There is a lot of excitement over the concept of the flipped classroom, and rightly so. I remember sitting through many math lectures in high school that seemed to make sense, until I went home to try to do the homework. The next day our teacher would essentially re-teach the material, and then go through the confusing examples with us in class.
It could be great, if all kids follow through each night with homework, but lower achieving students are more likely not to, and that will further drive the two …

Social media seems to hold great potential for learners to collaborate and communicate. But it also makes a lot of people nervous about it being such a public platform. Is it appropriate for kids to be using social media? Is it appropriate for it to be used in schools? Is it appropriate for teachers to communicate with students outside of school, using social media?

Black & White and Scanned All Over

A supermarket chain in South Korea has come up with a way to allow commuters to do their shopping while they wait for the subway. They hung life size banners along subway walls that recreate supermarket aisles and included QR codes for each item on the virtual shelves that when scanned add the item to the shopper’s online cart. When customers check out, the order is placed via the supermarket’s website and then delivered to the customer’s home later that day.
This is brilliant – not only does it improve the …

A colleague shared this Slideshare presentation with me on the topic of gamification – http://www.slideshare.net/ervler/gamification-future-or-fail – and while it is certainly not the only presentation/article on the topic it does include most of the main points that I’ve seen in other presentations and articles, so I thought it was worth giving my two cents.
The author identifies several gaming elements as being relevant for education, and I think all fall into the same category – motivation. Adding points, XP, leveling up, acheivements, etc all help students feel more excited about their …

In this podcast I chat with Adam Mallerman from Rusty Mike Radio and Dena Lerner from Tomorrow’s Genius about the educational potential of games.

http://rmr.sharp-stream.com/adam_Dena&LisiGeffenGamesEdu%20_30-3-11(dl).mp3
(right click & save link here to download this podcast)