Best Month Of Code 2020 Coding Kit Products — from techlearning.com by Luke Edwards
The best kits to get the most out of the Month of Code 2020
On 11/29/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, animation, art, attention, collaboration, content development, aggregation, repositories, Daniel S. Christian, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, Google, graphics, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, interactivity, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, love of learning, mathematics, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, neurodivergent/special needs, online learning, online media, parents/guardians, platforms, professional development, reading, remote teaching and learning, science, STEAM-related, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, writing, youth,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Our oldest daughter showed me a “Bitmoji Classroom” that her mentor teacher — Emily Clay — uses as her virtual classroom. Below are some snapshots of the Google Slides that Emily developed based on the work of:
- Kayla Young (@bitmoji.kayla)
- MaryBeth Thomas
- Ms. Smith
- Karen Koch
- The First Grade Creative — by C. Verddugo
My hats off to all of these folks whose work laid the foundations for this creative, fun, engaging, easy-to-follow virtual classroom for a special education preschool classroom — complete with ties to videoconferencing functionalities from Zoom. Emily’s students could click on items all over the place — they could explore, pursue their interests/curiosities/passions. So the snapshots below don’t offer the great interactivity that the real deal does.
Nice work Emily & Company! I like how you provided more choice, more control to your students — while keeping them engaged!
From DSC:
I also like the idea of presenting this type of slide (immediately below, and students’ names have been blurred for privacy’s sake) prior to entering a videoconferencing session where you are going to break out the students into groups. Perhaps that didn’t happen in Emily’s class…I’m not sure, but in other settings, it would make sense to share one’s screen right before sending the students to those breakout rooms and show them that type of slide (to let them know who will be in their particular breakout group).
The students in the different breakout sessions could then collaboratively work on Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides and you could watch their progress in real-time!
Also see:
- Educators Turn to Bitmoji to Build Community and Engagement — from edutopia.org by Emelina Minero
Both fun and practical, Bitmoji classrooms are adding some levity to fall planning this year.
On 11/26/2020,
in attention, curriculum, design, digital learning, digital storytelling, education, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, innovation, instructional design, interactivity, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, love of learning, mathematics, multimedia, online learning, online media, pedagogy, play, remote teaching and learning, student teaching/teacher education, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, UK, United States, youth,
by Daniel Christian
Maths mastery through stop-motion animation — from innovatemyschool.com by Rachel Cully
Do you want your learners to be resilient, confident mathematicians with secure conceptual understanding and a love of Maths? Well, come with me to a land of stories and watch the magic unfold.
Also see:
- Another good resource of interactive math games to use with students in class — from educatorstechnology.com
- The 8 best free online homeschool math curriculums — from makeuseof.com by Shari Talbot
These free online math programs can help enhance your child’s homeschool education.
On 11/10/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, curriculum, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, love of learning, more voice more choice more control, neurodivergent/special needs, online learning, online tutoring, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, psychology, reinvent, staying relevant, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, training / L&D, user experience (UX), virtual K-12 schools, youth,
by Daniel Christian
Temperament-Inclusive Pedagogy: Helping Introverted and Extraverted Students Thrive in a Changing Educational Landscape — from onlinelearningconsortium.org by Mary R. Fry
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
So how do we take these different approaches to learning into account and foster a classroom environment that is more inclusive of the needs of both extraverts and introverts? Let’s first distinguish between how extraverts and introverts most prefer to learn, and then discuss ways to meet the needs of both. Extraverts tend to learn through active and social engagement with the material (group work, interactive learning experiences, performing and discussing). Verbalizing typically helps extraverts to think through their ideas and to foster new ones. They often think quickly on their feet and welcome working in large groups. It can be challenging for extraverts to generate ideas in isolation (talking through ideas is often needed) and thus working on solitary projects and writing can be challenging.
In contrast, introverts thrive with solitary/independent work and typically need this time to sort through what they are learning before they can formulate their thoughts and articulate their perspectives. Introverted learners often dislike group work (or at least the group sizes and structures that are often used in the classroom (more on this in a moment)) and find their voice drowned out in synchronous discussions as they don’t typically think as fast as their extroverted counterparts and don’t often speak until they feel they have something carefully thought out to share. Introverted learners are often quite content, and can remain attentive, through longer lectures and presentations and prefer engaging with the material in a more interactive way only after a pause or break.
