teachers

DC: We should change the color of the ink that we use to grade papers from red to green!

On 04/28/2018, in assessment, Daniel S. Christian, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, K-12 related, learning, love of learning, mathematics, science, society, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, virtual K-12 schools, visualizing information, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I vote that we change the color that we grade papers — whether on paper (harcopy) or whether via digitally/electronically-based annotations — from red to green. Why? Because here’s how I see the colors:

RED:
- Failure.
- You got it wrong. Bad job.
- Danger
- Stop!
- Can be internalized as, “I’m no good at (writing, math, social studies, science, etc…..) and I’ll never be any good at it (i.e., the fixed mindset; I was born this way and I can’t change things).
GREEN:
- Growth
  - As in spring, flowers appearing, new leaves on the trees, new life
  - As in support of a growth mindset
  - It helps with more positive thoughts/internalized messages: I may have got it wrong, but I can use this as a teaching moment; this feedback helps me grow…it helps me identify my knowledge and/or skills gaps
- Health
- Go (not stop); i.e., keep going, keep learning
- May help develop more of a love of learning (or at least have more positive experiences with learning, vs feeling threatened or personally put down)

DC: An excellent article! How true. | “The problem with hurrying childhood learning” by Justin Minkel

On 04/28/2018, in accessibility / UDL, assessment, K-12 related, love of learning, neurodivergent/special needs, pace of change, pedagogy, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

The problem with hurrying childhood learning — from edweek.org by Justin Minkel

Excerpts:

When he lectured in the United States, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget would invariably get what he called “the American question” from a member of the audience. After he had explained various developmental phases that young children go through in their understanding of concepts like length and volume, someone would raise their hand and ask, “How can we accelerate a child’s progress through the stages?”

Baffled, Piaget would explain that there is absolutely no advantage to speeding up a child’s progression. The point of knowing the stages is to be aware of what stage a child is in, so that we can create the conditions and offer the guidance to help her move to the next one. It’s not a race.

One of the most insidious results of the testing madness afflicting education has been an emphasis on speeding toward a particular outcome—a reading level, a cut score—without taking the time to ask what is sacrificed in that rush.

We need, of course, to pay attention to academic growth. It’s one thing for a child to be below grade-level or to be on a trajectory toward catching up over the next couple of years. It’s a fundamentally different situation when a child is virtually flat-lining in his progress, or is making such slow growth that if he continues at that rate, he won’t become a proficient reader in time to acquire the content and confidence he’ll need to thrive in school.

But I see too many kids who are hurried and harried toward the level they’re “supposed” to be on by the end of a given grading period, with too little attention given to the path they’re walking to get there. I see children begin to define themselves by test scores, grades, and how quickly they’re leapfrogging from one level to the next.

Here are two ways that teachers, parents, and administrators can take a deep breath and see past the timetables set by adults to the particular journeys of the children themselves.

But here’s the critical point about their progress: that growth is a positive side effect, not the end goal, of the block of time we call the “Wild Reading Rumpus.” The true purpose of that reading time is for my students to come to love reading, so that they will lead richer lives—not just in the future, when they go on to college or a career, but in the present.

When we celebrated their perseverance and hard work, I had children stand and be applauded not according to how high their score was, but according to how much growth they had made.

From DSC:
I just thought this was an excellent essay.

Too often K-12 education in the United States is like a run-away train. When the train’s leaving the station, you better hop on board. It waits for no one. Its speed is set. You better keep up. Good luck to those who don’t. “Best wishes!” our system cries out.

“Pixar co-founder teleported live into a virtual classroom with students in Slough (UK)” + 3 other items re: XR

On 04/25/2018, in A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, Augmented Reality (AR), digital storytelling, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, interactivity, K-12 related, story, storytelling, student-related, teachers, tools, UK, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Pixar co-founder teleported live into a virtual classroom with students in Slough — from pressreleases.responsesource.com
Game-changing ENGAGE platform beams in the best teachers from around the world.

Excerpt:

25 April 2018: Today, the boring classroom lesson finally gets consigned to the history books when technology pioneers, Immersive VR Education, beam experts from California and Dubai into a virtual classroom to teach students at Langley College near Slough, via a short trip to the moon.

