teachers

5 good tools to create whiteboard animations [educatorstechnology.com]

On 10/17/2019, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, animation, art, attention, blended learning, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, engagement / engaging students, faculty, higher education, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning ecosystem, multimedia, online learning, online media, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, story, storytelling, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, training / L&D, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, visualizing information, by Daniel Christian

5 good tools to create whiteboard animations — from educatorstechnology.com

Excerpt:

In short, whiteboard animation (also called video scribing or animated doodling) is a video clip in which the recorder records the process of drawing on a whiteboard while using audio comment. The final result is a beautiful synchronization of the drawings and the audio feedback. In education, whiteboard animation videos are used in language teaching/learning, in professional development sessions, to create educational tutorials and presentations and many more. In today’s post, we are sharing with you some good web tools you can use to create whiteboard animation videos.

Students nationwide to join coding boot camp phase of 2019 National Cyber Robotics Coding Competition — from gocoderz.com

Excerpts:

During the first phase, a two-week boot camp, students and educators begin learning about coding and robotics in a virtual, highly scaffolded “sandbox” on the competition platform, the award-winning CoderZ Cyber Robotics Learning Environment. The cloud-based platform features a graphical simulation of LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robots; users activate the virtual robot, or “cyber-robot,” in game-like “missions” and watch the results in a real-time simulation.
…
Organized by ISCEF, the Intelitek STEM and CTE Education Foundation, the national CRCC is the first-of-its-kind, online coding and robotics tournament for students in grades 5-8 that enables schools, districts, after-school programs and clubs to engage students in STEM learning.

Also see:

Cyber Robotics 101 Course

Bring Cyber Robotics into your classroom. Use the appeal of robotics and gaming to introduce all your students to coding

The solution empowers all students to learn STEM.
Students learn how to code and operate virtual robots guided by a step-by-step instruction and gamified missions completely online. No need for expensive hardware or specialized training.

CoderZ is classroom ready, designed for teachers, and school friendly. The courseware can be teacher-led, self-paced or used in flipped classroom.

Level: Middle School (5 – 8th Grade). No previous knowledge is needed.
Length: 15 hours of courseware and programming exercises

Give students an in depth look at STEM and cyber robotics using all the available teacher resources…

Coding Robots

Introduce students to the concepts of Robots and Code with CoderZ, an online learning environment for programming real and virtual robots.

The Robotics & Coding STEM Curriculum brings your students up to speed with code and robotics in no time. This 45 hour program will teach your students to solve STEM problems through code, using math and engineering to overcome challenges. CoderZ uses engaging simulation so students will have immediate life-like feedback and can work from any computer, even from home, making sure all students get to code their robot even when time and resources are limited.

The Coding Robots STEM Curriculum brings your students up to speed with code and robotics in no time. This 45 hour program will teach your students to solve STEM problems through code, using math and engineering to overcome challenges. CoderZ helps get teachers started with robotics and bring the interdisciplinary value of STEM into the classroom. CoderZ uses engaging simulation so students will have immediate life-like feedback and can work from any computer, in class or at home, making sure all students get to code their robot even when time and resources are limited.

Learning Robotics and Coding with CoderZ

CoderZ is an online STEM learning environment where students worldwide engage in Robotics and Computer Science Education (CSEd) by coding virtual 3D robots.

Pre-to-3: App uses medical model to screen for dyslexia [Jacobson]

On 10/11/2019, in assistive technologies, health, innovation, K-12 related, learning, neurodivergent/special needs, parents/guardians, student-related, teachers, tools, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

Pre-to-3: App uses medical model to screen for dyslexia — from educationdive.com by Linda Jacobson
?Children can administer the assessment themselves, and teachers get resources on how to respond if students are missing key literacy milestones.

Excerpt:

That’s why she wanted to provide educators with a screening instrument children can administer themselves, and one that provides strategies to help children when they miss key early literacy milestones in areas such as vocabulary, oral listening comprehension and phonological awareness.

The Boston Children’s Hospital Early Literacy Screening System is a 20-minute, game-based, adaptive app being piloted in 40 schools in nine states.

My Favorite Book about Teaching and Learning is…33 Books to Inspire You! — from linkedin.com by Barbi Honeycutt

Excerpt:

…I recently posted this fill-in-the-blank question to all of my social media pages:

My favorite book about teaching and learning is ______________.

The response has been fantastic! Professors, instructors, teachers, educators, and faculty development professionals from a variety of disciplines from around the world responded with their favorite book about teaching and learning.

