MrCrossDude
Hello friends! My name is Jason Cross and I am an educator. I have spent years developing new ideas to help bring the digital age into the analog classroom. It is important that the next generation not be limited to using technology, but to adapt and create with all of the tools that they will have the opportunity to utilize. Education needs to change. I hope you enjoy visiting my website. With best wishes, -Jason Cross-
Digital Badges: An Annotated Research Bibliography v1
This annotated bibliography is a first step toward organizing literature about digital badges, open badges and badge systems. This domain involves multiple streams of literature from education, learning sciences, library and information science, reputation systems, and systems design. The bibliography includes peer-reviewed and non peer-reviewed articles, blog posts, news articles, white papers, videos, wikis and FAQs. We acknowledge that digital badges are an emerging topic and we have attempted to include a full spectrum of viewpoints. In light of this, we have chosen to provide descriptive rather than evaluative annotations. Digital Badges: An Annotated Research Bibliography selected and annotated by Sheryl Grant and Kristan E. Why a Badges Bibliography? This annotated bibliography is a first step toward organizing literature about digital badges, open badges and badge systems. How to cite: Grant, S. & Shawgo, K.E. (2013). return to top of page Adams, J., & DeFleur, M. (2006).
7 Places to Find & Watch Documentaries Online
It was in the fifth grade while watching a film (yes, a film with two reels) about Plymouth Plantation that I first realized I enjoy watching documentaries. 20+ years later I still enjoy documentaries. As a teacher I think that a good documentary video when used in the right setting can be valuable to students. Quality documentary videos can provide students with useful explanations or demonstrations of concepts. Unfortunately, documentary DVDs can be expensive acquisitions for some school departments. Here are seven places where you can find and watch documentaries online for free. PBS Video is currently my favorite place to find high quality documentaries. Snag Learning and Snag Films offers access to hundreds of high quality documentary videos. Documentary Heaven is a free site that has organized more than 1600 documentary films found across the Internet. Folk Streams is a good website featuring documentary films of American life.
Why We Need Badges Now: A Bibliography of Resources in Historical Perspective
It was something over a year ago when we first began talking about badges as a powerful new tool for identifying and validating the rich array of people’s skills, knowledge, accomplishments, and competencies that happens everywhere and at every age. That’s when we decided that this year the Digital Media and Learning Competition would be dedicated to an array of competitions on badging. I remember when we started writing, blogging, talking, speaking, and in other ways trying to create a conversation around badges as an alternative mode of assessment, people would look at me like I was a little daft. Boy Scout sashes? It has been tremendously exciting and gratifying to watch this conversation catch fire, deepen, yield to debate, mature, progress, and turn into actual deployable badge systems that offer an array of new ways to capture and inspire learning. So why all this excitement about badging? Tragically, this way of counting leaves out so much of what we value.
Learning with iPads
QR codes are being used more across the world and especially in learning. There is a great opportunity for students to create and use QR codes on the iPad to extend learning across a range of curriculum subjects and specifically for demonstrating understanding of their own work or extending their understanding of a topic. I particularly like the ideas in the following video which links the use of QR codes with digital storytelling to engage, inform and promote. Have a look at 'Sukiennice "Secrets Behind Paintings"' : Using QR codes in learning Download our QR codes in Learning document (click on the image opposite) for an overview of QR codes and ideas to use them in learning Download our QR Code Learning Quest document to look at a sample QR code hunt using clues to books to inform, orientate and engage users in locating and sourcing resources for their learning. See how Parramatta Marist Br Ludovic Learning Centre is using QR codes. Creating Qr codes
Website recognizes military skills with digital badges
It can be difficult for veterans to explain the skills and training they received in the military to potential employers. A new website attempts to bridge that gap by giving veterans digital “badges” that recognize their skills. When it goes live next month, BadgesforVets.org will be a résumé translation and job search service. The extensive project, which includes badges representing training in more than 1,000 military jobs, is also a particularly promising foray into digital badging -- a much-hyped, although still nascent, form of alternative credentialing that could conceivably undermine higher education's role as a primary way of signaling skills to employers. The badge concept is inspired by patches Boy and Girl Scouts earn for mastering skills and conquering challenges. A Purdue University professor has used badges in addition to conventional grading, while the university has created a badging platform. Anyone can issue a badge, which some say is a quality-control problem.
The 8 Characteristics Of A 21st Century Teacher
Some call them ‘connected educators’ while other use the phrase ‘digital teacher’ and many prefer the term ’21st century teacher.’ Whatever terms you use to describe modern teachers, it’s important to know what the terms actually mean. There’s a fabulous wiki devoted to just this topic here which houses some incredible bits of information. It’s by Andrew Churches who has curated quite a treasure trove of useful information for any teacher looking to outline what he or she actually does as a modern educator. See Also: The 10 Skills Modern Teachers Must Have So what are the 8 characteristics of a 21st century teacher? So does this mean a 21st century teacher must embody every single one of these characteristics in order to be considered for the lofty and esteemed title? Man, that’d be exhausting. What you do need to do, though, is be able to pull from experience and be a leader, a collaborator, a communicator at a moment’s notice. What other characteristics would you name?
Show Me Your Badge
The picture is a digital badge, a new type of credential being developed by some of the most prominent businesses and learning organizations in the world, including Purdue, Carnegie Mellon, the University of California, the Smithsonian, Intel and Disney-Pixar. The badge movement is being spearheaded by the Mozilla Foundation, best known for inventing the free Firefox Web browser, the choice of nearly one-quarter of all Internet users worldwide. While they may appear to be just images, digital badges are actually portals that lead to large amounts of information about what their bearers know and can do. They are also being used to improve education itself, by borrowing techniques from video games that keep users playing, until they advance to the next level. Badges are gaining currency at the same time that a growing number of elite universities have begun offering free or low-cost, noncredit courses to anyone with access to the Internet and a desire to learn.
black belt tech | when a tech ninja just isn't enough…