Pixar co-founder, Loren Carpenter, will be ‘beamed’ in to the virtual reality (VR) classroom live from the US so that IT and gaming students at Langley College, part of the Windsor Forest Colleges Group, can learn from one of the founding fathers of computer programming for animation and film.

David Whelan, CEO of Immersive VR Education, says, “This is a pivotal moment in the history of learning. ENGAGE allows students to not only experience the environment they are learning about in virtual reality, but have the best teachers from around the globe join them in a virtual classroom.”

Unleash the Power of Storytelling With These New AR and VR Tools — from edsurge.com by Jaime Donally

Excerpt:

A compelling use for using immersive technology, like augmented and virtual reality, is learning through storytelling. Stories are a powerful way to deliver meaningful and relevant content. The learning is heightened when paired with a story that penetrates the heart of the student. Let’s explore some of the newest and best tools out there and see if we can’t get students to create their happily ever after.

Amazon Embraces AR and VR With Sumerian Platform — from vrfocus.com by Rebecca Hills-Duty
Amazon is developing a new platform for creating VR and AR apps as part of Amazon Web Services.

Excerpt:

Amazon is no stranger to changing company direction and expanding into new markets. Starting out as an online bookstore, Amazon is now one of the giants of technology, with fingers in almost every conceivable pie. Small wonder, then, that the company is working towards a new platform for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

The platform has been named Sumerian, and is designed to be an all-in-one development platform for the building for VR and AR apps for both smartphones and VR headsets, and eventually, VR and AR apps that can run direct from the web browser.

You AR what you eat — augmented reality menus are coming to Snapchat — from digitaltrends.com by Hillary Grigonis

Excerpt:

The smells wafting from the kitchen, a crinkled and torn paper menu, and the fleeting glimpses of orders the waiter is deftly balancing on his way to another table may no longer be the only ways to preview what you eat at a restaurant. Start-up Kabaq is aiming to bring the next big technology-influenced change for restaurants and foodies since Instagram sparked a surge in food photography: an augmented reality menu.

Burger chain Bareburger will be among the first restaurants to allow customers to see their meal right in front of them — before ever placing an order.

From DSC:
As important as being able to effectively communicate with others is, I think we could do a better job throughout the entire learning continuum of proving more coaching in this regard. We should provide far more courses, and/or e-learning based modules, and/or examples where someone is being coached on how best to communicate in a variety of situations.

Some examples/scenarios along the continuum (i.e, pre-K-12, higher ed and/or vocational work, and the workplace) might include:

For children communicating with each other
- How to ask if someone wants to play (and how best to find an activity everyone wants to do; or how to handle getting a no each time)
- How to handle a situation where one’s friend is really angry about something or is being extra quiet about something
- How to listen
For children communicating with adults (and vice versa)
- How to show respect
- How to listen
- Not being shy but feeling free to say what’s on their mind with a known/respected adult
For highschoolers
- Wondering how best to interview for that new job
- For communicating with parents
- How to handle issues surrounding diversity and showing respect for differences
- How to listen
For college students
- Wondering how best to interview for that new job
- Encouraging them to use their professors’ office hours — and to practice communication-related skills therein as well
- For communicating with parents, and vice versa
- How to listen
For those entering the workplace
- How to communicate with co-workers
- For dealing with customers who are irate about something that happened (or didn’t happen) to them
- How to listen
For managers and their communications with their employees
- How to encourage
- How to handle disciplinary issues or change behaviors
- How to listen
For leaders and their communications with their departments, staffs, companies, organizations
- How to inspire, guide, lead
- How to listen

I intentionally inserted the word listen many times in the above scenarios, as I don’t think we do enough about — or even think about — actively developing that skill.

The manner in which we deliver and engage learners here could vary:

One possible way would be to use interactive videos that pause at critical points within conversations and ask the listeners how they would respond at these points in the scenarios. They might have 2-3 choices per decision point. When the video continues, based upon which selection they went with, the learner could see how things panned out when they pursued that route.
Or perhaps we could host some seminars or workshops with students on how to use web-based collaboration tools (videoconferencing and/or audio only based meetings) and/or social media related tools.
Or perhaps such training could occur in more face-to-face environments with 2 or more learners reading a scene-setting script, then pausing at critical points in the conversation for students to discuss the best possible responses
….and I’m sure there are other methods that could be employed as well.

