In what video panel discussion could you watch a high school student in Bhutan lead his peers in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Japan and South Africa, along with their adult moderator, in a mindfulness practice – after which you’d hear from a neuroscientist at a U.S. university and Sri Lanka’s Minister of Education? That would be this video, created by UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of … [Read more...] about Key SEL report from UNESCO, insights from youth in 6 countries
ed tech
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
Designing students: Check out these contests (learning opps)!
These are projects that get young people and classrooms participating in the digital maker movement: Current or aspiring videogame designers and videographers have about a month to submit their creations to three different contests: The National STEM Videogame Challenge, Whyville's game design contest, and Trend Micro's What's Your Story video producing contest. Design a videogame Videogame … [Read more...] about Designing students: Check out these contests (learning opps)!
App developed by a 7-year-old at school
Talk about authentic learning! A first-grader not only gets to learn how to develop a cellphone app, she creates her own game, presents it a showcase event at a nearby university and then – when it's insinuated that maybe her older brother helped her – she reconfigures her code on the spot, demonstrating she's a master of the Bootstrap programming language. The 7-year-old in question (literally) … [Read more...] about App developed by a 7-year-old at school