Searching for "teach"
http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/11/beyond-minecraft-games-that-inspire-building-and-exploration/
Garry’s Mod (GMod) is a sandbox game like Minecraft but instead of building and exploring, students use a fun physics engine that simulates things like gravity and mass. They also use a virtual toy box of assets from Valve Software’s popular games. The tool is a step up in complexity from the elegant simplicity of Minecraft, but with Garry’s Mod, students are exposed to physics concepts while having madcap fun.
Kerbal Space Program has a robust physics engine too, but it’s more focused than Garry’s Mod. Players purchase rocket parts, put them together, and then see if they can get a ship into orbit, to one of two moons, or even to another planet. These aren’t easy tasks, so play is focused on trial and error testing, and, like Minecraft, seeking help from the community is part of a successful strategy.
Sound Shapes is a visually stunning platform puzzle game set to a rich musical soundscape. Even better: students can create and share their own levels – like interactive sheet music — using sounds and objects unlocked by playing the platform game. It’s an accessible entry point into musical composition as well as game design, and provides an experience that builds on the creativity of Minecraft while offering something wholly unique for music lovers.
For creative kids who want to get their hands dirty, check out DIY, a site where students can find things to build, instructions for how to build them, and ways to share their creations with others. All projects are aligned to 50 skills that run the gamut from outdoors to indoors, and feature various challenges to complete and cool badges to earn and display.
Computer programming is a great next step for students who love to mod Minecraft or toy around with the redstone resource (which simulates basic logic and circuitry). One solid entry-level tool is Stencyl, a game creation program focused on codeless, cross-platform game making. By snapping blocks of code together, students can create games that can be published and played on a variety of platforms including mobile phones.
Codecademy is a web-based, self-paced site that teaches actual industry-standard languages like PHP, Javascript, Python, Ruby, HTML, and CSS. While students don’t create publishable games like they would in Stencyl, their learning is purpose-driven and contextualized, e.g. JavaScript for web development or Ruby for app development. And students do get to see their code’s output directly onscreen.
Minecraft has introduced a lot of youth to games as well as the critical thinking, problem solving, and creation skills necessary for self-motivated learning. The games and sites on this list have the potential to extend that learning, providing fresh outlets for self-expression in the digital world and beyond.
More on gaming in this blog:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/?s=minecraft
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/?s=games
http://www.productchart.com/laptops/
Excellent interactive chart available from Global Network Discovery
Here is a wonderful interactive chart from Global Network Discovery that you can use to compare the affordances of different laptops. The chart compares a wide variety of laptops on criteria that include things such as : memory, storage capacity, screen size, and weight. You can also use the search functionality accompanied with the chart to refine your search by CPU, brand or model. Hovering your cursor over any laptop icon will display a small box with details pertaining to that product. These details include, besides the specs and features of that laptop, an updated version of its price.
Keep this interactive chart handy to use next time you want to buy a laptop. If you are looking for the best laptops for teachers, you can check this list instead. You can also use the “more” option in the chart to search for other comparison charts on smartphones, flash drives and SSD drives.
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2015/01/a-handy-interactive-chart-comparing.html
http://www.edudemic.com/instagrok-an-education-search-engine-for-students
instaGrok is a next-generation research engine intended for academic settings to allow students to research any subject and see results in an interactive concept map, or “grok.” The grok features key facts, concepts and their relationships, images, videos, quizzes, and a glossary. Students can pin the information that they want to use to their grok and keep a bibliography or research notes in an integrated journal.
What makes instaGrok indispensable to teachers is its ability to facilitate self-directed learning of several critical skills, including researching and integrating discrete concepts.
My note: App for Android and iOS tablets is NOT available for smartphones and iTouch
http://kiddle.co/
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2014/11/how-to-create-jeopardy-style-game-in.html
use Flippity
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/12/01/minecraft-lesson-ideas-243
http://www.classthink.com/2014/01/24/minecraft-edu-part-3-mathematics-farm/
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Engage-NY-Module-3-Area-and-Perimeter-Minecraft-Math-activity-1570866
http://mathematica.stackexchange.com/questions/19669/mathematica-minecraft
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2014/03/three-mind-mapping-tools-that-save-to.html
MindMup
Lucidchart
Mindmeister
7 Tools for Creating Flowcharts, Mind Maps, and Diagrams
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2015/11/flowcharts-mindmaps-diagrams.html
Coggle
MindMup
Sketchlot
Connected Mind is a free mind mapping tool that you can find in the Google Chrome Web Store.