But for all the talk of the importance of communications, are we doing enough to provide effective examples/coaching here?

Some thoughts on this topic from scripture

James 1:19-20 (NIV)
Listening and Doing
19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

Proverbs 21:23 (NIV)
23 Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity.

Proverbs 18:20-21 (NIV)
20 From the fruit of their mouth a person’s stomach is filled; with the harvest of their lips they are satisfied. 21 The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 12:18-19 (NIV)
18 The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. 19 Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.

50 animation tools and resources for digital learners [Chesser]

On 04/23/2018, in animation, art, Australia, creativity, design, digital learning, digital storytelling, education technology, engagement / engaging students, homeschooling/homeschoolers, K-12 related, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, by Daniel Christian

50 animation tools and resources for digital learners — from teachthought.com by Lisa Chesser, opencolleges.edu.au

Excerpt:

Some of the animation links cataloged here will give educators very basic tools and histories of animation while others have the animation already created and set in motion, it’s just a matter of sharing it with students. 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.

Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning— by Peter C. Brown, Henry L Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel

Some of the key points and learning strategies they mention in the preface:

The most effective learning strategies are not intuitive
Spaced repetition of key ideas and the interleaving of different but related topics are two excellent teaching/learning strategies

Some the key points and learning strategies they mention in the first chapter:

When they talk about learning they mean acquiring knowledge and skills and having them readily available from memory so you can make sense of future problems and opportunities.
There are some immutable aspects of learning that we can probably all agree on:
1. To be useful, learning requires memory, so what we’ve learned is till there later when we need it.
2. We need to keep learning and remembering all our lives.
3. Learning is an acquired skill and most effective strategies are counterintuitive
Learning is deeper and more durable when it’s effortful
We are poor judges of when we are learning well and when we’re not
Rereading text and massed practice (i.e., cramming) of a skill or new knowledge are by far the preferred study strategies of learners of all stripes, but they”re also among the least productive. Rereading and cramming give rise to feeling of fluency that are taken to be signs of mastery, but for true mastery or durability these strategies are largely a waste of time.
Retrieval practice — recalling facts or concepts or events from memory — is a more effective learning strategy than reviewing by rereading
- Flashcards are a simple example
- Retrieval strengthens the memory and interrupts forgetting
- A single simple quiz after reading a text or hearing a lecture produces better learning and remembering that rereading the text of reviewing lecture notes.
Periodic practice arrest forgetting, strengthens retrieval routes, and is essential for hanging onto the knowledge you want to gain.
Space out practice and interleave the practice of 2 or more subjects, retrieval is harder and feels less productive, but the effort produces longer lasting learning and enables more versatile application of it in later settings.
Trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution leads to better learning, even when errors are made in the attempt.
Learning styles are not supported by the empirical research.
When you’re adept at extracting the underlying principles or “rules” that differentiate types of problems, you’re more successful at picking the right solutions in unfamiliar situations. This skill is better acquired through interleaved and varied practice than massed practice.
In virtually all areas of learning, you build better mastery when you use testing as a tool to identify and bring up your areas of weakness.
All learning requires a foundation of prior knowledge.

If you practice elaboration, there’s no known limit to how much you can learn. Elaboration is the process of giving new material meaning by expressing it in your own words and connecting it with what you already know. The more you can explain about the way your new learning relates to your prior knowledge, the stronger your grasp of the new learning will be, and the more connections you create that will help you remember it later.***

“When learning is hard, you’re doing important work.”

“Making mistakes and correcting them builds the bridges to advanced learning.”

Learning is stronger when it matters.^^^

One of the most striking research findings is the power of active retrieval — testing — to strengthen memory, and the more effortful the retrieval, the stronger the benefit.
.
The act of retrieving learning from memory has 2 profound benefits:
1. It tells you what you know and don’t know, and therefore where to focus further study
2. Recalling what you have learned causes your brain to re-consolidate the memory
  .
To learn better and remember longer, [use]:
- various forms of retrieval practice, such as low-stakes quizzing and self-testing
- spacing out practice
- interleaving the practice of different but related topics or skills
- trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution
- and distilling the underlying principles or rules that differentiate types of problems

One of the best habits a learner can instill in herself is regular self-quizzing to recalibrate her understanding of what she does and does not know.