From DSC:
Could/would a next-generation learning platform that has some Artificial Intelligence (AI) features baked into it — working in conjunction with a cloud-based learner profile — be of assistance here?
That is, maybe a learner could self-select the type of learning that they are: introverted or extroverted. Or perhaps they could use a sliding scaled to mix learning activities up to a certain degree. Or perhaps if one wasn’t sure of their preferences, they could ask the AI-backed system to scan for how much time they spent doing learning activities X, Y, and Z versus learning activities A, B, and C…then AI could offer up activities that meet a learner’s preferences.
(By the way, I love the idea of the “think-ink-pair-share” — to address both extroverted and introverted learners. This can be done digitally/virtually as well as in a face-to-face setting.)
All of this would further assist in helping build an enjoyment of learning. And wouldn’t that be nice? Now that we all need to learn for 40, 50, 60, 70, or even 80 years of our lives?
On 11/03/2020,
in A/V -- audio/visual, attention, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, geography / geology, graphics, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, immersion, innovation, instructional design, interaction design, interactivity, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, physics, student-related, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
Virtual Reality: Realizing the Power of Experience, Excursion and Immersion in the Classroom — from nytimes.com
A framework for teaching with New York Times 360 V.R. videos, plus eight lesson plans for STEM and the humanities.
A Guide for Using NYT VR With Students
- Getting Started With V.R. in the Classroom
- Lesson 1: A Mission to Pluto
- Lesson 2: Meet Three Children Displaced by War and Persecution
- Lesson 3: Four Antarctic Expeditions
- Lesson 4: Time Travel Through Olympic History
- Lesson 5: Decode the Secret Language of Dolphins and Whales
- Lesson 6: Memorials and Justice
- Lesson 7: The World’s Biggest Physics Experiment
- Lesson 8: Journey to the Hottest Place on Earth
On 11/02/2020,
in education, educational games / serious games, geography / geology, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, K-12 related, passions, youth,
by Daniel Christian
Gift ideas for young geology lovers and rockhounds — from raisinglifelonglearners.com by Colleen Kessler
On 10/22/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, Adobe, Apple, architecture, art, attention, biology, business side of he, career development, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, drama/theater, economics, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, engineering, entrepreneurship, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty/staff, future, game-changing environment, geography / geology, global / globalization, graphics, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, immersion, innovation, instructional design, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, journalism, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, liberal arts, love of learning, mathematics, media/film, Michigan, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multimedia, music, online learning, online media, participation, passions, photography, platforms, project-based learning, reinvent, research, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, writing, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC…by the way, another title for this blog could have been:
WIN-WIN situations all around! The Theatre Departments out there could collaborate with other depts/disciplines to develop highly engaging, digitally-based learning experiences!
The future of drama and the theatre — as well as opera, symphonies, and more — will likely include a significant virtual/digital component to them. While it’s too early to say that theatre needs to completely reinvent itself and move “the stage” completely online, below is an idea that creates a variety of WIN-WIN situations for actors, actresses, stage designers, digital audio/video editors, fine artists, graphic designers, programmers, writers, journalists, web designers, and many others as well — including the relevant faculty members!
A new world of creative, engaging, active learning could open up if those involved with the Theatre Department could work collaboratively with students/faculty members from other disciplines. And in the end, the learning experiences and content developed would be highly engaging — and perhaps even profitable for the institutions themselves!
[DC: I only slightly edited the above image from the Theatre Department at WMU]
Though the integration of acting with online-based learning materials is not a new idea, this post encourages a far more significant interdisciplinary collaboration between the Theatre Department and other departments/disciplines.
Consider a “Dealing with Bias in Journalism” type of topic, per a class in the Digital Media and Journalism Major.
- Students from the Theatre Department work collaboratively with the students from the most appropriate class(es?) from the Communications Department to write the script, as per the faculty members’ 30,000-foot instructions (not 1000-foot level/detailed instructions)
- Writing the script would entail skills involved with research, collaboration, persuasion, creativity, communication, writing, and more
- The Theatre students would ultimately act out the script — backed up by those learning about sound design, stage design, lighting design, costume design, etc.
