Frank Barnes's List: Frank's MAT622 FP Resources

• This pilot program reveals when it comes to engaging today's students, it's not the content that matters, but the format. Students in the California experiment accessed the same content on the iPad as in a traditional book, but those who used the digital version tested higher.
• A small but growing number of researchers are uncovering evidence that readers are better able to remember what they read in printed books long-term when compared to materials read via an electronic screen, raising questions about tablets in the classroom.

• Instead, teachers can have students design their own rubric for a project, and teachers can approve it beforehand.

• But what makes this possible and how is passion based learning achieved?

   
• Allow time for collaboration using social media.
• In today’s day and age, our academy might be discussing a lecture on Facebook or creating a Google hangout to talk about a class assignment.
• Einstein once said, “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”
• foster creativity by allowing self-expression and having students pick their own topics
• Instead, teachers can have students design their own rubric for a project, and teachers can approve it beforehand.
• Allow time for play. Creating a positive learning environment is just as important as teaching basic skills.
• Laughter is said to increase white blood cells and neurotransmitters for memory and alertness
• Allow students time to “get in the flow”.
• Find out about your students interests. Getting to know your students on a personal level can help understand their motivation.
• After all is said and done, teaching is a mix of science and art.
• Creating opportunities for students to take part in greater community events allows them to have a purpose to use their imagination and skills. Studies by Rosenthal and Jacobsen suggest that a positive, stimulating environment, where learning is present, can actually support connections in the brain and enhance memory.
• Allow time for your own learning.
• As Einstein once said, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”

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• Despite all the bring-your-own device buzz over the last few years, meanwhile, teachers were chillier to handhelds (smartphones and iPod touches—the devices students tend to bring to school) than other tools. While the percentage of teachers with access to such devices went up to 36 percent, from 26 percent a year ago, the tools were rated below other devices (sixth out of a list of eight, even below projectors) on "potential to enhance education."

• In general, the survey says, teachers view technology as a "teaching tool used by teachers" rather than an "administrative tool" or a "self-learning tool used by students."

    

• Casap pulled his own phone from his pocket. "What you have in your hand is going to be their Commodore 64. It's going to be their Apple IIe. When they're in their twenties, it's going to be the thing they buy at a thrift store and put on a shelf in their hipster apartment just because it's cool to have one." That's the generation, he said, that's coming into our schools, and we need to be ready for that.
• "This is my eleven year-old," he said, "who, on one machine, is playing Minecraft and, on the other machine, is watching videos on how to play Minecraft." This is how our students are learning. They are teaching each other and they are learning from the Web.
• "Learning doesn't happen Monday through Friday, from this time to that time," he said. "This generation of kids are growing up consistently learning all the time."

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• Flipboard is just fun. The cover page is full of big, bold squares and rectangles that highlight photos and images and give you categories to choose from. You navigate by literally flipping the boards to drill deeper into sections and stories.
• Zite uses lots of white space and it's Top Stories page looks like the table of contents of a contemporary, modern magazine. Sections are off to the side and rendered in big, beautiful type, and individual stories are shown in a spartan, stripped down, almost "read later" style.

• Technology like tablets PCs, apps, and access to broadband internet are lubricating the shift to mobile learning, but a truly immersive mobile learning environment goes beyond the tools for learning to the lives and communities valued by each individual learner.
• access is constant–which in turn shifts a unique burden to learn on the shoulders of the student.
• Play is one of the primary characteristics of authentic, progressive learning, both a cause and effect of an engaged mind. In a mobile learning environment learners are encountering a dynamic and often unplanned set of data, domains, and collaborators, changing the tone of learning from academic and compliant to personal and playful.
• Apps and mobile devices can not only support curation, but can do so better than even the most caffeine-laced teacher might hope to. By design, these technologies adapt to learners, store files, publish thinking, and connect learners, making curation a matter of process rather than ability.

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• In addition, a group of smaller Internet publishers, like Byliner, are snapping up short fiction and gaining traction as distributors of stories. And the shorter format, writers say, is a good fit for the small screens that people are increasingly using to read.

   “The single-serving quality of a short narrative is the perfect art form for the digital age,” said Ms. Dermont, whose collection is due out next month. “Stories are models of concision, can be read in one sitting, and are infinitely downloadable and easily consumed on screens.”

   Stories are also perfect for the digital age, she added, because readers “want to connect and want that connection to be intense and to move on.” That is, after all, what a short story is all about.

• Here are some of the most exciting findings from the study:
   
   
  • "An unexpected number of middle school students (from all ethnicities and incomes) say they are using mobile devices including smartphones and tablets to do their homework. Previous TRU research indicated that middle school students are using smartphones and tablets for communication and entertainment. However, this is the first TRU research that shows that middle school students are also using these mobile devices to complete homework assignments.
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  • More than one out of three middle school students report they are using smartphones (39%) and tablets (31%) to do homework.
   
  • More than 1 in 4 students ( 26 %) are using smartphones for their homework, weekly or more.
• Despite the high numbers of middle school students using laptops, smartphones and tablets for homework, very few are using these mobile devices in the classroom, particularly tablets and smartphones. A large gap exists between mobile technology use at home and in school.
• • Where 39% of middle school students use smartphones for homework, only 6% report that they can use the smartphone in classroom for school work. There is also a gap in tablet use. Although 31% of middle school students say they use a tablet for homework, only 18% report using it in the classroom.
   
  • 66% of students are not allowed to use a tablet for learning purposes in the classroom, and 88% are not allowed to use a phone.
   
  • Students say using mobile devices like tablets makes them want to learn more.
• Teacher education and training on the effective integration of mobile technologies into instruction may provide significant benefits for all. Mobile device usage in class appears to have the potential to sustain, if not increase interest in STEM subjects as students progress into high school.

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• Another great Twitter resource for educators.

• Below, you will find a list of objectives, each one connecting to recommended apps and tools.
• • Very useful list of apps to address the specific purposes. Cross reference with Android and computer apps for comparison.

• Dropbox, Evernote and several alternatives are great, but they don’t offer the personalisation of a tool like Edmodo. As well as being a great tool for student and teacher communication, Edmodo can be used as part of an iPad 1:1 workflow alongside Dropbox (thanks to Darren Coxon here).

• the latest Edmodo update has changed the game.

   

  Put simply, you can now use the iOS6 function ‘open in app’, to open a document in Edmodo. This allows you to upload a document to your Edmodo library on an iPad. You can then link the document to a direct post, note or assignment within the Edmodo app.