Brown, P. C., Roediger III, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014).
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning.
Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013

*** This quote reminds me of what turned Quin Schultze’ learning around. With Quin’s permission, the following excerpt is from Quentin Schultze’s solid book, Communicate like a True Leader (pages 35 & 36)

During the beginning of my sophomore year, I started reviewing each day’s class notes after classes were over. I soon realized how little I recalled even of that day’s lectures and discussions. It dawned on me that normal note-taking merely gave me the impression that I was learning. I implemented a strategy that revolutionized my learning, launched me successfully into graduate school, helped me become a solid teacher, equipped me to be a productive researcher-writer, and made it possible for me to be an engaging speaker.

I not only reviewed my notes daily. I rewrote them from scratch within a couple of hours of each class meeting. I used my actual course notes as prompts to recall more of the lecture and to help me organize my own reactions to the material. My notes expanded. My retention swelled.

My revised notes became a kind of journal of my dialogue with the instructor and the readings. I integrated into my revised course notes my daily reading notes, reworking them into language that was meaningful to me and preparing to ask the instructor at the next class anything that I was uncertain about. From then on I earned nearly straight A’s with far less cramming for exams.

Moreover, I had begun journaling about my learning — one of the most important communication skills. I became a real learner by discovering how to pay attention to others and myself.

In a broad sense, I learned how to listen.

^^^ This quote explains why it is so important to answer the first question a learner asks when approaching a new lesson/topic/lecture/etc.:

Why is this topic relevant?
i.e., why is this topic important and worthy of my time to learn it?

Version 3 of the flipped classroom: We need to keep things simple (if possible). The more complex something is, the less adoption it will have.

On 04/17/2018, in adjunct faculty, blended learning, faculty, flipping -- inverted learning, higher education, hybrid learning, ideas, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, pedagogy, teachers, teaching & learning, training / L&D, universities, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
The simpler something is, the greater chance that it will be adopted. Think of HTML and how simple it was years ago for people to create and post their own web pages. I would argue that it was that level of simplicity that lead to the explosive growth of the World Wide Web.

So when we look at what the term “flipped learning” or the “flipped classroom” is all about these days, I think we need to be careful that things don’t get too complex. Consider the growing complexity of the flipped classroom out at http://flr.flglobal.org/?p=417

Version 1.0 was easy to understand and therefore to implement. But Version 3.0 looks far less clear as to what we’re even talking about now. We need to find ways to keep it simple, if that’s possible. I realize that teaching and learning is messy, so I’m not sure it’s always possible to practice the KISS principle when we’re talking about pedagogies. But if we don’t try, we’ll have a harder time getting adoption in the future — because Instructional Designers, Teachers, Trainers, and Professors won’t even know what we’re talking about.

Robert Talbert gets at some of this too in his posting entitled, “Four challenges for flipped learning for the next five years.” Below is an excerpt from that posting:

1. Build a standard operational definition of flipped learning.
One of the biggest challenges facing flipped learning is simply defining what it is. Several competing definitions, all with some overlap but also with nagging differences, are in use today, and this is making it all but impossible to conduct or interpret research on flipped learning or practice it with students. It’s to the point that if you hear an instructor say she uses “flipped learning”, you have to dig deeper to know what she really means.

So as the first challenge, and as a prerequisite to the others, I propose that somehow, we all come up with an operational definition of flipped learning that can serve as the standard for research and practice. I’ve already proposed my own. I’m not saying this should be the standard, but I think something like this could be the starting point. How will “we” decide on a standard, and who’s the “we”? I don’t know, but I think it will involve some group of people a high profile to lead the discussion and decide on one, and then start using it and labeling it as “the standard definition”.