- Example scene: A woman is sitting around the kitchen table, eating breakfast and reading a posting — aloud — from a website that includes some serious bias in it that offends the reader. She threatens to cancel her subscription, contact the editor, and more. She calls out to her partner why she’s so mad about the article.
- Perhaps there could be two or more before/after scenes, given some changes in the way the article was written.
- Once the scenes were shot, the digital video editors, programmers, web designers, and more could take that material and work with the faculty members to integrate those materials into an engaging, interactive, branching type of learning experience.
- From there, the finished product would be deployed by the relevant faculty members.
[DC: Above images from the Theatre Department at WMU]
Colleges and universities could share content with each other and/or charge others for their products/content/learning experiences. In the future, I could easily see a marketplace for buying and selling such engaging content. This could create a needed new source of revenue — especially given that those large auditoriums and theaters are likely not bringing in as much revenue as they typically do.
Colleges and universities could also try to reach out to local acting groups to get them involved and continue to create feeders into the world of work.
Other tags/categories could include:
- MOOCs
- Learning from the Living[Class]Room
- Multimedia / digital literacy — tools from Adobe, Apple, and others.
- Passions, participation, engagement, attention.
- XR: Creating immersive, Virtual Reality (VR)-based experiences
- Learning Experience Design
- Interaction Design
- Interface Design
- …and more
Also see:
What improv taught me about failure: As a teacher and academic — from scholarlyteacher.com by Katharine Hubbard
In improv, the only way to “fail” is to overthink and not have fun, which reframed what failure was on a grand scale and made me start looking at academia through the same lens. What I learned about failure through improv comes back to those same two core concepts: have fun and stop overthinking.
…
Students are more engaged when the professor is having fun with the materials (Keller, Hoy, Goetz, & Frenzel, 2016), and teaching is more enjoyable when we are having fun ourselves.
On 10/22/2020,
in adjunct faculty, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, credentialing, digital learning, distance education, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, faculty/staff, higher education, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, liberal arts, multimedia, online learning, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, remote teaching and learning, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, universities, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
Per “Instructure Launches Canvas Certified Educator Program” out at The Journal by Dian Schaffhauser:
Each course is expected to take about four weeks to finish. They include:
- Core 1: Foundational frameworks, which explores the impact of technology on student learning and the classroom and how Canvas can be used to help educators boost student achievement, motivation and engagement;
- Core 2: Engagement strategies, to examine how Canvas can help enrich teaching practices and maximize student achievement;
- Core 3: Personalized learning, to dive into personalized learning and learn how to create opportunities for student voice and choice within the learning environment;
- Core 4: Transformational practices, to help participants learn how to evaluate open standard digital learning tools that can enhance learning through Canvas; and
- Electives, described as a series of optional courses that can be selected by educators based on interests and needs.
On 10/19/2020,
in 24x7x365 access, active learning, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business side of he, change, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, credentialing, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty/staff, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, multimedia, new business models, new media literacies, online learning, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, remote teaching and learning, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), traditional / tradition, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, workplace, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
On 09/28/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, change, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, consortiums, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, engineering, entrepreneurship, expectations, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, learning theories, lifelong learning, media/film, mobile learning, mobile technologies, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, open courseware and systems, pace of change, platforms, reinvent, remote teaching and learning, society, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, tools, training / L&D, TVs, United States, universities, user experience (UX), using teams, vendors, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Per Wikipedia, this is a 1910 Model T that was photographed in Salt Lake City:
From DSC:
The Ford Model T didn’t start out looking like a Maserati Gran Turismo from 2021! Inventions take time to develop…to be improved…for new and further innovations and experiments to take place.
Thinking of this in terms of online-based learning, please don’t think we’ve reached the end of the road for online-based learning.
The truth is, we’ve barely begun our journey.
Two last thoughts here
1 ) It took *teams* of people to get us to the point of producing a Maserati like this. It will take *teams* of people to produce the Maserati of online-based learning.