I’ve compiled the list and here are the 33 books recommended by colleagues throughout my network (many books were recommended more than once).

Kansas City high schools add real-world learning — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark

Excerpt:

The good news is that more young people are graduating from high school than ever. The bad news? High school is often less relevant to them and their futures than ever.

The largest effort to make high school more valuable—to young people and their communities— is underway in the six-county two-state Kansas City metro area.

About 60 schools in 15 districts from Kansas and Missouri are spending this school year investigating ways they can make high school more valuable to young people by incorporating more real-world learning.

From DSC:
I know that by the end of his junior year, our son was so tired of having information crammed down his throat. He viewed so much of the content of his courses as irrelevant and unimportant. This year, he is immersed in what he wants to do — acting. And now he is soooooo much more motivated to learn and to grow now that he is able to pursue his passion.

From Jane Hart — the “Top 200 Tools for Learning 2019” is now published

On 09/18/2019, in adjunct faculty, Adobe, Apple, Asia, Australia, blogs / blogging / vlogging, Canada, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, Europe, faculty, global / globalization, Google, higher education, India, internet, IT in HE, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, media/film, Microsoft, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, platforms, podcasting, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, social learning / networks, social media, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, training / L&D, trends, UK, United States, universities, vendors, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Per Jane Hart on LinkedIn:

Top 200 Tools for Learning 2019 is now published, together with:

PLUS analysis of how these tools are being used in different context, new graphics, and updated comments on the tools’ pages that show how people are using the tools.

We need to invest in recess again!

On 09/14/2019, in attention, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, health, ideas, K-12 related, learning, motivation, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, youth, by Daniel Christian

The research is clear: If you want smart, healthy, well-rounded children it pays to invest in recess. pic.twitter.com/uvlkhXsXSU

— edutopia (@edutopia) September 14, 2019

Screen Mirroring, Screencasting and Screen Sharing in Higher Education [Rice]

On 09/12/2019, in A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, blended learning, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, face-to-face, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, IT in HE, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, participation, personalized/customized learning, platforms, podcasting, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, second screen apps, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, storytelling, streams of content, student-related, tablets, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, television, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Screen Mirroring, Screencasting and Screen Sharing in Higher Education — from edtechmagazine.com by Derek Rice
Digital learning platforms let students and professors interact through shared videos and documents.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Active learning, collaboration, personalization, flexibility and two-way communication are the main factors driving today’s modern classroom design.

Among the technologies being brought to bear in academic settings are those that enable screen mirroring, screencasting and screen sharing, often collectively referred to as wireless presentation solutions.

These technologies are often supported by a device and app that allow users, both students and professors, to easily share content on a larger screen in a classroom.

“The next best thing to a one-to-one conversation is to be able to share what the students create, as part of the homework or class activity, or communicate using media to provide video evidence of class activities and enhance and build out reading, writing, speaking, listening, language and other skills,” says Michael Volpe, marketing manager for IOGEAR.

‘The Dangers of Fluent Lectures’ — from insidehighered.com by Colleen Flaherty
A study says smooth-talking professors can lull students into thinking they’ve learned more than they actually have — potentially at the expense of active learning.

Excerpt:

The paper also provides important insight into why active learning hasn’t taken deeper root in academe, despite the many studies that have previously identified its effectiveness as compared to more passive approaches (namely the lecture). In a word: students. That is, while professors are often seen as the biggest impediments to innovative teaching, the study describes an “inherent student bias against active learning that can limit its effectiveness and may hinder the wide adoption of these methods.”

Compared with students in traditional lectures, students in active classes perceived that they learned less, while in reality they learned more. Students also rated the quality of instruction in passive lectures more highly, and expressed a preference to have “all of their physics classes taught this way,” despite their lower test scores.
…
In some ways, he said, “the study confirms what we have suspected anecdotally for a long time — that students feel more comfortable in a lecture environment and believe that they are learning more because of the expectations they have for a college learning environment.” But, in fact, he said, they’re “actually learning more in the environments where they are actively engaged in building knowledge about key concepts.”

From DSC:
The part about the students feeling more comfortable in a lecture environment and believing that they are learning more reminded me of this research/paper (which the graphics below reference and link to as well), where they mention the practices of highlighting and re-reading some text. Students feel like they are really learning the content more thoroughly when they are doing these things (and this is what I did in college as well). But the evidence shows that the utility of these methods is low. Instead, practice testing — which involves retrieval practice, as well as distributed practice and interleaved practice produce stronger results.

So what students feel and what’s actually occurring can be different…as Colleen’s article from insidehighered.com points out.