Can other people use models of flipped learning, such as the in-class flipped model, that don’t conform to a standard definition? Sure. Who’s going to stop them? But we need a starting point

FLGI Publishes the Top 100 Educators Leading Flipped Learning in 2018 [flglobal.org]

On 04/16/2018, in blended learning, digital learning, education technology, flipping -- inverted learning, hybrid learning, K-12 related, pedagogy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, by Daniel Christian

FLGI Publishes the Top 100 Educators Leading Flipped Learning in 2018
The Flipped Learning Global Initiative identifies the movement’s leading educators, administrators, and technologists worldwide

CHICAGO, April 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Today, the Flipped Learning Global Initiative (FLGI), a worldwide coalition of educators, researchers, technologists, professional development providers and education leaders, announced the publication of the FLGI 100. The annual list identifies the top 100 K-12 educators who are driving the adoption of the flipped classroom around the world. The list is compiled by the FLGI executive committee – led by Jon Bergmann, Chief Academic Officer and one of the pioneers of the flipped classroom movement. Educators from around the globe are represented, including Flipped Learning practitioners from Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, China, Taiwan, Spain, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Italy, Korea, Argentina, Iceland, Sweden, India and the United States. FLGI also identified the top 50 Flipped Learning leaders in higher education and the top 50 Flipped Learning administrators and tech coaches worldwide.

“The global Flipped Learning community continues to grow, introducing us to fresh ideas, new innovations, and emerging leaders. The 2018 FLGI Flipped Learning leaders lists include veterans from prior years, and many new names and faces. The FLGI 100 list, along with the two FLGI 50 lists, represent the practitioners who are showing us the connection between Flipped Learning, active learning, and world-class learners,” said Jon Bergmann.

The FLGI Flipped Learning leaders lists are updated annually, and all three lists are published in the April issue of Flipped Learning Review (FLR): the Flipped Learning 3.0 magazine. FLR is the first digital magazine dedicated to covering the ideas and people driving the global Flipped Learning movement. The issue features an insightful interview with one of the leading voices in the Flipped Learning community: Dr. Eric Mazur at Harvard University. Bergmann and Mazur discuss how Flipped Learning has evolved over the last decade and why group space mastery is the next frontier for this instructional model. The April issue also includes the full list of global delegates participating in the project to establish international standards for Flipped Learning. The 2018 FLGI 100 list, the Bergmann/Mazur interview, and the global delegates lists are accessible at http://flr.flglobal.org/

About the Flipped Learning Global Initiative
The Flipped Learning Global Initiative, (FLGI), was created to support the rapidly expanding adoption of Flipped Learning all over the world in countries including China, Taiwan, Spain, UAE, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Italy, Korea, Argentina, Iceland, Sweden, India and the United States. FLGI aims to fill the growing global need for collaboration across borders in three domains: evolving best practices in Flipped Learning, research curation and distribution, and technology selection and implementation.

FLGI serves as a global hub for coordinating, orchestrating and scaling the key elements required to expand Flipped Learning successfully around the world. FLGI is home to the Flipped Learning International Faculty, the Flipped Learning Innovation Center, the Flipped Learning Global Standards project, and Flipped Learning Review (FLR).

For more information, contact: Errol St.Clair Smith, Director of Global Development at 949-677-7381, 193454@email4pr.com or go to www.flglobal.org.

Also see this page, which states:

On Monday, April 16, 2018 The Flipped Learning Global Initiative (FLGI) will publish the 2018 FLGI 100. The annual list identifies the top 100 K-12 educators who are driving the adoption of Flipped Learning around the world. The list is compiled by the FLGI executive committee, led by Jon Bergmann, Chief Academic Officer. Educators from around the globe are represented, including Flipped Learning practitioners from Italy, China, Taiwan, Spain, UAE, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Italy, Korea, Argentina, Iceland, Sweden, India, and the United States. The initiative also identified the top 50 Flipped Learning leaders in higher education and the top 50 Flipped Learning administrators and tech coaches.

Students are being prepared for jobs that no longer exist. Here’s how that could change. — from nbcnews.com by Sarah Gonser, The Hechinger Report
As automation disrupts the labor market and good middle-class jobs disappear, schools are struggling to equip students with future-proof skills.

Excerpts:

In many ways, the future of Lowell, once the largest textile manufacturing hub in the United States, is tied to the success of students like Ben Lara. Like many cities across America, Lowell is struggling to find its economic footing as millions of blue-collar jobs in manufacturing, construction and transportation disappear, subject to offshoring and automation.

