Digital Badge Competition Extended

The HASTAC/MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning (DML) Competition is accepting applications from organizations that have excellent learning content for online networks, tutorials, gaming environments, etc., which could be complemented with the distribution of badges as recognition. The first stage of the competition (due November 14, 2011) stresses the identification of badge learning content and programs. This stage would be perfect for districts, schools, and teachers who have developed digital content that works well with their students. Stage 2 (January 2012) is for individuals or groups who are experienced in design. The competition will involve using those programs/content selected in Stage 1 and other content from DML. In Stage 3 (February 2012), finalists from Stage 1 and Stage 2 will form teams to complete badge proposals. Five awards of $5000-$80000 will be given.

PBS Presents “Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century”

Digital Media: New Learners of the 21^st Century will be presented as a one-hour documentary featuring cutting-edge education and cognitive research related to use of digital media and interactive practices in schools and how these practices and “ignite...students’ curiosity and ingenuity” while helping them learn to work collaboratively with other students all over the world. The premiere will air on February 13,^, 2011, but the  documentary will be available on-demand at http://video.pbs.org/video/1767314964/ for a limited time after the premiere. For addition information about on demand, go to National Productions and Mobile Digital Arts, the organization that produced the video for PBS.

Science Games from NOAA

  What fun! Don’t miss Water Life and more at NOAA’s science games. Treat your students to games that help them learn about environmental issues as they track problems faced by Loggerhead turtles, try their skill at the Trash Smash game, take on the Ocean Challenge Puzzle, go on a whale watch, match Alaska rockfish, identify different types of electrical charges from clouds, save beaches, and more.  Your students become Environauts as they work to prevent trash from taking over the planet and answer questions like, “Why do earthlings need trees as natural resources?”. The site also includes field guides and teacher material.

Do Your Students REALLY Know How to Use Computers?

Do we need computer classes for our students, starting at the primary levels or can the computer skills be taught throughout the curriculum?  Courtney Cairns Pastor, in her article in the Tampa Tribune, interviewed teachers and students about computer skills.  She found that, although students are using computers they may not know what they need to know for the academics and the future employment. Sure, they know texting, gaming, and Googling, but have they mastered typing skills, do they know how to edit in word processors, do they know how to use programs and applications? In the Hillsborough County Public Schools in Florida, elementary students learn about computer use in reading and mathematics, middle school students have in-depth computer courses, and at the high school level there are courses and a program that includes certifications in software such as Adobe applications. Years ago, most schools had specific computer courses for students. For example, most grade levels had computer class with a computer teacher once or twice a week.  But as technology has moved into the curriculum and the economy tightened, some schools no longer have these courses, which is fine if schools make sure that necessary tech skills are being taught in the regular classrooms.

How Much Media Is in Children’s Lives?

The Kaiser Family Foundation Report “Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to  18-Year-Olds” offers data that was collected in the Foundation’s third survey on young people’s media use. The survey, conducted between October 2008 and May 2009, studied 2002 students in Grades 3-12 and also followed 702 students through their 7-day media use diaries. You can download the January 2010 full report from the Kaiser site. Among the key findings are: “Over the past five years, there has been a huge increase in media use among young people”, “An explosion in mobile and online media has fueled the increase in media use among young people”,  “Youth who spend more time with media report lower grades and lower levels of personal contentment”, “Children whose parents make an effort to limit media use—through  the media environment they create in the home and the rules they set—spend less time with media than their peers”, and “Two groups of young people stand out for their high levels of media consumption: those in the tween and early teen years (11- to14-year-olds), and Blacks and Hispanics”. The study looked at use of television, computers, video games, cell phones, music and other audio, print media, and movies, and in addition, focused upon media environment and rules, and media multitasking, and demographic predictors.

Homework As An Excuse

Most kids like to spend time online, and many parents and teachers worry about the time students spend at the keyboard. As teachers move to assigning homework that may require use of the Internet to access and complete assignments, kids have a perfect excuse for staying online.  All they have to do is to tell parents, “I’m doing my homework,” when perhaps they’ve finished what was required an hour or so ago.  This is just another way kids are finding to circumvent what we want them to do. The answer is parent and teacher communication so parents will be aware of assignments and teachers will be aware of how long students are taking to “do assignments” at home. We need to help parents learn how to monitor their children’s online activities and how to find out what’s actually assigned.

What Does Natal’s Meet Milo Mean to Education?

Artificial intelligence. What does it mean to education? You’ll want to watch the Lionhead Studios video Meet Milo to see what may be possible with artificial intelligence. Natal, a Microsoft/Lionhead project, has created a digital boy named Milo who can recognize faces, voices, emotions, and actions. It’s an on-computer character, who seems to understand the person in front of the monitor. The system uses a camera to focus upon the user, which results in hands-free interaction with what’s on the screen. The video has been called scripted, fake, scary, impressive, amazing, and the future, but it seems to be a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. In the video, Milo is supposed to be learning from the human, but if the situation were reversed, think of the possibilities for student learning.

Learning to Change—Changing to Learn

The YouTube video Learning to Change—Changing to Learn describes what schools might be like in the future if technology were used to prepare students for life. In it we hear about 21^st Century Skills, how teachers must learn to use the tools of technology to help their students with these skills, and how we need to give teachers time to help them keep up with what's best for educating their students. The video stimulates thought about what a school is—is it a place, a community, a world? It asks us to think about where our students learning most of what they know about technologies. After watching the video, be sure to browse through some of the comments. The motivation for us to change is there in the video, but changing is the difficult part. How do we keep the best of what our schools and curricula have today and merge this into the best of what technology has to offer?

Wordle Your Words

How about having your students create Word Clouds? Called Wordle, this free website, lets you paste in whatever words you want. It will take your words and transform them into an artistic word cloud. Your cloud can be changed in form and color. This looks like great tool for practicing vocabulary or spelling or having fun with text and design. Perhaps your students might make word clouds of all the meanings they can generate about a word or all the terms that describe themselves? There's one problem, however. No filtering for inappropriate language is available, so if you use this clever tool, you'll need to carefully supervise your students. Here's a word cloud of this blog entry:

Looking into the Future of Education through Podcasts

EdNET conferences tackle what's going on in education markets and directions for the future of these markets. These conferences are where developers, businesses, and educators get together to discuss key issues and directions. If you want to be in on the latest thinking related to educational marketing, which means what may be available to schools in the next five years, tune into Apple's free Podcasts of EdNET 2008 sessions. You can hear Mark David Milliron (President of Catalyst Learning International) talk about how all ages will be learning together through " blended learning, mobile devices, gaming, social networking, high-impact presentation technologies, and analytics" and how we can retain the human touch as we move into these types of learning. In another Podcast Thomas Payzant, Harvard School of Education and former school superintendent, takes on globalization, effective education for all students, and the levers of change. You'll also find EdNET Podcasts on widgets and gadgets, open source opportunities, educational optimism, educational transformation through online collaboration, how to afford to differentiate learning—the list continues on with so many really interesting topics. Besides the EdNET Podcasts, Apple provides Podcasts of sessions from a number of conferences including NECC and FETC.