2) In terms of online-based learning, it’s hard to say how close to the Maserati that we have come because I/we don’t know how far things will go. But this I do know: We have come a looooonnnnnggggg ways from the late 1990s! If that’s what happened in the last 20 years — with many denying the value of online-based learning — what might the next 5, 10, or 20 years look like when further interest, needs, investments, etc. are added? Then add to all of that the momentum from emerging technologies like 5G, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, bots, algorithms, and more!
From DSC:
To drive the point home, here’s an addendum on late 9/29/20:
- Mercedes-Benz Shares Video of Avatar Electric Car Prototype — interestingengineering.com by Fabienne Lang
The German car company shared footage of the breathtaking vehicle prototype.
On 09/28/2020,
in 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, art, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, formal learning, future, future of higher education, graphics, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, immersion, informal learning, innovation, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, mathematics, mobile learning, mobile technologies, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, platforms, presentations, relationships, simulations, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, TVs, ubiquitous learning, United States, user experience (UX), user interface design, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, youth,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC: What if each learner/person/student could have a lifelong, cloud-based “tribute” site?
What if you could hire a career coach to sift through the tributes to find common themes?
From DSC:
I recently asked friends and family to help me celebrate a significant birthday for my wife by creating a tribute for her — using a service called Tribute.co. It was a fun, meaningful, relational experience — it opened the doors to some great communications.
Here’s a video that describes what a Tribute is (from the company of that same name).
So I put out potential suggestions for what I hoped that we could relay to my wife, and people contributed their videos. Then a person at Tribute edited the videos to come up with a highlight reel. They also presented to my wife all of the videos, not just the highlight reel.
That got me to wonder, “What if each learner had a cloud-based, lifelong tribute site that parents, guardians, grandparents, teachers, coaches, musical directors, pastors, friends, and others could leave encouraging and instructive messages on? Or when they note something that might be of use later on in terms of career selection, they could “jot it down.” For example:
- [First-grade teacher] “I noticed Anne that when we did the art projects, you were enthralled with any sort of creative endeavor or project. We almost lost you in another world!”
- [Family member] “Tony, I’ve noticed ____. Here’s something to consider for your future pathways. Would you be interested in exploring _____ — such as if we signed you up for some lessons in that area?”
- [Eight grade teacher] “Eloise, I saw that your engagement level skyrocket when we studied ____, especially when you did the project on ___.”
- [Basketball coach] “Chan, I appreciated your hard work in practice today. Keep up the good work and you will be a super player! You are fast, strong, and seem to have a competitive spirit about you. Consider making a workout chart and charting out the workouts that you do each day. Monitor your progress over time. As of today, here are some apps to do just that: ___.
- [Pastor] “So glad Amanda that you were able to join us on our youth group visit to ___. I appreciated your end-of-the-day reflections on the experiences of the day. I also appreciated your hard work helping others.”
- [Friend] “It was great horsing around on Garageband with you today Zach. I look forward to diving into iMovie next with you. Let’s create a movie for each other. You seem to have a very creative side to you.”
- [High school CS Teacher] “Keep up the good work programming Jeremy! I hope that you will consider going into some type of job that uses critical thinking, mathematics, problem-solving — perhaps it will be programming, perhaps it will be engineering, or something else.”
- [College professor/advisor] “You mentioned that you hate college to me the last two times we met. You don’t seem happy studying ___. Have you considered ____?”
- [Tennis coach] Remember to bend those knees…get low. Keep your eyes on the seams of the ball.”
The idea behind such a service would be to offer encouragement, feedback, (if carefully put) constructive criticism, a message that “I’m on your team”…and/or…”Here’s what I see in you.”
Additional functionality/options
- Contributors:
- Like Twitter imposes a limit on characters, there could be options to impose a time limit on the length of a video, ability to add more than one video, and/or set a limit on how many videos someone can upload
- If submitting a written piece, the option would be there to limit the number of characters and/or the word count.
- From learners themselves (to their own tribute)
- No time limit, no word count or character limit
- Would act like a multimedia-based diary/journal of learning
- Option to select whether might be worth re-listening to for career selection purposes.