The jobs that once kept the city prosperous are being replaced by skilled jobs in service sectors such as health care, finance and information technology — positions that require more education than just a high-school diploma, thus squeezing out many of those blue-collar, traditionally middle-class workers.

As emerging technologies rapidly and thoroughly transform the workplace, some experts predict that by 2030 400 million to 800 million people worldwide could be displaced and need to find new jobs. The ability to adapt and quickly acquire new skills will become a necessity for survival.

“We’re preparing kids for these jobs of tomorrow, but we really don’t even know what they are,” said Amy McLeod, the school’s director of curriculum, instruction and assessment. “It’s almost like we’re doing this with blinders on. … We’re doing all we can to give them the finite skills, the computer languages, the programming, but technology is expanding so rapidly, we almost can’t keep up.”

For students like Amber, who would rather do just about anything but go to school, the Pathways program serves another function: It makes learning engaging, maybe even fun, and possibly keeps her in school and on track to graduate.

“I think we’re turning kids off to learning in this country by putting them in rows and giving them multiple-choice tests — the compliance model,” McLeod said. “But my hope is that in the pathways courses, we’re teaching them to love learning. And they’re learning about options in the field — there’s plenty of options for kids to try here.”

VR Lab! — from thejournal.com by Joshua Bolkan

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

When Tampa Preparatory School launched decided to turn a closet into a virtual reality lab, they had no idea how far their students would run with the tools, but that’s exactly what they did, sitting down to build their own educational apps to help visualize concepts in astronomy, chemistry and physics. In addition to the educational apps, built by students on their own initiative, the VR lab is also used for art classes and more.

Chad Lewis, director of technology at Tampa Prep, recently sat down with THE Journal to talk about the school’s experience with VR as an educational tool.

Tell me a little about having students design their own VR apps. Are there any benefits to it that surprised you?

Chad Lewis: Some surprising benefits included branching out beyond computer science into areas like chemistry and physics. This is an example of the amazing things students can do if given the opportunity to pursue their passions. They need time, space and resources as well as support and encouragement.

The main thing is that they’re learning coding, 3D modeling, game development, collaboration, design thinking, etc.

In the process, one of our computer science students came up to me and said, “Mr. Lewis do you mind if I try to create some virtual reality apps using Unity?” and it really took off from there. The lab was a student-driven initiative.

From DSC:
This application looks to be very well done and thought out! Wow!

Check out the video entitled “Interactive Ink – Enables digital handwriting“ — and you may also wonder whether this could be a great medium/method of having to “write things down” for better information processing in our minds, while also producing digital work for easier distribution and sharing!

Wow! Talk about solid user experience design and interface design! Nicely done.

Below is an excerpt of the information from Bella Pietsch from anthonyBarnum Public Relations

Imagine a world where users interact with their digital devices seamlessly, and don’t suffer from lag and delayed response time. I work with MyScript, a company whose Interactive Ink tech creates that world of seamless handwritten interactivity by combining the flexibility of pen and paper with the power and productivity of digital processing.

According to a recent forecast, the global handwriting recognition market is valued at a trillion-plus dollars and is expected to grow at an almost 16 percent compound annual growth rate by 2025. To add additional context, the new affordable iPad with stylus support was just released, allowing users to work with the $99 Apple Pencil, which was previously only supported by the iPad Pro.

Check out the demo of Interactive Ink using an Apple Pencil, Microsoft Surface Pen, Samsung S Pen or Google Pixelbook Pen here.

Interactive Ink’s proficiencies are the future of writing and equating. Developed by MyScript Labs, Interactive Ink is a form of digital ink technology which allows ink editing via simple gestures and providing device reflow flexibility. Interactive Ink relies on real-time predictive handwriting recognition, driven by artificial intelligence and neural network architectures.

Pros and Cons of Virtual Reality in the Classroom — from chronicle.com by Adam Evans

Excerpt:

Armed with a lifelong affinity for video games and a $6,000 faculty teaching grant, I have spent the past 15 months working on a pilot project to illustrate the value of using virtual reality in the classroom. My goal is to convince fellow faculty members and administrators at Transylvania University, where I teach business administration, that VR can offer today’s tech-savvy students exciting opportunities to solve problems in new ways.