That said — and as the article asserted as well — is that some lecturing is fine to do:

At the same time, Eyler stressed that existing literature shows that some limited lecturing is “definitely OK,” as “students need to know content in order to engage in higher order thinking.”

Addendum on 9/14/19:

Just because students perceive you to be a better teacher doesn't mean they are necessarily learning more.

"Meta-analysis of faculty's teaching effectiveness: Student evaluation of teaching ratings & student learning are not related" https://t.co/GKblnrddqu
#higherEd

— Dr. Alec Couros (@courosa) September 14, 2019

Lessons in learning — from news.harvard.edu by Peter Reuell; with thanks to Jason Findley for this resource out on Twitter
Study shows students in ‘active learning’ classrooms learn more than they think

Excerpts:

The question of whether students’ perceptions of their learning matches with how well they’re actually learning is particularly important, Deslauriers said, because while students eventually see the value of active learning, initially it can feel frustrating.

“Deep learning is hard work. The effort involved in active learning can be misinterpreted as a sign of poor learning,” he said. “On the other hand, a superstar lecturer can explain things in such a way as to make students feel like they are learning more than they actually are.”
…
When the results were tallied, the authors found that students felt as if they learned more from the lectures, but in fact scored higher on tests following the active learning sessions. “Actual learning and feeling of learning were strongly anticorrelated,” Deslauriers said, “as shown through the robust statistical analysis by co-author Kelly Miller, who is an expert in educational statistics and active learning.”

A quick tip from RetrievalPractice.org’s e-newsletter today:

#1: Remember your lesson plan with a 1-minute reflection
Can’t remember how a lesson from last semester or last year went? On the bottom or back of a lesson plan, include two questions:

What went well? What should I do differently next time?

As soon as you’re done with the lesson, take just one minute to write down a note to your future self. Stuff all your lesson plans/reflections into a folder. The next time you teach the lesson, future-you will be glad that past-you retrieved!

6 basic Youtube tips everyone should know — from hongkiat.com by Kelvon Yeezy

Example tips:

1. Share video starting at a specific point . <– A brief insert from DSC: This is especially helpful to teachers, trainers, and professors
If you want to share a YouTube video in a way that it starts from a certain point, you can do so in a couple of simple steps.

Just pause the video at the point from where you want the other user to start watching it and right-click on the video screen. A menu will appear from which you can choose Copy video URL at the current time. The copied link will open the video starting from that specific time.

4. More accurate video search
There are millions of videos on Youtube. So trying to find that specific Youtube video you want to watch is an adventure in itself. In this quest, you might find yourself crawling through dozens of pages hoping to find the video you actually want to watch.

If you don’t want to go through all this hassle, then simply add allintitle: before the keywords you are using to search for the video. This basically gives you only those videos that include the chosen keywords.

This online learning thing…it just keeps getting bigger.

On 08/14/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, internet, K-12 related, online learning, online media, online tutoring, student-related, teachers, teaching online, web-based collaboration, youth, by Daniel Christian

Disrupting Education. The Rise Of K-12 Online And The Entrepreneurial Opportunities — from forbes.com by Bernhard Schroeder

Excerpt:

Online learning, once reserved for higher education, is now a growing trend among K-12 students nationwide. Over 2.7 million students across the United States are taking part in digital learning, and many students in grades K-12 are getting a high-quality education online through a full-time online public school.

Also related/see:

Is Online Learning the Electric Car of Higher Ed? — from insidehighered.com by Joshua Kim
Will colleges and universities follow the same path as GM and VW?

Online learning has the potential to be both high quality and significantly less expensive than its residential counterpart.

Some basic HTML tips for when your LMS makes you nuts — from busynessgirl.com by Maria Andersen

Excerpt:

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language; it is the computer code of web pages.

Many editors in blogs, wikis, online learning systems like Canvas, Brightspace, Moodle, and Blackboard have WYSIWYG editors. WYSIWYG stands for “what you see is what you get.”

Most digital editors have an icon panel at the top with standard formatting tools. The location of the tools varies slightly from platform to platform (a few examples from common Learning Management Systems, or LMS’s, are below).

In most online editors, there is an option to switch back and forth from WYSIWYG to HTML. When you are trying to get a page to look just right and it’s not behaving, you might need to go make a few simple tweaks to the HTML. Just knowing that there is HTML code behind each page, and the basics of how it works will be helpful to figuring out why formatting is not “sticking” properly in the WYSIWYG editor.

You can go to PracticeBoard to practice some of the HTML in this post.

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