The End of Education As We Know It

By Scott Barry Kaufman Imagine being 6 or 7 years old again, learning about addition and subtraction for the first time. How wonderful would it be, while taking a quiz, to be able to rub a genie’s bottle and choose from a number of on-the-spot metaphors for mathematical concepts, like what a fraction really means? Or picture this: Rather than working through equations in daunting rows on a sheet of paper, your task is to play a game on a tablet computer in which you share a dinner table with aliens. These examples may seem charming and even silly—and they’re meant to be. The new wave of educational tools include fresh ways of deploying phone and tablet apps, online games and videos, and social networking. “We should try to bring back the joy of learning because you want to learn, not because someone is going to give you a grade at the end of the semester,” Schocken said in a recent interview. No Wrong Answers All of this engagement on a huge scale has resulted in rich and copious data.

: Grading with EssayTagger on your iPad via Photon browser Today we discovered that the EssayTagger grading app can run on an iPad with a little help! Here are your step-by-step instructions for accessing EssayTagger through the Photon browser. Install Photon on your iPad From your iPad, go to the app store and search for "Photon browser". Make sure you select the iPad version and not the cheaper iPhone version. Launch Photon Photon is a web browser and really isn't all that different from any other web browser. Go to EssayTagger.com and either launch the interactive demo from the "try the demo" tab or log in to your account and click "start grading" to launch the grading app for one of your assignments. When the grading app window opens you'll see a Flash error message instead of the grading app. Once you click the lightning bolt icon at the top right, the grading app will be able to load: Yay! Adjust Photon settings Now click the gear icon at the top right to enter the settings options. Bandwidth: 6 - to maximize responsiveness and text quality.

Top 20 Shared Resources and Tools of 2012 | Edmodo – Where learning happens. Tagged with: resources Edmodo Communities are a great place to connect with other educators to share resources and best practices. Leveraging your network on Edmodo enables you to surface the best resources to meet the needs of your classroom. With the year coming to an end, we took at look at the top 20 tools and resources that were shared in 2012. Check out the list below and join an Edmodo Community to share your favorite tools with other educators! Top 20 Shared Resources and Tools: KhanAcademy.org - Access a library of videos covering K-12 math and science topics. Note: Many of these sites offer sharing options, making it simple to embed the content in your Edmodo groups!

Edmodo – Where learning happens. | The free and safe social learning platform for education Teacher Dashboard for Google Apps « Hapara – Google Enterprise Solutions 15 Tools For Better Project-Based Learning Project-Based Learning is a 21st century approach to learning that acts both as a curriculum and instruction tool, as well as a new way for students to think about school. Rather than strictly academic lessons and units, real-world problems can be solved, and students gain experience with long-term management of the learning process, and the possibility of self-direction. Project-Based Learning allows naturally embedding of “school” in authentic environments whether those are digital or physical. It is a way of learning that is as much about the process as the project, allowing for the seamless integration of technology, and the inclusion of digital and social media to solve relevant personal and social challenges. A Simple Project-Based Learning Process The following apps and digital tools are built around a vastly over-simplified-but-you’ll-still-get-the-picture 4-step process: 1. 2. 3. 4. The technology serves the learning process itself. 1. Platform: iOS Price: Free 2. 3. 4. Price: $9.99