When I set up in-office demos for peers and students, they said they could not believe how immersive the technology felt. Expecting just another digital video game, they stepped into a dress rehearsal of the original Broadway cast of Hamilton or found themselves competing in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

There are major differences between virtual and augmented reality. The latter, which is less expensive to produce and already more prolific, is created by adding a digital element to the real world, such as a hologram one can view through a smartphone. Popular examples of this would be the Pokémon Go or the new Jurassic World Alive apps, which allow smartphone users to to find virtual characters that appear in physical locations. Users are still aware of the real space around them.

In contrast, virtual reality places the user inside a digitized world for a fully immersive experience. It generally costs more to design and typically requires more-expensive equipment, such as a full headset.

10 very cool augmented reality apps (that aren’t design or shopping tools) — from androidpolice.com by Taylor Kerns

Excerpt:

Augmented reality is having a moment on Android. Thanks to ARCore, which now works on more than a dozen device models—Google says that’s more than 100 million individual devices—we’ve seen a ton of new applications that insert virtual objects into our real surroundings. A lot of them are shopping and interior design apps, which makes sense—AR’s ability to make items appear in your home is a great way to see what a couch looks like in your living room without actually lugging it in there. But AR can do so much more. Here are 10 augmented reality apps that are useful, fascinating, or just plain cool.

The Wild and Amazing World of Augmented Reality — from askatechteacher.com by Jacqui Murray

Excerpt:

10 Ways to Use AR in the Classroom
I collected the best ways to use AR in the classroom from colleagues and edtech websites (like Edutopia) to provide a good overview of the depth and breadth of education now being addressed with AR-infused projects:

Book Reviews: Students record themselves giving a brief review of a novel that they just finished, and then attach digital information to a book. Afterward, anyone can scan the cover of the book and instantly access the review.
Classroom tour: Make a class picture image trigger a virtual tour of a classroom augmented reality
Faculty Photos: Display faculty photos where visitors can scan the image of an instructor and see it come to life with their background
Homework Mini-Lessons: Students scan homework to reveal information to help them solve a problem
Lab Safety: Put triggers around a science laboratory that students can scan to learn safety procedures
Parent Involvement: Record parents encouraging their child and attach a trigger image to the child’s desk
Requests: Trigger to a Google Form to request time with the teacher, librarian, or another professional
Sign Language Flashcards: Create flashcards that contain a video overlay showing how to sign a word or phrase
Word Walls: Students record themselves defining vocabulary words. Classmates scan them to get definitions and sentences using the word
Yearbooks: So many ways, just know AR will energize any yearbook

AR is the next great disruptive force in education. If your goal is to create lifelong learners inspired by knowledge, AR, in its infancy, holds the seeds for meeting that goal.

YouAR Out Of Stealth With AR Cloud Breakthrough — from forbes.com by Charlie Fink

Excerpt:

YouAR, of Portland, OR, is coming out of stealth with a product that addresses some of the most vexing problems in AR, including convergent cross-platform computer vision (real-time interaction between ARKit and ARCore devices), interactivity of multiple AR apps in the same location across devices, real-time scene mapping, geometric occlusion of digital objects, localization of devices beyond GPS (the AR Cloud), and the bundle drop of digital assets into remote locations. Together, this represents a heretofore unheard of stack of AR and computer vision features we have yet to see in AR, and could revolutionize the development of new apps.

12 Good Augmented Reality Apps to Use in Your Instruction — from educatorstechnology.com

Excerpt:

Augmented reality technologies are transforming the way we live, learn and interact with each other. They are creating limitless learning possibilities and are empowering learners with the required know-how to get immersed in meaningful learning experiences. We have already reviewed several educational AR tools and apps and have also shared this collection of excellent TED talks on the educational potential of AR technologies. Drawing on these resources together with EdSurge list, we have prepared for you this updated collection of some of the best AR apps to use in your instruction. You may want to go through them and see which ones work for you.

eXtended Reality (XR): How AR, VR, and MR are Extending Learning Opportunities | Resource list from educause

Innovative classroom furnishings encourage creativity and collaboration [Harper]