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2014/12/shelfies-holiday-gift-will-last-lifetime
My note:
LRS can have the same initiative of students’ selfies with the LRS book, which served them best during the semester and post their selfies @SCSU_Library.
If it picks up, it can be taken further with tweeting the class and the instructor and then, respectively work with the instructor on further involvement.
To encourage participation, the entire initiative can be put on competitive ground (e.g., the 100th participant gets a reward or something of that sort)
http://content.easybib.com/tips-for-teaching-digital-information-literacy/#.VH4eeTHF_To
Digital & Information Literacy Lesson Highlights:
http://content.easybib.com/digital-literacy-and-web-literacy-whats-the-difference/
http://content.easybib.com/resources-for-teaching-digital-web-literacies
http://content.easybib.com/the-challenge-of-information-literacy-in-a-time-of-social-media-and-pervasive-information/
the challenge of social media with respect to information literacy is that networked individuals are continually bombarded with information. Thus, information literacy’s importance must make the leap from the academic world, where purposeful information search is the norm, to “real life,” where information continually competes for the audience.
http://content.easybib.com/infographic-information-literacy-issues
http://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V68N1/inrev15.html
How can academic libraries best help students sort through the growing thicket of online information? By Stanley Wilder
The premise of information literacy is that the supply of information has become overwhelming, and that students need a rigorous program of instruction in research or library-use skills, provided wholly or in part by librarians.
The idea behind information literacy is that our typical freshman is drowning in information, when in fact Google provides her with material she finds good enough, and does so instantaneously. Information literacy assumes that she accepts unquestioningly the information she finds on the Internet, when we know from research that she is a skeptic who filters her results to the best of her ability. Information literacy tells us that she cannot recognize when she needs information, nor can she find, analyze, or use it, when she demonstrably does all of those things perfectly well, albeit at a relatively unsophisticated level.
Simply put, information literacy perceives a problem that does not exist. Furthermore, it misses the real threat of the Internet altogether—which is that it is now sufficiently simple and powerful that students can graduate without ever using the library. That is unfortunate because, for all its strengths, the Internet cannot give students the high-quality scholarly information that is available only through subscription, license, or purchase.
As Roy Tennant noted in the January 1, 2001, Library Journal, “only librarians like to search; everyone else likes to find.” Any educational philosophy is doomed to failure if it views students as information seekers in need of information-seeking training.
Information literacy is also harmful because it encourages librarians to teach ways to deal with the complexity of information retrieval, rather than to try to reduce that complexity.
“The library is a place where readers come to write, and writers come to read.” Dow casts students not as information seekers, but as apprentices engaged in a continuous cycle of reading and writing.
Librarians should use their expertise to deepen students’ understanding of the disciplines they study. My note: ant that’s why LRS needs area specialists, not traditional librarians.
The library must also do a better job of reaching more students, more often. Librarians need to use their expertise to make the library’s online presence approach the simplicity and power of the Internet.
http://projectinfolit.org/
about early adults and their research habits
The underlying assumption of an education system that relies so heavily on test-based assessment is that content is what matters.
For those who prioritize learning that can be measured using only quantitative assessments, game-based learning probably just looks like a way to increase student engagement and content retention. It might seem like a complex workbook, or an entertaining quiz. Perhaps game-based learning looks like a great tool for practice and drilling, like a super sophisticated flash-card system that makes memorization more fun. But this kind of thinking doesn’t take into account the broader understanding of what matters. Game-based learning is a great classroom tool because it allows for interdisciplinary learning through contextualized critical thinking and problem solving.
Games in the classroom can encourage students to understand subject matter in context — as part of a system. In contrast to memorization, drilling, and quizzing, which is often criticized because it focuses on facts in isolation, games force players to interact with problems in ways that take relationships into account. The content becomes useful insofar as it plays a part in a larger multi-modal system.
Definition
Game-based learning is an instructional method that allows students to experience, understand, and solve problems in the world of a particular subject, or system, from the inside.
One promise of game-based learning is that it has the potential of building comprehension and literacy rather than retention. It does this by combining instruction, practice, and assessment. Teachers become the facilitators of a process where instruction is experiential. Practice is project based, requiring students to solve new problems and address new challenges using the new ideas to which they’ve been introduced. And assessment no longer measures a student’s ability to regurgitate information, or to choose among multiple answers, but rather, to use the content, or subject matter, in context. Even more impressive is that in order to successfully manipulate one piece within a comprehensive and complex system, the students must understand every piece of the system.
http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/tag/games/