. With that being said, more and more students are being introduce to coding and programming earlier then ever before. Best of all, new technology and apps makes it easier and easier for students to learn these useful skills. Below is a list of some of the best resources for students and educators looking to learn how to program and code.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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From programmable LEGO robots to mobile apps like Hopscotch, there’s no shortage of games and toys designed to get children interested in computer science. But when it comes to adults, the options to learn how to code start to look a lot less like fun and a lot more like classwork.
Over the past nine months, Google has been trying to change that through Grasshopper, a mobile game meant to teach adults the basic principles of coding. Although five thousand people have already graduated from Grasshopper’s JavaScript Fundamentals course while the app has been in testing, the search giant is revealing it and making it publicly available for the first time on Wednesday. The game is launching for iOS and Android out of Area 120, Google’s internal workshop for experimental projects.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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Instead of struggling to find information, 21st century students are overwhelmed with it — websites, blogs, databases, magazines, books, documentaries, newspapers, television shows, organizations, advertisements, and agencies are all available at their fingertips. Teachers must guide their students through it all to achieve information literacy and become savvy consumers of information.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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"Elementary-age students struggle with the disconnect between the finished design or model and the long print times. This gets in the way of the iteration process and causes a lot of frustration. Multiply that by many classes and you have a significant backup of days or weeks. This year I decided that I wanted our fourth graders, to walk away with at least one substantial and meaningful print. "
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Scooped by
John Evans
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If you need to mix up your bedtime story routine a little bit, the Global Space Education Foundation has just the thing for you: Story Time in Space. It’s exactly what it sounds like — astronauts on various missions in space read popular children’s books while floating about, and the videos are edited and shared with kids way down on Earth.
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