On 04/07/2018, in active learning, art, collaboration, creativity, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, smart classrooms, teachers, teaching & learning, youth, by Daniel Christian

Innovative classroom furnishings encourage creativity and collaboration — from educationdive.com by Amelia Harper

Dive Brief:

Teachers in Long Island’s Baldwin Schools have been invited to apply for funds to redesign their classroom space as a way to encourage innovation and are reinvigorating their own personal teaching styles along the way, according to The Hechinger Report.
Ann Marie Lynam, a middle school teacher who works with students ranging from those with special needs students to the academically advanced, finds that a multifunction, mobile classroom with a variety of comfortable seating options has forced her to become more innovative in her teaching style and encourages collaborative efforts that rely more on conversation and less on technology.
Tricia Wilder, a kindergarten teacher at a nearby school, redesigned her space with flexible seating and a “theater nook” that encourages creative play and has also added more technology to the classroom to facilitate individualized instruction.

“Augmented & Virtual Reality in Education” + “Blockchain Essentials in Education” — upcoming events at ORU

On 04/04/2018, in A/V -- audio/visual, accessibility / UDL, Augmented Reality (AR), Blockchain, education, education technology, emerging technologies, neurodivergent/special needs, platforms, student-related, teachers, tools, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Augmented & Virtual Reality in Education
May 17th, 2018
In partnership with Oral Roberts University
Tulsa, OK

Description:

Over the past 12 months, Augmented and Virtual Reality technology has advanced in all sectors – with applications revolutionizing the interactions between human and machine, and humans and virtual reality. In education in particular, AR and VR applications are rapidly changing the way we are learning, providing experiential learning by simulating real-world environments. AR and VR increases student engagement levels, and provides insights into what they will experience in various environments when they enter the workforce. The technology is particularly interesting for visual learners and students with learning challenges – providing alternatives to more traditional teaching methods.

A recent study shows that “93 percent of teachers say their students would be excited to use virtual reality and 83 percent say that virtual reality might help improve learning outcomes.”

Oral Roberts University and the Education Conference Network are pleased to partner on this exciting event – held at Oral Roberts University’s Global Learning Center, which is a world innovator and leader in AR/VR learning. The conference will provide delegates with a great opportunity to interact with the latest technologies, and see how they can be integrated within curriculum.

Also see:

Blockchain Essentials in Education
May 16th, 2018
In partnership with Oral Roberts University
Tulsa, OK

Description:

The Blockchain in Education Conference will enable education professionals to understand how blockchain technology such as cryptocurrency, smart contracts, distributed databases, and public ledgers are, and will continue to transform their sector. We are now seeing start-ups focusing on blockchain – whilst existing technology businesses are integrating blockchain technology into their overall offerings – building pilots and working with customers to develop roadmaps forward. The first blockchain was theorized by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 and applied the following year as a key component of the digital currency bitcoin, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. A secure public ledger concept can be applied to almost all aspects of doing business whilst removing slow and outdated workflows. Using a peer-to-peer network and a distributed timestamping server, a blockchain database can be managed autonomously. Blockchain is the future business model of supply chain and can be applied to the entire education value chain. Are you ready to harness the capabilities of blockchain technology in education?

“AI Helps Figure Out Where Students Go Wrong on Math Problems” [Bolkan]

On 04/03/2018, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, mathematics, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, teachers, by Daniel Christian

AI Helps Figure Out Where Students Go Wrong on Math Problems — from steamuniverse.com by Joshua Bolkan

Excerpt:

Researchers at Cornell University are working on software that will help math teachers understand what their students were thinking that led them to finding incorrect answers.

Erik Andersen, assistant professor of computer science at Cornell, said that teachers spend a lot of time grading math homework because grading is more complicated than just marking an answer as right or wrong.

“What the teachers are spending a lot of time doing is assigning partial credit and working individually to figure out what students are doing wrong,” Andersen said in a prepared statement. “We envision a future in which educators spend less time trying to reconstruct what their students are thinking and more time working directly with their students.”

Also see:

Automatic Diagnosis of Students’ Misconceptions in K-8 Mathematics — by Molly Q Feldman, Ji Yong Cho, Monica Ong, Sumit Gulwani, Zoran Popovi?, & Erik Andersen

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