Chris, Jamie and Michael discuss the articles of the week and share their tech tips.
Articles of the week
- Beware the rise of the robo-grader | Marketplace.org
EdX, the nonprofit collaboration between Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is about to launch a new free Internet service that uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays without any input from teachers. - Massive free online teaching the next big thing in China — Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 — English Window to China New
FREE online teaching is set to explode as a trend in China, as the world’s most populous country has a strong tradition of respect for education but uneven resources. “Massive online open courses” or MOOC, designed for large-scale interaction and open access at no cost, have become a rising power in China’s education landscape. While MOOC has been labeled a “tsunami” of education by the president of Stanford University, educators in China have called it the most important invention in their field since the Internet. -
Google Might Be Planning Free Nationwide Wi-Fi Since The FCC Isn’t
Go Google! Do what is right and good for the US, even if the government refuses to!
- How ‘Game Mechanics’ Can Revitalize Education
“Instead of attempting to pry these devices from millions of tiny fists, as was the instinct of many educational gatekeepers at one time in our not-too-distant past, many are embracing the idea that it’s time to meet this new generation in their own space. But where, exactly, is that?” - Is technology sapping children’s creativity? – The Washington Post: “A great many adults these days tell me how impressed they are with their young kids’ facility with technology or with what they think the kids are learning as they interact with screens. But let’s back up a little, think about what we know about how children grow and learn, and consider this pervasive new influence through that lens. “
- Education Week: The New Ed-Tech Leader Models by Digital Example: According to this article, the only way to get teachers and staff to move forward with technology is to model by example. If you show how it’s done, people will follow.
Tech tips
High School: Featured LiveBinders Great examples of LiveBinders in Use. A useful, clean, and reasonably easy to learn tool for making online “binders” for topics, units, etc.
Middle School: IFTTT / About IFTTT IFTTT is a service that lets you create powerful connections with one simple statement: IFTTT is pronounced like “gift” without the “g.” Channels Channels are the basic building blocks of IFTTT. Each Channel has its own Triggers and Actions. Some example Channels are: Facebook Evernote Email Weather LinkedIn View all 60 Channels Triggers The this part of a Recipe is a Trigger. Some example Triggers are “I’m tagged in a photo on Facebook” or “I check in on Foursquare.” Actions The that part of a Recipe is an Action. Some example Actions are “send me a text message” or “create a status message on Facebook.” Ingredients Pieces of data from a Trigger are called Ingredients. For example, the Ingredients of an Email Trigger could be: subject, body, attachment, received date, and the sender’s address.
Elementary School: HoverBar for iPad – HoverBar for iPad – Twelve South This piece of hardware allows teachers to use their iPad as a document camera or visualizer. It clamps onto your desk, bookshelf or where ever you would like it to sit, your iPad latches into the clips and the bar can be bent to position your iPad the way you want. It costs between 70-80 USD which seems like a steap price until you consider that most good quality visualizers or document cameras cost between 100-200 USD.
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