I hope the news – of President Obama honoring 2010 Teacher of the Year Sarah Brown Wessling at the White House – strengthens support for the amazing tech educators I know and love. "In reciting Wessling's qualifications for the award," the Boston Globe reports, "Obama said her students 'don't just write five-paragraph essays, but they write songs, public service announcements, film, storyboards, … [Read more...] about Teacher of the Year teaches with Facebook
Quest Atlantis
PBS Frontline’s ‘Digital Nation’: Presenting our generation with a crucial choice
Seems to me, Gever Tully's Tinkering School would be the perfect antidote for all the concern about kids and digital media expressed in PBS Frontline's "Digital Nation" – hands-on problem-solving, lots of tools, collaboratively learning by doing, giving kids time to work the problem, celebrating and analyzing failures, teaching that success is embedded in the process (watch his TED Talk about … [Read more...] about PBS Frontline’s ‘Digital Nation’: Presenting our generation with a crucial choice
Quest Atlantis, VWs & academic situational awareness
In a virtual world, science students can be scientists. In Quest Atlantis, students explore scientific problems or quests, so that – in addition to learning scientific content on quests – they find themselves in situations where they have to put that new knowledge to actual use. In other words they're being scientists, not just learning science. What a "science class"! Prof. Sasha Barab, one of … [Read more...] about Quest Atlantis, VWs & academic situational awareness
School-based social networking in multiple countries
Great idea: Help students avoid cyberbullying by requiring them to sign up for a moderated social network site. That's what Baranduda Primary School is doing, the Border Mail reports. It's among 100 schools in Australia trying out SuperClubsPLUS, a UK-based site designed for school use by kids aged 6-12 and now also in use in Europe, Kenya, Malaysia. Features include chat, email, blogging, … [Read more...] about School-based social networking in multiple countries
Who’s in charge in virtual worlds?
The global population of virtual worlds is growing fast, as is the business of creating and running them (venture capitalists reportedly invested more than $590 million in VWs last year). The question is, when bad stuff happens in VWs - theft, fraud, harassment, etc. - how should it be dealt with? Who's in charge, and how should "the management" set and enforce policy? "Another Perfect World" – a … [Read more...] about Who’s in charge in virtual worlds?