One year ago this month, its 3rd-through-6th grader designers launched the fifth and final iteration of Escape to Morrow, an open source digital game they designed in Minecraft for Minecraft players. The five iterations – including writing and rewriting backstories, creating maps, finding mods (Minecraft modifications out on the Web) and producing the trailer – took a year of work in summer camp, … [Read more...] about For digital summer camp, kid-source a game (or play this one!)
education technology
FB & Oculus VR: The potential of a virtual-reality platform
For years we've heard about the potential of virtual reality, but even when the virtual world Second Life was a hot tech-news story, it hardly felt like a second life to most people. I wrote about it a number of times because of the amazing work some very cutting-edge educators and their students were doing in Teen Second Life, when it existed. Then it faded into the background, and those teachers … [Read more...] about FB & Oculus VR: The potential of a virtual-reality platform
The White House’s K-12 students’ film festival!
This month the White House will hold its first-ever film festival for students – how cool is that?! The contest asks students in grades K-12 to submit short videos (under 3 min.) about education technology. "Your film should address at least one of the following themes," says the White House's page about the festival: "How you currently use technology in your classroom or school or the role … [Read more...] about The White House’s K-12 students’ film festival!
Giving students ‘skin in the game’ – another anti-distraction tool [sidebar]
Chris Lehmann, founding principal at Philadelphia's Science Leadership Academy, really sums it up: giving students "skin in the game," as he put it to Education Week. That means, as the educators I mention in the main article show, using education technology not as another platform or delivery tool for traditional tutorial-style teaching but for the kind of "inquiry-driven, project-based" learning … [Read more...] about Giving students ‘skin in the game’ – another anti-distraction tool [sidebar]
Dealing with distraction with the HELP of digital environments
Learning how to be present, attend to others, know what's important in a given moment and stay focused on it has always been a vital part of growing up. "The ability to focus is a secret element to success that often gets ignored," according to an article in Mind/Shift that cites the work of psychologist Daniel Goleman, an author of a book about this. Because this piece about distraction leads … [Read more...] about Dealing with distraction with the HELP of digital environments